Wunsch Farms original format blog post.

Glowing Jonagold apples in the late summer sun.

There are two Old Mission Peninsulas. The first one you will encounter spreads out from the northern city limits of Traverse City and has become encrusted with McMansions that combine discordant architectural styles and garish opulence that to the artistically sensitive eye, produces a jarring visual experience. If you venture past the orchards that have turned into subdivisions and boutique wineries then past the only gas station/grocery store on the peninsula you will enter the Old Mission Peninsula as it existed during the great agricultural period that saw its peak in the 1970s. The homes are modest for the most part, turn of the century or post WW II, and the fruit trees and grape vines out number the tourists and residents combined. 

If you turn left at a certain point, then right, then left again on to a gravel road you will be nearing the entrance to a version of orchard life on the peninsula that is close to how it has been for the last 100 years. 

Josh Wunsch, a third generation orchard owner, has the persona of a learned sage on many subjects; orchard keeping is the one that pays the bills but it is by no means the sole object of his interest. "We raise crops for fun consumption" distills Josh's philosophy on fruit-growing quite well. The idea that his crops are not a necessary component in the effort to feed the world but rather items people enjoy as a luxury and an amusement is not lost on him. One of his main crops, black sweet cherries, are grown locally for the fruit stand market and fresh eating out of hand but their largest commercial use is as flavoring for yogurt. Apples comprise the bulk of his business this year and dominate most of his time in the late summer and fall. Much of his crop goes towards processing but a significant percentage stays in the area for fresh

Josh is a self-described "Why Manager" and prefers to work through problems in collaboration with his crew which he trusts to a high degree. Non traditional management techniques extend beyond operational details. Josh's apples are protected by a unique system of his own design. Stringing 30 lb. test fishing line above the trees from structures originally nicknamed "crow-cufixes" to secure them is just one of his innovations. He has dispensed with the "crow-cufixes" and attaches the fishing line to the end trees of a row but the end result is still very effective at keeping crows and seagulls out of his ripening fruit. The gossamer strings over and around the trees causes the crows no end of consternation and they will gather at the edges of orchards full of ripe fruit but they will not enter. In 2007, when he implemented the program, he claims he was the largest single buyer of fishing line in the Grand Traverse region, and who could say otherwise? The fishing line comes down after the harvest and is re-installed each season as the fruit reaches a stage that the birds would be interested in. 

HoneyCrisp apples ripening to perfection under the protection of 30 lb. test mono filament. 

The story of how the Wunsch family came to this place is an interesting tale as Josh tells it. Josh's grandfather Edmond was a law clerk in Detroit in the first decade of the 20th century who worked for a major railroad company. One of his many tasks was to ride to the ends of the rail lines all over the Eastern United States and scout for more real estate for railroad expansion. This experience fed his interest in real estate and the law surrounding it. In 1922 he purchased a property on Bois Blanc Island in northern Lake Huron on McRae Bay. From a distance the area appears to have a lovely wide beach but upon closer inspection what looks like a sandy beach is composed entirely of rocks the size of a softballs. The property was acquired with the intention of providing a haven for his family during the summer heat in Detroit, at a time when many communicable diseases were rampant in the large cities. Edmond's wife, Marion took on the task of watching over the family's children for the summer season while her husband stayed South and worked. This remote location for the children was quite like paradise found. But with a once a week mail boat as the only connection to the outside world, Marion began to feel isolated and because of her medical background was worried about the consequences of one her charges becoming injured or ill. After 3 years Marion convinced Edmond that she could no longer endure the austere island life anymore. Edmond soon purchased what was described as "the drowned 80" on the Old Mission Peninsula as an alternative to island life. The land was an operating orchard at the time but only marginally. Edmund's son Ellis took an interest in the orchard business and after World War II the family acquired more land and expanded. Ellis was quite a polymath and received a Fulbright Scholarship after the war to return to Europe to assist in the reconstruction of that devastated continent. When he returned to the orchard, Ellis was a great innovator in the fruit industry and by expanding the number of varieties that were grown in the area he greatly advanced the prominence of fruit industry in the Grand Traverse region.

As the 1960s turned into the 1970s Ellis's son Josh left college and returned to the farm to continued the agricultural tradition of his family. Josh has brought the family orchard in to the 21st century with modern varieties and techniques while maintaining the quiet lifestyle that his grandparents sought so many years ago. Wunsch Farms is located at 16888 Wunsch Rd. Traverse City, MI 49684.