Renewal on the Ridge

Orchardists on Fruit Ridge northwest of Grand Rapids, Michigan, suffered mightily when the market for processing apples weakened in the last decade of the twentieth century, and it looked like the damage might be permanent. Real estate developers jumped on the best sites, putting houses on the tops of these sunny south-facing slopes that define the area, and spurring concern about preservation of century-old fruit farms. But these families—now extended but still calling themselves Alpiners after the area in central Europe their ancestors left behind—had survived adversity before. Once called Peach Ridge, the area made a massive shift to apples […]