For generations of children growing up in the New Hope-Solebury area, summer and fall have meant a trip to Solebury Orchards, where fruit is picked straight from the field and no visit feels quite complete without a cider doughnut on the way home. Visitors today might take the orchard’s bustling, colorful scene for granted, but 40 years ago there was little there beyond 24 acres of cornfield and a young man named Brian Smith who just “really liked fruit.”

Smith grew up in Horsham on a roughly 10-acre family property with a handful of fruit trees scattered about. As he got older, he became interested in caring for those trees, which grew into an interest in health, nutrition, and gardening. Eventually, he managed a small orchard nearby and started imagining what it might be like to grow fruit on a much larger scale. In 1985, when an affordable tract of land became available in Solebury, Smith decided to take the leap. “I never really planned any of it,” he says. “I just wanted to go for it.”

Building Something Together

The idea may have begun with Smith, but Solebury Orchards was always a team effort. From the earliest years, family members stepped in wherever they were needed, and the farm began to take shape through a succession of problems solved and people willing to lend a hand. Smith’s brother was involved early on, his father helped build many of the structures on the property, and his mother pitched in at the market. Smith describes his parents as “super assets all along the way.”

As the orchard grew, so did the circle around it. About 25 years ago, Smith’s partner, Freya Hoffman, joined the operation just as “pick your own” was beginning to transform the scale of the business. At the time, there were only about four other people working at the orchard. Over the years, employees, helpers, and even customers have become part of its fabric.

Nathaniel Woosley, the orchard’s manager and an all-around problem solver, first became connected to the orchard as a child. When he was about 8 years old, he made an impression while shopping there with his mother and younger siblings. “He floated around the room with his family, suggesting, ‘Perhaps we should get some of these’ or ‘We haven’t had those for a while,’” Hoffman remembers. “Then he carried everything to the counter and acted as if it was his responsibility to take things to the car. He was a little man.”

Before long, Woosley was spending weekends at the orchard’s outdoor apple weigh station alongside Hoffman’s son. He eventually moved behind the counter. As he grew into a young man, he left for stretches to study abroad and travel, but somehow he kept finding his way back. Today, Woosley handles everything from finances and photography to helping secure visas for the orchard’s migrant workers. “It’s a place that just becomes a part of you as much as you’re a part of that place,” he says.

Gilberto “Beto” Ruiz Flores began as a 19-year-old worker at Solebury Orchards. More than two decades later, he now oversees much of the picking, thinning, and field work necessary to keep the farm running, traveling between Pennsylvania and Mexico with his young family. “There’s never a day where you’re not going to trust this guy,” Hoffman says. “He makes the decisions; he handles 12 other people.”

Seasons of Change

In the early years, there was little separation among jobs at the orchard because Smith was doing most of the work himself. Hoffman remembers him starting some days as early as4:30 a.m., picking what was needed, filling baskets, getting the market ready before opening, and spending the day tending to customers. “In the early years, you just needed to do the immediate thing,” Smith says. “It was really hard to keep up.”

Today, Solebury Orchards is a year-round operation with roughly 40 people on the payroll and about 85 to 90 acres of trees and bushes to tend. The rhythm of the business changes with the seasons. Winter means long days of pruning bare branches. Spring brings planting and thinning. By summer and fall, the orchard shifts into harvest mode, with fruit moving from trees and fields to baskets, sorting tables, the market, the cider press, and the applesauce kitchen.

Smith is still part of that work, but his role has shifted. While Ruiz Flores and his crew handle much of the picking and field work, Smith spends more of his time on tractors, maintenance, and keeping the farm’s equipment running. He describes that work modestly. Hoffman is quick to point out the rest: He repairs equipment, rebuilt the cider press and filling machinery, and is often the person who figures out what to do when something breaks.

Although the work has changed, it can still be intense. Smith, however, seems happiest in the middle of it. After recently spending a couple of weeks away, he was glad to return. “I really enjoy being at home,” he says. “I enjoy work.”

That willingness to stay connected and to learn whatever the farm demands next has shaped Solebury Orchards from the beginning. Through the years, Smith and his team have learned to press cider, make applesauce, and eventually produce their own cider doughnuts. “As far as the farm is concerned, we all just figured things out as we went along,” Hoffman says. “Whatever we needed to do, that’s what we learned to do.”

Put to the Test

This year, that philosophy has been tested in a way no one expected. An unusually warm stretch in early spring pushed the orchard’s young fruit ahead of schedule. Then a cold spell devastated the plants, leaving what Hoffman calls “a ghost crop.” Smith had never experienced anything like it in four decades of farming.

Instead of declaring defeat, the Solebury Orchards team is doing what it has always done: It’s figuring things out. “Brian’s a problem solver,” Hoffman says. “It’s just another problem to have.” The team planted vegetables, began sourcing fruit from elsewhere, and started rethinking what a fall visit to the orchard might look like without the usual abundance of apples. New activities are being planned for families, including pumpkin picking, scavenger hunts, and children’s programming, with help from neighbors eager to step in. People have asked what they can do, while nearby farms and friends have offered ideas and practical help. For those who want to support the orchard, the message is simple: “Keep coming because we’re still here,” Hoffman says. “It might look a little different, but we’re still here.”

After 40 years of adapting, growing, and figuring things out as they go, Solebury Orchards will unlikely be defined by one difficult season. For Smith and the team around him, there is always another season ahead.

Lela Casey is the editor of New Hope & Solebury magazine and has been writing professionally for more than 15 years. She and her family live in Doylestown.

Photograph by Juan Vidal Photography