Meadowbrook Orchards was founded in 1912 with the purchase of five abutting farms that were consolidated into one. The owner and original proprietor was John Chandler. His aim was to start an orchard, but due to the fact that it takes ten to fifteen years to develop a profitable orchard, he raised cows, and for many years ran a successful dairy business.
In 1927, a devastating fire burned the huge barn that housed not only the cows, but also the draft horses, pigs and 10,000 laying hens - all were lost. Fortunately, the orchard was by that time financially viable. John’s children and grandchildren suspect he was relieved to be out of his other ventures so he could devote full time to growing, and selling apples- his first love.
There are few agricultural enterprises that are more subject to natural disasters than apple growing - spring freezes, hail storms and hurricanes being the major adversaries. The worst event to occur at Meadowbrook was the 1938 hurricane, which devastated central Massachusetts in September. The hurricane destroyed the entire crop and uprooted nearly sixty percent of the trees. It took years to recover from such devastation.
John Chandler retired in 1946. Since that time, Meadowbrook Orchards has continued to prosper and grow. John’s youngest son Nathan operated the farm from 1946 to 1970. Nathan’s focus was on modernizing the operation by putting into place newly developed technologies in apple storage and tree growth. By replanting older trees with newly developed apple rootstocks, smaller trees are produced, which Nathan found are a great deal easier to operate.
In 1970, Nathan’s son David took over the operation of the orchard. From 1970 to the present, even greater strides have been made towards efficiency of operation.
A few Meadowbrook apples are sold through the bakery, but the vast majority is sold wholesale throughout the United States, Europe and South America. The average annual crop has now grown to over 50,000 bushels.
Now David’s son David Jr is working on the farm to carry the farm into the next generation.
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