How to take a sweet road trip on Utah’s ‘Fruit Way,’ and enjoy fresh produce close to the farm

Bountiful • Six days a week — and sometimes seven — Jamie Skinner sells fresh fruits and vegetables from her stand, Skinner Produce Farmer’s Market.

“Sometimes we are open on Sundays if we have leftover produce,” Skinner said. “Sometimes we’ll do discounts, half off, or we call people we know. We try not to have too much waste.” Skinner said they also donate surplus food to refugee organizations and other groups.

On this early summer day, Skinner Produce — at 1852 S. 400 West in Bountiful, about a 15-minute drive from downtown Salt Lake City — is bustling with customers minutes after it opens. They’re filling baskets and bags with cherries, corn and green beans, which are all in season.

Skinner Produce is one of dozens of locations across Utah that have become destinations for people looking to get fresh fruits and vegetables close to the source.

Customers get produce that tastes better than what’s in the supermarket, Skinner said. For the farmers, like the 15 or so she works with, it’s a way to keep the farm running.

“A lot of the farmers that we work with, their kids don’t want to take over the farm, so they are the last of their family to farm,” she said. “People need to know that pretty soon there’s not going to be as many farms in Utah.”

Getting people to come out to farms, known as agritourism, is “incredibly important” to Utah agriculture, said Caroline Hargreaves, spokesperson for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.

“For a lot of the farms we work with, adding an element of agritourism is what allows their business to stay in operation,” Hargreaves said. “Having that additional revenue stream is what keeps them viable.”

The agency, Hargreaves said, defines agritourism as “any kind of on-farm activities like farm stands, you-pick-fruit opportunities, workshops, tours, educational events. Anything that happens on a farm to draw more visitors, we count as agritourism.”

The department, working with the Utah Office of Tourism, has created a website that highlights 54 farms and ranches, from the Cache Valley to St. George, that offer services for visitors ranging from corn mazes to wedding venues.

Agritourism, Hargreaves said, is important “both economically and as an educational and community opportunity,” because it opens the door for people to connect with agriculture and to understand where their food comes from.

“When you buy fresh fruit from a local farmer, you’re not only supporting your community, but you are getting the freshest, tastiest product possible,” Hargraves said. “Sometimes they are even picked the same day or within hours, versus weeks in advance. So, you can’t compare a mass-produced peach to something you can get around here.”

Traveling Utah’s ‘Fruit Way’

Many of the state’s destination farms are along “Utah’s Famous Fruit Way,” stretching along U.S. 89 from Willard to Brigham City in Box Elder County, about an hour’s drive north of Salt Lake City.

At Pettingill’s Fruit Farm, at 8815 U.S. 89 in Willard, crates of apricots, zucchini, yellow squash, sweet cherries, cucumbers, red beats, radishes, tomatillos, green beans, and peas adorn the entrance. Inside, dozens of teenagers talk to customers and neatly arrange produce in crates that need refilling.

The farm sells sweet cherries, apricots, blackberries, over 50 kinds of peaches, five kinds of nectarines, tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydews, 14 varieties of apples in the fall, winter squash and pumpkins.

Co-owner Jean Davis — whose late father started the farm in 1947 — said she never looks at grocery store prices, and tries to give other growers and farmers Pettingill works with, “the going rate.” She said she urges people to buy produce from farmers in Utah instead of choosing those that were shipped from other states or countries.

“Support local. You get fresh,” she said. “On our farm, everything is one to two days picked when it’s here. You get the freshest produce that you can get.”

Davis agreed with Skinner that farming is too expensive for the younger generation, and said they will be the last farmers and stand owners at Pettingill’s.

“It all depends on our health,” she said. “Nobody is going to take it over. When we’re done, we’re done. It’s hard work. We have to make our money on this farm in five months to supply the whole year. So, from November to the beginning of June, we don’t have any income.”

Less than two miles north, Grammy’s Fruit and Produce, at 7375 U.S. 89 in Willard, has a better chance of keeping the legacy going. Jordan Riley took to farming from a young age, and three years ago he bought the fruit stand and its 150 acres of orchards and 15 acres of row crops.

He said his intention is to keep Grammy’s “alive and well.” He plans to make improvements soon, like adding cold storage and a processing area to cut and freeze fruits to make some added-value products.

This year’s harvest will be ready earlier, Riley said, and customers need to plan accordingly.

“In early August the real peach season will begin and that usually makes it through September,” he said. “Hopefully through the whole month of September, but this year’s is earlier so it might not make it quite so late.”

Riley said he’s concerned about farmers retiring without having anyone to take over their farms, but said all is not lost yet.

“It is feasible to make profit building houses at $150.000 an acre,” Riley said. “It is extremely difficult to say you can farm at $150.000 an acre. I would tell you that that is not possible, but I am still trying. We all will keep trying. I see us losing ground over gaining ground, but yes, support local farmers, we’ll try to keep farmland around if we can.”

Chad Tagge — whose Tagge’s Famous Fruit and Veggie Farms, at 3431 S. U.S. 89 in Perry, has been open daily since June — also wants to keep the area’s legacy alive.

Tagge said he decided to leave his job as a bioengineer, and returned to farming to keep the land his family owns as farmland. The next generation of Tagges, he said, will be ready to take over and “keep it going.”

“This is such a unique growing climate here in Perry for tree fruit in the state of Utah. It really is some of the best land,” he said. “We get great color, great flavor, we avoid the hail storms, we don’t get the windstorms. We are really fortunate about where we are located, just because of the geography, which just makes it a really pristine land to grow any type of tree fruit.”

Tagge sells more than 15 varieties of peaches, among them a unique donut peach, apricots, nectarines and the only certified-organic blackberries in the state. In the fall, Tagge’s will have more than 35 varieties of pumpkins. (Tagge’s is also a regular vendor at the Downtown Farmers Market, Saturdays at Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City.)

“Our favorite time is September and it’s when the best varieties of peaches are coming on, and all our unique pumpkins come on,” Tagge said. “We fill up the parking lot with a pumpkin patch, it’s a super fun time. Come up and check it out and get a peach parfait.”

A few minutes north of Tagge’s stand, a grouping of produce stands are nestled together on both sides of U.S. 89. Farmers there say that the close proximity helps, because they sometimes exchange produce or send customers to other stands when they run out of something they want.

The Lemus family has operated Lemus Farms stand at 2055 S. U.S. 89 in Perry for the past three years. It still has the “Nielson’s” sign outside.

Clemente Lemus worked on the farm for more than 40 years before he leased it. He said he wanted to return to the “old school ways” that were replaced by a management company for a few years after the owner died and before he took over.

Lemus said he and his family try to sell only local produce, but sometimes need to outsource fruits and vegetables that aren’t in season or not grown in the area.

“Sometimes clients ask for some different things, like pineapples, and we have to buy those from some other places,” Lemus said. “But we mainly sell our own stuff: cherries, apricots, apples, peaches, plums.”

Lemus has no workers on the farm and prefers to do everything himself. His wife helps with the fruit stand. They manage around 80 acres of orchards.

A short walk from Lemus, Paul’s Patch at 2005 S. U.S. 89, opened in 1971 and is still going, offering its customers local produce mainly from their own orchards and fields. Paul’s also works with other farmers and growers.

Becky Sandlian, the stand’s manager, said customers are the ones who keep the fruit stands going.

“Without them, we can’t have a fruit stand. So even just getting all of our names out or just knowing that the fruit highway is here and it’s a fun little drive to take is the most important thing,” Sandlian said. “Customers coming and supporting us is what counts, and what matters to us most.”

When to visit ‘Utah’s Famous Fruit Way’

Skinner Produce Farmer’s Market, 1852 S 400 West, Bountiful • Open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

Pettingill’s Fruit Farm, 8815 U.S. 89, Willard • Open 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

Grammy’s Fruit and Produce, 7375 U.S. 89, Willard • Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

Tagge’s Famous Fruit & Veggie Farms, Perry Farm, 3431 S. U.S. 89, Perry • Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week.

Lemus Farms (formerly Nielson’s), 2055 S. U.S. 89, Perry • Open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

Paul’s Patch, 2005 S. U.S. 89, Perry • 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Correction • July 13, 10:54 a.m.: This story was updated to correct the spelling of Becky Sandlian’s name.

Correction • July 16, 9:24 a.m.: An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect address for Paul’s Patch.