Bonduel orchard everflowing with apples
“Something for everyone” isn’t an exaggeration for visitors to Everflow Farm and Orchard at W3945 Landstad Road south of Bonduel, especially at this time of year.
Visitors can pick their own apples or buy prepicked in the farm store. Raspberries are available to self-pick, and the owner doesn’t mind if visitors toss a few raspberries into their mouths.
People are welcome to just stroll through the orchard of more than 2,000 apple trees. Hay rides and a corn maze will be open soon. Apples are available to hand-feed to the cattle behind the farm store.
Homemade caramel apples, made-fresh cider apple cake doughnuts and apple cider slushies are available. The farm’s own honey, jams and jellies, popcorn, maple syrup, farm-raised beef and more can be found in the bright and spacious farm store.
Owner Luke Cackovic purchased the 120-acre property in 1991 and planted the first apple trees in 2009. He moved to Wisconsin from northeastern Ohio.
“I just like to grow things,” Cackovic said. “Wisconsin is my home now.”
Lisa Koepp, of Bonduel, joined Cackovic six years ago to help run the operation.
“She came to buy Transparent apples, and I helped her to get them from the orchard,” Cackovic said.
Koepp planned to take the apples to the Founder’s Day celebration that year in Bonduel. She returned three months later.
“She’s never left,” Cackovic said.
“I asked him if he needed help to pick apples, and it’s become part of my everyday life,” Koepp said.
The entire Koepp family is involved on the farm. With her husband, Rob, and sons William, Luke and Jack, the Koepps are Cackovic’s only help.
“We are a pick-your-own apple orchard,” Koepp said. “We also have prepicked apples. When in season, we also have pears, peaches and plums.”
Homemade apple cider cake doughnuts are available Fridays, Saturday and Sundays through October. They also sell homemade apple pies.
“We recently added cider slushies on the weekends,” Koepp said.
The slushies are topped with whipped cream, caramel sauce and an apple cider doughnut.
“It’s a nice activity for families to come out and spend time in the orchard,” Koepp said.
Cackovic added that people are welcome to just come out and walk through the orchard, even if they don’t plan to pick apples.
The pick-your-own orchard includes more than 40 varieties of apples. Apples are available for tasting before heading out to the orchard.
“People can taste apples that maybe they’ve never heard about,” Koepp said. “We want you to love our apples before heading out the door.”
There is a tasting area inside the farm store.
Harvest hayrides will be offered this fall, along with a corn maze. They will have pick-your-own pumpkin, ornamental corn, mini pumpkins, gourds, corn stalks and straw bales. The farm’s Facebook page will have information about when the hayrides and corn maze will start.
When Cackovic and Koepp decided to have a corn maze, they simply got on the lawnmower and cut down new growth corn, without really following the layout they originally planned to copy from the backs of cereal boxes.
“It worked,” said Cackovic. “I even got lost in there.”
Depending on the season, sweet corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, potatoes, tomatoes, bell and jalapeno peppers and many other home-grown vegetables and fruits are available. There are perennials for sale, including fall mums.
Apples are kept in storage and are generally available for purchase until February. Beef cuts are available into winter, also.
The farm has about 40 acres of field corn and about two acres of sweet corn. Soy beans are also one of Cackovic’s crops.
He also raises beef cattle. Cackovic doesn’t use growth hormones; everything is all natural and raised on the farm.
Cedar Wedge Farm in Bonduel does the butchering of the cattle for Everflow Farm.
“We sell our beef in the store,” Koepp said.
She said that if a customer is looking for a particular cut of beef and it isn’t in the freezer, they should ask to see if it’s available.
There is a map of the orchard for customers to be able to locate the varieties they want to pick. The Transparent and Zestar varieties ripen in August. Other varieties that may be available at this time are Honeycrisp, Cortland and Macintosh.
“We have a couple new later varieties, Rosalee and Fireside,” Cackovic said.
Cackovic and Koepp encourage customers to check out the Facebook page to see what is currently available.
Cackovic sells apples to Shawano and Bonduel schools, starting when school opens and at least through January, until they run out of apples.
Bags of reject apples for wildlife are also available.
The farm is open sunup to sundown. Payment must be in cash, on the honor system.
“We’re family-oriented, low-key, noncommercial,” Koepp said.