...Is a love story. First with my husband Gary and then with the orchard. The conceptual idea of creating organic products from the fruits and berries of the orchard began during the courtship of my husband; Gary W. Middleton.

Gary a fourth generation farmer and I a city girl living a corporate lifestyle met, fell in love and married. During the time of our courtship I was making dinner one night and suddenly started thinking of apple butter. Apple butter of all things! Perhaps subconsciously I was thinking of my beloved grandmother whom was always in the kitchen and always had plenty of apple butter in her pantry. It was a household staple. Every summer my grandmother and her "canning" friends would get together and process fresh vegetables from the gardens for days. It was busy and entertaining times watching all of the ladies prepare and can their favorites such as tomatoes, watermelon pickles and corn relish...That storage room had as much variety as a small town grocery store.

I fondly embrace all of the moments I spent with my grandmother in the kitchen and I am quite sure that is where my passion for cooking derived from. It was the following day that I found myself making and experimenting with batches of apple butter. This occurred day after day and as I would stir the batches I found myself thinking of various packaging ideas that would delight my family and friends.

Two years later while at the orchard I was going through the house that we were building and while upstairs I walked by a window and found myself suddenly stopping and staring out of the window and being completely awestruck by the beauty of the cherry blossoms. It was one of those rare and once in a life time moments that you are compelled to stop, watch and quietly listen. Of course it was not as though I had never seen blossoming trees before - yet, this was somehow different. This too was one of God's perfect creations and as I was starring and quietly listening it became the moment the idea of Middleton Organic Specialty Foods was conceived.

I knew that I wanted to share the beauty and the flavors of this organic orchard with others and so my mantra soon became "from our orchard to your home". I created the first of my "Savoring the Harvest" product line featuring a collection of organic apple butters including apple, apple citrus, apple blueberry and our favorite apple cherry.

Since the development of my first line of butters I have been busy preparing a mouthwatering organic Bing cherry sauce and preserves as well as dried organic apple tidbits and dried cherries.

My "Savoring the Harvest" products are prepared using our sun ripened organic fruit harvested at the peak of flavor with only an added bit of sugar to bring out the fruits natural flavors. There is nothing better in life than eating and enjoying great healthy foods especially those foods that take you back to simpler, quieter times.