Brovold Orchard: Who We Are, How We Got Here, and What We Do. Part 2 - Growing and Giving Away Fruit

Part 2: Growing and Giving Away Fruit

In Part 1 of this series, we looked at how Brovold Community Orchard came into existence and what we’ve chosen as our mission. In Parts 2 through 5 we’ll examine in detail our four-part mission statement and what it means.

The first pillar of our mission statement is to provide free nutritious organic fruit to area residents. Brovold Community Orchard currently has 82 fruit trees. Included in that total are 46 apple trees, 16 pears, seven plums, five apricots, three crabapples, two sweet cherries, and one each tart cherry, plumcot, and peach.

Orchard in bloom. Photo Jay Styles.

Many of the apples and pears were planted by Norman Brovold in the 1980s, so they are 40 or more years old now. Apple and pear trees can live to 100 years under ideal conditions, but the older trees in our orchard have at times suffered damage that may have shortened their lives. Norman, particularly in his later years, found it difficult to keep up with all the work the orchard required. Other people sometimes agreed to help him, and though well intended, some of those people lacked skill in orchard care. Many of the older trees in the orchard have been damaged around their bases by mowing machines or weed whackers, and this has led to heart rot in the tree trunks. Other trees were very severely pruned in one unfortunate event years ago, and this led to the death of some trees and permanent damage and decline to others. Some of the remaining trees are infected with fireblight, a common disease of apple trees that can disfigure and eventually kill the trees. 

Fall harvest

As a result of the current orchard conditions, our Board of Directors decided to begin a tree replacement program. In the past two years, we’ve planted 21 new fruit trees in the orchard. The new trees have been chosen specifically for their cold hardiness and disease resistance, as well as for providing more fruit diversity. The apricots, plums, cherries, plumcot, and peach were selected to provide more fruit choices for those who harvest fruit from the orchard. We will continue the tree replacement program until all the damaged, decadent, or diseased trees have been replaced by healthy, young, vigorous ones. Any older, but still healthy, trees will of course be retained.

One question we often get is what varieties of apples we grow. Unfortunately, Norman didn’t keep records on the trees he planted, so many of our trees are of unknown varieties. We’ve been able to figure some of them out by comparison to known pictures and written descriptions, and of course, we know the varieties we’ve recently planted. The list below shows the varieties we know, but there are still many unknowns. 

Apples Arkansas black Enterprise Freedom Golden delicious Jonagold Liberty Macoun McIntosh Red delicious

Pears Bartlet Clapp’s favorite d’Anjou Luscious Nova

Plums Mirabelle de Bitterroot Stanley Superior   Plumcots Tipson

Cherries Danube (tart) Lapins (sweet) Gold (sweet)   Apricots Turkish cowboy   Peaches Contender

As with any agricultural operation, fruit production in Brovold Orchard varies from year to year due to the weather and other factors. In 2023, our best year since we’ve started keeping records, we gave away about 6,700 pounds of fruit. This number could go up as we continue to restore the orchard to healthier conditions.

In any orchard, some fruit drops to the ground early through natural self-thinning, windfall, or other reasons. This fruit is not good for human consumption, but it makes great livestock feed for pigs, chickens, cows, horses, and other animals. We love it when people come and pick the fallen fruit up for their animals because it cleans up the orchard and helps curb diseases and insect pests. We have a few people who do this regularly each year, but we always have a surplus of fallen fruit. If you’d like to help us keep the fruit picked up, let us know and we’ll be happy to accommodate your schedule.

Happy child picking apples.

When it comes to harvesting fruit for people to eat, we welcome everyone to our orchard when the fruit is ripe. We post notices on Facebook and send out emails to let people know when to come and pick. If you’d like to be on our email list to receive notifications, please let us know.

Norman Brovold was passionate about sharing his fruit with the community, and our way of honoring him is to continue inviting everyone to the orchard in picking season, regardless of who they are, where they live, or what they do. All are welcome here. We proudly say, however, that there is a special place in our hearts for those who need just a little bit of extra help in their lives. We are especially pleased when we give away fruit to low-income families, seniors on fixed incomes, single parents, and others who benefit from the enhanced food security our orchard can provide. With all the world’s problems, giving away fruit may seem like a small act. But helping each other is what makes us a community, and if everyone did that, the world would be a much better place.

Volunteers picking up pruned branches.

We will end Part 2 of this series by acknowledging that sharing works best when it goes in both directions. We never ask anyone to pay for fruit from Brovold Community Orchard, but some people choose to make monetary donations to our nonprofit to help keep the orchard operations going. It does take money to operate an orchard, so these donations are always genuinely appreciated. Other people choose to give back with their time by volunteering to help with orchard maintenance. We always have useful work for volunteers, and we appreciate their contributions as much as those who give cash. During the growing season, we hold volunteer work days one Saturday per month. Those who participate have a great time with friends, complete some very worthwhile projects, and get a fabulous lunch. Look for our notifications about when these work days occur, and if you want to take part, just show up.

In Part 3 of this series we’ll look at the second pillar of our mission statement: providing youth and adult education in agriculture and natural resources. Look for that article soon.

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Brovold Orchard: Who We Are, How We Got Here, and What We Do. Part 1 - The Beginning

Part 1: The Beginning 

If you’re new to the area, or if you’ve been here for awhile and never visited Brovold Community Orchard, you may wonder what we’re all about. In this five-part series, we’ll look at Brovold Orchard’s origins, our mission, and our vision for where we hope to go in the future. Look for Parts 2-5 of this series when they are posted here in the coming weeks.

Julius Brovold’s and Emma Sekse’s parents were Norwegian immigrants who came to America in the 1800s looking for greater opportunities. They settled in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin and began their new lives. Julius and Emma were born there, eventually met, and decided to wed. They settled on a 40-acre farm outside of Ettrick where their most fruitful produce was a family of one daughter and nine sons. The humid Wisconsin climate didn’t agree with Julius, though, and he was tired and sickly from struggling through the recent Great Depression years. So, in the mid-1940s he sold the farm and moved his family to the drier climate of eastern Montana where he hoped to begin anew. Julius and Emma managed a hotel in Lavina, Montana for a few years until they purchased a tourist court (a motel with individual cabins) and 100 acres of steep rocky mountainside at Alberton, Montana in 1952. One of their sons, Norman, a newlywed and recently discharged from the US Army, moved there to help his parents manage the property.

Norman picking apples in the late 1950s.

Norman was a kind-hearted jack-of-all-trades with strong beliefs about serving others in his community. In those days you needed multiple skills to earn a living in rural Montana, and Norman was a welder, mechanic, and logger. He plowed snow for the town, and he drove Alberton’s school bus. Norman helped build the town’s 300,000-gallon water tank, the bridge across the Clark Fork River near the mouth of Petty Creek, and the Community Church, among other projects. In short, Norman was a valued member of his community who could be called upon whenever someone needed help. 

Lawyer Nursery was a wholesale plant nursery located between Plains and Thompson Falls, about 80 miles north of Alberton. They were a large nursery with sales on a national and international scale. One day the nursery owner was passing through Alberton when his pickup truck broke down. In trying to find someone to get it running again, everyone in town told him to go see Norman. Norman did get the truck repaired, refusing any payment, and in appreciation, Mr. Lawyer invited him to visit his nursery where he said he had “something” to give him.

Upon visiting the nursery, Mr. Lawyer loaded Norman’s pickup down with fruit trees, far exceeding any expectations. Arriving back home with a big load of trees, Norman needed something to do with them. So, he planted an orchard in an area of the property that was formerly used as a horse pasture.

Once asked why he planted an orchard, Norman replied, “ I grew up during the Great Depression when times were really tough, and many people didn’t have enough to eat. If you were so bold as to pick an apple off someone’s tree, you could go to jail. I never wanted anyone in Alberton to go hungry.”  So, from the orchard’s beginning, it was Norman’s intention to share it with his friends and neighbors in the community. He did so faithfully for decades, letting anyone from the community come and pick fruit whenever they wanted, and never charged anyone for any of it.

Norman Brovold at age 91.

Norman passed away in 2022 at the age of 93. His daughter, Jeanne, and her husband, Bob Summerfield, became the new owners of the orchard. Their desire is to honor Norman’s life and continue his dream of serving his community through the orchard. They made the orchard a charitable nonprofit community orchard managed by a board of directors formed from representatives of Alberton and other nearby communities. Jeanne and Bob’s two sons, Jason and Jordan, are members of the board, have assumed ownership rights to parts of the property, and will ensure that it is managed as a community resource well into the future.

Brovold Community Orchard is not just about giving away fruit. We have a fourfold mission aimed at strengthening the nutritional, educational, recreational, and social aspects of our community. In Parts 2-5 of this series, we’ll cover each of the four pillars of our mission in detail. We’ll talk about what each mission pillar means, what we’re doing now, how we hope to grow in the future, and how you, our community members, fit into that picture. Look for the next parts of this five-part series in the coming weeks.

 

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Our 2025 Sponsors

 

Our 2025 Sponsors

As a charitable nonprofit orchard that gives away everything we produce, we couldn’t continue to operate without donations and grants. With gratitude, we acknowledge the generous support of those who contribute to our work. We would like to recognize those who provided the orchard with grants and sponsorships in 2025. All of you make it possible for Brovold Community Orchard to continue serving real people in the very real communities we love.

  

Recognizing Our Sponsors

 Recognizing Our Sponsors

As a charitable nonprofit orchard that gives away everything we produce, we couldn’t continue to operate without donations and grants. With gratitude, we acknowledge the generous support of those who contribute to our work. Chief among our supporters are the many private individuals who donate their hard-earned cash. Equally important are those who volunteer their labor to keep us up and running. And finally, we would like to thank the businesses, foundations, and agencies who have given us grants or in-kind support. All of you make it possible for Brovold Community Orchard to continue serving real people in the very real communities we love.

 

2021

 

 

2022

 

2023

 

 

2024