April 17, 2015
CapitalPress.com
5
Northview Orchard is a one-man operation
By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
It was a good year last year;
people came to pick clear into
November. There were still
apples on the trees when it
froze,” he says.
For the Capital Press
$15,000
1988 Weiss JD239
Sweeper
$27,500
1996 Weiss 8900SP
Harvester
“Some years I sell most
of it, but last year was such
a heavy crop I couldn’t sell
it all; the deer ate what was
left.”
Heather Smith Thomas/For the Capital Press
Kent Reinke stands next to the sign for his Northview Orchard near
Buhl, Idaho.
as eastern and southern Idaho
to pick fruit. Many are repeat
customers.
“I put a (page) on Face-
book last year and more peo-
ple started coming. I post
photos of the fruit as it gets
ripe. I used to just have an ad
in the newspaper but many of
the newer people in our area
don’t get the paper. So I go on
Facebook and Craig’s list and
advertise that way,” he says.
“About 200 people follow
my postings on Facebook.
When the trees start bloom-
ing I take pictures. I recently
posted photos of pruning the
trees,” he says.
His family helps during the
peak season.
“My mom and dad come
from Gooding and help
$17,500
1996 Weiss JD40
Sweeper
$17,500
1998 Weiss 8900
Harvester
during the busy season; my
mom likes running the fruit
stand. My brother sometimes
comes on weekends.”
He doesn’t hire any help,
and does all the tree care him-
self.
His grandparents had the
orchard while Kent was grow-
ing up, and he enjoyed spend-
ing time there.
He joined the military and
then worked on the Alaska
pipeline for 23 years.
“I got tired of the cold and
the snow, and came back to
the orchard,” he says.
Idaho weather can be a
challenge, too.
“Some years the blooms
freeze and you have noth-
ing, and other years there is
more fruit than you can sell.
$38,950
2006 Weiss JD80LP
Sweeper
$35,000
1996 Thomas
Shuttle Truck
HENRY COLOMBO EQUIPMENT
209-531-8398 • henry@colomboequipment.com
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This one-man orchard is a
full-time job for Kent Reinke.
“My grandparents put in
the orchard in the 1950s,” said
Reinke, who bought it from
his uncle 3 years ago. “Some
of my trees are from that orig-
inal stock.
He has 4 walnut trees, 20
types of apples, 10 types of
peaches and several types of
apricots.
“I’ve been planting more
cherries, and now have 6 dif-
ferent types of cherries,” he
says.
Almost everything is mar-
keted by U-pick, except the
nuts.
“I have a little fruit stand by
the house, and people come to
buy or pick,” he says. “I don’t
have many nuts so I just put
those in bags. The customers
pick everything else, except
the apricots. Those trees are
too tall. Someone might get
up there with a ladder and
knock the apricots off.
“I pick those myself and
sell them at our fruit shed, and
take some to the Buhl farm-
ers’ market, and sometimes
the Gooding farmers’ mar-
ket,” he says.
The orchard is 7 miles
northeast of Buhl at the edge
of a canyon. People come
from Utah and Nevada as well
He doesn’t worry about
fruit that doesn’t sell. It drops
from the trees and he disks it
into the ground as fertilizer, or
the deer eat it.
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