Oren Wooden’s Apple House
A Little Family History…
It all started in Safety Harbor, Florida. Oren’s mother, Orene Booth, had an orange and grapefruit grove. His father, Henry Wooden, went from Tennessee to Florida for work. He picked oranges on her farm. During the hard times of the Great Depression, Orene traded her land in Florida for a large amount of land in Pikeville, Tennessee, where Henry was from. They moved here when Oren was 10 years old.
Henry’s father had an orchard here in Tennessee. They grew apples and vegetables, and also had a sawmill. In the 1950s, Henry set out a peach orchard that got killed by freeze. The freeze-hardy peach varieties that we now grow were not available back then, so he set apple trees instead. We still grow apples on that same land today.
Oren and Nonivee married in 1964. They worked hard and enjoyed a good life together for 48 years. In 1995, they expanded the business by building the Apple House. Along with daughters Sandy and Carole, and their husbands, Mark and Chubby, they grew the orchard to about 35,000 trees. On a good year, we pick between 4 and 5 million apples and about 300,000 peaches, as well as tons of vegetables and pumpkins.
Oren passed away in 2013, but his family carries on his legacy. We now serve southern, country-style, farm-to-table food in Oren’s Orchard Cafe. The Pie Shop makes all kinds of apple, peach, and pumpkin desserts. On any given weekend, we sell 3,000 fried pies and around 2,000 apple dumplings. We have crafts, jellies, jams, preserves, relishes, pickles, cookbooks, quilts… the list goes on and on.
We want to express our sincere gratitude to all our wonderful customers. Without your support over the years, we wouldn’t have been able to build this business we are so grateful for. We love hearing your stories of how your grandparents brought you here, and seeing your families grow as ours has. We have the fifth generation of Woodens working here now in Cain, Kate, Marcus, Candace and Cara. You may see Charlie and Carrigan, the sixth generation, running around here, too.