Author Description

The story of Virginia’s apple industry exemplifies the relationship between the people and land of this region in the context of an economy that has long been not only regional but also national and international in nature. Through oral histories and color photographs from apple orchards and workplaces in the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge regions of Virginia, Shenandoah Valley Apples explores this important cultural landscape at a time when the people and land are undergoing change at an unprecedented rate. Between 1977 and 2005, apple acreage in Virginia decreased by more than half, and 65 percent of all growers left the business. Featuring orchards ranging from a nine-acre roadside operation to midsized enterprises on diversified family farms to some of the nation’s largest commercial orchards, Shenandoah Valley Apples presents the perspective of apple growers who own the land they farm, placing their voices alongside the voices of historians and representatives of apple industry associations and related businesses. Distributed for the Columbia College Chicago Press