05/22/2026
CONGRATULATIONS to Allen Teach, President of Sunrise Orchards, G**s Mills, Wisconsin, on being awarded the prestigious Midwest and Mountain States Apple Grower of the Year Award, sponsored by Valent USA, for exemplifying innovation, adaptability, leadership, and excellence in apple production!
Allen Teach is a third-generation apple grower whose love for the apple industry began at an early age. One of his earliest memories at the orchard was standing beside his grandparents and proudly holding up three fingers when a customer asked, “How old are you?” You could say Allen truly grew up in the orchard. In fact, with the middle name “Mac” - inspired by the Macintosh apple - it almost seemed destined that he would become an apple grower himself. Today, he proudly continues a family tradition that spans more than 60 years.
Allen is a man deeply connected to the orchard, the seasons, and the weather. Although he earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, he quickly realized his future would not be spent inside a laboratory. “I just couldn’t desert the seasons,” Allen says. “Pruning trees in the winter, managing the crop in the spring and summer, and spending long hours among the trees in the fall allow you to become deeply connected to the weather and the land.”
His favorite jobs in the orchard are pruning, thinning, and making thinning decisions — tasks that require both experience and intuition developed over decades of growing apples.
It is this connection to the land that Allen hopes to share with visitors who travel each year from Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and beyond to experience the scenic apple-growing valley nestled among the steeply carved bluffs of the Driftless Area in southwestern Wisconsin.
What the glaciers spared centuries ago has become Allen’s modern-day laboratory: 225 acres of prime apple-growing farmland, where three-quarters of the bushels are wholesaled and the remainder sold directly to visitors. Sunrise Orchards grows more than 25 apple varieties, offering something for everyone.
Sunrise Orchards is a cherished, multi-generational family apple orchard rooted in tradition, quality, and hospitality. Since 1913, the orchard has welcomed generations of visitors from near and far, sharing its passion for apples, family, and unforgettable experiences.
Allen Teach’s dedication to the land, his family legacy, and the apple industry continues to make Sunrise Orchards a destination treasured by visitors across the Midwest.
