It began with 20 acres, where the house and storage building now are, and a 10-acre apple orchard, which was originally planted in the 1900s. As the business grew, an additional 50 acres were purchased. In 1961, Ben Bauman's son, Marion, purchased the business. A partnership formed with sons Doug coming into the business in 1987 as sales manager, joined by Bill in 1990 as orchard manager. Their ad
ded experience and enthusiasm for the family business brought growth and expansion of the orchard. We are currently training our fourth generation. Bauman Orchards has a total of 260 acres with 70,000 apple trees and 12,000 peach trees. Most of the trees are considered dwarf trees and usually come into production in the third year after planting. The desired production is to average between 800 to 1000 bushels per acre. We also raise pears, plums, sweet corn, strawberries and blueberries. We press our own apple cider from September through May. Cider is sold wholesale and in our retail market. Our retail farm market in Rittman is open all year round. We offer seasonal fruit, homemade pies, cookies and gift baskets. We have two other seasonal farm market locations: Scenic Ridge Fruit Farm at 2031 SR 89, Jeromesville, and Bauman Orchards Corner Market at 10370 Akron Rd (the corner of State Routes 585 and 57), outside of Rittman.
