As Easy as Apple Pie?

When the donut man told the Chudleighs he'd no longer make donuts at their family apple farm, Carol Chudleigh’s father suggested she start selling her own apple pie. Baked at home from a family recipe, the pies were served by the slice on paper serviettes for 25 cents a piece to wandering city folk who wanted to pick their own apples. You could say those slices were the start of the Chudleigh’s success story.

In the 1960s, it was rare to invite the public to trample all over the farm, but for the Chudleighs, it became a way of life. Having lost a chunk of business because their apples were too big and wouldn’t fit in the plastic bags favoured by distributors, Tom Chudleigh learned of a fellow in Chicago operating a “u-pick” farm. After a good chat, Tom, a fifth-generation apple grower, decided to open his orchard to the public in 1967. And today, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who grew up in Toronto and doesn’t have memories of picking apples at Chudleigh’s farm.

Tom recalls a family who had bushels full of apples and wanted to drive their car into the orchard to load them. He offered them a tractor ride instead and all the kids — young and old — were excited to jump on board.

The following weekend he asked neighbouring farmers to bring their tractors to give rides. “I remember this husband bringing his family out... he was all excited to get on a tractor… but why would a 45-year-old man get so excited about a tractor wagon ride? Then I realized, it’s a bit how I felt taking the subway,” Tom laughs.

The farm has come a long way from those modest beginnings. It now boasts an impressive line of baked goods — all inspired by Carol’s pie — including its famed apple blossoms. The Chudleighs developed the blossoms when restaurants tired of offering slices of pie that were difficult to serve. So, Carol, Tom and their sons came up with what is essentially a pie in a pocket for their restaurant customers. They were an instant hit and can now be bought frozen by consumers all over Canada and beyond.

Carol no longer bakes the pies, but she’s heavily involved in the quality control of every product that comes out of the farm kitchen, now housed in a 120,000-square-foot building just down the street from the farm.

Carol and Tom are what most people would consider long past retirement age. But at 77 and 78, respectively, they’re showing no signs of stopping completely, though Tom admits that semiretirement may be in their future. He still likes to prune the trees and walk down McIntosh Lane to watch families having fun in the orchard and workers harvesting the crop. He says it’s a lot of work and wants to make one thing clear — “there’s nothing easy about making pie.”

So as families gather together around the table over the holidays, Tom knows he’s helped create memories that will be talked about for decades. “Eating an apple in the orchard you just picked and no one has touched before… that’s something you just can’t do in the city.”

Chudleigh’s Farm
9528 Regional Road 25, Halton Hills, Ont.
chudleighs.com | 905.878.9547 | @chudleighsfarm