What began as Newell Krause's backyard hobby has evolved into a multigenerational business, offering apples and juice.
"To get into the orchard business, you have to be a person who understands this job is not instantaneous," says Christopher Krause of Krause Family Orchard. "You have to have some land, irrigation, devotion and humor. It takes a lot of human emotions coupled with physical strength, too."
For over 40 years, the Krause family has planted apple trees in the bluff country rising above the Missouri River in Walworth County, S.D. Christopher credits his father, Newell E. Krause, as the inspiration.
"Dad's the one who came up with the idea," Christopher says. "He had a hobby fruit orchard and garden in his Mobridge, S.D., backyard from 1970 to 1984. Before that, my dad's Ukrainian-German father had a fruit orchard, a large garden and honeybees in nearby Java, S.D. My brother Jim Krause and Dad went looking for land. In 1983, they discovered this place, and in 1984, we began planting out the orchard. I was only 18 at the time."
Newell Krause, a career lawyer, and his sons, Christopher and Jim, learned the orchard business on the land near Glenham, S.D. Christopher studied agricultural horticulture at South Dakota State University. Jim graduated from the University of South Dakota with degrees in political science and history; holds a teaching certificate; and has years of research and experience working on the orchard.
The brothers have a sister, Lisa, and their mother, Elizabeth Krause, who is 97 years old. Newell passed away in 1996. "Our parents were into gardening," Christopher says. "Mom liked floral arrangements for church, and Dad loved those trees he planted."
Manual planting for long-term success
In those first years, the Krauses were hand-planting 1,400 trees at a time in 9-acre sections. It certainly was a hands-on effort, as they researched planting techniques.
"We traveled up through the Wenatchee and Yakima Valley in Washington state for fact-finding," Christopher says. "We hired a water engineer and irrigation designer, David Thompson, from Wenatchee. Doug Stulken, from Selby, S.D., did the topography survey with my brother and I holding the steady rods to each location for the points of elevation.
"We didn't have a mechanical tree-planting machine. Instead, the rows were sighted in with a transit, and we marked out the points with measuring tape and wood markers, and then drilled each hole with an 18-inch and 24-inch auger. Then, we were able to get the trees in the ground."
However, Christopher says, many of the first plantings struggled. "It's windier than the dickens up here," he says. "So, we replanted that first section, and in 1990, we started windbreak trees like elm and poplars. The night before my prom, we planted 50 trees by hand. Just Jim, my dad and I, digging in the clay."
Today, Krause Family Orchard has about 6,200 apple trees, with plans to plant another 100 trees every one to two years.
Irrigating for a productive orchard
"While Dad loved planting apple trees, we had no water to the trees except an old rusty tank, a 3-horsepower pump and an AC 170 tractor," Christopher says. "My dad, Jim and I worked together to set up the irrigation system as we established our orchard. We started out with an old-fashioned trencher we got from the Huetterite colony by Ipswich.
"Jim, Dad and I put in lateral lines, and trenched the main lines and submain lines in and covered them all up by hand."
Dry, windy conditions and drought years challenged the Krauses to pump water a mile from Lake Oahe, a massive reservoir on the Missouri River. "Once I can get water in the dam, I can irrigate areas where apples are located," Christopher says.
Their irrigation designer recommended that sprinklers be used because of the amount of water that was needed for full-grown seedling hardy rootstocks.
"With impact sprinklers, we can do six- to eight-hour sets and then switch water to another section," Christopher explains. "There are no driplines; they would not provide enough water to trees for our sandy soil, and water was going to be filtered.
"All the irrigation is a solid set system, and we use two pumps, one on either side. The present pump setup is as follows: The south pump is 15 hp, and the north pump is 40 hp to run 750 gpm. In our location, irrigation water is necessary for both trees to grow and fruit to size up. So, it's all very involved."
By 2025, the Krauses had developed 43 acres of actual trees growing within 97 acres of irrigation, all in the patchwork hills and terraced slopes of the river valleys. Christopher says it's an irrigation system that is one of a kind in South Dakota.
In his experience, expecting it to rain on an orchard in northern South Dakota is an assumption. "Our climate is such that it's not going to make a tree like Washington or New York state, where there's a climate that encourages more vigorous trees to grow better," Christopher says. "Here, I've noticed that by mid-October, a freeze can occur to the crop depending on the year.
"People think our climate is inhospitable. But they need to realize that the areas with the right climate to grow specialty fruit crops for generations are changing. Our geographical location is experiencing more moisture and powerful storms. Windbreaks are important to slow the wind down, and that will help stabilize the climate. So, it's a constant intensity."
An orchard of options
From the higher elevation at Krause Family Orchard, you'll find rows of apple trees that run into a density of miles of trees. But not all trees are created equal; it's the varieties that shape the orchard. The Krauses grow over 30 varieties of apples, including many suitable for eating, pies and applesauce, and all worthy of making juice.
Their present varieties include Haralred, Haralson, Red Baron, Sweet Sixteen, Spartan, Empire, Nova Easygro, McIntosh, Honeycrisp, Keepsake, Firestorm, Prairie Spy, Cortland, Fireside, Connell Red, Chestnut crabapples, Dolga crabapples, Minjon, Northwest Greening (drying apple), Honeygold, Redwells, wild crabapples (exclusively used in juice production), Regent and Triumph (new planting in 2026), as well as early varieties such as Earligold, State Fair, Beacon and Zestar.
Tending the orchard: Care and maintenance
While replanting is necessary to add new varieties and maintain orchard production, Christopher says that good management practices and orchard care are the keys to sustaining orchard health throughout every season. "It's surprising how much grass can be mowed," he says. "Our main goal has been to suppress grass by natural methods in the tree row with a variety of organic mulches such as wood chips, apple pomace, sudangrass, flax straw, ryegrass, clover, bromegrass, and cardboard around sprinklers."
"We don't use herbicides, which are very detrimental to orchards grown in Northern climates," Christopher adds. "Herbicides cause the tree to get weak and keep growing in the fall, and then by December, when it gets cold, it will freeze the tree. The tree is still metabolizing, and instead of shutting down, the tree needs to harden off by fall time as it goes into the winter dormant season."
Pruning is another method that is best for the trees throughout the season. "It usually takes one to two years for the trees to come back from pruning," Christopher says. "A rule of thumb is not to prune more than one-third off the tree. I use this as a guide to our geographical location for our harsh and intense climate. A light prune is all you need, and the tree reacts to it."
The orchard's yield
The Krause family started selling apples in 1992 at various locations, including vendor fairs, festivals and even school lunch lines. "We added caramel apples in 2002, put a Quonset building up in 2007, then in 2016 started selling bulk wholesale juice to a South Dakota winery, and [added] retail customer base sales in 2018," Christopher says. "The juice production has taken up a big part of our orchard apples, and [that] is fine with me, as it certainly has been enjoyable to make and sell. And people love the fresh taste.
"The juice is a good promoter of an orchard, as it can collectively punch the apple's flavor naturally. Using the varieties of Barons, Sweet Sixteen and McIntosh in the first blend makes really good juice. All our apples have worth in making juice, as one can create unique blends the palate finds as they sip away."
The process of making pasteurized apple juice involves several key steps to ensure its cleanliness, safety and shelf stability while retaining flavor and nutrients. Once picked, the apples are washed and sorted, then sent down a conveyor to a stainless-steel grinder.
"It's important to have a good grinder to shred the apples; otherwise, you're just chunking them up," Christopher explains. "You can appreciate how apples taste when they're crushed versus eaten whole. You get all the cells opened up. The pomace is placed in a press to extract raw juice. This juice is heated to pasteurization at 165 degrees to eliminate harmful bacteria while preserving flavor."
Just before the final step of bottling, the pasteurized juice is rapidly cooled down into frozen liquid.
"There's a secret when you freeze the juice," Christopher says, smiling. "Freezing changes the juice. In a sense, making it more concentrated makes it sweeter and brings out a lot of flavors. We do not add refined sugar, and no preservatives are added, as requested by customers. Freezing protects the integrity of flavor well. We fill pint, quart, half-gallon and 1-gallon-size containers. Also, [we sell] bulk pasteurized juice to those who want to can in small amounts, [or] ferment into cyser or hard cider."
Laying the roots for future harvests
"It's an all-or-nothing deal," Christopher says of the future of the family orchard. "Apple growing is intense, and our orchard is still a working business of need and purpose. I am in horticulture only because of Dad and Mom. My dad had willpower and a spiritual connection to the earth to unwind the mind from being a lawyer.
"At the end of Dad's life, he kept repeating the phrase that he 'loved work,' but how does one get to liking it without being a burnt-out ember? I figured Dad's love of work eventually became more entertaining and meditative. My goal is to create a social liaison to the area's health in civility. This orchard should be a place to go to and relax."
For more information on Krause Family Orchard, visit facebook.com/Krauseapplecider.