Aron Beacon Journal (OH)
Author: Gina Mace
Dateline: GREEN
She treated the fruit in her orchard the same way she treated the people in her life, her family and customers said -- with patience, kindness and love.
Julia Dunlap, a fixture and owner of Dunlap's Orchard for more than 40 years, won't be there to greet customers this year.
While dressing for church on Jan. 21, Mrs. Dunlap collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack. She was 84.
Mrs. Dunlap's daughters, Sheila Wenhart and Deb Marino, said their mother seemed happy that Saturday.
"She was cooking and getting ready to go to church," Marino said.
Three of Mrs. Dunlap's four children -- Tom lives in Indiana with his wife and children -- sat together on a recent Sunday at Sheila and Dave Wenhart's home on Appleridge Road across from Dunlap's Orchard. They talked about their mom and growing up with the orchard.
Julia and her husband, Charles Dunlap, who died in 1994, bought the orchard in 1963 from Mrs. Dunlap's mother; she was one of three children of Frank and Julia Geig to own orchards on their parents' former dairy farm. A fourth sibling owns an orchard in Guilford Township.
Dunlap's Orchard offers 40 varieties of apples on 33 acres of trees. There are also a few peaches, plums and grapes.
"Dad sold engineering and drafting supplies," Marino said. "He worked a lot, so Mom did the whole thing. It wasn't unusual to see her out there on the tractor."
For the first few years while the orchard was young, Mrs. Dunlap took care of the trees, the fruit and the customers full time while her husband continued to work.
But they were in it together, and Chuck Dunlap said his father was a real student.
"She and Dad used to read all of the literature," he said. "They went over the best way to care for the trees and the characteristics of different varieties."
Marino said she and her siblings had jobs to do in the orchard. "We'd pick up cider apples, and fill jugs with cider," she said. "In the summer and spring we'd walk the orchard with a scoop to fertilize the trees, and haul the brush from the orchard."
For Pam DeMeio, Mrs. Dunlap was like a second mother.
DeMeio grew up on a farm that used to belong to Mrs. Dunlap's parents. She went to school with Mrs. Dunlap's children, and worked alongside them as a youngster, picking up cider apples. She began working at the orchard 17 years ago.
"It's so mind-boggling to me," DeMeio said. "She's going to be missed dearly, that's for sure."
"She was the most wonderful person to work for and I loved her . . . " DeMeio said. "She was so great with the customers, always smiling and friendly. Whatever the people wanted, she went out of her way to do it."
DeMeio said when customers weren't sure what kind of apples they wanted, Mrs. Dunlap would cut an apple and let them try a piece. And if someone wanted to pick their own apples, she'd jump in her car and take them to the best trees.
The simple life
Mrs. Dunlap wasn't into fancy things or expensive vacations, choosing instead to find joy in the things around her.
"She really enjoyed the holidays, and got excited about her grandchildren's accomplishments," Sheila Wenhart said.
"She got excited about people who would stop in, people she would see just once a year," Marino said. "There's beauty in front of us all the time and she saw it."
Mrs. Dunlap loved to pick the early apples -- the McIntosh and the Lodi -- which she sold from the porch of her home.
"She had a following of people who would come to buy the early apples in July and August," Marino said. "If she went to the store or to church, she'd leave a note on the door and a cigar box with change on the porch with the apples. People would pick what they wanted and leave the money."
Dave Wenhart recalled a story his mother-in-law told him, about a woman who sent her a check for $50.
"She admitted that she stole two bushels of apples," he said. "(Mrs. Dunlap) sent the woman her change."
As much as she loved picking apples and grapes, she loved interacting with the customers more.
"She gave me a good feel for waiting on customers," Chuck Dunlap said. "All of our customers loved her. If she wasn't there, they'd ask, 'Where's the Apple Lady?' "
He began working the orchard full time with his mother after his father died.
Last year, as Mrs. Dunlap's health became an issue and she began to slow down a little, Chuck Dunlap took over more of the responsibilities and more of the worries.
She still sold the early apples last year, and she spent as much time as she could in the apple building in the fall.
"It's going to be different this year," Sheila Wenhart said.
Larry Mackey of Green began buying apples at Dunlap's Orchard in the early 1990s.
"I was sitting, watching a football game, and I said to my wife and kid, 'I feel like a piece of fresh orchard apple pie.' We had gotten apples before but never made a pie."
Since the orchard where they normally bought their apples had closed, they headed to Dunlap's.
"(Mrs. Dunlap) was there and she was talking about making pies and how sometimes you use combinations, things I'd never considered," Mackey said. "She not only sells you the apples, but it's nothing for her to tell you how to make the pie, too."
From Day One
Hazel Stipe graduated from Green High School in 1939 with Mrs. Dunlap. Her family has picked apples at Dunlap's since the orchard began bearing fruit. "My sister and I still go," Stipe said.
Stipe said the annual trip to the orchard was a reunion of sorts with an old schoolmate.
"I've always liked her," Stipe said.
Whether there will be a Dunlap's Orchard for the next generation remains to be seen. So far, none of the grandchildren, ages 8 to 40, are interested in taking over the business.
But for now, Chuck, with the help of his family including nieces and nephews, plans to continue his parents' legacy using lessons learned from their mother.
"The customers are always first, and try to keep everything looking good," Chuck said.
Feb. 2006, 77 South
