Core Values

Integrity: Sunrise Orchards values good relationships.

Whether it is with our customers, employees, or vendors, we believe that an honest, fair and open form of communication is the only way to do business and resonates in everything we do. The satisfaction that comes with our service, our philosophy and ultimately our apples make Sunrise Orchards the producer that people want to do business with.

Quality: “That was an amazing apple!” We are committed to high-quality.

At Sunrise Orchards, we strive for an outstanding eating experience. This is a result of careful attention to winter pruning, innovative growing practices, skilled staff committed to harvesting and packing techniques focused on quality, dedication to the best apple storage practices possible and a distribution system that maintains the integrity of the fruit all the way to the consumer. We believe that this entire process is the best way to the most enjoyable eating experience.

Innovation: We strive to be forward thinking in everything we do.

Sunrise Orchards is committed to creative solutions for the modern-day farm. Technology, progressive growing practices and outside the box thinking personifies Sunrise’s approach to the farming, the environment and problem solving in today’s business world. This has created the platform necessary to sustain a family farm socially, environmentally, and economically.

Advocacy: We recognize our role in the food system and as stewards of the land.

We are committed to the responsible, efficient, fully accountable operation of our systems and practices knowing that our actions impact the environment and community for generations to come. We are stewards of the land who have the responsibility to our family, our employees, our community, and the earth. We understand our position in the food system and balance this responsibility with the desire of the consumer to have the safest, lowest input, best looking, quality apples possible.

Our Staff

We rely on our highly skilled staff to carefully grow and handle the fruit.

This includes managing the nutrients needed in the soil, monitoring insects and disease, treating for these when necessary, mowing to keep competing weeds down, picking the fruit at the right maturity and, with care so as not to bruise, hauling it back to the barn to be packed and sold. Throughout the winter we prune about a third of the approximately 60,000 trees on our farm, we monitor the quality of the apples in storage, and we pack our apples and distribute them all over the Northeast. Our staff hails from the surrounding area and Jamaica and work together to produce extraordinary apples in Cornwall!

Our Story

Sunrise Orchards owners Chris and Barney Hodges met in 1989 while studying ocean biology and pollution aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer, a 134-foot-long brigantine that calls Woods Hole, MA, home port. After graduating college and trying out careers in geology and teaching, they followed their hearts back to the family farm and were inspired by the entrepreneurial and environmental challenges and opportunities that growing food offers.  Since that day 25 years ago, they have weathered many ups and downs, become a mainstay of apple production in Vermont and the wider New England region, raised Sophie, Sam and Malia and continue to reinvent the farm, always striving to grow food responsibly, be good neighbors and take care of this beautiful corner of Addison County.