Producer

Located between Gettysburg and Carlisle in Northern Adams County, Three Springs Fruit Farm has been family owned and operated for over 100 years. Operating as a partnership between David, John, and Ben Wenk, the seventh generation to farm, Three Springs has a wide variety of apples, peaches, cherries, apricots, pears, small fruits, and vegetables for our farmers markets and the wholesale market. Farming on 450 acres, Three Springs is a diversified operation with an emphasis on sustainability - gaining our Food Alliance certification in 2010. Three Springs is committed to bringing the finest quality produce to all of our customers, being good environmental stewards of our land, and going out of our way to serve you! We've been doing business in Baltimore since 2008 and we're happy to be part of this new endeavor.

Our growing practices are based in Agroecology (Ben's college study) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Every feature of any agroecosystem has an effect on a different part. We try to minimize our impacts and add enhancements in other areas - reducing our pesticide use and higher toxicity products. It's part of our Food Alliance certification - as is soil and water conservation (riparian buffers, planting on contours - Save the Bay initiatives). We're also socially responsible employers of farm workers, negotiating wages and offering health insurance to all employees - as inspected by the Food Alliance. We also enhance our agroecosytem by increasing biodiversity. We've introduced biological control mite predators, established 40+ acres of wild bee habitat on our farm, and made nesting boxes for kestrels and barn owls. We were the first (and only current) tree fruit operation to hold the Food Alliance certification in the Mid Atlantic area - it's a third party assurance that we're doing all the things we claim to do.