FAIRFIELD – Gwen and Jerry Marcellus planted an acre of apple trees in 2008.

It was an investment that required patience, because the trees only started producing apples five years later. But that investment is now paying dividends in the form of a new business venture. Earlier this year, Jerry and Gwen received a state grant to help pay for equipment to freeze-dry their apples so they could be packaged and preserved for a long time, about 25 years. Jerry and Gwen said they hope their product will show up on local grocery store shelves later this fall.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig paid the couple a visit on Thursday, Sept. 5 to see how the state grant has been put to use on their acreage on 220th Street east of Batavia. Marcellus Orchards LLC, as the business is known, was among those to receive a Choose Iowa Value-Added Grant, which Naig said is a program administered by his department to assist local food producers with their operation. This could include defraying the cost of machinery, improving a commercial kitchen, or paying for workshops.

One of the people who toured Marcellus Orchards was Fairfield Schools Food & Nutrition Services Director Stephanie Hawkins, who told Gwen and Jerry that she’d love to incorporate their freeze-dried apples into the school’s breakfast or lunch.

Naig said he was impressed with Marcellus Orchards, and was glad to see a state grant going to such a deserving business.

“You’re doing exactly what we hoped,” Naig told Jerry and Gwen.

For many years after their trees started fruiting, the Marcelluses were content to sell their extra produce at the farmers market. A few years ago, they began looking into other opportunities to market their apples. They spoke with the Iowa Division of Inspections and Appeals about freeze-drying them to make them shelf-stable. They consulted with Barbara Stone, the executive director at Southeast Iowa Food Hub, who helped them market their crop. Gwen said they needed advice for what to do with their bumper crop of apples two years ago.

“She has connections to food pantries around the area, and not just Fairfield,” Gwen said. “The schools took some of our apples that year, too.”

Through some online research, Jerry discovered the Choose Iowa grant, and he saw it as a great opportunity to expand the business by purchasing equipment. Their grant request was approved in the spring for $4,000, and they received their state certification in July.

“We were able to purchase the freeze drier and extra equipment that goes with the freeze drier,” said Jerry, who added that they had to purchase an instrument that measures the moisture content of the apples after they’ve been freeze-dried.

Only a few steps remain before the Marcelluses’ apples can end up in a grocery store. They found a graphic designer to create art for their packages, which will be sold under the name “Duck and Holly.” The freeze-dried apples will be sold in 1 oz. bags, which Jerry said is about a whole apple’s worth of slices.

Since the business is still in its infancy, the manufacturing process is labor-intensive. Jerry said he thought about buying a machine that peels, slices and cores an apple, but it was too costly, so he does all of that by hand.

“I put them in a bath of citric acid that stops them from turning yellow,” he said. “They go on trays, and then it takes about 30 hours to freeze dry them. The machine freezes them, vacuums out all the air, and then it starts drying them. The water sublimates [turns from a frozen state into a gas], and then all the water that was pulled out of the apples is drained out.”

Jerry and Gwen have called Jefferson County home for the past 28 years. Jerry is a native of Mallard, a town in northwest Iowa, while Gwen hails from Salt Lake City, Utah. Locals may know Jerry through his work in the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, where he has worked since 2001 and is now the Chief Deputy.

In addition to apples, the couple sells honey made on their property at the At Home Store, where it’s sold under the brand name Horizon View. Gwen said she might like to create a website to help market these products further.