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patients to eat organic apples for their dental health.
The Apple Orchard Activity
In 1982, petitioners moved from California to a 151-acre
homestead they purchased in Tiller. In the following year,
petitioners cleared the indigenous growth from 5 acres
surrounding their house and planted apple trees. The trees began
producing fruit sometime in the mid-1980's, and petitioner
estimates that he had 150 to 170 mature trees during the years at
issue. In 1992, however, due to a hard freeze, which is not
uncommon at the elevation of petitioners' property, no apples
were produced. Petitioner estimates that the trees produced
approximately 40,000 pounds of fruit in 1993 and 1994.
Petitioners do not hire any labor to help with the orchard;
petitioner does all the heavy work, including picking the apples.
Mrs. Zdun, who has a bad back, works at least 4 hours in the
orchard each day during the apple season, July through December.
Although petitioner estimates that the orchard produced
40,000 pounds of apples during 1993 and 1994, he did not pick all
the apples that were produced. Instead, he picked only the best
apples and threw away many of the others.
Although organic apples are available for purchase in the
areas where petitioner practices, it has been his experience that
his patients will eat the apples only if they are made easily
available to them. To facilitate his patients' access to organic
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Last modified: May 25, 2011