BerryView in Mt. Morris adding a storefront, mobile trailer to its apple, aronia berry orchard

MT. MORRIS – Jeff and Julie Warren planted trees at BerryView Orchard 8 years ago, and have been selling their apples and aronia berries out of their garage ever since.

An upgrade is in the works, though: On Aug. 29, their new storefront will be finished and open to the public.

“I think it adds more professionalism,” Jeff Warren said.

“We built the new store ourselves. We had an existing barn ... that we built 10-12 years ago. We put walls up and finished the ceiling and electric."

The aronia berries will be ready that day, and will be good for picking for 2 weeks. Apples will be ready to harvest around that time as well.

Until the apple harvest begins, the shelves will be filled with berries and possibly some other local small business products.

"We added a concession trailer as well that we’ve used to sell donuts and aronia berry lemonade slushies," Warren said. "In the past years we’ve served those out of the garage, and now we’ll have the trailer on the property.”

The Warrens expected the food trailer to be more mobile this year, but COVID-19 had other plans. They did make it to Oregon and to Forreston's Sauerkraut Days, which helped them get familiar with selling from the trailer.

They have worked with the Ogle County Health Department on how to operate safely. It remains to be seen what impact the coronavirus will have on the orchard's operations this season.

Edwards Orchard in Poplar Grove and Winnebago are operating as a drive-thru this fall.

“We’re hoping we don’t have to do that,” Warren said. "We haven’t had that kind of crowd in the past. But there’s less places to go now. It could be good for us, but it could be too good for us and we have to limit things. We’ll have signage and sanitization in the store.”

Warren has enjoyed seeing his orchard grow over the years, and he thinks customers have, too.

“What has amazed me is the community support,” he said. “A lot of people say, ‘There’s an orchard in Mt.Morris?’ They come out and say how convenient it is. We don’t have the bounce houses and crowds and chaos.

“It’s an old-fashioned community orchard. And people like that. They enjoy nature and relax.”

BerryView Orchard is at 7504 W. Midtown Road in Mt. Morris. Aronia berry picking begins from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 20 and 30. Find it on Facebook or call 815-440-5159 for all the details.