At MacGregor Orchard, the Gregorys pour their passion into 4,000 trees
It’s a cloudy Saturday afternoon in midsummer, and Stephens Gregory is navigating a mud-painted Kubota RTV over red-clay tracks rutted through his lush, rain-dampened orchard. The big, burly farmer talks with the warmth of happy laughter as his rugged terrain vehicle bounces up and down roller-coaster-steep slopes through rows and rows of trees, most of them no taller than eight feet, all drooping with fruit.
“Mother Nature puts on her own little touch, weather, soil,” Gregory says as we trundle close to a peach tree, then an Asian pear tree, then a bubblegum plum tree, plucking one, then munching on it. “The beautiful thing about pickin’ is tastin’.”
That is, after all, the juiciest part of his job at MacGregor Orchard, which has been producing an Edenic abundance in Travelers Rest for some 30 years. Gregory and his wife of 12 years, Julia, purchased the 20 acres, formerly the Perdeaux Fruit Farm, about eight years ago.
“I grew up being farmed out as labor to my uncles and brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, so I was always on the farm,” he says. “The farm wasn’t always ours, but I was always working on the farm.”
Soil’s in his blood just as sure as the nectar that oozes from a just-picked Loring peach, bigger than your fist, sweet as your first-ever kiss. Gregory’s granddaddy raised Tennessee walking horses for 30 years, from Arkansas to Pelham Road, back when Greenville’s Eastside was pastureland and hayfields. The bearded, homespun and homegrown, down-to-actual-earth farmer says the orchard’s name comes from his Scottish heritage.
Different kinds of fruit at MacGregor Orchard
Today, some 4,000 trees produce 11 different kinds of fruit, 125 different varieties: Asian pears, “ugly” pears, figs, muscadine grapes, Sugar Baby watermelons, cantaloupe, sweet Hungarian peppers, poblano and jalapeño peppers, bell peppers, okra, corn, eggplant, sweet onions, crowder peas, green beans, October beans, nectarines, yellow peaches, white peaches, and apples.
Oh, the apples, the Gregorys’ bestsellers (even ahead of peaches). Zestar, Ginger Gold, Grimes Gold, Suncrisp, and Crimson Crisp, to name a few. Chomp into a Shizuka apple—yes, they’re about ripe already—and you’ll taste what Gregory loves.
“Honestly, I love growing stuff for people and trying to grow something the best you can,” says Gregory, who returned to his roots after a four-year stint in the Army, where he served in the DMZ in South Korea, among other spots, and among other jobs such as construction work and truck driving.
He has yet another job: raising cattle. The Gregorys live on a 24-acre spread about a mile away from the orchard. At the moment, they keep about two dozen head of Angus cattle. Virtually everything they grow, from boughs to beef, they sell locally. Little goes to waste; they press cider, can preserves, make applesauce, and sell some of the leanest beef around, he says.
Google Maps shows the orchard in Travelers Rest. But the charming wooden shed/store that fronts the hills sits on Cherokee Scenic Highway (SW Hwy. 11) at the corner of North Tigerville Road, about 12 miles from downtown TR. The “store-chard” also happens to lie equidistant from two of the Upstate’s most upscale communities.
“We have a lot of really good loyal customers. Some of them come two, three times a week; they’ll just come by, come from The Cliffs,” he says. “They’re willing to pay for something good as long as it’s good.”
MacGregor Orchard, 2400 S.C. Hwy. 11, Travelers Rest, (SC Hwy. 11 at N. Tigerville Rd. – University Exit), open Tues.–Sun., 9am–6pm, 864.320.2778, macgregororchard.com
