About Cate Hill Orchard
Cate Hill Orchard is a family farm located in the hills of Greensboro, Vermont. Our farm enterprises include a four acre apple orchard, a cider mill, a flock of East Friesian, Icelandic, and Clun Forest sheep, an apiary, and diverse fruit and berry plantings, including cherries, grapes, red and black currants, plums, kiwis, seaberries, and honeyberries.
All of our farm enterprises are organically managed. We use no herbicides, no chemical fruit thinners, no chemical wormers, no GMO grains, and minimal, organically approved sprays.
We are working towards a low input, perennial based agriculture, modeled after nature’s complexity, and where all enterprises are multi-purposed and connected. Interspersed amongst our fruit trees are plantings of herbs and flowers, which act as pest confusers and homes to beneficial insects. Our bees pollinate the fruit trees and berry bushes, forage from our herb and flower plantings, and produce honey and beeswax. Our sheep graze in the orchard, keeping the grass down, fertilizing the trees, and reducing apple pests and diseases by eating the drops. The apples provide a nutritional boost for the sheep just as they’re going into breeding season (and adds to the flavor of our lamb). The sheep browse on the orchard’s herbs, which increases their parasite resistance and improves overall well-being. We also feed them our raw apple cider vinegar—great for their fleece and health.