How an impulsive decision to plant apple trees 30 years ago became a successful family-owned business

BLACKFOOT – When Jeanne Isom planted 200 apple trees at her Blackfoot home in 1994, she never anticipated her family would own a thriving fruit farm 30 years later.

Isom’s Fruit Farm, a six-acre orchard at 150 South 900 West, produces honey crisp apples every year. The seasonal family business, which has 2,500 apple trees today, attracts customers from all over eastern Idaho, as well as Star Valley, Wyoming.

As Isom reflects on three decades of business, she’s overwhelmed by the size of the operation and the miraculous beginnings of her spur-of-the-moment decision.

“We did not envision this is how it would end up,” Isom tells EastIdahoNews.com.

It all started when Isom attended a class about growing fruits and vegetables in eastern Idaho.

“He (the teacher) got me really excited. I came home that night and I convinced the family to plant an orchard,” Isom recalls. “The next day, we mail ordered 200 apple trees. They arrived two weeks later.”

The young, unbranched apple trees were pretty small, and the Isoms planted them one by one. Brian Finnegan, the county extension agent who taught the class and has since passed away, tutored them for the first several years.

Did you know…

• Apples are Idaho’s No. 1 fruit crop, which produces about 60 million pounds annually. At least 11 different varieties are grown in the Gem State.
• There are 7,500 varieties of apples in the world, but only 2,500 are grown in the U.S.
• The rarest apple in the world is the black diamond apple grown in Tibet, where the elevation is 11,482 feet above sea level. Its skin is nearly black with a purple tint. Its color is due to wild fluctuations in day and night temperature.

Nearly three years before the trees were planted, Jeanne’s six-month-old son, Justin, had been diagnosed with Evans Syndrome, an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the platelets and red blood cells. Justin was anemic as a result, Jeanne says, and he would frequently “bleed out.”

He needed transfusions to replenish his blood supply, which meant Justin was always in and out of the hospital.

In January 1996, Justin was 3 and needed a bone marrow transplant. Doctors proposed an experimental treatment designed to destroy his immune system and rebuild it with stem cells. The catch was finding a blood donor.

After unsuccessful attempts to find a match on the national registry, Jeanne got pregnant again. Doctors performed a blood test on the unborn child and determined it was a perfect match.

“We induced labor three weeks early and harvested her (the baby’s) cord blood,” says Isom. “They gave Justin chemotherapy and radiation to destroy his immune system and infused the stem cell blood. It gave him new life.”

Justin returned home six months later.

A short time later, the Isoms went to the orchard and noticed 12 tiny apples had grown on the trees.

“It was ahead of when we’d anticipated they’d bare fruit,” Jeanne says. “We watched them grow (all summer) and Justin let everyone know he was eating the first apple. That September, when we thought they were ripe, Justin ate the first apple and the rest of us joined in. They tasted really good.”

Justin unexpectedly passed away about a month later on Oct. 28, 1996.

The fact that the trees bore fruit much earlier than expected just before Justin’s passing is miraculous to Jeanne, and it was a sign to her of God’s love for her family.

Two years later, the Isoms harvested 20 boxes of apples and sold them door to door.

They’ve sold apples at local farmer’s markets over the years, but have since built a red barn on their property that serves as a storefront for their apples. It’s a place customers enjoy coming to visit, Jeanne says.

Every October during apple-selling season, Jeanne and her family remember Justin and celebrate his life.

“We feel his influence in our lives,” Jeanne says.

As Jeanne and her husband, Marc, prepare to turn over the bulk of the operation to their son, Benson, and his wife, Jeanne is filled with gratitude for this family project and feels blessed by its success.

She thinks about how Justin might feel if he were here today.

“Justin would want us to survive and thrive. That’s what we’ve done. We did this (fruit farm) together as a family and we’re close because of it,” Jeanne says.