09/02/2026
After a devastating fire forced Legend Hills Orchard and Farm Market to close last fall, the family-owned orchard is welcoming customers back with a new market and a celebration of 100 years of growing apples.
Legend Hills Orchard will hold its grand reopening Saturday, Sept. 12, at 10 a.m. at 11335 Reynolds Road in Utica. The celebration will feature apple picking, food trucks, giveaways, children’s activities and other entertainment.
The event also marks the 100th anniversary of the family’s first apple orchard, planted in 1926.
“We're planning a celebration,” Debbie Seibel, whose sister, Susan, and brother-in-law, Virgil Hatch, have operated the orchard in recent years, said.
“We actually opened the market on June 16, but we wanted to wait to celebrate until we had fruit in season. We're planning a reopening celebration as well as celebrating the 100th anniversary of when our grandfather planted his first apple orchard. So we're celebrating 100 years and the reopening of our market.”
For the reopening celebration, the family plans to offer what Seibel described as its own version of a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“We're going to have our version of a ribbon cutting, which is an apple pie cutting,” Seibel said.
The family wanted the celebration to include a fitting centerpiece for the orchard’s centennial.
“Somebody's making a great big apple pie for us, so,” Hatch added.
The celebration will officially begin at 10 a.m. with the apple pie cutting and continue throughout the day with apple picking and children’s activities.
“We're planning some kids activities. We'll have a day full of apple picking. We'll kick things off officially at 10 o'clock with apple pie cutting,” Seibel said.
Children will have opportunities to take part in activities tied to the orchard’s apple-growing history.
“We’ll have a Johnny Appleseed story, so there’ll be some activities for the kids,” Seibel said.
The orchard’s pick-your-own apple season is already underway.
As of Aug. 31, available varieties include Wealthy, Mollie’s Delicious, Gala, Jonathan and Cortland. Pick-your-own is available daily, weather permitting, during regular market hours, with customers asked to arrive by 4 p.m. to allow enough time to finish picking before closing.
A small bag costs $20 and holds approximately 10 pounds, while a large bag costs $35 and holds approximately 20 pounds. A small bag is the minimum purchase required for each vehicle entering the pick-your-own orchard. Apple picking is expected to continue into October as additional varieties ripen, depending on weather and availability.
The 2026 apple crop is expected to be strong, adding significance to the orchard’s centennial year.
The family-owned business, now in its fifth generation , traces its apple-growing roots to 1926 , when Debbie and Susan’s grandfather, Henry Hoar, planted the family’s first orchard about two miles from the current market on Riley Road.
“We’re the third generation,” Seibel, who is now 68 years old, said. “We also have the fourth generation, and we’ve got some of the fifth generation helping out. They help out as they can.”
Seibel and her siblings grew up working on the farm, while Hatch’s connection to Legend Hills dates to his childhood visits with his parents and deepened when he married Susan.
After working outside the orchard, Hatch, now 71, joined the operation full time about 20 years ago.
Today, the family is focused on rebuilding and carrying forward the traditions that have brought generations of customers back to Legend Hills Orchard.
“He planted his first orchard about two miles down the road on Riley Road,” Seibel said. “Then we bought this market. My father, Richard Hoar, bought this market, or this property, in 1972 and operated both. The family has been growing fruit for 100 years, so that's part of our celebration.”
A few apple trees remain on the original property, but most of the family’s operation eventually moved to the Reynolds Road location.
The current orchard encompasses more than 130 acres, where apples, peaches and various vegetables are grown. More than 25 varieties of apples are grown on more than 45 acres, with varieties ripening at different times from early summer through fall.
The orchard’s history also includes decades of supplying small grocery stores and operating a retail market.
Seibel said her grandfather began making deliveries in the 1930s, while her father expanded the operation after purchasing the Reynolds Road property.
“We would deliver to small grocery stores, mostly in Newark, and probably Mount Vernon, Utica and Granville, and then we had a little market on our other property,” Seibel said. “But when my dad bought this property in 1972, he built a bigger market over here in 1977.”
The operation later added a cider press in the 1980s and gradually evolved from a wholesale business into a destination.
“Over the years it turned into a retail operation, and even in the last few years, it has become really big, like agritourism type of stuff,” Hatch said.
Seibel said the retail market has become an important part of the orchard’s identity, particularly because generations of families have continued to visit.
“The retail market has been central for the last few decades,” she said. “We have multiple customers who have come here for years and years.”
That connection extends beyond individual customers to entire families.
“They bring their kids,” Hatch said. “Adults have been coming here since they were kids.”
Much like the orchard’s operations, its clientele has continued across generations.
“Then they're bringing their grandkids up there,” Seibel added.
That tradition was interrupted in September 2025, when a fire destroyed the market, cider press, storage and grading areas. The blaze forced the farm market to close for the remainder of the season and ended the orchard’s pick-your-own season early.
Hatch recalled discovering the fire in the early morning hours.
“We noticed the fire around 1:30 in the morning,” he said. “It was a real big blaze. We called the fire department, of course. The first truck got there, but it was too big a blaze, so they brought in water trucks from about 12 departments. They kept it contained from spreading to the other buildings. It had not seen water for 50 years, so it burned pretty fast.”
No one was injured.
“We were thankful no one was hurt and appreciative of the efforts of the first responders. They did a tremendous job,” Seibel said.
The family quickly decided to rebuild to continue the market’s history.
“We didn't have to think very long about that. We knew we wanted to rebuild so we sure we got busy and got started,” Seibel said.
The family hired H&M out of St. Louisville to lead the construction.
The rebuilding process began with demolition in November, followed by site preparation and construction in the spring.
Hatch said the builders brought in additional crews to keep the project moving.
“They brought double crews in to work on all of it. H&M did a good job getting the subcontractors like concrete and electric and the plumbing,” Hatch said. “They kept on top of these subcontactors and got the stuff done. “
He said while the orchard initially eyed a Memorial Day opening, it was pushed back to mid-June.
“We couldn't get it quite pulled together, so we got middle of June. We made it,” Hatch said.
The market officially reopened June 16, allowing the family to return in time for the summer fruit season. The new building was designed with the orchard’s history in mind.
“We were able to move the market back a little bit to create more parking,” Seibel said.
The market area is slightly larger, Hatch said, but the family worked to preserve familiar features.
“We tried to keep the same look with a wraparound porch and keep things similar,” Seibel said.
The rebuilt market also includes updated features designed to improve efficiency.
“We've got all LED lighting, updated electronics,” Hatch said.
The orchard’s market remains open year-round, with summer and fall typically bringing the busiest activity. The market offers seasonal fruits and vegetables as well as specialty foods such as Amish cheese, jams, jellies, apple butter, chocolate candy, trail bologna, maple syrup and beef jerky.
“We sell apples all winter, sometimes I sell apple cider all winter. We'll make cider until we run out of apples. And if we don’t have any more apples readily available, we even buy apples when we run-out too,” Hatch said.
The operation transitions through the seasons, beginning in spring with strawberries and local vegetables before moving into summer peaches and apples and then fall pumpkins and squash.
“We have local vegetables. We also sell other farm market type products, peas, jellies, jams, typical farm market,” Seibel said.
As summer gives way to fall, the market will shift its offerings.
“We'll be getting the pumpkins and squash and stuff like that before we get a load of mums coming in there in the next couple of days,” Hatch said.
Regarding the celebration, Seibel said it’s the orchard’s way of giving back after the community rallied around it in its time of need.
“We want an opportunity, one of the reasons we're planning is we want an opportunity to thank our contractors, the community, the fire department. We want an opportunities to just recognize and thank everyone who has supported us over the last 11 months. We're so appreciative of our community and the support we've received,” Seibel said.
As planning for the festivities continues Seibel said the central message of the grand reopening is gratitude.
“We're thankful for the support and the kindness that we received. And we're, we are anxious to, to welcome them back. And also the, we think this, we know we have a lot of customers that have been coming for generations and we want to make sure that they're able to still do that and carry on their own traditions,” she said.
She emphasized the family’s appreciation for the community and those who helped the orchard rebuild.
“We're family oriented and appreciative of the community and the outpouring of support from other origins, from neighbors, from farmers, from customers. That's our main message,” Seibel said.
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