The famed Western Slope orchards have been growing for more than a century

By Steve Graham

It all started with a letter to an Iowa farmer. Talbott’s Farm grows some of Colorado’s most coveted fruit, and crafts plenty of hard cider and wine. And the whole operation began 114 years ago with a letter.

Before TV advertising and Facebook campaigns, land developers on the Western Slope tried to attract buyers by sending letters directly to Iowa farmers. Joseph Evan Yeager was one of those grain farmers, attracted by the promise of better weather and rich alluvial soils.

He was among a wave of rural Iowans who settled in the Grand Valley. Yeager’s 5th generation descendent Bruce Talbott said at least half of the Palisade population was originally from Iowa, inspiring an Iowa Street in town, and Iowa Day celebrations in Grand Junction in the early 1900s.

Yeager moved to Palisade and started growing peaches and other fruit in 1907. The Talbott family married into the Yeager family and more than a century later, the family now oversees a 550-acre operation that includes the Talbott’s Mountain Gold orchards and wine vineyards, as well as Talbott’s Cider Company, Centennial Cellars wines, and a popular line of sweet ciders and juices.

Talbott’s has the largest orchards in the area, and is known for supporting and helping other Mesa County businesses.

“The Talbott family are icons in the Palisade area,” said Julia Durmaj, acting director of the Palisade Chamber of Commerce. “Not only have they been farming here for over 100 years but they have been a predominant influence to so many other farmers in the area, always willing to give a ‘hand up’ to those who need advice about their crops.”

Yeager’s great great grandson Harry Talbott is credited with building both the family business and the larger Palisade peach industry. He died earlier this year, and his sons and grandsons now help run the business.

The Grand Valley is known for an ideal combination of climate and soil conditions, resulting in large, sweet and flavorful fruit. Talbott’s Mountain Gold was once primarily an apple farm, but it is now best known for piles of peaches every August.

“The peach industry is our sweetheart,” Bruce said. “It’s what allows us to do the other things we do.”

In the mid-20th Century, Colorado peach farmers were mostly supplying a large population of home canners.

“People back then had big gardens,” Bruce said. “They were already canning tomatoes and sweet corn and pickles and whatever else. Peaches were just one more thing that they canned.”

He said home canning started to phase out in the 1970s, when Del Monte and other large companies started selling really cheap canned fruit. The Talbotts’ business took a hit, but by the 1980s, they started selling fresh peaches directly to supermarkets in the region.

Now, Talbott’s grows enough peaches to drive them over the Continental Divide every day and stock pop-up peach stands along the Front Range and in neighboring states.

“We try to keep an endless parade of peaches headed into the system,” Bruce said.

Talbott’s now grows 35 varieties, and sells ripe peaches from July 1 to Oct. 1. Last year, only 15 percent of the peach harvest survived a cold and late spring. Bruce expects about 80 percent of the peach harvest to make it to stores and farm stands this year.

Talbott’s orchards used to be 90-percent apples, but consolidation and industry changes have moved nearly all domestic apple production to the Pacific Northwest.

In 1983, Bruce started pressing apples and making sweet cider.

“We were trying to find something to do with our off-grade (apples),” Bruce said.

Now Talbott’s grows no apples, but still makes plenty of cider — both sweet and hard.

Harry’s grandson Charles Talbott turned his interest in home brewing into a new Talbott’s venture in 2015. He is the director of operations for Talbott’s Cider Company. It is one of the state’s most recognizable hard cider brands, even though Washington and Oregon apples comprise most of the cider.

In 2019, the family launched the Centennial Cellars wine brand. Charles said it has been hard to compete on crowded bottled wine shelves, but he jumped on the canned wine bandwagon in May.

Following in the footsteps of Denver trailblazer Infinite Monkey Theorem, the company is now focusing on a variety of 375 ml wine cans, and only bottling special reserve wines. He said he is hoping to help boost the reputation of Colorado wines.

“I’m starting to have a little more confidence that in the next 20 years, the Colorado wine industry is going to be pretty big. I think we are putting ourselves on the map,” Charles said.

The wine and cider is available in the Talbott’s taproom on a hill overlooking Palisade. The taproom also hosts guest wines and ciders, and has a small market that sells a wide variety of local produce and other Colorado products.

“We really focus on collaboration,” Charles said. “We want the entire industry working together, and that will raise everyone’s boat.”

Steve Graham is a freelance writer and former newspaper editor who takes his two boys biking, hiking and brewery-hopping in northern Colorado.