Pick your adventure

Following the twists and turns of a corn maze, searching for the perfect pumpkin and picking sun-ripened apples straight from the tree—these are moments that make fall memorable.

At Hickory Ridge Orchard outside Mexico, Mo., families can immerse themselves in all the sights, flavors and traditions of the season in one place.

“I want people to experience Americana,” said Brandt Schisler, owner and operator of the growing agritourism enterprise. “I want people to experience something that has somewhat been lost in today’s culture, to take a moment to slow down and witness the happiness in your children or grandchildren.” 

On this farm, harvesting joy matters most. During the fall, the sprawling property lets visitors pick their own ag adventure with several acres of apples and pumpkins, a corn maze, a tractor hayride, a petting zoo, a giant “jump pillow,” and a gift shop filled with cider slushies and fresh apple donuts. 

It may look like an autumn afternoon dream, but it was years in the making for Brandt and Kelsey Schisler. Both grew up in rural central Illinois in farming families. Brandt’s passion for agriculture began while helping his grandfather on the family’s row-crop and cattle operation. After college, he accepted a position as a transportation manager in Iowa, and after a promotion, the couple moved to Colorado, where they lived for several years.

“We were living in town in a condo, but I was just missing some of that farm rural lifestyle that I had grown up in,” Brandt recalled. “We wanted to move back to the Midwest and be closer to family and friends and start our own family.” 

Brandt had considered returning to his agricultural roots, but the high startup costs made the aspiration implausible. Then one day, the couple took some neighbor kids to a local pumpkin patch.

“I thought, hey, this is something I could maybe get into,” Brandt said. “The next two years after that, I volunteered at pumpkin patches or apple orchards and read as many books as I possibly could.”

As he researched agritourism, Brandt weighed several ideas—including beekeeping, goat farming and hydroponics—before deciding an orchard offered the best path forward.

“The orchard was where we decided, ‘Hey, this agritourism thing, there’s an opportunity to get in,” he said. “This is a way to get back into farming.’”

The next step was to find the perfect property for sale. 

After an extensive search in the Midwest, the Schislers found Binder’s Apples and Alpacas, which had been owned by Sandy Binder for 30 years. Before she moved, Brandt worked with the former orchard owner for several months, learning the ropes and helping sell apples at the farmers market in Columbia, Mo.

When the Schislers officially took over, Brandt discovered that his plan to transform the property came with a reality check. “To say that I was naive, starting out of the gates, is an understatement,” he said. 

The first tasks included removing the old alpaca fencing and pruning overgrown trees. “We had to rip the band-aid off that first year,” Brandt said. “Everything was a learning step.”

Away from the orchard, Brandt continued working as a logistics manager for the same company. The job required frequent travel across the U.S., which he used to his advantage. 

“After 5 o’clock, I would call up a local orchard and go visit,” he said. “I have two notebooks full of notes from all of these orchards.”

Brandt was able to balance both farm and job for many years, but after a company merger in 2023, his job would have entailed even more travel. The Schislers were faced with a choice: “It was either sell the farm, and I stay with the job, or vice versa,” he said. “So, I quit with them, and we are still here.”

“Another leap of faith,” Kelsey said, much like the couple’s move to Missouri. Since then, they haven’t looked back: “Every year we can pay the bills,” she added, “we just keep going.”

Putting knowledge to use

Brandt applied the lessons he learned from other orchards when revitalizing Hickory Ridge, beginning with the replacement of the original 350 apple trees. Since then, the Schislers have planted 4,000 trees, with three acres now in full production and another two acres expected to reach production in the coming years. Typically, a new apple tree isn’t productive until the fall of year four, which Brandt noted is a particular financial challenge for orchards.

“Now that we’re seeing a return, it’s like we’re breathing a little bit easier,” he said.

The orchard produces 26 varieties of apples that are harvested by customers who pick their own, sold at the farmers market in Columbia and the St. Louis online farmers market, or pressed into cider. In fact, one building on the property is a full cidery that produces about 5,000 gallons each year. 

One of the steps Brandt took to set the orchard up for success was installing a tall spindle system, which spaces trees about 3 feet apart and trains them along a trellis to maximize sunlight, improve airflow and simplify harvesting.

That same commitment to long-term productivity guides Brandt’s approach to soil health. He uses very little synthetic fertilizer, relying instead on compost enriched with biochar, which helps improve soil structure and retain nutrients. Through the orchard’s fertigation system, he applies biological  products that help ensure nutrients are available when trees need them during the growing season. Because these fertilizers feed the soil rather than the tree directly, the result is slower, more balanced nutrient uptake and sweeter fruit with greater nutritional density, Brandt explained.

That soil-first philosophy goes beyond fertility. Brandt also relies on integrated pest management, rotates fields among pumpkins, sunflowers and the corn maze, and uses flail mowing to leave a thick layer of residue that builds organic matter. In the pumpkin patch, Brandt uses plasticulture, planting pumpkins in rows covered with plastic to suppress weeds and reduce pest pressure. The farm produced about 2,000 pumpkins last year, and Brandt hopes to increase that number to 5,000 to 6,000 in the coming years.

The Schislers extend the same regenerative approach to livestock. For the past several years, they have raised hogs in wooded pastures, where the animals naturally clear dense brush and root through the soil, exposing old seed beds and helping restore the woodland habitat.

While Hickory Ridge is beginning to see the payoff from years of hard work, Brandt explained that as first-generation farmers, that success came through trial and error, and agritourism is what has allowed the orchard to survive the learning curve. 

“If our farm was strictly based off of selling our pumpkins, apples and sunflowers, we would have never made it,” Brandt said. “The agritourism is the only thing that has truly kept us going.”

Yet for others interested in agritourism, Brandt has simple advice: “Educate, educate, educate. Go to every single farm you possibly can. You’d be surprised at how many of them are more than willing to talk and discuss the do’s and don’ts. There’s no reason to try to reinvent the wheel. Go and talk to the different businesses and figure out a plan that is going to work for you.”

But that isn’t the only type of learning needed, he added. 

“There’s education of, ‘Wow, that didn’t work. A thousand times over.’ And then there are the ‘aha’ moments,” Brandt said. “Those ‘aha’ moments are few and far between, but when they happen, that’s the true education. You can’t really write that in a book. It’s something you have to pursue yourself.”

Sharing the harvest

Eight years since opening in 2018, Hickory Ridge Orchard is getting close to the family’s original dream. Last fall, the farm had almost 52,000 visitors, despite unseasonably hot weather.

Each year, Hickory Ridge continues to add new thrills and expand its agritourism offerings. In 2019, the Schislers built a pavilion for private events, which Brandt hopes to also use for future agricultural seminars. More recently, they added a music stage for live bands, creating more entertainment options.

To support that growth, Hickory Ridge received two grants to expand its infrastructure: the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure grant through the USDA and Missouri Department of Agriculture, and the Show-Me Entrepreneurial Grants for Agriculture Innovation through the Missouri Agricultural and Small Business Development Authority. The funding helped the Schislers add a freezer and cooler for apples as well as a commercial kitchen with a full bakery.

“That’s really what gave us the boost that we needed to be successful as a small business,” said Brandt.

Those investments have helped Hickory Ridge strengthen its infrastructure while creating new opportunities to connect visitors with agriculture through events like the annual sunflower festival and expanded product offerings. In addition to U-pick opportunities, the farm offers locally sourced squash and pumpkins through partnerships with other producers. Inside the gift shop, guests will find an assortment of apple products, including house-made candy apples and apple cider, along with apple wine produced by Hopewell Winery. The store also features pickled goods, jams, candies and other products from 36 local producers, including an Amish and Mennonite cooperative that supplies a selection of canned goods.

And if visitors want to try growing their own orchard, Hickory Ridge offers apple and other fruit trees for sale as well as native trees—all of which come with education from Brandt on the best pruning practices for growing fruit. 

While Hickory Ridge has grown, so have the Schislers, who have now added Theodore, 7, Olivia, 5, Scottie, 3 and Barrett, 11 months, to the family. 

“The kids don’t really know how lucky they are,” Kelsey said. “It definitely comes with its challenges, but overall, I look at it as a blessing, especially for the kids to learn and grow up.”

For Kelsey, fall is one of the most special times of year at the orchard. “It’s absolutely wild and crazy, but to have all these activities right outside our back door, the kids have so much fun and have so many memories.” 

Brandt said he wishes the same for other families visiting Hickory Ridge Orchard. 

“It’s truly the people who make me happy overall,” he said. “Those families that come out and have fun together and let you know how appreciative they are we’re doing something like this—that, for me, is one of my favorite things.”

Hickory Ridge is located at 24688 Audrain Rd. 820 in Mexico. For more information, visit hickoryridgeorchards.com. 

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