Grandma's recipe a chunky success
Company goes through 650,000 pounds of apples a year
7:50 a.m. Friday, March 31, 2006
Chunky applesauce sounds like an oxymoron, but it does exist in the at Grandma Hoerner's in Alma.
Duane McCoy is the founder and co-owner of Grandma Hoerner's. He and his wife Regina run the business.
"My grandma made really great applesauce, and my mom made it," Duane said. "So, we enjoyed it through our family."
Duane's grandmother was a Grandma Hoerner.
"My grandma started with fresh apples sliced, just no mushy particles," he said. "It was very, sliced, chunky, product, and that was the distinguishing difference."
The company has been in existance for 20 years. For the past six years, the couple and their staff have been working out of their current location near Alma.
They make several different flavors of their signature applesauce including apricot apple, candy apple and cranberry apple.
They also make preserves, jellies and fruit spreads.
Grandma Hoerner's
Grandma Hoerner's is located near Alma. To get to Grandma Hoerner's take I-70 west and take exit 324. Business hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, call them at (785) 765-2300.
On a recent visit to Grandma Hoerner's, 49 News Reporter Dana Davis saw them cooking up apricot preserves.
The fruit goes into big mixing bowl cookers, where it's cooked to the proper consistency. Then, spices are added. The hot steamy mixture is bottled or jared, and then it heads out to be labeled and boxed.
Duane says that process takes about an hour to an hour and a half, making a fresh product.
"Everything's produced on a per order basis," he said. "We don't inventory for anybody. We don't keep things around sitting in a warehouse."
When making applesauce, the company goes through 650,000 pounds of apples annually and can jar up to 17,000 jars of sauce a day.
Some of their unusual products include red pepper jelly and chutneys, such as cranberry walnut and pineapple ginger.
But, Regina says, it's the company's low sugar and organic products that have really taken off.
"You're able to produce and provide consumers with healthy products that you believe in, and you know they're goning be good for them," she said.
Duane and Regina are having fun in the food industry.
And it all started from humble beginnings with a family recipe.
"It's made ... with the big sliced apples that no one else does - just the heritage behind it, I think is just wonderful," he said.
"Well, I love it 'cause it's an industry that everybody can relate too. Everybody eats," he said.
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