Hi! We’re Sean and Marcella, and we run Blackshire Farms. It’s just one property, but we have a lot going on.

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A small fruit orchard comprised of  apple, plum, trees welcomes people to our 19-acre farm in Southwest Minnesota. On its edge is our solar array, which powers our home. To the north, we have a small plot of pear trees running adjacent to our greenhouse and the field of El Salvadorean beans a friend plants each year.

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Dotting our land in other places is an apiary, two massive heirloom raspberry patches, rhubarb and strawberry beds, asparagus and our own personal produce gardens.

 

To the west is the main event: a 10-acre cider apple orchard comprised of unique heirloom and little known cider varieties from all over the world

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Sean grew up watching his grandfather farm and studied horticulture in college. He has operated several other successful farm ventures in South Dakota and California. Marcella grew up on a farm, but left for the city to study journalism and creative writing, which she teaches at the university level.

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Together, we’ve been building a vision for Blackshire Farms since 2016. In May 2018, a week after our son was born, we planted just over 1000 cider apple trees.  A year later, we planted 500 more, with the goal of starting a cider orchard and bringing back a taste of America that's been largely missing since Prohibition. 

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