C. Waite Maclin didn’t get into the apple sauce business just to make money.
“I see my purpose being not only to make a living but teaching people about healthy choice,” said Maclin, who started “Pastor Chuck Orchards” after the apple sauce and apple butter he made with left-over apples was such a hit with neighbors that he couldn’t keep up with demand
Maclin will speak at St. Andrews Village Monday, Nov. 5 at 2 p.m., about his company’s organic and largely sugar-free products, and the story of how a former Episcopal minister and therapist got into the food business.
The apple part of the story began with 60 seedlings – Macs, Jonamacs, Wealthys and Lodis – planted in the rocky soil of the farm Maclin and his wife, Christine Anderson, own in Cushing.
When the trees began to bear fruit, Maclin bagged the apples and sold them through an honor system farm stand by the side of the road. It wasn’t long, however, before his local market was saturated, so Maclin experimented with apple sauce, which he gave to friends and family.
That went over so well that he developed some samples and dropped them off at businesses up and down the Midcoast. The feedback he received from those businesses was so positive, he decided to go into business.
It wasn’t long before he exhausted the output of his own small orchard and contracted with Ricker Hill Orchard in Turner, the largest organic apple orchard in the state.
Pastor Chuck Orchards now offers apple sauce and apple salsas in 15 states as well as through buying clubs and online.
But while Pastor Chuck Orchards has grown, Maclin has not gone mainstream. If anything, Pastor Chuck has hewed closer to its mission statement: “To help people live more active, wholesome, healthy lives.”
In 2008, Pastor Chuck stopped using processed sugar in its apple sauce. In 2010, Pastor Chuck discontinued apple butter with processed sugar. In 2013, plans call for producing apple sauce in four-ounce cups so parents can include healthy, sugar-free apple sauce in their children’s lunches.
Those changes came about because marketing studies found a market for products made without processed sugar and also because research indicated sugar and high-fructose corn syrup was at the root of serious health problems.
Pastor Chuck is committed to goodness. The label on his apple sauce includes the statement: “Taste this and know the difference between good and evil.”
For more information, visit www.saintandrewsvillage.com.
(Correction: A previous edition of this story cited the incorrect date for Maclin’s appearance at at St. Andrews Village.)
