High school romances rarely last after graduation, they say. Spouses working together in their own business often leads to conflicts and should be avoided, they say.

Then there’s Bev and Greg Baedke.

The co-owners of the Community Orchard, one of Fort Dodge’s most popular and well-known businesses and tourist attractions, have clicked since they first met 47 years ago as sophomores at Fort Dodge Senior High School when they sat across from each other in Darrell Murray’s biology class.

Graduating in 1971, the newly married couple started a lifetime of working together at a business founded by Dr. Paul Otto and his wife Edna. Today, the apple orchard – as most know it – attracts 150,000 to 200,000 visitors in a season, which begins the first of August and continues through the third week of December.

“Greg has his duties, I have mine,” Bev said. “We made an agreement years ago that if we had a disagreement, it wouldn’t be in front of staff or customers. There are days during the season when we hardly see each other, as we are busy managing our own areas. We have always just clicked together really well.”

The Community Orchard’s roots trace back to the early 1940s when the Ottos bought the current farm, located north of the city near the Des Moines River, and first operated it as a dairy. The Ottos began planting a few different varieties of apples to see what might grow. Dr. Otto gave away apples to his patients and soon the demand grew to the point where he advertised for a full-time hired man to help expand the orchard.

Greg’s parents, Don and Darlene Baedke, moved in 1960 from their Pomeroy farm to manage the orchard for the Ottos. Darlene knew Dr. Otto when she was a nurse at Mercy Hospital. In the early 1970s, the Baedkes began leasing the orchard from Mrs. Otto after her husband died. In 1980, they acquired the orchard, forming a partnership with Bev and Greg. Ten years later, Greg’s parents retired and Bev and Greg bought out their share to become sole owners.

One of their high school classmates, Mark Mittelstadt, recalls, “Even back when we were growing up, if you were thinking of the face of the orchard’s future, it was Greg’s. He was close to his family and worked hard after school and on the weekends helping to keep it the very special place it is for Fort Dodge and northwest Iowa. It just seemed a natural progression whenever his folks were ready to turn over the keys.”

Greg grew up with the business, working after school and on weekends for his parents – he started growing pumpkins at the age of 8 – and also at Treloar’s Inn as a bus boy and fry cook. The restaurant’s founder Lester D. “Papa” Treloar lived close by in a house along the river, and Greg mowed his yard from the time he was 12. Greg’s fond memory from his childhood is working with Dr. Otto and riding with him in his purple Jeep.

As a young girl, Bev would often come to the orchard to buy apples with her parents, Bob and Dorothy Foughty, and her five siblings. Her father worked as a crane operator for C. Glen Walker Construction Co. of Fort Dodge.

“I fell in love with the place,” Bev recalled, and when she and Greg were married and she became a part of the business, she added, “Mrs. Otto was a mentor to me, we just clicked. I really enjoyed the retail part from the get-go.”

With Greg concentrating mostly on the outside work and Bev on inside work that includes a gift shop and restaurant, the two have developed the orchard into a multi-faceted operation. The orchard hosts many private events – school reunions, family reunions, wedding receptions – and its wedding receptions area is already booked for most of next summer.

“What I enjoy most is our customers,” said Bev, noting that this weekend, the orchard hosts its annual Apple Fest that will continue for the next two weekends. “They become your friends and your family. At the start of each season, when we open the doors for the first time, it feels nice to have them back. People come in and smile. “We work to make this a happy place for our guests, but it’s our happy place too.”

The orchard’s 100 acres includes 5,000 to 6,000 trees and 20 varieties of apples – honey crisp and Haralson apples being the most popular – 10 acres of pumpkins, a corn maze and The Back 40, a play area for children that opened in 2012. A third of the revenue comes from apples and apple products such as dumplings, cider and pies, a third from The Apple Orchard restaurant, and a third from the Orchard Market gift shop. Their most popular market items are corn salsa, raspberry rhubarb jam and maple dip. They ship their products – especially in December when a few hundred gift boxes a week are put in the mail and many gift baskets are hand delivered in the Fort Dodge area which includes surrounding small towns.

One of their most famous visitors came calling last November when Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, stopped by while in Fort Dodge to speak at Iowa Central Community College. “She visited with the customers and spent some time in the gift shop. She bought some baby clothes and personal items and some food items in the market,” Bev said.

Greg enjoys working outside the most. He and the Baedkes’ only full-time employee, Tim Quick, plant about 150 new trees each year, and there is no busier time than when the apples are harvested. Depending on the crop, 900,000 to 1.1 million apples are harvested each season. Half of the harvest is used in the cider press, bakery and cafe, and the other half in retail sales.

“In today’s society,” Bev said, “most customers prefer to buy some bakery goods, a gallon of cider, eat in the cafe and head home with a few eating apples. Back in the ’70s women (and men) did a lot of canning and freezing. There are still a few who do, but not nearly as many.”

Weather is always a concern. Four years ago, they lost their entire crop because of an April freeze but were able to buy apples from other growers around the country to stay open. “But it didn’t end up being our worst year,” he said. “Our business is diversified.”

The Baedkes have three children and eight grandchildren. Older daughter Jodi is married to Dr. Daniel Spitz and they live with their three children in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Their son Jon owns Smitty’s Lawn and Landscape in Fort Dodge and recently purchased Eddie’s Green House, now called Smitty’s Green House; he and his wife Heather have two children, Their younger daughter Julie is married to Ryan Cripe and they and their three children live in Fort Dodge.

The diversification of their business continues, and now the Baedkes do some decorating for homes and businesses. They decorated the second floor of the Simpson Health Center at Friendship Haven and the elevator areas and gathering rooms on all three of its floors. That job was all the more meaningful, Bev said, because her dad, as a crane operator, helped set the steel in the original east and west buildings. Both sets of parents spent some time in the health center as well, so it made it all the more special.

Generations of Fort Dodgers have worked at the orchard over the years. Each year, they hire about 60 employees some of whom are teens to work in various roles. “It takes a lot of work and effort to keep our business going,” Bev said. “It is rewarding to hire employees and help them learn more about how a business works and the importance of paying attention to details.”

Their longest-term employee, Margaret Fiebiger, started working 34 years ago with the Baedkes and Greg’s parents, grading apples in her first years, then working many years in the market before retiring, but came back to work in the market part time again last year. “I missed the people – that’s one of the reasons I came back,” she said. “They are very caring people to work for. I watched their family grow up and they watched our family do the same.”