Page 37 of Pick Your Spot

Fresh apples obviously. Knox imagined that would be where the bulk of the income would be but there had to be more.

Baking with the apples. He listed the products he’d already considered and added what else he could think of. If they had a unique product, it would help. He needed someone who could bake to help him think outside that box.

Apple sauce. They could use the apples they couldn’t sell to make that. He remembered how good their kitchen had smelled when his parents had made apple sauce. From his memory, it didn’t seem that difficult. Was there a market for freshly made sauce? He hadn’t looked in Fiona’s store to see if there was already someone doing it, but he’d look on his next visit. She sold her own baking, so maybe she’d be amenable to stocking theirs as well.

What about cider? How hard was that to make? He didn’t have a clue, and he didn’t want to waste time looking now. This was about brainstorming, one of the things he did well.

He added alcoholic and non-alcoholic cider to the list, along with apple juice. What was the difference between juice and cider anyway? If they weren’t difficult to make, they could do them here in the kitchen. If it was more of a challenge than he thought, they could maybe sell their apples to companies who made it.

He needed to check out the harvesting barn to find out what upgrades were needed. And to find out how the process worked. This year could be a learning year. There was no way they’d be up and running to do a full harvest this year, but that was okay. They could learn what worked and didn’t work. Another point he wrote down.

Knowing he had to be practical, Knox opened another sheet and started listing the needs of the farm. The ones that he knew about, anyway.

The Worminator topped the list.

Irrigation. He knew there were lines in the parts of the orchard nearest the farm, but Thea said there were no lines past her cottage. He hadn’t wandered any further. Not yet.

The pond could help with that once it was cleaned up. The pond would intrigue Jolie, and Thea thought it was next in importance to the compost facility. He’d been doing plenty of research when he wasn’t otherwise occupied, and the biodiversity they needed to qualify as a regenerative farm would be immensely improved with the pond.

He doubted the farm would pass the qualification for at least a year or two. But it was a challenge, and his entire family liked challenges.

Top quality equipment. Every farm required a ton of machinery, and that would intrigue Lawson. He listed all the machinery required, but he didn’t know what shape any of it was in. Not yet.

So much to learn.

He went back to his potential list and added a B&B. That would appeal to Amber and was another big source of income. If any visitors wanted to stay on an apple farm.

He added questions beside it. What would bring them in? Ask Amber.

What would lure Burke? Sure, he could manage the books. The eldest Malssum loved numbers. Loved organizing and keeping everything in balance. Did it bring him joy?

Knox thought back to their childhood, trying to find what had made Burke laugh. In the before times, it had been his best friend Rissa. Before they’d had to leave Burlington, Burke and Rissa had been inseparable. Being four years younger, Knox didn’t have any recollection of what the two had done, but his brother had laughed more then.

They all had.

And that’s what Knox wanted. He wanted his brother to have less responsibility and more reason to laugh.

He wanted that for all of them, Thea included.

With a grin, he returned to brainstorming. He’d figure it out. He’d get them all here and ensure they had joy along with those responsibilities.

Thea woke with a smile. A big one. Her dreams had been happy and sensual. Filled with Knox.

The man was perfect in her dreams. In reality, he probably wasn’t. No one was. But he was pretty damn perfect for her.

Thea added fruit to her oatmeal along with cinnamon. She’d been wanting to take some apples from the harvest barn but she hadn’t had the keys for the first while. And then she’d simply not thought of it when she was in that area of the farm.

She knew there were several crates of apples from the last harvest still in the cold storage room. Knox wouldn’t mind her taking a few. She’d show him that area today. He hadn’t even tasted the apples the farm grew.

Despite that, the man was committed to the farm and to helping his family see the pros of owning it, of making it a success.

She had to figure his brothers and sisters were good people. They’d grown up in the same household, so they were probably similar in many ways. Knox’s optimism and positivity hadn’t grown from living with a bunch of grumpy pessimists.

That made her smile. Jay had been grumpy, but that attitude had hidden an optimistic heart. You didn’t buy a farm and hire a woman passionate about compost without a heaping load of optimism.

With a smile, she headed out to stir her heaping loads of compost.

She hadn’t reached the compost when Fox loped along to greet her. She hugged the dog hard, hoping she never had to leave him and this place. “We’ve got a chance, Fox. Jay gave us a chance by leaving this place to his family.”

---