Our Story

This is us.

Kenny & Jane Oyler (center front)

Their son Milo, his wife Carrie, and their four kids – Graham, Damaris, Sterling, and Cecelia. (right side)

Their daughter Kala, her husband Aaron, and their four kids – Sophia, Cooper, Shepherd, & Canyon. (left side)

And another daughter Kaci and her husband Lowell. (center back)

You know the movie We Bought a Zoo?

Well…we bought an orchard. In the middle of a global pandemic. With absolutely zero orchard experience.

Are we crazy? There’s never been much doubt about that.

Are we super excited and passionate about it? Completely!

But where did this journey begin? And how did it come about? That story begins on October 26, 2016. At least I think it did. I think to some degree the desire to have some kind of family owned business has always existed, usually off in the “someday maybe down the road” future.

And then everything in our lives changed.

On October 26, 2016, Trae Oyler, youngest son of Kenny & Jane was shot and killed in a random drive-by shooting in Yakima, Washington…in the middle of an apple orchard. This specific bit of information is not lost on me lately as we have been finalizing things with the orchard.

If you only know the Oyler family in the above picture, then you don’t know the entire Oyler family, and dare I say, you don’t even know the best one of us.

Trae, lover of Jesus, coffee, and people, was an amazing artist and his artwork is the painting Jane is holding in the picture about and is also featured in our logo. His name is featured in our business title and it was really the only contender when it came to picking a name. We wouldn’t dream of not taking him with us on this adventure we are beginning and we know that if it is at all possible for our loved ones to see us from Heaven, Trae is cheering us on!

I think when you lose a loved one, you have two choices. You can let it tear the family apart because the pain is too great OR you can allow it to draw the family even closer because the love was so great. We chose the latter and it led us to an apple orchard. I don’t even think Trae, with all of his wandering and dreaming, would have ever expected that!

But as for how in the world did we end up owning an orchard? Well long story short…

Kenny finds out that a local orchard (actually connected to land he already owns) is going to be for sale. He talks to owner about purchasing 30 or so acres for him and his children to build houses on. Just 30 acres. Things are going accordingly. One day, Kenny suddenly asks Jane what she thinks about maybe BUYING AND RUNNING THE ENTIRE ORCHARD. (Honestly after 36 years of marriage, she should be used to things like this.) She wonders if he has lost his mind. The children’s reactions are similar because we know absolutely zero things about orchards and some of us a notorious outdoors haters. (Can you guess who?) There was a lot of hysterics (some crying and some laughing), a lot of drives through the orchard, some meetings, so many emails, a LOT of prayers, and then…we bought an orchard.

We laugh a lot when we say that because…well… it is KIND of a CRAZY journey, but honestly….we’ve never wanted to be accused of being boring! Here’s to OUR great family adventure! Thank you for supporting us in it!