Red Jacket Orchards
Some farms grow fruit. Red Jacket Orchards grows a legacy.
Red Jacket Orchards is a fruit and juice company based in Geneva, New York, founded in 1958 by Joe and Emily Nicholson on land that has been used to grow fruit since 1917. What began as a modest operation has become one of the most respected names in Upstate New York agriculture — a testament to three generations of the Nicholson family who have poured their lives into the land, the fruit, and the craft.
Joe and Emily, relocating to Geneva where they'd attended Cornell conferences, purchased the farm with no previous fruit growing experience and set out to build a successful fruit farm and roadside retail stand. It was the kind of bold, eyes-open commitment that defines great farm families. Their son Joe Jr. carried that spirit forward, expanding the orchards from 100 to 400 acres, adopting modern orchard systems, and introducing celebrated varieties and products including apricots, plums, and Fuji apple juice. Today, founder's grandson Brian Nicholson serves as president and CEO, continuing the family's tradition of innovation and quality into its third generation.
Located along the rolling hills of Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region, Red Jacket Orchards has mastered the art of harvesting and pressing premium fruits and juices, growing apples and summer fruits including berries, currants, cherries, peaches, plums, and the largest apricot orchard on the East Coast.
What makes Red Jacket truly stand apart is how thoughtfully they grow. Their proprietary production methods combine traditional and cutting-edge techniques, including holistic and biodynamic practices. They carefully manage soil fertility using natural and organic-based inputs such as seaweed-based foliar materials, and cooperate with beekeepers to protect honeybee and native pollinator populations. Their juice is cold-pressed in a LEED-certified facility partially powered by solar energy — because for the Nicholsons, sustainability isn't a trend, it's a responsibility.
The results speak for themselves. Three quarters of the fruit used in bottling is either grown by Red Jacket or sourced from farms within 200 miles of Geneva, and their juices — pure, fresh, and unfiltered — have earned a following that stretches from Maine to Miami. When you open a bottle of Red Jacket juice, you're tasting more than fruit. You're tasting over a century of dedication to a single, simple idea: that the best food comes from people who truly care about how it's grown

