Sandpoint Organic Agriculture Center – WEST AG INFORMATION NETWORK

Sandpoint Organic Agriculture Center

Kyle Nagy is superintendent and director of orchard operations at

the Sandpoint Organic Center where they grow 70 different varieties of apples, many of which are designed to be incorporated into hard apple ciders. But that’s not all they do.

We did, pre covid we had a great apple tasting here. It was one of my favorite events we’ve hosted here.

We have been featured several times in Good Fruit Grower magazine here. You might recognize these hands… -laughs-

We have a native plant garden here; we also have an educational market garden which is used by our trainees. We usually have two or three undergraduate interns who come from campus every summer. So we make them live on site here, working in the orchard,” Nagy said.

They also began to incorporate livestock like chickens for manure use and pest control, and sheep to study rotational grazing to control poisonous plants for horses and cattle.

Although it’s very different from a full-scale commercial orchard, some of the things they learn apply to commercial growers.

“There are certainly differences between our climates between northern Idaho and southern Idaho, but there are certainly a lot of principles and practices that could be used that we are looking for here that could be used in the whole state.”