The Journey of Becoming Culinary Apple

I am Mary Weldy, co owner of the Culinary Apple, and I want to share with you how the store became what it is today.

In 1991, a young couple realized there was a need for fresh harvested apples from the Chelan Valley in Washington State to be gift packed and shipped all over the U.S. In their garage, they designed beautiful wood boxes with a branded apple tree on the box ends. They shipped several gift boxes of apples that first year. The next year, they moved the operation from their garage to a retail space in downtown Chelan, WA. Hence, the birth of The Harvest Tree and the search for everything apple!

In 1996, I resigned from being a wholesale representative in the gift industry, and the question I had to ask was: What was I going to do with the rest of my life? While vacationing in Lake Chelan, we drove into downtown and toured the shops. We walked into a very country, all-apple-related gift store. As my mom, daughter and I left the store, we saw a sign in the corner of the front window of The Harvest Tree that stated: This Business is For Sale, please inquire inside. I looked at my Mom and said, “I think I just found what I’m going to do with the rest of my life!” I called my husband, and we bought the store.

Later, we would find out that the sign was put in the window the day before we came to town! We grew the store into offering over 1,000 apple related products and continue to ship the very best fresh apples in the world, averaging 350 hand packed gift boxes yearly. There is nothing like a fresh from harvest Washington apple.

I know some of you will remember what the store used to look like. This was 18 years ago! We've come a long way since then!

Take a look at our apple gift boxes... beautiful!