Moutoux Orchard
A WHOLE DIET OF LOCAL FARM FOODS FROM HEALTHY SOIL
We will open registration for our 2023-24 CSA membership on February 13. Please email csa@moutouxorchard.com to join our waiting list for all the details!
John and Katherine Moutoux
Sue and Charles Moutoux
Three Generations of Farming
The Moutoux Orchard was established in 1948 when John Moutoux purchased a 40-acre tract in the then rural Tyson's Corner area. Seventy plus years later, having gone through a location change, the farm business still survives, now more active than ever. For 30 plus years, we were the last orchard in Fairfax County. These days we are operating out of Loudoun County location, near the village of Wheatland.
John and Katherine Moutoux moved to Seven Corners from Knoxville, Tennessee in 1939. While in Knoxville John Moutoux was a reporter with the Knoxville News Sentinel, making a mark by bringing the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial to national attention. They moved to Seven Corners when John took a job with the Federal Government.
While here, the origins of Moutoux Orchard were started in the form of a backyard orchard. John Moutoux was inspired by the book Malabar Farm, a story of reviving worn out soils through
organic and regenerative farming in Ohio. Soon he was planting a wide
variety of fruit trees in their small backyard, as well as keeping a chicken coop. It was peaches above all else that really captivated the interest in growing fruit. In 1948 they purchased the Vienna farm, which would give more room for plantings. The first trees were planted there around 1950 and once those trees came into bearing about four years later, the first Moutoux peaches were sold at local supermarkets. Soon after, they opened up a stand in Seven Corners, which eventually became a staple for many Falls Church residents.
John Moutoux in the peach orchard in 1971
Charles Moutoux, John Moutoux’s son, took over farm operations with the help of his wife Sue. Fruit growing was an intensive part-time job for Charles, who spent most of his 9 to 5 hours working as a mechanical engineer for NASA for over 30 years. On top of this, the two raised three healhty and active sons on the farm-- Charlie, Richie, and Rob.
By this time everything was at the Vienna farm. The barn was built in the front of the farm in 1967 and immediately was
used as the peach stand. The stand at Seven Corners stayed open until about 1980, going through several location changes, until all of the selling was consolidated into one location at the Vienna farm.
In the 1970’s Charles and Sue Moutoux acquired two other farms in western Loudoun County. A large peach orchard was planted and we started picking peaches in Loudoun County to bring in to sell in Vienna. Through the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's we were managing orchards in both Fairfax and Loudoun Counties.
Rob Moutoux, Charles and Sue’s youngest son, joined the daily operations of the business in 2002 after graduating from the University of Virginia with a Civil/Environmental Engineering degree. Rob rejected the notion of working from behind a desk and instead chose a path that would put him in closer connection with the land and life that he cared about.
Charles and John Moutoux in the orchard in the 1950's
In 2005 after making it our home for over 50 years, we said a fond farewell to our Fairfax County farm and moved west to consolidate our operations at our Loudoun County farm. We packed up, dissassembled our barn and reconstructed it out here, and began forming our new operations out in Loudoun.
Around 2008 Rob started diversifying the operation with various additions over several years- vegetables, laying hens, grains, lambs. In 2008 we also dropped out conventional pesticide program in the orchard. In 2009 we operated our first CSA program, and grew vegetables for about 50 families. In 2011 we started the current whole-diet, year round CSA after adding dairy cows, pigs, and broiler chickens.
Maureen (who is known as Mo) joined the farm full time in 2012. Previously she studied farmers as a Masters Degree student in Anthropology, and then worked at an educational farm non-profit. Rob and Mo have built the diversified business up over the last few years. The two were married on the farm in September 2014.
