Danny Ray Carver’s dad started Carver’s Orchard in Cosby, Tennessee back in 1942, but the Carver clan has been growing apples in Appalachia for six generations, arriving in Eastern Tennessee in the late 1700’s.
Seventy year-old Danny Ray Carver is still in the field every day during the season tending 40,000 trees, representing 126 varieties, and overseeing more than 40 workers, that is when he’s not checking up on his legendary Applehouse Restaurant.
Flavor rules, and some of Carver’s heirloom species date from the American Revolution, including one grown by Thomas Jefferson.
House specialties at Carver's Applehouse diner include homemade apple cider, crispy apple fritters, homemade apple butter, grits or gravy, fried apples or oven-browned potatoes and homemade buttermilk biscuits, catfish, pinto beans and fried apples, and chicken pot pie.
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