The fruits of her labor

The joy of planting and watching fruits grow to their greatest potential has been one of the prime motivators behind Kathy Wiederholt's chosen career path.

"I've loved horticulture my whole life, and that's really my story," she says. "Working with plants, and being outside. Even as a kid, I would read plant identification books for fun."

A self-described farm girl from Wisconsin, Wiederholt made her way to Carrington in 2006 to oversee a newly-created program at the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center, the Northern-Hardy Fruit Evaluation Project.

After over 18 years at the CREC, Wiederholt will be retiring from her position. An Open House in her honor will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1, at the center located at 663 Hwy. 281 N.E.

Growing up in the small town of Palmyra, located between Madison and Milwaukee, her educational background originally was not in the fruit cultivation realm.

Wiederholt received degrees in bacteriology and food microbiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"I mainly studied dairy cultures, and yogurt and cheese was my background," she said.

Later, she would take a job at the Center for Medical Genetics in Marshfield, Wisc., in human genotyping, eventually becoming lead researcher for non-human species such as dogs, rats, mice and fish.

She worked at the center for "about seven to eight years" in her estimation, and then left the center to join a former boss at his new private business.

"I was the first employee that he pulled over," Wiederholt recalled. "Six months later, my husband, [Ron], wanted to come here to North Dakota."

Ron was working as an Extension agent in crops, soils and agriculture while in Central Wisconsin, and also taught the Master Gardener classes in the county where they resided.

This turn of events was a bit of a "heartbreak" for Wiederholt, as she was enjoying the new job she'd just started and gaining a comfort level with it.

With Ron being hired on at NDSU CREC in 2004, Kathy was unsure what would pop up for job prospects on her end.

While looking for work, she recalls that in the winter of 2005, then-CREC Director Blaine Schatz attended a meeting at the center on grape production, which she recalls was the first of its kind in the state.

"And I thought, ah, I'm not going to go. When will I ever need to know about growing grapes?" she chuckled.

After speaking with meeting attendees, Schatz was encouraged by the heightened interest in growing fruit crops besides grapes, and knew that NDSU CREC could be at the forefront of that effort.

He put up the deer exclusion fence around the new orchard space on the north side of the CREC campus.

"He'd already brought some plants," she says. "We had apple trees, plum trees, juneberries and some of the grapes, which is where we started. And he asked me to plant those."

She began her work at CREC in May 2006, and in the wintertime did research on other northern-grown fruits to expand the orchard's offerings and planned most of the fruit project we know today.

The plants took several years to produce fruit, "around 2009 to 2010" in her estimation.

While she has taken on the role of fruit project manager, Wiederholt emphasizes that she is not an employee of the Extension service or an agent, and her position has never been a full-time job.

"This has always been a shoestring operation because it's our discretionary funds [being used] to fund the project," she says. "I'm still like an 80% employee, so I kind of work hard in the summer, write my reports in the winter, and probably relax a little bit more then."

Wiederholt has been a visible contributor to the CREC's Field Day tours with the Northern Hardy Fruit Review, where an average of 60-65 people, and as many as 125, come to the orchard to hear the latest developments on select plant varieties.

She also travels around the state to give talks about fruit-related topics at Extension meetings, and has conducted Zoom presentations since the COVID-19 pandemic. Through all her work at NDSU CREC, Wiederholt estimates that the center has been able to reach around 18,500 people interested in fruit production.

Her best memories are the smiles she sees when people come out to the orchard.

"I love every single day out here," she said. "As a former farm girl, I can drive all the tractors and equipment I need and work outside almost every day. I really enjoy the positive attitudes of everyone who visits and wants to grow fruit."

She and Ron, who retired in 2020 as Extension District Director, plan to move back to Wisconsin when the time is right, to be closer to their families.

"We just sort of miss the trees," she says, "although we really appreciate seeing the different seasons here in North Dakota, too."

Wiederholt plans to stay on as an hourly employee through the winter to finish her reporting, and she says that Director Mike Ostlie is in the process of securing funding, in addition to the discretionary fund, to fill her position and continue the work of the fruit project.