Posted Feb 24, 2025
Oriana Kruszewski began growing Asian pears in her backyard more than 50 years ago because she found store-bought varieties bland and too expensive. In 1996, she bought a 40-acre plot of land in northwestern Illinois where she has since test-grown over 60 varieties of fruit trees and plants, and now grows dozens of varieties of pears from China, Japan, and Korea, as well as hybrids developed in the United States and Europe – including ones that can withstand Chicago’s harsh winters.
What began as a hobby – “going out of hand” as Oriana put it – has now become a full-fledged, thriving business called Oriana’s Orchard & Nursery.
“When you plant a tree, you can’t just walk away,” Oriana shared recently on the phone. “It’s a long-term investment.”
Born in China and raised and educated in Hong Kong, Oriana’s Chinese roots have deeply influenced her work ethic and her tastebuds, even after immigrating to the United States 51 years ago.
A little over 19 years ago, Oriana met Abby Mandel, founder of Green City Market, while carrying a bag of her signature pears. By the end of the summer, she had secured a place at the market.
Oriana’s plants are proudly grown without pesticides or herbicides. Her farm has been USDA Organic certified by the Midwest Organic Services Association since 2011. Oriana also provides onsite home orchard consultation, as well as tree espalier and custom grafting.
The quality of Oriana’s produce has not gone unnoticed. Since joining Green City Market, Oriana has built a dedicated customer base and strong relationships with chefs and local businesses. Most recently, Oriana partnered with local distillery Judson & Moore, who used her Asian pears in a shrub for a special seasonal cocktail. She has also partnered with Moody Tongue Brewery for many years, where the crew visits her farm annually to harvest their pears and camp overnight to enjoy the orchard. They even made Asian pear and pawpaw beer!
Executive Chef of North Pond Restaurant and GCM Associate Board Member César Murillo has also had a longstanding relationship with Oriana, from working alongside her at the weekly markets to bringing his entire team to her farm to learn more about her operations. Last year, Oriana even helped Chef César plant a pawpaw tree at North Pond, a powerful symbol of what can take root – literally – in a thriving local food system where we know our food and the farmers who grow it.
26 years later, Oriana still prides herself in being a solo farmer. “I am very independent,” she shares. The work is far from easy, however. Being an Asian-American woman in farming continues to be tough work. Not only does Oriana still mow her own orchard, plant and maintain all her own crops, pick all her own pears, and wake up at 4:30 am to get to market, but she has also overcome a lot of obstacles as an Asian woman farmer in the U.S.
“Being an Asian woman, people don’t take you seriously,” she says. “You have to prove yourself and when no one wants to do the hard work, you take it over yourself.”
For Oriana, farming is also deeply personal. “Farming is my life,” she shares. “It keeps me going.”
Oriana has faced challenges beyond the physical demands of farming. The 2019 polar vortex wiped out 100 of her trees, and the COVID-19 pandemic nearly devastated her business. As a solo operation, she had no way to maintain sales without direct access to her Green City Market customers. But Oriana refused to sit still. She pivoted, fermenting her leftover crops into Asian pear vinegar for local wineries and distilleries, crafting herbal teas, kimchi, dried pears, and jams. She also began teaching grafting techniques, sharing her knowledge with students and volunteers who help on her farm in exchange for the opportunity to experiment with their own growing techniques.
Her resilience is deeply tied to her identity. “A lot of small farmland is owned by women,” she says. “Women are mentally tougher than men — detail-minded and can handle pressure from inside and outside the family.” For much of her life, Oriana has balanced caregiving roles — first as a daughter, then as a wife, mother, and eventually, caretaker for her aging parents. Now in her late 70s, she’s finally prioritizing her own passions, but the work remains demanding. “I’m a little Asian woman, not even five feet,” she told GCM. “I’m tired all the time.”
And yet, she keeps going. Each year, she adds something new to her farm, expanding beyond pears to grow pawpaws, black currants, persimmons, medicinal herbs, and more. Oriana's longtime dream is to host a pawpaw festival in Chicago, celebrating the most famous indigenous native gruit grown in North America.
“You have to enjoy what you like,” Oriana shared. “Whatever happens in life, you always have to have something that you can invest yourself in and keep you busy.”
And that’s exactly what Oriana has done. Even as she spoke, she was preparing to head to a conference organized by the University of Illinois Extension Office. But if you visit Green City Market on Saturday, you’ll find her at her booth, selling the fruits of her labor — Asian pears, preserves, pawpaws, herbal teas, and more — each a testament to decades of dedication, perseverance, and love for her craft.
This blog was adapted from a 2021 spotlight on Oriana, which you can read here. Learn more about Oriana’s Orchard on Green City Market’s website and visit Oriana’s website here.
At Green City Market, we believe farmers' markets are a powerful instrument of a local food system, and we're dedicated to creating widely accessible marketplaces for local food in Chicago where farmers can make a living wage and connect directly with their customers. Visit our calendar for upcoming market dates and support our nonprofit work to deepen support for Midwest farmers like Oriana here.