Ed and Juliet Cooke bought 11 hectares of land on Mole St in Greytown in 1989, together with local fruit growers Graeme and Helen Gray. Over the following years they planted over 6000 apple and pear trees - and Molewood Orchard was born!

The land had been used for dairy farming by the Farley family for about 100 years, and was bought in part on the basis of it being top-grade horticultural soil, as cited in several reports prepared by the Soil Bureau.

The reports described how historically the Hutt Valley had been the main market-garden area for Wellington city, but over time as more land went into housing the Bureau was tasked with finding the next horticultural land for Wellington City. They selected two areas, Greytown and Otaki, and of the eight classifications of soil identified in Greytown, the two top categories, 3 and 3D, are both contained within the space occupied by Molewood Orchard. This article in the Wairarapa Times Age features an interview with Ed and Juliet, and talks about Greytown’s agricultural past.

After Graeme and Helen retired from orcharding in the early 2000s, Molewood Orchard was leased to another local orchard, JR's Orchards, and became an export orchard for 20+ years.

In 2022 JR's Orchards gave up the lease, and Ed Cooke returned to managing the orchard assisted by his son Wendell. It is now run as an independent family business - and it has turned a corner; rather than producing fruit for export, the orchard focuses especially on the local market and community, as it diversifies and seeks new markets, products and experiences.