Here Are the 2024 Apple Grower of the Year Award Regional Winners
What does it take to be a top apple grower? Industry peers know best. For more than three decades, the Apple Grower of the Year Award celebrates producers who have reached outstanding levels of success through their efforts in innovative production, marketing, horticultural, and management practices.
Winners demonstrate commitment and leadership to their field by producing high-quality fruit, being actively involved in associations, and taking a strong role in shaping the direction of the apple industry.
Each year, a multitude of nominations are received for consideration. Starting in 2022, American Fruit Grower recognized regional winners, along with the overall winner. Here are your 2024 Apple Grower of the Year Award regional winners.
EAST: Robert Brown III, Owner, Orchard Dale Fruit Co., Waterport, NY
Young apple growers seeking a role model need look no further than Robert (Bobby) Brown III, according to Poliana Francescatto, Global Technical Development Manager, Valent BioSciences. She and Brown, now 40, had collaborated on several PGR-related projects during her previous role with Cornell University.
“His eagerness to learn and grow, his enthusiasm and confidence have inspired me in so many ways,” Francescatto says. “He was and still is very supportive to the research activities and community, always seeking new things to try to make the best apple in the world.”
Brown has operated Orchard Dale Fruit Co. with family members Eric (uncle) and Robert Brown II (father) since graduation from Cornell University in 2006. Eight generations of the family have been growing fruit on the same Waterport, NY, site since 1804.
Robert (Bobby) Brown III with wife Beth and children Emaline and Addison.
Photo courtesy of Bobby Brown
Cornell Extension Educator Craig Kahlke has known the Brown family since his start with the university in 2007. “When I met Bobby, he was manager for the berry operation, in which he did a phenomenal job. He attended a forced-air cooling workshop that I gave and immediately set up a forced-air cooler to increase shelf life and the marketing window for his strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries,” Kahlke says. “As Bobby has transitioned to orchard manager in recent years, he has seamlessly taken on the added responsibilities. Bobby is looked at as an industry leader among other growers. He has stepped out of his dad’s and uncle’s shadow and become a true leader in the industry.”
Brown currently is a Partner and President of Lake Ontario Fruit, an apple packing facility in western New York for New York Apple Sales. He also represents the advisory board of the New York State Apple Research and Development Program and the customer service council of Farm Credit East. His wife Beth serves on the USApple and Crunch Time Apple boards of directors.
MIDWEST/MOUNTAIN STATES: Andy and Joe Ferguson, Co-Owners, Ferguson Orchards, Jordan and Lake City, MN; Eau Claire and Galesville, WI
Brothers Andy and Joe Ferguson are helping to put a less-famous region on the national apple-growing map, both in terms of production — the Fergusons have amassed six separate orchards across a 75-mile radius — and marketing, as their four retail/agritourism fall destinations offer a direct channel to their loyal apple-loving visitors. They welcomed more than 250,000 in 2023. Although neither Wisconsin nor Minnesota place in the top 10 apple-growing states, that has not stopped the Fergusons from planting nearly 400,000 trees in the neighboring states on both banks of the mighty Mississippi River.
Andy and Joe Ferguson of Ferguson Orchards
Photo courtesy of Ferguson Orchards
Acres upon acres of high density, drip-irrigated, hail-netted trees surround dozens of narrow orchard tractors navigating mechanical hedgers, dual sweepers, and work platforms down the expansive tree rows. Frost fans poke their heads above the trellis for those chilly Midwest spring mornings, topped only by the occasional drone flying above, experimenting with the latest imaging technology. While the region is not known for its apple quantity, it is certainly famous for the varieties it produces. The University of Minnesota’s ‘Honeycrisp’, ‘SweeTango’, and ‘First Kiss/Rave’, along with ‘Pazazz’ (Doug Shefelbine, Wisconsin) are plentiful in the Fergusons’ orchards, having been developed mere miles away. Included in their acreage is the famous Pepin Heights orchard, which boasts the first commercial ‘Honeycrisp’ planting in the country, still producing to this day.
Each fall the orchards are shared by the community as they come out for not just apple picking but also activities such as elaborate corn mazes, wagon rides, apple cannons, and giant obstacle courses. In their retail farm stores, visitors browse hundreds of Ferguson fall staples, from branded candles, jams, and jellies to stuffed animals bearing the likes of their mascot — “Fergie,” a life-sized scarecrow (with a giant apple for a head, of course), who can be found wandering the farm and interacting with children. Andy, an attorney, and Joe, a U.S. Marine, partly credit their unique backgrounds for their diverse operation and expansion, as well as the past hard work of their parents, Tom and Deb, who have since retired.
WEST: Mark Mathis, Owner/President, Rite Bite Farms, Basin City, WA
As a first-generation farmer, Mark Mathis has spent the last 34 years making the most of the 5-acre hobby farm he had inherited from his late father. “Mark has single handedly taken those 5 acres and turned them into nearly 400 acres on his own,” his daughter, McKenna Mathis Beal, says. “Mark has made a big name for himself as an apple grower in the PNW. He is based out of Basin City — one of the smallest towns in Washington — but nearly everyone in the PNW knows his name. That’s because not only is he a friendly face, but he’s also a great grower. He is educated, he cares for his customers as well as his farm employees, and he cares for the industry. He is constantly looking for ways to not only improve his own practices but ways to improve the entire industry.”
Mark Mathis of Rite Bite Farms
Photo courtesy of Mark Mathis
Mathis started out 100% conventional and has since transitioned his orchard to 80% organic, 20% conventional. “Mark takes an extremely innovative and integrated approach to organic apple growing, both in terms of production practices and marketing,” Adam Burnhams, Chief Marketing Officer, Trace Genomics, says. “He is a real leader in his segment.”
“Mark has been a leader in apple production from the beginning,” Michael Bittner, Western Business Unit Manager, Atticus, says. “He has been utilizing high-production techniques for a number of years and has managed to carve out a great space in the organic production arena.” Adds daughter McKenna: “His sole purpose of farming is not only to be as innovative as possible but to expand for future generations. His goal was never to just supply his children but to supply for their children and their children and so on.”
In August, we will announce the overall winner of the 2024 American Fruit Grower SM Apple Grower of the Year, an awards program now in its 36th year. The winner will formally accept the award, sponsored by Valent USA, at the U.S. Apple Association’s annual Apple Crop Outlook and Marketing Conference in Chicago.
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