It’s a Family Reunion at IFTA

I was talking with a grower at this year’s International Fruit Tree Association (IFTA) Conference in Wenatchee, WA, about how we editors cover these events, knowing there are a few publications represented and we’re all listening to the same presentations and visiting the same orchards. I told him my approach is to listen for common themes among the presentations and use that as a starting point for my reports.

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A few of those themes will appear in the content of this month’s cover story, but one that won’t make it is one I heard continually at this year’s conference — family. Quite a few IFTA board members talked about how the organization is more than a community, and I agree.

This year marked my fifth consecutive IFTA conference — and seventh IFTA event if you count summer tours. Every year it feels more and more like a family reunion, where I look forward to catching up with folks I’ve met from all over the country and globe.

I fondly remember meeting Tom Chudleigh and his orchard manager Bruce Shannon and his wife, Hilda, on a trolley tour of Boston. I jokingly told Tom I must have looked like a lost puppy on my second day at one of these conferences, because they adopted me and I joined them on stop after stop around the city. Little did I know then that the first person I would meet was a former IFTA president! I joined Tom, Bruce, and Hilda at the banquet in Boston, and I try to sit with the Chudleighs’ folks every year.

Then there was the time Evan and Nathan Milburn joined me for pie in Kelowna, BC, and essentially put me through a job interview. They asked me about everything from my background in agriculture to my work history; I think they might have even asked my graduating GPA and my ACT scores. I must have fared well, because Evan joined me for pie again this year, in what is becoming an annual tradition.

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And while I’ve met growers from around the world, little did I know I’d meet someone from my hometown on a bus in Washington State during the 2015 IFTA Summer Tour. That’s right, I traveled 2,000-some miles and sat next to Joe Olecki of Mitchell’s Orchard and Farm Market in Ashland, OH, which is less than a mile away from my parents’ house.

These experiences not only make me smile, but they make me look forward to every conference. You’re more than just a member of an organization in being part of IFTA — you’re as incoming president Rod Farrow put it — “a 699-person family.”

Rod went on to say “the strength of what IFTA provides is family.” For every one of you I’ve met through IFTA, I couldn’t agree more. Thank you for being my orchard family and for making the big world of orcharding seem so much more welcoming.

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