What It Takes to Build the Ideal Apple Grower

By Thomas Skernivitz|July 29, 2020

What does it take to be American Fruit Grower magazine’s annual Apple Grower of the Year? While we are eager to profile our 2020 winner, we won’t be revealing that individual until next week.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t relay some common denominators in the quest to be a successful farmer of any fruit. With a lofty 50 nominations in hand for this year’s award, many of which were outstanding referrals of talented apple growers from a record 16 states, there were plenty of shared keywords that we should all take to heart at work and home.

Some of the most popular words (among 15,956 total) included:

“New” and “First” (136 mentions combined) — “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” (Steve Jobs)
“State,” “Community,” and “Local” (99 combined) — “Make a bed for the children of other people in the place where your own children sleep.” (Moroccan folk saying)
“Family” (77) — “A man should never neglect his family for business.”
(Walt Disney)
“Board,” “Leader,” “Leadership,” and “President” (75 combined) — “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” (Ronald Reagan)
“Years” (74) — “The only source of knowledge is experience.” (Albert Einstein)
“Association” and “Member” (61 combined) — “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” (Helen Keller)
“Production” (26) — “When you do something with a lot of honesty, appetite and commitment, the input reflects in the output.” (A.R. Rahman)
“Research” (24) — “Research is creating new knowledge.” (Neil Armstrong)
“Marketing” (21) — “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” (Peter Drucker)

Long story short: Stay ahead of the curve. Join groups. Lead groups. Take care of your family and neighbors. Inspire your employees. Work hard. Mix in some marketing and research. Do all of that, and by this time next year, we won’t at all be surprised to see your name among the nominees.