Fittingly, Brookdale Fruit Farm is located on Broad Street. From the heart of Hollis, NH, the diversified fruit and vegetable business knows no bounds. Its footprint, since the day the Hardy family began operations 174 years ago, has continued to spread across New England.
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Kenny Barnwell
Kenny Barnwell, the Owner of Kenny Barnwell Orchards in Edneyville, NC, becomes the 35th recipient of the American Fruit Grower SM Apple Grower of the Year award. A passionate proponent of farmland preservation, he follows in a long line of peers who exemplify industry advocacy.
Photo by Thomas Skernivitz
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David Gleason
David Gleason, the 2022 American Fruit GrowerSM Apple Grower of the Year, is known for keeping an open mind, measuring his words carefully, but when he speaks, fellow growers listen.
Photo by David Eddy
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The Hardys of Brookdale Fruit Farm
Congratulations to Trevor Hardy (left) and Chip Hardy of Brookdale Fruit Farm in Hollis, NH, the 2021 Apple Grower of the Year Award recipients.
Photo by Thomas Skernivitz
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Robert Black
“When we planted ‘Gala’, people started eating more fresh apples. We want noisy apples – they have to crunch when you bite into them.”- Robert Black, 2020 Apple Grower of the Year
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John and Bill Borton
“It’s tough for an apple grower, because you know the early strains of each variety are not going to be as good as those found later. We knew that, but jumping in early helped because the price was relatively high because there wasn’t the huge volume.” - Bill Borton (right), pictured with cousin, John, 2019 Apple Growers of the Year
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Phil and Judy Schwallier
“When I come home, we talk about the things that need to be done. Usually, Judy says I tell her what needs to be done. But I think it’s she who tells me what needs to be done. And I agree,”- Phil Schwallier, pictured with wife Judy, 2018 Apple Growers of the Year
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Rod Farrow
"Having a crew of talented, motivated people is the key to making this work. You can have all the ideas in the world, but you need the boots on the ground.”- Rod Farrow, 2017 Apple Grower of the Year
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Scott McDougall
“It takes 10 to 11 years to make a profit, and that’s if there’s no hail or other weather events. I don’t think any banker would be excited by that. We’ve been able to get pay-backs in six years because of the ‘Ambrosia’ and ENZA varieties.” - Scott McDougall, 2016 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Bill Dodd
“The thing about networking is, no matter how smart you are, there’s always someone smarter. You can’t predict how it will work out, but the more people you know, the better chance you have of finding success.”- Bill Dodd, 2015 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Bill and Jeannette Evans
“We were burned very badly in the first few years by biting off more than we could chew. The lesson I would tell the kids and grandkids is don’t ever extend yourselves and be careful how you invest your money.”- Bill and Jeannette Evans, 2014 Apple Growers Of The Year
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Cordell Watt
“All projects come with headaches, but we deal with them. You have to do what you're comfortable with and what's best for your orchard. You have to be realistic.”- Cordell Watt, 2013 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Jeff Leonardini
“They can be a headache, but these standards are important, and if we can better ourselves, and set the standard for the industry, that’s great.”- Jeff Leonardini, 2012 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Mo Tougas
“Unless you get out of your region and culture and see what people are doing elsewhere, things get stagnant. By traveling and seeing what others are doing, and if they have better ideas, that's how we progress and grow in our business.”- Mo Tougas (pictured with wife, Phyllis, and son Andre), 2011 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Mike Taylor
“There's a wide array of apple varieties available for growers to consider planting, and the biggest thing you can do is match the variety to the micro climate, elevation, soil type, and site you are in. If you start with that and get the best available plant material, you've set the stage for a winning combination.”- Mike Taylor, 2010 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Bill Zirkle
“My father always told me to grow quality fruit first, last, and always. People are always looking for an excellent piece of good quality eating fruit. You'll always be successful if you work hard but smart. Grow the right thing and be willing to change. Find out what people's desires, wants, and preferences are, and grow to their needs rather than try to sell them what you have.”- Bill Zirkle (pictured with son, Mark), 2009 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Evan and Nathan Milburn
“Treat your labor with high respect and gratitude. Some people don’t realize that they are the ones making your living and success possible.”- Evan and Nathan Milburn, 2008 Apple Growers Of The Year
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Jeff Crist
“Consumers are expecting a better product, and they’ll expect a stronger product tomorrow than today. This requires diligence and assurance every step of the way.”- Jeff Crist, 2007 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Dan Boyer
“We need to come up with something that consumers don’t even know they want yet.”- Dan Boyer, 2006 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Gary Mount
“Variety is the spice of life for retail farm marketers. If we have to sell something wholesale, then we’ve fallen down on the job.” - Gary Mount, 2005 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Darrel Oakes
“One of the reasons we’ve been able to survive these tough times is because we’ve had people who are really tied to the family and the land that we operate.”- Darrel Oakes, (pictured with family), 2004 Apple Grower Of The YearDarrel Oakes (third from left), is a co-owner at LynOaken Farms in Lyndonville, NY, along with, from left, his cousin Jeff Oakes, Darrel’s wife Linda, and his sister Wendy Wilson.
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Ralph Broetje
“Apple growing is very labor intensive, and without good people running the business, we can’t do anything.”- Ralph Broetje, 2003 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Fred Valentine
“It’s still a very hands-on industry, and you need to work with the resources you have.”- Fred Valentine (pictured with fellow grower Bob Banning), 2002 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Greg Nix
“You tend to think that overproduction is hurting the industry, but I can’t honestly say that to be true. A lot of people think poor quality fruit or imports are hurting the industry. I don’t think it’s any one thing — it’s a combination of several things. If Model T Fords had been so popular there wouldn’t have been a need for Chevrolet or Chrysler.”- Greg Nix, 2001 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Brad Hollabaugh
“The high capital investment each year is difficult to make, since even one’s best planning cannot assure success of varieties in the marketplace. We often choose fresh fruit varieties which have value as processing apples as well to safeguard against volatile markets. Our planting strategy is tuned into our own marketing plans as well as industry trends.”- Brad Hollabaugh, 2000 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Ed Wittenbach
“I think every grower has to be involved in organizations. If you aren’t involved, you’re walking around with blinders on. You have to know the pulse of what’s happening. Every meeting I go to I come back and ask, ‘what did I learn, what do I see as a trend, and how can I apply it to my operation?’”- Ed Wittenbach, 1999 Apple Grower Of The Year
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George and David Allan
“The weakest part of fruit growing these days is nobody wants to be a farmer. But if you get good, firm, well-colored produce, everything else will fall into place. You’ll have a good consistent pack. You can make a bad packout of good fruit . But you can’t make a good packout of bad fruit.”- George and David Allan, 1998 Apple Grower Of The Year
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George Lamont
“We can be more effective working with the EPA while ideas are being developed. If you wait until the regulations have been written and then react to them, it becomes much more difficult.”- George Lamont, 1997 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Doyle Flemming
“If you’re the first to do something, chances are that people will seek you out as an authority.”- Doyle Fleming, 1996 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Mitch Lynd
“I can name dozens of growers who do a better job than me. But growing apples is so difficult, you don’t have to worry about being put out of business by helping someone.”- Mitch Lynd (pictured with family), 1995 Apple Grower Of The Year(Front row: Mitch, Lester, and David Lynd; back row (left to right) John Kammeyer, Steve Lynd, Dick Wander, and Andy Lynd
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Chuck Peters
“My philosophy is we are growers. But we can’t exist unless we recognize the industry must come first. We need to look at this as a big corporation. Yet it doesn’t have a specific CEO but instead a good fractionated leadership from many growers.”- Chuck Peters, 1994 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Roscoe Crist
“You have to find out who the decision makers are, talk to them, and try to find out what they are thinking and what their priorities are. Then you have to make your case to them.”- Roscoe Crist, 1993 Apple Grower Of The Year (pictured with wife Marylou) about the need for funding for research
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Harold and JoAnne Thome
“All commodity groups in agriculture are going to be compelled to work closer together. We’re all trying to say pretty much the same thing, but we’re saying it differently.”- Harold and JoAnne Thome, 1992 Apple Growers Of The Year
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Steve Wood
“It’s getting very difficult to make a living with a small to medium apple operation in a wholesale market.” - Steve Wood (pictured with son, Harry), 1991 Apple Grower Of The Year
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Grady Auvil
“To be successful, growers have to look at the whole system — growing, harvesting, packing, and marketing.”- Grady Auvil, 1990 Apple Grower Of The Year
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John Rice
“The days when you could innocently sit back and just move your crop out or deliver it to the packing house and that was it — those days are gone. We have to be involved in the public arena. We have to be giving our side of the story. We need to anticipate problems rather than just react to them.” - John Rice, 1989 Apple Grower Of The Year
You want apples? There are 175 acres of them on the farm. You want more than apples? The Hardys also grow other tree fruits (24 acres), strawberries (8), raspberries (3), blueberries (5), and a never-ending variety of vegetables (219).
You appreciate history? Brookdale made its debut in 1847. So, too, did the U.S. postage stamp. Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell were born that year.
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You prefer innovation? While the farm is old, it never mails in its reputation. A legendary inventor would feel right at home here.
Lastly, you need supplies? Brookdale separates itself from most growers with an onsite farm supplies division that caters to the entire Northeast. As the house rally cry goes, “Not only do we grow crops, but we can help you grow them, too.”
On Aug. 19-20, at the U.S. Apple Association’s annual Apple Crop Outlook and Marketing Conference in Chicago, the Hardy family — now seven generations into the fruit-growing business — will formally accept the award, sponsored by Valent USA.
“Brookdale has been an industry leader since I was first working in orchards in the ‘60s,” says Stephen Wood, the third of 33 Apple Grower of the Year recipients since 1989 (when the award was established) and the only previous winner from New Hampshire. “They’re good people and deserve this award way more than I ever did in 1991.”
“The Hardys are innovators in agriculture,” adds Amy Papineau, a Program Team Leader with University of New Hampshire (UNH)Cooperative Extension. “They run the largest, most diverse fruit farm in the state and are committed to continual improvement in production practices. Their farm is a staple of the community.”
Brookdale Fruit Farm hosts various case studies on its property in partnership with local agencies. Here, George Hamilton (left) of University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension and Brookdale’s Trevor Hardy compare the photosynthetic benefits of green biodegradable plastic mulch over its black counterpart. Photo by Thomas Skernivitz
HERE TO STAY
Visit the town of Hollis, in South-Central New Hampshire, and it is impossible to miss Brookdale Fruit Farm and its influence.
“It’s the diamond in the middle of the town here,” George Hamilton, the local Fruit and Vegetable Field Specialist, Emeritus, with UNH Cooperative Extension, says. “Such a beautiful, active farm with these modern apple trees. It’s kind of unbelievable that we have such a resource.”
Better yet, Brookdale will not be leaving anytime soon, thanks to the Hardys.
“Their foremost contribution to the town of Hollis was securing and preserving the development rights of the home farm, 162 acres,” Hamilton says. “By securing and preserving the development rights of the home farm, the town center will maintain the open farm feeling for the future, in a town that is a prime location for housing development.”
“We’re very fortunate that we’ve been able to keep the family tradition going for years,” Chip Hardy says. “And we hope, for years to come, to keep the family farm going.”
“You don’t find many other picturesque apple orchards like ours throughout the Northeast right here in the center of an old town,” Trevor Hardy adds. “So, we keep things mowed and tidy and try to put our best foot forward for the public because it’s those folks that we’re serving and are buying our products, and that is keeping us in business.”
In addition to more than 20 varieties of apples and eight other types of fruit, Brookdale Fruit Farm grows more than two dozen types of vegetables, including these freshly pulled radishes. Photo by Thomas Skernivitz
INNOVATE TO IMPROVE
Brookdale began in 1847 as a general farm and cooperage, specializing in making apple barrels. As the cooperage business declined, the family’s interest in farming expanded. In 1911 the farm started a conversion from dairy farming to orchard and vegetable production. By 1950 the dairy portion of the farm was sold.
Chip Hardy’s father, Elwin Hardy, who died in 2013 at the age of 92, planted the first semi-dwarf M7 apple trees in 1948. While Elwin was a student at UNH, Professor W.W. “Bill” Smith, the fruit specialist at the time, convinced him that dwarf trees were the future of apple growing. In 1957 the first true dwarf apple trees were planted, with Brookdale Fruit Farm being one of the first orchards in the country to have EM IX and EM 27 dwarf apple tree orchards.
Brookdale Fruit Farm was an early pioneer of on-farm controlled atmosphere (CA) storage for apples. And it was also one of the first orchards in New Hampshire, starting in the 1970s, to adopt integrated pest management (IPM) practices to reduce the number of pesticides used.
“Innovation is the key to growing the future,” Trevor Hardy says. “Generations before myself and my father, our grandfather and great grandfather had always been innovative in the industry. And if you’re not innovating, you’re not improving. Through those innovations, you have to be OK with trying something new and something different and working with your industry partners. And that’s led us to a lot of success. Everybody has some failures, but if you’re not innovating, you’re not going to improve, and you’re not going to succeed.”
Today that innovation applies to apple production and harvesting methods. “We’re now planting trees in much higher density — 2.5 feet by 12 feet,” Chip Hardy says. “We’re moving forward and getting three or four times the yield and better quality fruit. We’re also moving toward mechanization of harvesting.”
FALLEN LEADER
Tyler Hardy, the younger of Chip’s sons, in just his 30s, had already established himself as one of New Hampshire’s up-and-coming agricultural stars.
“Tyler was an emerging leader in the orcharding community, always pushing the latest techniques forward and generously sharing his knowledge with others,” Jeremy DeLisle, a Field Specialist with UNH Cooperative Extension, says.
“He had become an acknowledged leader in high-density production and a respected figure in New England apple growing,” Wood adds.
Tragically, Tyler, at age 35, died suddenly on June 15, 2019, due to post-injury complications. He is survived by his wife, Madison, and a 2-year-old son, Edwin.
To honor Tyler, his family, on the anniversary of his death, lines up 32 of its tractors along Broad Street.
Meanwhile, in the orchard, the high-density plantings that Tyler had always endorsed have become even more dense since his death.
“Tyler planted every one of those trees,” Chip says, pointing to a row of 3-by-12s. “He wanted them closer like that. Well, when we planted all of these new blocks this year, we planted them 2½ feet apart. We did it for Tyler. We’re growing a fruiting wall for him.”
“The farm really feels his loss, as a horticulturalist, manager, worker, and mentor,” Wood says. “But they soldier on. Chip is running the farm, Trevor is running the irrigation business, and everyone is working on everything. Brookdale will thrive.”
The grower supplies division of Brookdale Fruit Farm distributes irrigation products across the Northeast. Here, Brookdale’s Trevor Hardy touts the benefits of an onsite filter system that filters water from an adjacent pond down to 100 microns to prevent clogging in drip emitters. Photo by Thomas Skernivitz
SUPPLY SIDE
Brookdale continues to excel, thanks in part to its budding venture in irrigation and growing supplies. Most of those products are in use at Brookdale Fruit Farm, allowing potential customers to attend live demonstrations.
“Part of the key to our innovation is we’re not innovative by ourselves,” Trevor Hardy says. “You have to have industry partners, and you have to work with your neighbors and other growers and be able to learn together. Part of the mission here is education and showing others through our supply business how they can improve as well.”
One of those growers is Daniel Hicks, the owner of Sunnycrest Farm in Londonderry, NH.
“Brookdale Farm and the Hardy family are a major contributor to the New Hampshire apple industry,” Hicks says. “Chip Hardy, Trevor Hardy, and the late Tyler Hardy are the type of people who want to do their best and rarely fall short. The level of knowledge this team carries is extremely impressive. The willingness to share this knowledge is what stands out above anything else. It has been a privilege to work alongside this extraordinary family.”
For a complete list of Apple Growers of the Year from 1989 to present, scan through the photo gallery at the top.
445Hail to the 2021 Apple Grower of the Year Winners
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Thomas Skernivitz is Senior Editor, Horticulture Group, at Meister Media Worldwide. See all author stories here.