Their Lucky Day

It was a week of winners at several regional conferences in early December. American/Western Fruit Grower, with the sponsorship of Wilbur-Ellis Co., gave away three John Deere Gators to lucky growers in attendance. The Gator Giveaways, which have become an annual tradition, were conducted on the last day of each of their respective shows.

Doubly Lucky

Talk about getting your operation off on the right foot. Denise Martin will become a grower this month when she and her brother Doug Martin plant 35 acres of almonds in Madera County, the heart of California’s San Joaquin Valley. The property, which is currently pastureland (so it should be a great place to grow almonds) has been in the family for three generations. Now Denise will be able to supervise the planting in style, as she cruises the ranch in the John Deere Gator she won at the Almond Industry Conference in Modesto, CA.

Martin is doubly lucky because she hadn’t planned on going to the show. In fact, she wasn’t going to plant almonds at all, just pistachios. (She and her brother still intend to plant 20 acres of pistachios in March.) But since they decided to put much of the acreage in almonds, she drove down to the conference from her home in Grass Valley. Martin, who spent 30 years as a waitress, came away impressed. “Everybody is so supportive of everybody else, it was just fantastic,” she said before adding with a laugh: “Some of the talks went over my head, but I sat through most of them.”

The last-minute decision to attend the show — she only made up her mind two days earlier — sure was a good one, she said. Not only is she even more enthusiastic about becoming a grower, but she’s going to do it in style in her new Gator. “I’m so excited; that’s going to be great for us,” she said. “It will be a great little workhorse.”

Put To Good Use

The winner of the John Deere Gator at the Washington State Horticultural Association’s annual conference in Wenatchee couldn’t be more different experience-wise than Denise Martin. Mike Van Horn has been growing fruit in the Yakima area for three decades. He farms a total of 200 acres of apples, pears, and cherries at two ranches he owns, one north of Zillah and one in Tieton where he lives with his wife Debbie. (His two sons, Scott and Christopher, are both away at Washington State University.)

Van Horn is certainly a progressive grower, as he farms 10 varieties of apples alone. If all that weren’t enough, he also heads up the field department for Larson Fruit Co. in Selah. “I’ve been growing fruit for 30 years and I’ve entered many contests in that time and never won anything — until now,” he said. “I’m happy because I’m very familiar with the Gator; it’s a very useful tool for us.”

Van Horn’s also a deserving winner because he gets all his crop protection products from Ben Delp at the Yakima office of Wilbur-Ellis. Van Horn will be using the Gator for many cultural practices, such as irrigating, trellis work, and tree training. “It’s a very economical and efficient tool for orchard use,” he says. “I can definitely put it to good use right away.”

A Gift For The Family

When Martha Anderson found out that she had won a John Deere Gator at the Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Market Expo in Grand Rapids, MI, she was stunned. “It felt unbelievable!” she says. Anderson owns Anderson Farm in St. Lois, MI. The property is comprised of 2,000 acres. The Andersons grow 160 acres of organic vegetables including peas, green beans, and squash that they sold to Gerber this year. The most abundant crops on the farm are dry beans, wheat, and field corn.

This was not Anderson’s first trip to the Expo. Her initial experience at the event was three years ago. This year, Anderson attended the Expo on the first day of the show.

Growing runs in the Anderson family; sons Eric and Steve run farms of their own. Anderson anticipates, with a chuckle, that her children will be as excited about her win as she was. “I’ve always wanted a Gator, but I didn’t feel I had the need to justify buying one. I’m sure we’ll find lots of uses for it, though. I’ll probably never see it, because my sons will take it over. Whenever it is around, I can use the Gator to drive around the farm instead of my Jeep!” she says.