Good Fruit Grower

54 APRIL 1, 2017 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com LAST BITE More Young Growers at goodfruit.com/yg Brett Grobe grower / Elyria, Ohio age / 21 crops / Apple and diversifi ed vegetable crops business / Grobe Fruit Farm family background / Brett is a sixth-generation fruit and vegetable grower in northern Ohio near Lake Erie. Grobe Fruit Farm includes about 150 acres of apples for retail and wholesale, as well as a juice facility. He is the son of Allen and Laurie Grobe. " " " " How did you get your start? I grew up in a family that's been farming for awhile. Around my junior year of high school, when the kids in school were really looking at careers, I was looked at as "the farm kid," and I've always liked that. I like the opportunities that come with working for yourself. Tell me about your farm and neighboring farms. There's a lot of growers along the lakeshore and in southern por- tions of the state where they take advantage of the more mountainous terrain for frost protection. The majority of the apples we grow are Fuji, Gala and other commercial varieties; however, we have challenges growing Honeycrisp well. Most of the fruit that we grow is for fresh market production. Even though the growing base in Ohio is rela- tively small, compared to other states, there's a close connection between all the state's growers. About 90 percent of the tree fruit is sold under one cooperative; we are all growing and selling together. What are some of your farm's challenges? The region I grow in is incredibly rocky and has large plates of sandstone. It makes it diffi cult to trellis trees at times. The beams will sometimes just explode when the excavator pushes them into the ground. They just blow up like a toothpick; it's pretty scary. That sandstone helps wick away moisture, so when we do get a trellis into the ground, the trees do really well. The trees maintain a strong vigor, even in dry conditions. Ohio also has really strange weather patterns that can change some 30 to 40 degrees. Our farm, which is close to Cleveland, is known for its wacky weather. We also get very hot and dry summers. Because we've been getting ex- ceptionally dry the past few seasons, we've imple- mented irrigation systems on our trees to help out on our high-density plantings. We're worried about severe drought harming overall production. Why are you a farmer? There's so many dynamic changes happening in agriculture these days — from technology and fruit growing in general. It's totally different than it was 20 years ago. It's an exciting time to be in the history of farming and those changes are what's inspired me the most. " ...food safety courses have been an incredible asset to me, and I hope to manage the food safety program on my farm. PLAY goodfruit.com/yg scan to watch the interview www.gslong.com SPONSORED BY by TJ Mullinax More from this interview and other Young Growers at goodfruit.com/yg.

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