Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/603228
50 DECEMBER 2015 Good Fruit Grower www.goodfruit.com The Good Fruit Grower of the Year award is bestowed annually by Good Fruit Grower magazine to an innovating and inspiring grower or family in North America and is presented during the Washington State Tree Fruit Association's Annual Meeting in December. The magazine's advisory board makes the selection. Todd Newhouse, a fellow grower who has served with Roy on the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers board, views him as a kindred spirit. Both studied at small, liberal arts colleges—Roy at Gonzaga University in Spokane, where he earned degrees in history and philosophy, and Newhouse at Whitman College in Walla Walla—before return- ing home. The difference: Newhouse's father is still working the land alongside him. "To take 100 percent of the reins at a young age, without a lot of experience, is phenomenal," Newhouse said. "To not only main- tain it, but to grow." Roy said he's always pictured himself as the underdog, "and I think that mindset has served me very well." It's a cliché in this industry, he said, but farming is a constant evolution. "Either you contin- ually improve and try to figure out how to do things better or figure out what the market wants, or you don't and you go away. I honestly think that's what drives the passion in this industry." And, he added, "I don't ever want to get complacent." A family farm Roy's great-grandfather was a migrant laborer who picked hops by hand and earned enough money to buy a plot of land in Moxee, just east of Yakima. In the 1960s, his grandfather picked up and moved the operation to the lower Yakima Valley, and over time, his father, Stan, added fruit orchards and some vineyards. Roy, meanwhile, went away to college. He grad- uated, spent four months backpacking in Central America and a couple of months trekking the Himalayas in Nepal, then returned to pursue a mas- ter's degree at Reed College in Portland. He stayed one semester before returning home to a farm that was in need of a revamp. His father pretty much handed over the decision making to Roy, who was just 23. Two years later, his parents left the farm, his father ready to retire. "Looking back, it's almost embarrassingly unso- phisticated how I approached how to do things, and there's plenty of mistakes as evidence to that," he said with a laugh. "But I had parents who saw potential in me and confidence to let me do it my own way." "Everything I learned about agriculture I learned here on the farm, from the ground up, because I had to," he said. "It made for a slow start." Keith Oliver, who manages the neighboring orchard owned by Olsen Brothers and has served as a mentor of sorts to Roy over the years, also noted the steep learning curve to modernize Oasis Farms. "He asked then, and still does ask, a lot of questions: 'What are you doing? Why? Why is this density better than that density? What if the rows aren't running north-south?'" Oliver said. "He's obviously a smart guy, and he turned that farm around in a hurry." Grapes Oasis Farms had only about 40 acres of wine grapes when Roy assumed control, but the market was strong. He spent five or six years focused on growing the farm's wine grape acreage to meet increasing demand. At that time, he said, "clones weren't talked about as they are now. We just planted what the wineries wanted, and we utilized the wineries' advice about what varieties would do better at different sites: Chardonnay, Merlot, Riesling, and Cabernet Sauvignon." Today Oasis Farms grows 11 varieties of wine grapes, including those original plantings. Newer varieties include Malbec, Grenache, Sangiovese, and Petit Verdot. The bulk of the production goes to big players, but Oasis Farms also sells to a handful of boutique-sized wineries to work more closely with winemakers and delve into the nuances of grape-growing. Marty Clubb of L'Ecole No. 41 in Walla Walla, Washington, sources Chardonnay grapes from Oasis Farms. Clubb said Roy recognizes that wine grapes are not a commodity crop. "It's more about getting the right balance of acidity, minerality. Putting on that hat that changes you from a quantity crop to a quality crop is sometimes challenging, but he and his team understand the unique difference." Clubb said he knew Oasis Farms had potential to produce high-quality grapes, given the location and elevation of the vineyards. Then it came down to Brenton Roy, right, and Oasis Farms Production Manager Derek Hill look over the harvest of Envy apples. "Everything I learned about agriculture I learned here on the farm, from the ground up, because I had to."