household background/ Robert is a fourth-generation farmer who studied enterprise and accounting at Central Washington College earlier than returning to the household farm. He’s the son of Kathy and Rick Pittman, and his grandfather was Harold Pittman. age/ 33hometown/ Manson, Washingtoncrops/ apples and pearsrole/ crop managerbusiness/ Pitt-Cease Orchards
Why did you go into farming?
I imagine you have to like to be exterior to be a farmer and in addition place a excessive worth on the time you spend with your loved ones. Once I obtained residence from faculty, my mother and pa had been residence for dinner each night time, as a result of he spent his early mornings within the orchard. That was an enormous factor for me when on the lookout for a profession. I may have performed different issues and possibly made a heck of much more cash than what I’m doing now, however I wouldn’t be anyplace as comfortable as I’m proper now. Farming is greater than a greenback worth. You’re going to be rather a lot happier being with your loved ones, your shut mates and your co-workers. It’s superior.
What’s the household’s historical past in farming?
My grandfather was in enterprise with Boeing, then he began Pittman Bros. Orchards and beloved it. He was rather a lot happier switching to agriculture and dealing for himself and together with his brother. My father did one thing comparable: labored as an engineer, made some huge cash, didn’t have a variety of household time. He obtained away from that when he went into farming. He realized he ought to’ve gone into ag sooner in his profession. For me, I went to varsity loving robotics and needed to enter IT as a profession. I noticed the writing on the wall that a variety of expertise was heading to the farm, and I believed it might have a rising influence on how we produce fruit. Once I returned, I used to be accountable for bringing expertise and fashionable strategies to the farm to enhance what we do.
What had been a few of your challenges getting began?
Once I got here again, all the things was fairly outdated. We didn’t have any fashionable varieties — didn’t even have any Honeycrisp. The most recent selection we had was from the ’80s, with the Fujis in all probability being our most fashionable crop. One of many causes my grandfather didn’t like most of the new varieties was due to tree well being administration. Even when everybody mentioned they tasted nice, it didn’t matter as a result of they had been exhausting to develop. One of many first issues I did was search for new varieties that will even be a really wholesome tree to handle. With no wholesome tree, you’re not going to have a wholesome crop. I used to be on the lookout for the most effective high-coloring selection and preferred the storage qualities of Cosmic Crisp (WA 38) and SugarBee. Listening to that WA 38 is an apple that may go within the grocery retailer or your fridge and it stays good for a month blew me away. I assumed — wow — that’s fully totally different than a variety of the outdated varieties that you just reduce as much as eat, and for those who don’t eat them immediately, they’re beginning to flip brown and get dangerous. Storage of the fruit is all the time a giant, huge factor with transferring your product worldwide. So, if it shops higher, you need to be capable to promote that apple properly over a larger time period. That’s the place the older varieties like a Golden Scrumptious wrestle as a result of they’re finest recent off the tree. They’re a terrific apple, however they decay so quick, it’s extraordinarily exhausting to get these into the market on the appropriate time.
What’s your perspective with operating a small farm?
The largest factor for a small farm is ensuring your high quality is best than another grower. The one means you’re going to be worthwhile is while you produce the highest-quality fruit since you don’t have the amount to provide a second-grade fruit. It’s simply not going to work. It’s extraordinarily hands-on work for positive, and when you have older bushes and varieties that don’t colour properly, it’s powerful. You’re compelled to attempt totally different pruning strategies, spraying or irrigation processes to attempt to get as a lot colour into these fruits as potential. The market calls for good colour. And if the fruit isn’t worthwhile as a result of your colour isn’t there, you’ll must take a leap and do one thing like graft a brand new apple selection onto that older tree and roll the cube on one thing which will work or might not.
—by TJ Mullinax
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