Well here we are, moving steadily into a new year!
For the past few days I have been pondering; "What to write about this week?
With a touch of irony, I picked up a short YouTube story on LINKEDIN on Thursday morning featuring Kyle Mathison from Stemilt in Wenatchee, Washington State USA, referencing Cherries, a major pert of the family business; Stemilt
His subject SNOW - "The deeper the better"
Click on: Kyle Mathison explains benefit of winter snow
Meet a man who certainly needs no introduction. Known for his blue jean overalls, ponytail and passion for nurturing his fruit trees, fourth generation farmer Kyle Mathison gets up each day with one mission in mind - to grow World Famous fruit.
The subject seemed a perfect story as back in early November 2001, "just a couple of months after the day that became 9/11 and shook the world, I visited Stemilt as part of my technical role with Worldwide Fruit Ltd with colleagues from WFL we accompanied Sainsburys Organic Fruit buyer and Technical Manager regarding the importation of Organic Apples from Stemilt". I have never forgotten that visit as the scale of Stemilt "blew the mind away"
West Mathison
Click on: Meet the Mathisons
Like many that grew up in a farming family, West Mathison earned his first job at an astonishingly early age. At six, he was tasked with making and serving cookies and coffee to the orchard crews during their breaks! The older West got, the more his responsibilities grew, and soon enough he found himself fulfilling various roles in the family's fruit packing business at Stemilt.
In 2005, West, a fifth generation farmer, was handed the reigns to Stemilt by his grandfather and the company's late founder, Tom Mathison. He became president of the company at the young age of 28. Now, over a decade later, West continues to carry on the traditions his grandfather began, while also driving growth at Stemilt for the future.
Tate Mathison looks at a year's preparation
Click on: Tate Mathison talks cherry growing at Stemilt
Tate Mathison knows the value of hard work. Since a young age, Tate has been tasked with every kind of farming job one can think of. From learning what it takes to grow organics to knowing the exact weight of a perfect cherry lug, Tate has been around every aspect of the business to fully understand it inside and out. He can look down an orchard row and know down to the date when it was planted and what variety the trees produce, even if it's a season when fruit isn't on the tree!
Today, Tate, a fifth-generation farmer, helps oversee Stemilt's sales department as Sales Director. Nothing gets him more excited than helping ship Stemilt's World Famous fruits to destinations across the world. But, he is also true to his roots and you'll often find Tate out in the orchards to help with harvest or down at the packing line to see and taste the quality of fruit making it into a Stemilt box.
100 Years of Family Farming and Innovation
1893: Our Homestead Roots
The Mathison family homesteaded 160 acres in 1893 on Stemilt Hill near the town of Wenatchee, Washington. The family's deed to the land would remain in place as long as they were farming it. Initially, they ran a subsistence farm that produced staples for the family and enough wheat to sell to sustain a living. First generation farmer Thomas Cyle Mathison became a founding partner of the Stemilt Creek Irrigation Company, helping to bring water to his land, which ultimately set the stage for the family's first orchards.
1947: Young Tom Leads The Farm
After serving in World War II, Tom returned home to resume work on the family farm. Shortly after, his father Chris died tragically in a farming accident, and Tom was left to lead the farm. Over the next decade, the family struggled to keep the farm going. Tom married Lorraine Goldy in 1950 and the couple quickly started a family, with Bob born in 1951, Kyle in 1952 and Lavonne in 1953.
In 1964, founder Tom Mathison gave his new company the name Stemilt because he wanted people-no matter where they were in the world-to know where the fruit they purchased came from. We're glad he did because now you can associate Stemilt with the 'world famous' flavours that we strive to grow each day.
Click on: Mathison Family History - Stemilt
Stemilt is a Native American word meaning "coming from the mountains" or "foothills to the mountains." Surprisingly, it doesn't come from our founding family (the Mathisons) surname, but rather the Stemilt Hill locale near Wenatchee, WA, where they've lived and farmed for more than a century.
There is no place in the world like Stemilt Hill.
Stemilt Hill overlooks the Columbia River and is where lush, green fruit trees reside on hillsides at varying elevations all located against the Cascade Mountains. It's where the arid climate, volcanic soils, and high-elevation microclimates combine to create one of the best places in the world to grow apples, pears, and cherries.
Read on by.....
Click on: What's in a name
To finish the Stemilt story, take a look at the Video featuring Kyle Mathison's Moon Cherries
Click on: Moon Cherries
The English Apple Man Comments
I hope my readers enjoy this article as much as I did 24 years ago when I visited Stemilt and met members of the Mathison family.
As a group we met the legendary TOM MATHISON and briefly Kyle Mathison, who if I remember rightly joined us on his Harley Davidson complete with that 'pony tail' flowing in the breeze.
We returned home on Saturday, but>"early" that morning, the Mathisons arranged for us to over Lake Chelan in a 1954 seaplane piloted by a local who looked 'older than the seaplane' and as we climbed high above the mountains, sitting directly behind him thought; "what happens if he has a heart attack" mentioning this later to the young (and adventurous Sainsburys Tech) he replied, "no worries, I'm sure I could have got us down safely!!!!
Concluding
I mentioned our reason for visiting Stemilt was for organic apples and the reason the region is perfect for growing organically is - In Wenatchee, the summers are hot, dry, and mostly clear and the winters are very cold, snowy, and partly cloudy. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from -4 degrees C to 32 degrees C and is rarely below -11 degrees C or above 37 degrees C.
And as my former technical colleague used to say: To grow organic apples, "you need to farm in a desert with ample water availability! Hence low rainfall and one of the worlds great rivers running through it!
That is all for this week 
Take care
The English Apple Man