Family Tree Farms begins R&D program to achieve better, more consistent fruit flavor
Family Tree Farms begins R&D program to achieve better, more consistent fruit flavor
REEDLEY, CA -- Family Tree Farms, here, has announced the addition of Eric Wuhl to its staff as director of research and development, overseeing all activities of the company's new research and development center that is scheduled to be operational in about a month. The announcement was made in a Jan. 28 press release.
Mr. Wuhl is a stone fruit grower and breeder, although his role at Family Tree Farms will not involve breeding but rather the evaluation of new varieties to determine whether they are viable from a cultural standpoint in the central San Joaquin Valley and whether they meet the company's flavor criteria.
He is also a licensed pest-control advisor and a long-time practitioner of integrated pest management. He has experience in produce wholesaling as well, having grown up working with his father, Michael Wuhl, in the family's wholesale produce business, Wuhl-Shafman-Lieberman, in New Jersey.
According to Don Goforth, director of marketing at Family Tree Farms, one of the major purposes of the company's new R&D center, and one of Mr. Wuhl's major tasks, will be to assure that the consumer's "eating experience" when buying fruit from Family Tree Farms in the local supermarket "is as near as possible to the eating experience we have on the ranch" when eating a piece of fruit right off the tree.
"What we love is when the consumer says, 'Every time I walk into this store, they've got the best peaches there," Mr. Goforth told The Produce News. "What we are after is to send her home [from the supermarket] a hero every single time."
In overseeing the Family Tree Farms R&D center, Mr. Wuhl will focus on choosing varieties that are viable from a farming standpoint and that will provide consumer satisfaction, said Dave Jackson, an owner of the company. The goal, he said, is to get to the consumer a piece of fruit so good that "when she picks it up and eats it, [she] says, 'Wow! This is the best I ever had.' That is what we are after every time."
Family Tree Farms specializes in varieties of stone fruit selected for their flavor, including a number of proprietary varieties from breeding programs both in the United States and overseas.
"We work with top-notch breeders from all over the planet," including such countries as Israel, Australia, France and Spain, Mr. Goforth said. When the varieties are brought to the United States for propagation, "one of the things we have to do first and foremost is to find out how it is going to do here." So we need to evaluate these trees from an agricultural standpoint" to determine "how they are going to perform here. But beyond that, "we want to grow a product that the consumer is going to love, and we don't want to do that by accident. We want to do that with forward thinking and research and technology to make good, solid decisions."
Mr. Wuhl's responsibilities will be multi-faceted, Mr. Goforth said. In addition to evaluating varieties, he will be responsible for helping to determine the best cultural and post-harvest practices for each variety to assure delivery to the consumer of high-quality, great-tasting fruit.
According to Mr. Jackson, he is well qualified for the task. "He is culturally oriented. He has been in the fields. He has been a [pest-control adviser]. He has looked at pruning techniques all around the valley" as well as thinning, integrated pest control and other cultural practices. "He has seen fruit grown right." As a plant breeder who has himself patented several plum varieties grown in California and elsewhere, he also knows what characteristics breeders are looking for in their work, thus making him better able to evaluate new varieties in the R&D center.
Those evaluations are not being done "in a test tube," he said. "It is going to be in the field." The R&D center will allow for evaluations under actual farming conditions.
"We are so happy to have Eric join the family," he said.
Mr. Wuhl moved from the East Coast to California in 1972 to work with Peters & Garabedian, a fruit-farming operation. At the time, Richard Peters was growing "some of the finest tree fruit that money could by," Mr. Wuhl said. Later, he began farming on his own, got a pest-control adviser's license, earned a bachelor of science degree from California State University-Fresno, and then "led three lives: breeder, pest control adviser and farmer," all at the same time, he said.
That experience enables him "to recognize the desired characteristics needed to grow flavorful, highly marketable fruit," according to the company press release.
"Before we plant any new variety on a large scale, we evaluate its flavor profile and its production capabilities over a few years," Mr. Wuhl said. One of his early projects will be "the development of a 'flavor matrix' or a rating scale, based on the preferences of real consumers."
He will also work with Mr. Goforth on developing "a set of best practices for retail that is specific to each variety if necessary."
Beginning this summer, the new Family Tree Farms R&D center will become a featured stop on the company's Flavor Tech University tour, an educational program focusing on store-level personnel that the company has hosted for its retail partners for the past five years, Mr. Goforth said.
The company is "working very hard" to satisfy the end consumer, said Mr. Jackson. "But our relationship is with our retail partners," and the objective is to provide them with a product "that they can sell more of at a better price point" because customers want it and keep coming back for it. The idea, he said, is to "sell more fruit by raising the consumption."
Mr. Wuhl is a stone fruit grower and breeder, although his role at Family Tree Farms will not involve breeding but rather the evaluation of new varieties to determine whether they are viable from a cultural standpoint in the central San Joaquin Valley and whether they meet the company's flavor criteria.
He is also a licensed pest-control advisor and a long-time practitioner of integrated pest management. He has experience in produce wholesaling as well, having grown up working with his father, Michael Wuhl, in the family's wholesale produce business, Wuhl-Shafman-Lieberman, in New Jersey.
According to Don Goforth, director of marketing at Family Tree Farms, one of the major purposes of the company's new R&D center, and one of Mr. Wuhl's major tasks, will be to assure that the consumer's "eating experience" when buying fruit from Family Tree Farms in the local supermarket "is as near as possible to the eating experience we have on the ranch" when eating a piece of fruit right off the tree.
"What we love is when the consumer says, 'Every time I walk into this store, they've got the best peaches there," Mr. Goforth told The Produce News. "What we are after is to send her home [from the supermarket] a hero every single time."
In overseeing the Family Tree Farms R&D center, Mr. Wuhl will focus on choosing varieties that are viable from a farming standpoint and that will provide consumer satisfaction, said Dave Jackson, an owner of the company. The goal, he said, is to get to the consumer a piece of fruit so good that "when she picks it up and eats it, [she] says, 'Wow! This is the best I ever had.' That is what we are after every time."
Family Tree Farms specializes in varieties of stone fruit selected for their flavor, including a number of proprietary varieties from breeding programs both in the United States and overseas.
"We work with top-notch breeders from all over the planet," including such countries as Israel, Australia, France and Spain, Mr. Goforth said. When the varieties are brought to the United States for propagation, "one of the things we have to do first and foremost is to find out how it is going to do here." So we need to evaluate these trees from an agricultural standpoint" to determine "how they are going to perform here. But beyond that, "we want to grow a product that the consumer is going to love, and we don't want to do that by accident. We want to do that with forward thinking and research and technology to make good, solid decisions."
Mr. Wuhl's responsibilities will be multi-faceted, Mr. Goforth said. In addition to evaluating varieties, he will be responsible for helping to determine the best cultural and post-harvest practices for each variety to assure delivery to the consumer of high-quality, great-tasting fruit.
According to Mr. Jackson, he is well qualified for the task. "He is culturally oriented. He has been in the fields. He has been a [pest-control adviser]. He has looked at pruning techniques all around the valley" as well as thinning, integrated pest control and other cultural practices. "He has seen fruit grown right." As a plant breeder who has himself patented several plum varieties grown in California and elsewhere, he also knows what characteristics breeders are looking for in their work, thus making him better able to evaluate new varieties in the R&D center.
Those evaluations are not being done "in a test tube," he said. "It is going to be in the field." The R&D center will allow for evaluations under actual farming conditions.
"We are so happy to have Eric join the family," he said.
Mr. Wuhl moved from the East Coast to California in 1972 to work with Peters & Garabedian, a fruit-farming operation. At the time, Richard Peters was growing "some of the finest tree fruit that money could by," Mr. Wuhl said. Later, he began farming on his own, got a pest-control adviser's license, earned a bachelor of science degree from California State University-Fresno, and then "led three lives: breeder, pest control adviser and farmer," all at the same time, he said.
That experience enables him "to recognize the desired characteristics needed to grow flavorful, highly marketable fruit," according to the company press release.
"Before we plant any new variety on a large scale, we evaluate its flavor profile and its production capabilities over a few years," Mr. Wuhl said. One of his early projects will be "the development of a 'flavor matrix' or a rating scale, based on the preferences of real consumers."
He will also work with Mr. Goforth on developing "a set of best practices for retail that is specific to each variety if necessary."
Beginning this summer, the new Family Tree Farms R&D center will become a featured stop on the company's Flavor Tech University tour, an educational program focusing on store-level personnel that the company has hosted for its retail partners for the past five years, Mr. Goforth said.
The company is "working very hard" to satisfy the end consumer, said Mr. Jackson. "But our relationship is with our retail partners," and the objective is to provide them with a product "that they can sell more of at a better price point" because customers want it and keep coming back for it. The idea, he said, is to "sell more fruit by raising the consumption."
