Frederick and I arrived at the large office building in the middle of the farm, where they were in the midst of repairing the water lines. It was a place that handled the farm’s various affairs, maintained all kinds of machinery, and served as a rest area for the workers. Chloe and Brandon were there as well.
“You’re changing the variety right away? No!”
Before I could even properly broach the subject, Brandon raised his voice and objected.
“We’re just going to hear him out.”
“You spent a fortune tilling the land and doing the irrigation work! What if you change the variety too and it goes wrong? Then there’ll be no going back!”
“I know. That’s why we’re hearing him out.”
Brandon’s face flushed as red as if he’d drunk an entire bottle of wine, and he flared his nostrils as he snapped at me.
“How much would it cost to change the variety?”
“Hmm… If you replace all of it, I’d say at least two million dollars? That’s a minimum estimate, so it could go a little higher.”
“You heard him! Two million dollars! That’s about the same as our farm’s annual revenue!”
As Brandon hopped up and down in agitation, Frederick said calmly,
“We make far more than that.”
“Still, it’s a huge amount of money…”
At that moment, Chloe, who had been glaring with her arms crossed, shouted,
“Will you please shut up! We’re not saying we’re definitely doing it, we’re saying we’ll hear him out!”
“You shut up!”
Just as the siblings were about to start fighting again, Frederick shouted with a stern expression.
“Enough!”
“......”
“......”
“This is my decision. And Brandon, you have your walnut farm. You don’t have any rights over the cherry farm. Just like Chloe can’t tell you what to do with your walnut farm.”
“But…”
“Tsk…!”
When Frederick sharply furrowed his brow, Brandon, who looked exactly like him, quietly shut his mouth and sat down. Once things had grown a little quieter, Frederick turned his head toward me.
At his slightly apologetic expression, I gave an awkward smile before opening my mouth.
“Before I talk about the three varieties I mentioned earlier, let me first explain why the Bing cherries currently being grown at Harris Farm aren’t ideal. In the case of Bing cherries, first, they mature late. You harvest them from late May to early June. The problem is that cherry prices are highest in early May because of scarcity. Once Bing cherries hit the market in large quantities, you can’t command a high price.”
“That’s true.”
“Second, the quality isn’t uniform enough. There are variations in sugar content as well.”
At that, Chloe asked,
“You said that could be controlled by applying fertilizer at the right time and managing moisture.”
“That’s right, it can. But what I’m saying is that the variety itself has limitations. Fundamentally, Bing cherries have a tendency for their skins to crack easily under rainwater and excessive moisture.”
“Ah…”
“Third, the flesh is relatively soft, which makes it unfavorable for long-distance transport, and its refrigerated storability is poor, so it’s difficult to ship over long distances. Because of that, it’s mostly consumed within the United States, and since it’s hard to find more consumers, it’s difficult for wholesale prices to rise.”
At my words, Frederick nodded, clearly agreeing. Since I had said exactly what he must have felt while distributing Bing cherries all this time, it could not help but be highly persuasive.
“As I said before, rather than replacing the variety, the first priority is proper fertilization and moisture control. That alone will have a sufficient effect. But if you go beyond that and change the variety, a whole new world you haven’t seen before will open up. And by that new world, I mean new consumers.”
“You’re saying we’ll have more customers?”
“That’s right. The first variety is Coral Champagne. You probably know it.”
“Yes, I know it well. Coral is the main variety around the Central Valley.”
“Yes. This variety has a very early harvest period. It can be harvested in mid-May, late May at the latest, so the fact that you can put it on the market first is an enormous advantage. You know that in the early market, demand always exceeds supply, so prices are set two to three times higher.”
“Of course, I know that well.”
“Also, its flavor is soft and sweet, with a suitable level of acidity still present, so customers will like its fresh impression. It’s good to eat on its own, and it also suits salads and desserts.”
Frederick gave a slight nod, and I immediately continued with the second.
“The second is Royal Tioga. This one isn’t very well known, but Zaiger Genetics—a California breeding company, a world-famous family of fruit breeders—is promoting it now as part of a breeding program for distribution to farms.”
“Ah… yes, I’ve heard of it!”
“But you ignored it, didn’t you?”
“Ahem… I wasn’t sure. I can’t be the one to take the lead and experiment with it.”
“That’s understandable. But Royal is a variety with clear advantages. It’s harvested slightly later than Coral, around early to mid-June. That’s roughly the same period as Bing cherries, but the flesh is firm and the sugar content is high, so it holds up well in transport and has strengths in fresh distribution. The color is a vivid red, so it looks excellent as well. It’s suitable for export, and its price range remains more stable compared to Coral. It’s also the sweetest, with sugar content reaching up to 21 Brix. According to Zaiger’s explanation, of course. Personally, I think it’s reliable.”
This Royal Tioga would later become one of the main varieties in the California cherry market, together with Royal Hazel and Royal Lynn.
“Oh…”
“The last is Sweetheart, developed in Canada. Its harvest period is the latest, in early July. So if you continue with Coral, Royal Tioga, and then Sweetheart, you can divide the harvest over nearly two months, from mid-May to early July. If the harvest period is extended, you don’t have to concentrate all the laborers at once, and you have the advantage of being able to supply the market continuously. However, in terms of sugar content and flavor, it’s less distinctive than Coral or Royal, so it’s an auxiliary variety for risk diversification.”
“I see.”
I stopped speaking and watched Frederick’s reaction. He was looking down at the floor, deep in thought, while Brandon was watching his father closely. His desperate hope that his father would not change the variety was painfully obvious.
“So you’re saying cultivating all three at the same time is for risk management and maximizing profit?”
“That’s right. Roughly a 3:5:2 ratio? The strategy would be to set Royal Tioga at 50 percent and maximize profits by putting forward a premium variety.”
To be honest, from my perspective, the best thing would be for Mr. Frederick to invest boldly and completely change the farm’s constitution. I knew that if he did, the income that would come back to me would be enormous. However, since doing that would put a heavy burden on Frederick, I hadn’t actively proposed it.
“Hmm… Certainly, if we spread out the harvest period, we can reduce climate risk and labor burden. More than anything, it would be much more stable against price fluctuations than relying only on a single variety of Bing cherry.”
“That’s right.”
“Then what about you? If we change the variety like this, there must be something good for making wine too.”
“Whatever we use, it won’t be worse than Bing cherries, but if I had to find the most suitable among them, I’d say Royal Tioga. Well, you can decide that later.”
Frederick moistened his lips with his tongue. What showed in his eyes was not hesitation, but intense desire.
“…In theory, it’s perfect.”
“It isn’t perfect only in theory. Coral and Sweetheart have been proven not by theory but by actual cases as well. They’re in UC Davis research materials, and there are already farms in other regions that have succeeded with them. However, if we introduce Royal Tioga and try it first, we could become the most profitable farm in Brentwood.”
Frederick bit his lip and made a smile that was not quite a smile.
“So all of this would cost an additional two million dollars?”
“Um… there are several ways to do it.”
“But it’ll take at least five years, won’t it?”
“That’s right. So this is where it becomes important… If you do change varieties, I’d recommend topworking rather than buying nursery trees.”
“Topworking, huh…? Hmm…”
“First of all, if you bring in nursery trees and grow them from scratch over five years, there’s far too little income during those five years.”
“That’s what worries me too. But it’s the most stable method.”
“That’s right. In the case of Coral or Sweetheart, they’re already being cultivated elsewhere, so you can obtain two- or three-year-old nursery trees. They’re a bit expensive, though… If you do that, the five-year period can be shortened to about three years, but the problem is, as I said earlier, they’re very expensive. You really have to consider more than two million dollars.”
“From that point of view, grafting is definitely cheaper.”
Frederick, who had farmed before, had naturally experienced grafting, so the conversation was not difficult.
“If you topwork, I can’t say for certain, but it should be possible at roughly one-ninth to one-eighth the cost of simply buying nursery trees. Probably from two hundred fifty thousand dollars to, at most, four hundred thousand? And what’s even better is that the first commercial harvest comes a year earlier. Compared to planting raw nursery trees, it’s three years faster.”
The reason the cost difference was this large was that buying branches was far cheaper than buying nursery trees. Even if you added labor costs and royalties on top of that, it would be at most around fifteen hundred dollars per acre, so three hundred thousand dollars would be enough to cover all two hundred acres.
“See! It’s possible to do it much cheaper!”
Chloe immediately sprang to her feet and shouted at Brandon as if she had won. Brandon turned his head away as if he didn’t want to hear it.
On the other hand, since this meant the farm’s varieties could be completely replaced in a short period without a major loss in revenue, Frederick’s mouth was practically watering.
“With Zaiger Genetics, it won’t be the same as buying scion wood from a nursery, will it?”
“That’s right. You’ll probably have to sign a trial cultivation contract with Zaiger Genetics. There’ll be licensing and contract costs, but it should be cheaper than purchasing scion wood from a nursery.”
“Mm… So if we topwork, we can change all two hundred acres for only around three hundred thousand dollars?”
“That’s right. But the downside is that topworking does sometimes fail, and there are risks of pests and diseases, so it requires a lot of attention.”
“Won’t Chloe work hard on that?”
At Frederick’s words, Chloe’s eyes wavered slightly, but she soon squared her shoulders with confidence.
“Just leave it to me.”
“...... In any case, since it will take two to three years to generate commercial profit, I think it would be better to change it over the course of three years.”
“I have no intention of changing it all at once either.”
“Still, if there’s one bit of good news, it’s that we might be able to negotiate the price with Zaiger Genetics as their first large-scale variety introduction, wouldn’t you say?”
“Haha, you little… To think a mere twenty-year-old would say something like this. I can hardly believe it. … Fine. First, I’ll have to check whether we can obtain the nursery stock. And I’ll ask Zaiger too.”
I hadn’t expected him to make the decision right here on the spot, so I asked with a somewhat curious expression,
“You could take your time deciding. Or is this because of that Mr. William Hartford?”
At the mention of William, Chloe’s brow furrowed sharply.
“Is that pig trying to combine our cherries with his again?”
“You know about it?”
“Of course I do. William’s Hartford Farms keeps pushing down the unit price with volume. But their quality isn’t all that good. Our cherries are better. So he keeps trying to combine our cherries with theirs and put them on the market together.”
I looked at Frederick.
“Is that what’s going on?”
“That’s right. I distribute our farm’s cherries separately, and because of that, retailers sometimes value our cherries a little higher when they take them. From William’s perspective, our farm must be a thorn in his side. That’s why he’s trying to force us like that.”
“Ah… so that’s why…”
I had wondered why he looked at William with such discomfort, and apparently this was the reason. Then something suddenly flashed through my mind, and I immediately said to Chloe,
“You knew your dad was working this hard, and you still didn’t pay attention to the cherry farm?”
Chloe’s eyes shook greatly for an instant, and then she suddenly spoke in a voice that grew smaller and smaller.
“No, I knew, but… it wasn’t like there was anything I could do… The cherries are Dad’s thing…”
“Ha. I can understand why he considered selling the farm.”
Frederick looked deeply moved.
“As expected, you understand my heart. Do you think I’ve only said this once or twice? Whenever these two heard something like this, they’d just get angry, and when I actually told them to help with some work, they’d always run away.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk…”
When the conversation turned against them, the siblings quietly turned their heads away.
“In any case, I support you, sir.”
“You’re far better than my own children. Hmph…”
Frederick looked at his children, who had quietly turned their heads away, and shook his head.