Roots
It began on a fruit farm near Onekama in Northern Michigan, located right next to beautiful Lake Michigan. Myself, along with my nine brothers and four sisters, were responsible for helping my dad grow various crops including cherries, apples, nectarines, strawberries, and peaches which we sold in our road side fruit market. Spending countless hours each year thinning small peaches by hand using sticks, plastic baseball bats, and even cherry shakers. I had always thought there would be an easier way to thin peaches. Once grown, and years later, my brothers and I purchased the farm land from my father along with some other property that we still farm to this day.
Tinkering
After working for the railroad for over twenty years, I started working for Bowling’s Enterprise. The Bowling family specializes in welding fabrications. They have built many different hydro seeders and have a patent on “The Bowling’s Last Stand” – a Christmas tree stand. During this time I had developed the idea of having a hand held blossom thinner. I had tinkered around at the Bowling’s shops, trying different ideas out for years. I would bounce ideas off of the Bowlings, and through trial and error, I finally developed the finished product of the “Cinch” multi-use thinner.
Patent
I have spent a lot of time in my own peach orchards testing this new invention. After working in my own orchard, and seeing how efficient the “Cinch” is at removing blossoms, I decided to take the necessary steps to patent the “Cinch”. This way, I could market this new product with the hopes of helping other farmers such as myself save on time and labor. The “Cinch” was marked patent pending in June 2011. Since the patent was marked, we have created a positive buzz around the growing community, see our Testimonials page for more info.
Expos
My wife and I have attended a few trade shows and expos. Our first debut was in at the Great Lakes Fruit and Vegetable Expo in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2011.The most recent expo we attended was in Hershey, Pennsylvania. This was the busiest show we have attended so far, and they also are excited. We sparked interest in a new category of growers that had not yet been approached: sweet cherry growers. These growers that were interested are hoping that by using the “Cinch”, they can produce those large, coveted, sweet cherries that everyone is hoping for.