Autumn is generally synonymous with brightly colored leaves; pumpkin carving; and family outings to the local apple orchard to pick apples, drink cider, and possibly to eat one—or 12—apple cider doughnuts. But while you and your kids are going tree to tree picking the right apples to take home, elsewhere workers at commercial apple orchards are working vigorously to gather their crops quickly and efficiently.

Oddly enough, the process of picking apples hasn’t changed all that much, if ever. Phil Brown and his company, Phil Brown Welding, of Conklin, Mich., might be the ones to change all of that thanks to the Apple Harvester, a machine the company designed and fabricated that makes picking apples easier and faster and allows for picking at night, not just during daylight hours.

A New Spin on an Old Process

Brown and his family are no strangers to the agriculture industry. Brown’s father was a fruit grower so he had plenty of experience in the day-to-day operations of a farm. He also was exposed to the ingenuity that so many farmers needed back when technology wasn’t as advanced as it is today. Many times if they needed something—a tool or to fix a piece of equipment—they did it themselves.

Brown opened Phil Brown Welding in 1964, and for 49 years he has designed and fabricated 35 machines for fruit and vegetable farms, greenhouses, and nurseries.