The Big Apple is a common nickname for New York City, but we think it's an apt descriptor of our friend, Diane Flynt. Diane didn't find the good food job she was craving until a few years ago, nearly 20 years into her professional career. From social work to business banking, the common thread in her work history has been her commitment to educating people. In her latest venture at Foggy Ridge Cider, she's re-introducing America to our national drink: (hard) cider.
What attracted you to a good food job?
Having my hands in the dirt has always been a life ingredient-I've always grown something, whether herbs on a windowsill in college or a quarter acre of melons behind the farmhouse I rented when working as a banker in my 20's. And while I've always grown vegetables and perennials, I've never met a tree I didn't want to plant. Today it gives me great pleasure to know my apple trees will outlive me and produce delicious fruit after I'm gone. So after a long career in corporate America, becoming a farmer felt like coming home.
How did your previous work or life experience prepare you for a good food job?
Being an orchardist and cidermaker is all about solving problems. How to produce good fruit without spraying pesticides? How to capture complex apple flavors in a finished cider? How to keep the tractor running? I like the daily challenge of applying all the skills I honed in my earlier business career to growing apples and making hard cider. To make and sell hard cider you need to be a bureaucrat (there is that little organization called the ABC), a business planner, financial manager and a marketer. You need good skills in the lab and in the fermentation room. And while you might really like to commune with your trees, there are those pesky people who show up wanting to buy your products. I use every skill I developed in my long businesses career every day, and I wish I had more where they came from.
What advice do you have for others in search of a good food job?
Try it on for size. Farming and making wine or cider sounds romantic, but it is a business just like any other business. When I was learning to make cider I took classes and, even better, worked with generous cidermakers who let me try this job on for size. There are many farming apprentice programs out there, and many wine or cidermakers welcome interns. While you won't ever like every single thing about a career, you don't want to chafe against the key tasks you need to perform every day. Though I have to admit I still don't like filling out ABC forms.
If you could be compensated for your work with something other than money, what would it be?
No question. More time. I get up every day with more to do than I can possibly accomplish. I wake up in the night with creative ideas I can't wait to try. I look out the window or walk down the orchard rows with a notepad in hand. There is so much in life to explore and experience. I wish only for more opportunities.