Rod Farrow, who has worked for and with George Lamont for 30 years, took complete ownership of Lamont Fruit Farm last summer.

Rod Farrow, who has worked for and with George Lamont for 30 years, took complete ownership of Lamont Fruit Farm last summer.

Complete ownership of Lamont Fruit Farm in Albion, New York, passed last summer from George Lamont, a sixth-generation fruit grower and well-known apple industry leader, to his long-time protégé Rod Farrow.

Farrow first came to Lamont Fruit Farm in 1980, when he came to this country from England to study fruit production. In 1986, he came back again, this time to work for Lamont. In 1999, he began buying in as a partner, a process that ended in full ownership last summer.

The men became very close. “I lived in George’s house for a year when I came over from England,” Farrow said. “We know each other very well.”

Lamont Fruit Farm operates about 490 acres of apples, 110 of them now on the super spindle design. Most of the fruit is sold fresh wholesale through Lake Ontario Fruit, in which the farm is a partner with six others. Lamont Fruit Farm is vertically integrated with nursery, fruit production, storage, and packing.

Lamont, a 1957 graduate of Cornell University, New York, became a leading voice for the New York apple industry. Now retired, he still comes to the office every day and continues to be heavily involved in the industry, Farrow said.