In the news

Henrietta Akpata (née “Okeke”)

Henrietta was a National merit scholar, invited to intern at the Lawrence Livermore

National Laboratory, California; she wrote several papers on the protocols later

developed into AI Algorithms, co-authoring papers published at international

conferences on the topic.

Opting for a commercial career as opposed to the top academic track she was on, she

utilized her JAVA skills as a lead Engineer at FileNet Inc. to co-author the software

program called WORKFLO for the Web.

Were it not for a later protocol called KUBERNETES/Packets this code would have

slipped into obscurity, but as a result of this concept of “Packets” a variety of computer

servers can call upon the code she - and others - wrote till this day, immortalizing her.

Today 70% of global banking, and a host of other industries run their online banking

services using this “evergreen” platform.

When you perform an online banking transaction today, there’s a very good chance

you’ll “hit” code Henrietta wrote!

Soon IBM acquired FileNet with WORKFLO P8 as its major asset for over $1.6 billion.

Post acquisition, and seeking a new challenge Henrietta opted for UCLA and an MBA,

and made her move to the marketing department where she was responsible for the

marketing of acquisitions such as the $35 billion acquisition of RED HAT among other

critical entity transformations.

For her work on this - and other - corporate initiatives she was promoted to the

distinguished status of an IBM Director (a status held by a mere 5% of IBM

employees).

An arborist from childhood Henrietta had grown over 15 fruit trees in the compound of

her California home and so the next phase of her life was destined to be agricultural!

In her role of an IBM Marketing Manager she had moved to Greenwich, CT to helm yet

another AI based shift: The development of AI infused Marketing in the form of IBM

Watson Marketing renting out her California home and rental units.

In 2022, Using a US IRS program - IRS 1031- she and Reggie sold their California

home and “Units” and purchased a 30 acre farm in the Hudson Valley, NY. named in

1984 as Applewood Farms.

Reggie Akpata:

Reggie is/has been a serial entrepreneur. As a college student he could be found

traveling to Tuscany Italy on Christmas break with 20 empty suitcases to purchase

leather goods and sweaters from small clothing factories which he then returned with

as excess luggage to be sold to boutiques on fashionable Melrose Avenue in Los

Angeles.

Seeking a formal business education he enrolled in an MBA program while still

traveling to Europe during breaks trading California FIAT autos ( known for their no rust

bodies) and Harley Davidson motorcycles all in exchange for Men’s blazers from

London’s East End garment factories again to resell them wholesale to boutiques on

Melrose Ave.

While pursuing the MBA and armed with an undergraduate degree in Quantitative

Economics, he found an entry level position in a for-profit corporate education firm

specializing in training incumbent workers.

After writing the accreditation documents for this institution, he moved on to writing the

accreditation applications for several other training companies, inevitably writing one

for his own training company.

Armed with a California State accreditation Reggie founded Eneke/GOTRAIN, Inc. as a

deliverer of live instructor led online training in 1999, 20 years before that mode of

educational delivery became the only means of delivery during the global pandemic.

The Eneke self-hosted platform on a series of several computers was used by IBM to

demonstrate its competence to Harvard University among others.

This platform - IBM Sametime - was the foundation for Zoom.

During the economic crisis of 2007-2008 despite receiving several million dollars from

the State of California to train incumbent workers, and millions more from the US

Department of Labor to train displaced workers, Eneke/GoTrain ceased operations.

Under the State of California training program for incumbent workers facing out-of-

State competition, Reggie had come into contact with several food companies as their

SIC code was an automatic qualifier for funding.

It was to this industry that Reggie turned, first representing overseas Specialty Food

firms seeking US representation, then as a micro roaster for Specialty Coffee.

From roasting coffee Reggie developed - and Patented - a biodegradable brew-filter

that brews fresh coffee while sitting on the cup and can be discarded with no

environmental damage associated!

APPLEWOOD FARMS:

Applewood Farms was formed in 1984 by the late Natalie Marshall and Phil Shatz, an

Academic Administrator and a Legal Luminary respectively. Prior to acquiring

Applewood we formed an S Corporation in 2020 called: New England Fancy Food Inc.

as the corporate entity to manage the farm.

The property had been part of a centuries old apple grove and was host to 50 still

producing apple trees.

Time though has been as unkind to this orchard as it has been to the world, and global

warming has left the apple trees starved for water.

Working with our local USDA office we’re on the way to bringing this orchard back to

life with a comprehensive irrigation plan, and expanding it by several hundred trees in

the near future.

Also on the premises were ~150 Sugar Maple trees and a deep forest of old growth

trees; the forest is the recent recipient of a USDA grant to map out a Forest Plan and a

USDA approved forester has been secured to deliver on the plan.

Following pleas to the previous caretaker of the estate - after the Shatz’s had

transitioned - we learned the art of tapping the Maple trees, identifying several of the

high producing trees.

We also immediately found a solution to the fate of small producers tapping individual

trees, that being the introduction of debris in the form of insects etc into the Maple

Sap.

That solution has taken the form of a closed device attached to the Spile by a tube; it is

“Patent Pending”: (US Patent and Trademark Office Application #18/074,013).

Our first batch of pure Maple Sugar (coffee & confectionary applications) has been

produced and at a 54 on the glycemic index (honey is 58, cane sugar 84>) we hope to

reach a niche specialty food market in beverage sweetening.

Also the Farm has a deep Pond which is stocked with fish we intend to harvest and

include in our Specialty Food delicacies.

Pursuant to the dream of our own “New York Sugar”, we converted a building on the

property into a fully equipped commercial farm kitchen.

Also from this kitchen we are seeking to produce specialty ethnic foods such as

“Akara”. Known for thousands of years since humans have grown black eyed peas, it is

a “bean fritter” which like a Menudo, is tedious to produce in the home.

We are producing it - and other hard and tedious to produce for the busy family

products - as a “ straight to frozen entrée” to be sold either to reheat in the oven, or for

others reheated on a stove-top; still others such as Jollof Rice can be warmed in the

microwave oven.

Pursuant to the development of this side of the farm we are awaiting the verdict of an

USDA application filed late last year to obtain a “High Tunnel” greenhouse to grow

some of the vegetables used in the dishes we intend to cook for the straight to frozen

market. Also we intend to grow vegetables indigenous to the North East, so long

forgotten that they’re often categorized as “invasive species”!

Really it’s little wonder that agriculture in America is moving inexplicably towards mass

mono crop agriculture firms, this in the wake of a global pandemic where we couldn’t

find people to drive the trucks that bring us strawberries from California’s Central

Valley, and no one to offload the winter blueberries from Chile.