Robert Friedland graduated from college in 1974 and took over the supervision of an apple orchard his uncle owned. Friedland turned the farm into a spiritual utopian community, where hippies, Hari Krishnas, and Hindus could come together and grow apples. Steve Jobs, who had been a friend of Friedlands for a few years, often stayed there and worked to boost apple production.
Jobs lived in a renovated chicken coop whenever he was around. His residency was episodic, and his recurring task was to whip the Gravenstein apple trees back into shape upon his arrival, pruning, raking, and patching up the trellises. According to legions of Jobs fanatics, All One Farm is where he acquired what his admirers call his “reality distortion field,” a special charisma that caused others to suspend belief in the impossible. Jobs said later that the name for his company, Apple, was inspired by Friedland’s farm. “I was on one of my fruitarian diets,” Jobs told Isaacson. “I had just come back from the apple farm. It sounded fun, spirited, and not intimidating.”
Read about the rise and fall of All One Farm and the influence it had on Jobs at Timeline. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: All One Farm)