Business Focus

A pioneer for more than 30 years in propagating, nurturing, and growing certified organic fruit and nut trees on “the coldest hillsides.” The motto of Elmore Roots is, “If it grows in Elmore, it will grow where you are.”

Loan Summary

The road into Elmore Roots Nursery was totally washed out after Tropical Storm Irene. No access, no customers – at the peak of the fall planting season.

Although Elmore Roots Nursery sits on a hillside, the business was not spared by Tropical Storm Irene. Mountain streams turned into rivers and washed away the only access road to the farm and a small but critical bridge to the orchard was torn off its foundation and sent downstream. At the same time, the high winds turned their greenhouse used for propagation and cold season protection into a twisted mass of metal and shredded greenhouse plastic. Estimated damage was at about $85,000. And, like many Vermont farmers, Irene hit right before the peak of their season. With everyone in the state recovering from floods, very few people were thinking about buying Elmore Roots crops. Sales that fall were dismal.

David initially took out conventional loans at high interest rates so that repairs could begin quickly. When he heard about the Vermont Farm Fund, he applied for a loan and used it to retire some of the higher interest debt.

“The Vermont Farm Fund loan enabled us to rebuild three key pieces of our infrastructure that our business cannot survive without.”

The Backstory

When David Fried found himself living on a hillside in Elmore, Vermont, the extension service told him the only sustainable farming business that would work on the land was an apple orchard. Thirty-three years later, despite the harsh Vermont winter climate, Elmore Roots keeps proving that the land is not only great for growing apples, but also a wide variety of other fruits such as plums, kiwis, and apricots plus nuts including black walnuts and hazelnuts.

Propagating a fruit and nut tree business takes vision, planning, and patience. Bringing a new species to market can take 10 or more years. Initial trials to prove viability alone can be several years in the making to assure the variety works well in our Vermont climate and produces a fruit that people will want to grow and eat.

Once a fruit tree is chosen to commercialize, it is grafted onto hardy rootstock and spends several years in the nursery growing strong before it is salable. In addition to the destruction that Irene did to Elmore Roots’ infrastructure, several trial varieties as well as trees ready for sale were damaged. With the long product development and production cycle it will be several years before that loss will be mitigated.

The Bottom Line

The setback from Irene and a softer market since that disaster hasn’t stopped David and his crew from planning for the future. With their infrastructure back in place after the floods, the nursery continues planting trees that will be salable in the next 3 to 5 years. In addition, this summer David and the team started planting a pick-your own asparagus garden and grape orchard. Both will take several years to become viable contributors to the business, but the folks at Elmore Roots are in it for the long term because you have to be with a fruit tree nursery.