Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2015 - 23

If small farming were one of the games
run in Las Vegas, the smart gamblers
would avoid it. It's too obviously
skewed toward the house.
The "house" being a combination of industrial mega-farms, priceconscious consumers and, most of
all, Mother Nature.
"It's either too hot or too cold,
too wet or too dry," a disgruntled
farmer once said. "And if conditions
are perfect, that's bad, too, because
then prices are down."
Paul Saunders smiles at that, and
there is satisfaction in the smile. His
family has played the game for 100
years now, and mostly they have
won. They remain unaffiliated with
any giant corporation, and they are
still doing a profitable business in
the bucolic Virginia county of Nelson, where Saunders' great-grandfather, "Big John" Massie, first settled.
Family lore has it that the Saunders Brothers empire was initially
built on the unwilling backs of rabbits. By selling their skins and pooling the money, the first quintet of
Saunders male siblings-Will, Massie, Doc, Dick and Sam-was able to
start up a small farm. Their family
already owned the land, so much of
the seed money was used, literally,
for seeds.
When Tye Brook, an adjoining
farm, became available, the brothers somehow scraped together the
money to buy it.

Later, when the Depression sent
market prices for apples, tobacco
and beef cattle spiraling downward, a farm-saving alternative appeared: peaches.
It was Sam Saunders, Paul's father, who sounded the alert.
"One day in the 1930s Daddy
came home from work and told
Mother the unbelievable-somebody was selling peaches for $1 a
bushel," Paul Saunders says.
So the brothers scrambled to
line their hillsides with Elbertas-
the "go to" peach of its day.
Somehow, the Saunders family
has always found a way to beat the
house. Not every year-some growing seasons have been disasters. Yet
what started as a small family farm
has since spread over several hundred acres and employs nearly 100
workers in peak season.

Over time, the emphasis has shifted from cattle and feed crops to
apples, from apples to peaches,
and from peaches to ornamentals.
With peaches, the topography of
the Saunders' land has proven an
invaluable asset. Bennett Saunders,
who presides over the orchard part
of the operation, calls it "the sweet
spot."
"Peaches are best grown between
900 and 1,500 feet," he explains.
"Below that, and you have to worry
about frost. Above that, you have to
worry about a freeze. That's why it's
the sweet spot, and a lot of our land
fits right in there."
Unlike the flat fields of a Midwest
farm, the agricultural land in Nelson County has to be climbed on
and broken, like a fractious bronco.
Always, there are limitations.

YET WHAT STARTED AS A SMALL FAMILY
FARM HAS SINCE SPREAD OVER SEVERAL
HUNDRED ACRES AND EMPLOYS NEARLY
100 WORKERS IN PEAK SEASON.

September/October 2015 23

Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2015

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