Thursday was a busy day for Addie and Jude Schuenemeyer, owners of Let It Grow Nursery in Cortez.
First off, the nursery/gift shop/coffee shop had been closed for a bit and reopened on Thursday.
But also, the couple had penned a farewell address to the community stating that after 14 years of business, Let It Grow was planning on closing its doors at the end of May.
“A lot of people have been coming in to wish us luck today,” Addie said.
Jude Schuenemeyer said he hopes to dedicate all his time to heritage orchards, but is going to miss his customers.
“Your really appreciate your customers,” he said. “We are so grateful to them.”
In addition to selling pansies, bell peppers and apple trees, Let It Grow sold toys, locally made gifts, books and offered a coffee shop that served coffee roasted on the spot and pastries, soups and sandwiches.
Over the years Jude said he has became more and more concerned about preserving Montezuma County’s orchards.
“Considering our heritage orchards are just growing older and we are not getting any younger, we feel the urgency to dedicate ourselves full-time to Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project,” he said.
Jude first started getting interested in local orchards when he taught himself how to graft from a 70-year-old book.
He now teaches classes on the art of grafting.
“There are so many people who want fruit now,” Jude said. “I think we are gong to have a great orchard economy again.”
At one time, Jude said, Montezuma County was famous for its apples and fruit. That all changed when everyone started planting the same trees in the 1930s — mostly red delicious and Rome apples.
“We developed a monoculture. We used to have legendary quality fruit,” Jude said. “I think we can bring that back.”
Having a wide variety of old-style apples is the key, Jude said.
Jude said he has to graft like crazy to bring the historic apples back, many of which are rapidly dying off.
“Grafting, is where I will spend most of my time,” he said.
And hopefully, through the Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project, those grafted historic trees will once again become marketable and flourish in the county.
Jude said he is also working to map every apple tree in the county and identify it.
“There were 50 different types of fruit in Montezuma County in the early 1900s,” Jude said. “We kicked our orchards into a monoculture of crops and they became very susceptible to frost,” he said.
Jude and Addie hope customers will visit over the next two months of business to celebrate Let It Grow.
“We plan to run the cafe and coffee roaster side of our business as usual until the end of May so stay with us,” Addie said.
Jude said they will phase out the nursery and not bring in new product over the next few months.
In the meantime, the business is for sale, but the Schuenemeyers said they attempted to sell it over the winter and weren’t able to do so.
MORP is offering a grafting class at Let It Grow on Saturday, April 11 at 10 am. Cost is $10 for members and $20 for nonmembers.
Let It Grow will be open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.