The Trommer Family, Rosemerry, Finn, Vivian and Eric [photo credit: Darby Ullyatt]

 
Driven by a love of the land and a dedication to eating and growing organic foods, Eric and Rosemerry Trommer are the stewards of New Leaf Fruit. Eric continuously explores and experiments with ways to revitalize the soil and create the best growing environment for the trees.
 
The orchard is also a wonderful place for growing children. Their daughter Vivian was born at the orchard during apricot harvest in 2008, allowing Eric to attend the birth before he had to jump in the truck to transport the morning’s harvest. Their older son Finn loves helping his dad on the tractors and his mom in the vegetable garden. Shawnee, Eric’s adult daughter, worked full time at the orchard in 2007 and was inspired to earn a master’s in Economics, focusing on sustainable agriculture in developing countries.
 
For the story of how a ranch land project manager and poet decided to become organic fruit growers, read these articles:

The Accidental Orchardists, Shelter

New Leaf Fruit: Orchard Transformation, Zone 4

 

Eric is always at the center of the action. Here he is planting Suncrest peaches. Though it takes many months of planning and preparation, the actual planting of thousands of trees is done in half a day.

Most likely, before this mid-morning picture of manure spreading was taken, Eric had already fixed two tractors, done research on cherry rootstocks and printed out the payroll checks.