The Orchard

Mountain Roots Orchard was created on the remnants of an old homestead.  It’s one of the many that dot the mountains in Central Idaho but one of the few that have enough left to salvage.  With the limited history available, we have only been able to date it back to the early 1920’s during the time when the Little Salmon River Road was getting constructed. You can read more on Little Salmon River Road history here. 

 It’s certain that the first homesteaders prepared well to live here by clearing the forest back enough to plant numerous apple, cherry, pear, and plum trees to fill up the orchard.  It’s sad that just a few remain now.  The original house and outbuildings have since deteriorated from existence.  New homes and sheds were added over the decades as owners settled here and moved on.  During YaVonna’s childhood (current owner), her parents took care of the property for one of these owners.  At that time, some of the original property layout was still evident and more trees were living.  Unfortunately, over time the property became even more neglected.  It was many years later in 2011, YaVonna and her husband Gautam were able to purchase this property, but found that much had changed.  Thankfully, they discovered some of the original trees were still alive but needed a lot of care.  After pressing the first gallon of apple cider, they felt encouraged to embark on a trial and error adventure to preserve the heritage trees and bring back the orchard.  It didn’t take long to realize this couldn’t happen without bringing people here in some way to help meet the financial needs of the restoration.  In 2016, they created Mountain Roots Orchard and started selling plants and produce from a pop-up tent and ended each season with a community cider festival.  Since then, they have upgraded the tent to a small store where they sell a variety of their own created products, along with local made goods.  During the summer season, you can find them at the local farmer’s market in New Meadows.