NATURAL BRIDGE, Va. — Tucked between the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains, the Virginia Gold Orchard in Natural Bridge, Virginia, grows a special fruit that people travel from all over the country to taste.
For over thirty years, Youngsuk “Sue” Estabrook and her husband have worked hard to grow and sell Asian pears in their community.
"My husband and I, we grew these pears with love," Sue Estabrook said. "We really loved pears and this land."
Known as the “Pear Lady,” Sue developed her love for Asian pears when she was a girl in Korea.
"When I was a young girl back then in Korea, it was very hard to have the Asian pears," she remembered. "It was a very special fruit, so only on the holidays we could have."
The Estabrooks traveled over 600 miles from New Hampshire to Virginia to find the right place for their orchard.
"The weather condition and soil condition [in Natural Bridge] is very similar to Korea," she explained.
As they drove by one day, they saw a beautiful piece of land for sale and immediately fell in love with it.
However, starting the orchard wasn’t easy.
Sue faced some tough challenges.
"I didn’t have any experience of farming at the time," she said. "I didn’t know Asian pears have a disease called fire blight."
This disease nearly wiped out her orchard in one season, causing her to lose hundreds of trees.
Not ready to give up, Sue decided to create new kinds of pears and managed to make four different varieties over the next five years.
"My favorite moment is definitely harvesting time," she said. "My hard work fruited. So that’s what I felt so good. And people come and enjoy them."
After her husband passed away in 2017, Sue decided it was time to pass the orchard on to new owners.
She found the right people in Thomas Vandiver and his partners, who showed great respect for the orchard and its history.
"They were pioneers with the crop. No one was growing Asian pears on the East Coast, especially in Virginia," Vandiver said. "And so they had to blaze so many trails on their own."
As Sue prepares to leave her cherished orchard, she thinks of her life like a movie filled with wonderful memories and feels confident about the future.
"The most important is Thomas and his wife and his partners, taking care of this farm," she said.
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