Palo Alto to Failure, But Determination Leads to Success

Farmers in the area undoubtedly laughed and looked with amusement upon a young couple from Palo Alto, California who moved to the Midwest to plant raspberries. The first year they underfertilized the bushes and they all died. The second year they purchased an irrigation system but failed to clean out the pipes correctly and ended up overfertilizing the replanted bushes. They died again. The average person might have given up and gone back home.

But Robert and Sara Rothschild weren’t ordinary people. They had grown up in the construction business, understood how long it could take to set up a new business and kept at it. After all, they had moved to Urbana, Ohio because they were looking for a better place to raise their young family. So they replanted their raspberries for a third time.

The third time was the charm. Everything clicked and they had a bumper crop. In fact they had such a big crop that there were more berries than there were people who wanted to pick their own berries. Ruth Runian, a local woman suggested that they make all of the extra berries into jam. A chef in Columbus told the Rothschilds about a burgeoning new niche in gourmet food and they went to a food show with samples of their product.

From that inauspicious beginning, Robert Rothschild Farms (www.robertrothschild.com) has grown into a wonderful Urbana based business, shipping product to over 5,000 retailers in all 50 states and to many foreign buyers. In the past five years they’ve built a 5100 sf restaurant/gift shop on the farm, have plans for a cooking school and eventually a bed and breakfast. Every year the 95 employees go on a company trip. In 2004 they went on a Bahamas cruise and this year they’re headed for Cancun.

Four years ago the Rothschilds turned over operations to Mary O’Donnell who was with Little Tykes in Cleveland. She grew sales 34% last year and plans to “expand their gourmet food line, broaden what they offer, focus upon national accounts, and get more shelf space from our existing customers,” she told me.

The Rothschilds have given back to the community. They also bring a lot of tourists into town.

I’m glad that they didn’t give up after those crop failures. Entrepreneurs like them don’t give up easily.

If you go to their farm try their new Raspberry Chipotle Salsa. It is my favorite.