Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 31, 1993 TAG: 9305310032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Standing at the peak of an unnamed mountain that overlooks the land, lush with peach, apple and nectarine trees, Grisso boasts of a view rivaling any other in the Roanoke Valley.
"Ever seen anything like it?" he asks, climbing out of his 1953 general's jeep, still bearing a faded white star on its hood. Valley landmarks and budding development dot the fringes of a panoramic view.
Grisso gazes down at the trees that have borne the fruits of his business - aptly named Mountain Top Orchards. He speaks with a twinge of sadness in his voice.
The property - all, that is, except 17 acres he has kept "to dig, when I get the urge" - is no longer his.
Grisso sold it last month to a Roanoke surgeon for $1.2 million.
"You realize why we cried so much to let it go," Grisso says, standing atop the mountain. "You do get attached to the land."
But tending to that land, those orchards, has taken its toll, he says. At 66, he wants to take life easy with his wife of 30 years and partner-in-business, Marlen.
"I work seven days a week," Grisso says. "And I don't mean eight hours, either."
Marlen, too, says she is ready to slow life's pace a bit. For 23 years, she has spent six-day workweeks selling the orchard's goods on the Roanoke City Market, always with a big corsage pinned to her shoulder.
The land would seem ripe for a residential developer's dream. Prospective buyers have approached the Grissos over the years with offers to purchase small bits of the property.
But Paul said he hated the thought of folks chipping away at the land he spent years amassing into one luscious chunk - land that had been in his family for three generations. His greatest fear was that the acreage would be plowed over and subdivided for houses.
Four years ago, Grisso listed the property - half forest, half open land - with a real estate agent. But Grisso took it off the market a year later because no one was willing to meet his $1.5 million asking price. And he wasn't backing down.
Nor was one persistent prospect. James Vascik first eyed the property when Grisso had it listed with a Realtor. It took Vascik four years to convince Grisso to shave $300,000 off his price and sell him the property for $1.2 million.
In Vascik, Grisso found a man Those who feared an absence of Mountain Top peaches on the market this summer can rest easy. But beyond that, Mountain Top "will be saying goodbye to the market," Paul Grisso said. who shared his love of land untouched by developers' hands and a desire to keep it that way.
"The impetus was to buy it all to make sure no one developed it," Vascik said.
The orchards, though, were not a shared interest.
Vascik plans to replace the orchard acreage with a grape vineyard. Eventually, the Chicago native will bottle his own wine.
A stone castle at the mountaintop with family horses and cattle roaming the land below complete Vascik's plans. He will call it "Chateau Valhalla."
"If you're going to have a vineyard, you ought to have a French-sounding name," Vascik says.
Grisso will continue working the orchards for the next few months while the trees are bearing fruit. Those who feared an absence of Mountain Top peaches on the market this summer can rest easy, he said.
Beyond that, though, Mountain Top "will be saying goodbye to the market," Grisso said.
The departure of Mountain Top's produce will leave a gap in market business.
"It's going to hurt," said Gary Crowder, owner of Wertz's County Store on the market. "Anytime we lose someone, it hurts. In the last five to six years, we've lost several farmers. Mountain Top is by far one of the largest producers we have."
The Grissos' business stretched beyond the downtown market. They sold to the old Mick-or-Mack grocery chain and to several out-of-town buyers, "some in North Carolina, some in West Virginia - whoever wanted it," Paul said.
The 17 acres - three tracts - that the Grissos kept include one on which their modest home and a greenhouse sit. All three tracts have orchards, Paul said.
"I won't stop farming," he said. "They tell me if you retire and sit down, you die right quick. The kids wanted me to keep something up there."
That the land changed from one family's hands to another was inevitable, Grisso says. Son Bryan, a research chemist, lives in Ohio. Daughter Tabitha lives in Christiansburg and works in Blacksburg. Another daughter from Grisso's first marriage, Angela Kinzie, lives on property adjoining the Mountain Top acres, but was not interested in it.
"There's nobody to take care of it," Paul Grisso said. "We couldn't afford to keep it. We didn't have the money to pay taxes if we didn't keep it producing something.
"Besides," he said. "There's got to be an end to everything."
by CNB