Big B's Fabulous Juices.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: COLORADO COOL STUFF - Brief article

Nearly 30 years after Bernie Heideman started a cider-mill cooperative for the apple-growing hippies in Paonia, he passed the torch to second-season employee Jeff Schwartz in 2001.

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"I didn't know anything about business at the time," Schwartz said. "I didn't know what an account receivable was."

But Schwartz has proven himself to be creative and shrewd businessman in the time since, buying 16 acres of orchard just outside Paonia, opening a retail storefront onsite, and fostering sales growth of 400 percent. Now Schwartz makes nine kinds of Big B's Fabulous Juices, including the best-selling fresh unpasteurized apple juice, apple-cherry juice, and a new...