Creating a successful, family-owned business isn’t something that just sprouts up overnight. For Bob and Barbara Sanderson, it has been a 37-year journey from the ground up.

With their company, Jonathan’s Sprouts, the Sandersons grow and ship more than 10 tons of sprouts every week from a converted dairy barn on Vaughn Hill Road.

But when the couple took over the fledgling business in 1976, sprouts were something only a few healthy locals knew anything about.

In New England, “there was only one other sprout company in those days that sold to health food store only,” said Barbara.

But since the original owner, Jonathan Lagrese, had already seen some success in the two months that he ran the business, the Sandersons decided to take on the company he offered it to them.

“We love good food, but we’re not radical health food people by a long shot,” said Bob. “It was just something we could start to do that seemed interesting and seemed to have a future to it.”

Getting their product onto shelves in the days before organic veggies were a buzzword meant hand delivering their alfalfa sprouts to grocery stores.

“We decided to sell to the supermarkets instead of the health food stores because Bob had this feeling that sprouts should be democratic. They should be available to everybody, not just people who go into health food stores,” said Barbara.

At the beginning, the pair, along with then partner Jim Bunker, made just enough to purchase more seeds to sprout. They had also agreed to give Jonathan a small amount of their sales.

“Jonathan didn’t really want to be paid. We said we’d pay him a penny a bag ‘til it hurt,” said Barbara.

In January 1977, the company broke even for the first time. A few years later, with new competition and their first employees, they gave Jonathan a call.

“It had started to add up,” said Barbara of the penny promise. “I called him up and said: is it alright if we stop paying you? He said, ‘It’s great. You put me through UMass Amherst!’”

The sprouts were originally grown in a lean-to in Marion, but within a couple of years, they had moved the operation to a dairy barn in Rochester.

“People blessed us all along the way. They did what they could to help us,” said Barbara, who recalled their first inspection with the Marion Board of Health.

The couple had left the house for a few hours, leaving a note on the door. “When we came back, we had a sign saying we were approved by the Marion Board of Health,” said Barbara. “It was very gentle and kind because we really didn’t know too much about health in those days.”

Since then, the company has expanded its sprouts to include 12 varieties, including pea, broccoli, mung bean, and sunflower sprouts – with organic seeds sourced from as far away as China and Australia.

The couple’s niece, Liz Reilley, head of Sales and marketing, said she’s grown to appreciate the health benefits of the protein-rich sprouts.

“I love the industry. I love the product,” said Reilley, who spent summers working at the company as a teen. “Every sprout has a medicinal property.”

Since 1976, developing healthy standards has become more of a focus as state and federal guidelines have become more stringent.

“We’re very much involved in food safety issues,” said Bob. “We’re actually in pretty good shape because we’ve been so aware of food safety issues for a long time.”

Still, in 2011, the company had a scare when tests found salmonella in some of the sprouts. No sicknesses were reported, but it left a mark on the couple.

“We had to recall all of our products. Some of the supermarkets whopped us with big fines, but we’ve become more humble,” Barbara said. “We realized it could happen to us.”

The company’s triple tested food safety program, which began in 1998, is in place to help prevent such issues from arising again. And despite that hiccup, the company is continuing to grow. Customers extend as far south as North Carolina and include Trader Joe’s, Shaw’s, and P.F. Chiangs.

How Jonathan’s will expand in the future is still uncertain, but Bob says they’re enjoying being in the black.

Over the past 37 years, he said success has “had a lot to do with either a higher power or luck.”