(An action diary worth a look… – promoted by mataliandy)

This is a very short diary, but hopefully helpful.

On January 12th at 4:20 AM, Pete Johnson, of Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury, VT was awakened by a loud noise outside. Out the window he could see the CSA’s barn engulfed in flames. He called the fire department immediately, but the barn was a total loss by the time they arrived.

“The barn was the heart of the farm,” Pete posted on the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) website.

More below the jump:

For those who don’t want to read the whole thing:

For a direct donation to the Farm, mail to:

Pete’s Greens 266 S. Craftsbury Rd, Craftsbury, VT 05826

To make an auction bid (auction info is below), to be paid by check, you’ll mail to:

Bid for the Barn, 769 w. Hill Rd, Warren VT 05674

In both cases, make checks payable to:

Pete’s Greens, with “Rebuild the barn fund” in the memo.

Pete’s matter-of-fact description of the massive loss somehow makes it all the more heartwrenching:

In the fire we lost all of our vegetable washing and processing equipment; our walk in coolers and freezers; all of our harvested crops; a tractor trailer freezer full of our chicken, beef and pork; some tractors and lots of miscellaneous tools and equipment that were stored inside.  We had been building a new addition to the barn and that too went up in the blaze.

Like so many farms, we were under-insured.  The crops and frozen meats valued at well over $250,000 were not insured at all.  The barn was insured at probably 2/3 of its value, the new addition we had been building was not insured at all yet.  We are guessing that we were insured for perhaps 50% of what was lost.

Pete’s Greens takes its commitment to community seriously:

Our farm participates in the Vermont Farm Share Program. This program subsidizes CSA shares for our neighbors who otherwise could not afford to join our CSA. Through the program, NOFA-VT will match each dollar that our CSA raises to offer reduced rates to income eligible individuals and families. If you are in need of financial assistance, please ask us about the Vermont Farm Share Program. You may be eligible for a partially subsidized share. To find out more about donating, visit our Farm Share page.

Salvation Farms organizes volunteer crews for salvaging surplus in our fields. They will gladly take good, but unmarketable storage crops in the off-season as well. They arrange for storage and distribution of these farm donations. Salvation Farms considers “Vermonters in need” to include those who are food insecure and/or nutritionally insecure. They distribute our produce to local emergency food sites, educational and care giving institutions, retirement communities, non-profits, and the Vermont Foodbank.

Rootswork and the Mad River Valley Localvore Project – We have worked with these two organizations to donate good, but otherwise unmarketable storage crops to local schools. They pick-up the produce, sort and distribute it to 5 Mad River Valley schools.

They even provide a page of recipes to make it easier for people who are learning to eat locally.

People who know Pete and Amy know them for their creativity, their friendliness, and their humility, which shows through at the end of the post:

We will not be delivering Good Eats shares in the next several weeks (we have no food).  Share members please stand by for an email from Amy about refunds or credits for future shares.

A group of local businesses and farm friends have now joined together to help Pete’s Greens rebuild. They’ve created an auction web site, featuring local Vermont items and services.

See http://www.bidforthebarn.org/ for information, or go straight to the catalog page to bid. There’s some great stuff there, and it’s for a terrific cause. If you can afford to help out, and want a chance to win something special in return, please take a look. If you can’t contribute, that’s OK, feel free to share the word – that will be help enough.