Fire at Pete's Greens' Farm
Subscribers to Pete's Greens' popular CSA, Good Eats, will have to buy their produce elsewhere for a while. According to an e-mail sent to members this morning by CSA manager Amy Skelton, a fire broke out in a barn at the farm in Craftsbury around 4:20 a.m., just after Pete Johnson and Tim Fishburne had loaded produce into trucks to be delivered to CSA members.
When Seven Days called, Skelton and Johnson were still dealing with firefighters and could not be reached for comment. Fishburne is off delivering to all sites but Craftsbury, which will not recieve its shares today.
Elena Gustavson, who identifies herself as "a friend and neighbor" of the farm, answered the phone in their place. She said that the firefighters had not yet discovered a source of the fire. The 1950's barn was more than storage space for the farm's veggies — the downstairs of the building also held all of the farm's vegetable washing and processing equipment. Skelton's email declared the building "a total loss."
According to Skelton's e-mail, subscribers will have to wait several weeks for crops to be replenished and processed appropriately. Skelton ends her with the promise "I will be in touch in the next day or so about arrangements for refunds, credits for future shares, donations etc." The damage may also affect restaurants and markets that stock Pete's products.
More on this story as it develops. Here's a news brief from WCAX.
