Help Cate Farm Recover from Two Floods in Two Years!!

HELP CATE FARM RECOVER!

Flint and his family are one of a kind. After taking over as owner of Cate Farm just last year, his first two years as a small business owner have been marred by devastating flooding and lost crops. Flint is always one of the first people to offer help when I (or anyone) is struggling or needs support of any kind, and now we are hoping we can rally around him, his family and the wider Cate Farm community in this significant time of need.

As is detailed below, due to the catastrophic flooding in back to back years, Flint and his family have absorbed massive hardships (financial, crops, equipment, emotional, time spent and so much more) in his first two years of ownership of Cate Farm. Obviously this would be a massive loss for any small farm to absorb, let alone in Flint’s first two years of ownership. We want to make sure they have the resources they need to continue to operate, create employment opportunities and provide the high-quality, fresh produce that we all love to local stores, restaurants and individuals. Cate Farm’s annual seedling sale, generosity towards local families and overall impact to the community are a staple in Central VT, and we want to keep it that way for generations to come. Just last month, I brought a group of my middle school students to the seedling sale and Flint patiently explained each plant that they were curious about (which was virtually every single one of them); my students are so excited to *hopefully* go back next year! The value of Cate Farm in Plainfield and beyond simply cannot be quantified.

From Kuenzi, Flint’s sister and a major part of Cate Farm operations (who is also an absolutely wonderful human being):

Two Major Floods in Two Years = Too Many.

In the last two years, Cate Farm has been hit by floods unlike the farm has seen for many years.

Last year's flood was truly devastating in its destruction to equipment, infrastructure, fields and crops, but we figured we could cover the cost for an event like that once every 100 years…

Fast forward to the exact date the following year, July 10, 2024, when the flood waters breached the banks of the Winooski yet again. This flood reached our high tunnel in the lower field, demolished an acre of burdock (that was looking beautiful and ready to harvest in the next couple of weeks) and left a huge mess to clean up: silt laden fields, trash, trees, and more trash.

Flint took over running the Cate Farm business when Richard and Sally retired in 2023. (They are still around and very helpful!) While he has been a key force in the business and operations for the last 8 years, experiencing floods of great consequence in his two first years of business has taken a toll on farm finances and morale. The lost burdock crop for 2 years in a row tallies $60,000 in lost sales that he does not have to invest in the operation.

Flint rallied last year and cleaned up a tremendous mess with a smile on his face (with reasonable exceptions). This year the weight of the water had a different effect: daunting and downright depressing. The cleanup looms while regular farm operations carry on at pace; tomatoes are ripe and need picking, sorting, delivering, pruning & trellising. The back up stand of burdock needed to be saved from extreme weed pressure (thanks volunteer weed crew!) so that he can supply some commitments and keep our burdock fans happy.

Your Support

Any amount that you are willing to donate will help! This flood diverts every ounce of spare time, energy and resources to clean up efforts. Your contribution will help fund: field clean up and remediation which will require heavy equipment to clear debris and regrade, cleaning and rehabilitating the high tunnel with mulch and new plastic, covering farm expenses that have been affected by losing two consecutive years of burdock root and countless other costs associated with the losses endured.

Future Planning

Once we have our head above water with clean up and all ongoing farm tasks, we will be looking at what we need to do differently here at Cate Farm to better ensure resilience in dramatic weather events. We are so grateful that our seedling and tomato greenhouses are on high ground so that those parts of the business have been able to remain steady, and that our homes have been spared.

Thanks for your support and we’ll keep working hard to recover from this mess! With deep appreciation,

Flint, Kuenzi and the Cate Farm community

Our Appreciation

Thank you so much for your consideration of making even a small donation to Cate Farm as they try to rebuild. I would be remiss if I did not restate what a beautiful family this is and how much they have given to the Central VT and wider community over the years. Especially as we are starting this GoFundMe on the later side (we begged Flint to let us start it the day after the flooding but--in true Flint fashion--he was adamant that he did not want to take money away from other causes when so many are struggling right now), we fully understand you might be tapped out from helping others in great financial need after this disaster. If that is the case (or even if it isn't!), it would also be enormously helpful if you would please consider sharing this post/link so that we can spread this message as widely as possible. Thank you all so much for your incredible support--with my own family having been through several traumatic flooding events in the past decade+, I know how much this love and generosity (in so many ways) means to people whose lives have been upended by a catastrophe such as this. Humbly and thankfully,

Clancy, Laura & many others who love Flint, his family and the Cate Farm