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- [Elisa] And now I'm really
excited to turn it over

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to Mary Choate from
University of New Hampshire

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and she is going to be talking about

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cultivating farm and
food safety for visitors

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and she has been working
with Jada Lindblom,

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also from University of
New Hampshire Extension,

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to create videos

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of two farms.

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And we're lucky today to
have not only the videos

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but the farmers here with us
to share their experiences.

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Mary, I'll turn it over to you now.

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- Okay, thanks Elisa.

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So, yes, we're really honored to have

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two wonderful farmers
here with us this evening.

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John Moulton of Moulton Farm in Meredith,

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and Nancy Franklin of Riverview Farm

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in Plainfield, New Hampshire.

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Just a little bit about both the farms.

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We did little brief videos of each farm,

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so you can get a sort of a farm visit

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and then we'll also
talk to the farmers live

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'cause they're here and
they have lots to share.

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So Moulton Farm has been
growing food since the 1890s.

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They're located at the north
end of Lake Winnipesaukee.

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They're a year round destination farm.

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They offer a farm market,

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which you're gonna see in the video,

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filled with local foods and products

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made in their own farm
kitchen and their farm bakery.

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They also partner with
other New England farms

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and small businesses
and in their farm market

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they provide fruits, cheeses, seafood,

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meat, poultry, and treats.

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They also have a garden center,

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a summer pick your own cutting garden,

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a fall pick your own pumpkin
patch, and a corn maze.

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So they're quite the
destination farm experience.

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After we see the Moulton Farm video,

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we'll have a little more
of a discussion with John

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and then we'll move over
to the Riverview Farm

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in Plainfield, New Hampshire

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and Nancy Franklin's
here from Riverview Farm

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to speak with us.

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That's in August to October

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pick your own and more destination farm.

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Visitors can pick berries,
apples, pumpkins, gourds.

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They can cut their own flowers.

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And currants are a summer crop only

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with picking in mid-July.

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Riverview offers a corn maze

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and their barn store has
already picked apples, pumpkins,

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fresh pressed cider that
they make on the farm,

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apple butter and jams that
they also make at the farm.

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And they also support local
businesses selling maple syrup

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honey, and cheese.

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Riverview hosts small and midsize events

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like weddings and picnics.

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They have these popular outdoor dinners

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called dinners in the flower fields

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and dinners in the orchard.

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So Nancy's gonna tell us about those.

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So, a lot of stuff we're
going to hear about today.

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I'd like to start my little
PowerPoint presentation

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and the brief videos that
we made of each farm.

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So let me share my screen.

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Okay, so,

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cultivating farm and
food safety for visitors

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on your farm.

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We're going to have a mini
video tours of two farms.

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As I mentioned, we're going
to be visiting Moulton Farm.

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The video focuses on the farm market,

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but we're gonna talk
about a lot more with John

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and also Riverview Farm.

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So we're gonna start with a brief video.

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Oh, I have to warn you that

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the video doesn't have any music

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but there is audio when John is speaking

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and there's some subtitles.

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So you might hear me talking,

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but don't think there's
anything wrong with your video

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if you don't hear anything
except for me talking.

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Okay so again, Moulton Farm,

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we're gonna talk about
their farm market here.

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Okay, so this is a view
of the farm market.

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It has their own produce,
their own bakery items

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their own kitchen items,
really delicious foods.

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And they support local producers as well.

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John's going to go over all
the safety policies have

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at the store.

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- Right from the get go all last summer,

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right from April of last year,

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we immediately put up the signs

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making people aware of the fact that

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we were aware of the
practices needed for COVID.

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At some point, the mask and
glove sign will come down

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but maybe we'll have something

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in between.
- No, that's all we have left.

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- And we have available gloves.

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We've always...

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For a year now, we've had
gloves available for customers

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who want them.

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We've had sanitizer for the baskets.

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If the customer wants them.

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And paper towels available,

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and important, a way to get rid

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of that stuff so my staff

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doesn't have to chase dirty
gloves and paper towels around.

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- All right, so John told us

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how we can also sanitize the carts

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with UV light, which is true.

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It's really important.

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Lots of signage

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so people know what to expect.

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- And we needed the addition anyway

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because we've been so busy.

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- But the addition was here during COVID

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and we probably would
keep it the way it is now.

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And one thing that has worked

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out with their addition is
that we have one way traffic.

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So we have two ways out

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at the checkout counter and
people entering the farm stand

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never go near the checkout.

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Good or bad, it just keeps
folks separated from each other

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which, again, was critical
to have (indistinct).

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- Right. It's really clearly
marked getting into the store

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and flow is indicated
in the store as you see.

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Lots of air, lots of light.

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Right, and this is something else

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John mentioned that they
did a lot more prepackaging

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of grab and go food.

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So people didn't have to...

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Less handling of the food.

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Right, and this is what a lot

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of farms have done is added facilities,

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added hand washing stations,

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making it easy to do the right thing.

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- Well, curbside last year, it took off.

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It was like a freight
train running over us.

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And our curbside worked either

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as a call in or an email.

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Both of which required a great
deal of time to deal with.

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And during the first few weeks of COVID,

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we were just overwhelmed
with curbside orders

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because we didn't do curbside.

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We'd never done curbside before.

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And it was also overwhelming
our checkout system for retail

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because we had to tie up a terminal

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to do the weighing and do the pricing

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and to take the payments,
et cetera, et cetera.

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So, when you asked about curbside,

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what we did is we developed a
whole new center for curbside.

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And this is our checkout area

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for curbside with a set
of doors right there

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that we can go right out and not have to

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intermingle with other customers.

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And we have a curbside reserved
parking spot right out here.

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We had our own refrigeration,
our own stopping place

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for stuff that needed to
be frozen or refrigerated.

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But I made a good way
to keep curbside away

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from general retail.

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And the customers simply
had to sit in the car

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and call in.

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Along with that is we
do have a CSA program

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that we limit quite a bit.

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We've got a few hundred participants

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and that's where we want to be.

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And we don't want to have
any more than whatever it is,

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330 people.

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That's more than we want to handle.

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And so what we do is

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we have always used a half bushel basket.

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That's what we define as a farm share.

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But the half bushel basket

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can be a dirty item

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and certainly it can
not be sanitized easily.

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So we had picked up some plastic

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half bushel liners that would fit

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right in the half bushel basket easily,

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and when the customer came in,

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they could still see they had
their half bushel farm share,

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take the handles of the heavy-duty liner

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and pick it up and they could go away.

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And it saved a lot of interaction among us

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and the customers.

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- Right, so that was just
the tip of the iceberg

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of our tour.

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So, John, I'm wondering

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if you would answer a few more
questions about your farm.

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This is all stuff we talked about

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but didn't get into the video.

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For example, would you talk

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about the dog policy

193
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at your farm?

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- Yes. We have posted out
there yet another sign

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that indicates that we all love dogs

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but they are not allowed in the
establishment per, you know,

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just say per sanitation policies.

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So they're posted

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in a couple of places outside.

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Our intent, we just don't get to it.

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Our intent is to have an area

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for our customers to take their dog,

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whether it be...

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We have a lot of picnic
tables sitting around

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on the property now.

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If we can get five minutes

207
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between planting and
weeding and everything else,

208
00:11:00,420 --> 00:11:03,290
we're going to establish a dog zone,

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00:11:03,290 --> 00:11:05,173
a place that folks can take the dog.

210
00:11:06,301 --> 00:11:07,560
But there's plenty of open area

211
00:11:07,560 --> 00:11:10,040
and usually you see the folks
just walk off with the dog.

212
00:11:10,040 --> 00:11:12,470
But they are not allowed inside.

213
00:11:12,470 --> 00:11:13,820
And fortunately we don't have any

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00:11:13,820 --> 00:11:16,330
pick your own food operation going on.

215
00:11:16,330 --> 00:11:19,750
We do have signs on the property

216
00:11:19,750 --> 00:11:22,520
stating that it is a production area

217
00:11:22,520 --> 00:11:27,520
and that pets are not allowed
out on the farm as well.

218
00:11:28,292 --> 00:11:30,293
But that's where we're
at now, just signage.

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00:11:31,460 --> 00:11:33,880
- John, you talked a lot
about, well, we talked a lot

220
00:11:33,880 --> 00:11:37,313
about pavement and walkway
safety and tripping hazards.

221
00:11:37,313 --> 00:11:39,072
Do you want to talk about how you

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00:11:39,072 --> 00:11:40,673
what you do to try to help with that?

223
00:11:42,190 --> 00:11:45,620
- Yes. I mean, we've been through it all

224
00:11:45,620 --> 00:11:47,880
from strictly a gravel driveway

225
00:11:48,862 --> 00:11:52,150
to now we have, you know

226
00:11:52,150 --> 00:11:55,440
quite a few thousand square
feet that are paved or concrete

227
00:11:57,020 --> 00:11:59,690
and you can never be careful enough.

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00:11:59,690 --> 00:12:02,850
Folks do trip, folks do fall.

229
00:12:02,850 --> 00:12:07,850
And you just have to avoid that situation

230
00:12:07,950 --> 00:12:09,350
as much as possible

231
00:12:10,499 --> 00:12:13,823
and paving or concreting
is the best way to do it.

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00:12:15,010 --> 00:12:16,870
We try to keep everything level.

233
00:12:16,870 --> 00:12:20,400
We don't have any steps,
we use ramps and slopes

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00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:22,573
up to the building,
away from the building.

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00:12:25,361 --> 00:12:28,590
But, you know, in all
honesty, I had a lady fall.

236
00:12:28,590 --> 00:12:32,330
I witnessed her fall last week.

237
00:12:32,330 --> 00:12:36,370
She was out in our nursery
area and she picked

238
00:12:36,370 --> 00:12:40,803
up a piece of landscape fabric
or mat and down she went.

239
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She was not hurt.

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We're fortunate she was not hurt.

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And she was good about it.

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00:12:47,740 --> 00:12:52,320
She admitted that she has
a bad leg, as she says

243
00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:53,620
and she drags it.

244
00:12:53,620 --> 00:12:56,060
And of course that she
dragged it right through

245
00:12:56,060 --> 00:12:58,058
the landscape fabric.

246
00:12:58,058 --> 00:13:00,008
And it didn't take much to trip her up,

247
00:13:01,469 --> 00:13:04,600
but, you know, our reaction
was, we helped her up.

248
00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:08,140
We made sure she was fine, you know,

249
00:13:08,140 --> 00:13:11,053
interrogated her many
times about her condition.

250
00:13:11,980 --> 00:13:14,740
And then the crew just
had to get more landscape

251
00:13:14,740 --> 00:13:17,659
fabric spikes out and get that spot down.

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00:13:17,659 --> 00:13:19,680
You just never know.

253
00:13:19,680 --> 00:13:23,140
A farm, farm stand, like many of us have

254
00:13:23,140 --> 00:13:27,290
covers so much area outside
of just the retail area

255
00:13:27,290 --> 00:13:29,400
that there are folks wandering around.

256
00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:30,710
- Right.

257
00:13:30,710 --> 00:13:33,280
Now, you made some changes

258
00:13:33,280 --> 00:13:36,060
to your corn maze last year, right?

259
00:13:36,060 --> 00:13:38,621
And you're going to do
something different this year.

260
00:13:38,621 --> 00:13:41,260
I want to talk about that.

261
00:13:41,260 --> 00:13:42,190
- Well, yeah, we made a big change

262
00:13:42,190 --> 00:13:43,640
to our corn maze last year.

263
00:13:43,640 --> 00:13:44,981
We didn't do one.

264
00:13:44,981 --> 00:13:45,832
- Okay.

265
00:13:45,832 --> 00:13:47,330
- And that is quite a change.

266
00:13:47,330 --> 00:13:50,233
We've been in the corn maze
business for a long time.

267
00:13:51,570 --> 00:13:53,193
And it was due to COVID.

268
00:13:56,101 --> 00:13:59,460
And we had been out of control
for a few years in terms

269
00:13:59,460 --> 00:14:03,670
of the crowds we'd been
attracting in the fall anyway.

270
00:14:03,670 --> 00:14:06,820
And that's the purpose of a corn maze

271
00:14:06,820 --> 00:14:11,420
is to not only provide income itself

272
00:14:11,420 --> 00:14:13,973
but to bring people to the farm.

273
00:14:16,429 --> 00:14:18,560
And we had found our falls out of control.

274
00:14:18,560 --> 00:14:20,640
We were not adequately prepared

275
00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:22,283
for the parking that was needed.

276
00:14:24,070 --> 00:14:26,400
We'd just been overwhelmed with people.

277
00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:28,400
I guess it's a good problem.

278
00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:30,803
So our decision was not to have one.

279
00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:37,320
I had been very concerned
about my staff out of the gate.

280
00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:41,143
That was my concern, was
keeping my staff healthy.

281
00:14:42,380 --> 00:14:44,440
As many of you experienced last year,

282
00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:49,440
it was very, very tense for
many, many weeks, many months.

283
00:14:49,900 --> 00:14:51,650
That was our decision.

284
00:14:51,650 --> 00:14:54,020
Also, we're doing farm to table dinners

285
00:14:54,020 --> 00:14:57,530
and farm to table breakfasts
on a regular basis

286
00:14:57,530 --> 00:15:02,530
and our COVID decision was not
to do any of that last year.

287
00:15:05,900 --> 00:15:09,023
Interestingly enough, all that's
carried over to this year.

288
00:15:10,060 --> 00:15:15,060
Part of the problem that goes with safety

289
00:15:15,330 --> 00:15:16,790
and safety of your staff

290
00:15:16,790 --> 00:15:20,690
is having enough staff to do
all of these event things.

291
00:15:20,690 --> 00:15:24,860
Do all of these, I call
them external farm things.

292
00:15:24,860 --> 00:15:27,420
We are still very much a commercial farm.

293
00:15:27,420 --> 00:15:30,380
We are growing on almost 70 acres

294
00:15:30,380 --> 00:15:32,470
and my decision,

295
00:15:32,470 --> 00:15:37,470
and it was related to safety
last year was, "Okay, gang,

296
00:15:37,490 --> 00:15:42,347
all events are done, heads
down, focus on the core business

297
00:15:42,347 --> 00:15:44,440
and see what happens."

298
00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:47,490
And it turned out to be very much

299
00:15:47,490 --> 00:15:49,183
the right decision last year.

300
00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:54,303
And we're actually carrying
that forward this year.

301
00:15:55,620 --> 00:15:57,620
I did buy the corn maze seed.

302
00:15:57,620 --> 00:16:00,980
We will be planting the maze this year.

303
00:16:00,980 --> 00:16:03,393
And as of right now, we'll have a maze.

304
00:16:04,589 --> 00:16:07,720
And your question was, well,
what will we do about that?

305
00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:11,920
Well, one, we will have more toilets,

306
00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:14,620
more sanitation stations,

307
00:16:14,620 --> 00:16:17,670
and we are probably going to go to a

308
00:16:17,670 --> 00:16:22,250
reservation pre-sale ticket system

309
00:16:22,250 --> 00:16:25,270
so that we can control how many people

310
00:16:25,270 --> 00:16:27,920
are going to be here at one time,

311
00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:31,293
whether COVID is history
at that point or not.

312
00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:37,330
It still gets back to general
safety and having good

313
00:16:37,330 --> 00:16:42,060
healthy conditions for the
people who are at the farm.

314
00:16:42,060 --> 00:16:45,970
I don't look forward to
that fall season a whole lot

315
00:16:45,970 --> 00:16:48,540
because of the number of
people we have to deal with

316
00:16:48,540 --> 00:16:51,120
and the limited area that we do have

317
00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:56,833
while still trying to maintain
a strong core farm business.

318
00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:00,370
I hope that gives...
- Well, that's great.

319
00:17:00,370 --> 00:17:01,420
- No. That's perfect.

320
00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:04,760
That answered my questions.

321
00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:05,593
One more thing.

322
00:17:05,593 --> 00:17:07,190
I was really impressed with...

323
00:17:07,190 --> 00:17:08,590
I don't know how much
you want to get into this

324
00:17:08,590 --> 00:17:09,500
but if you would talk a little bit

325
00:17:09,500 --> 00:17:12,223
about your staff training and food safety.

326
00:17:13,430 --> 00:17:15,483
You talked about that quite a bit with us.

327
00:17:16,680 --> 00:17:19,437
What's your policy there or your...

328
00:17:19,437 --> 00:17:23,260
- Well, we do have a
licensed commercial kitchen.

329
00:17:23,260 --> 00:17:27,358
So we do have, we do follow
standards that are set forth

330
00:17:27,358 --> 00:17:30,290
in safe food handling.

331
00:17:30,290 --> 00:17:35,290
I have a general manager who
is the watchdog for all that.

332
00:17:35,410 --> 00:17:36,650
He takes care of everything

333
00:17:36,650 --> 00:17:39,078
under the farm stand roof,

334
00:17:39,078 --> 00:17:41,660
which includes the kitchen.

335
00:17:41,660 --> 00:17:46,660
Of course, we have to abide
by the safe food handling

336
00:17:46,890 --> 00:17:49,170
requirements that are out there right now.

337
00:17:49,170 --> 00:17:52,550
And I wouldn't even dare to
quote exactly where we are,

338
00:17:52,550 --> 00:17:57,550
but we do have our people
trained in safe food handling

339
00:17:57,970 --> 00:18:01,020
and we have to have the
right amount of supervisors

340
00:18:01,020 --> 00:18:05,173
on staff, you know, during
any one of the shifts.

341
00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:09,180
So we've always...

342
00:18:09,180 --> 00:18:11,190
And the other thing that we do that...

343
00:18:12,310 --> 00:18:13,740
In our retail area

344
00:18:14,580 --> 00:18:16,900
and in our storage area,

345
00:18:16,900 --> 00:18:21,900
we have probably 20 independent
coolers and freezers.

346
00:18:22,357 --> 00:18:25,830
In a modern farm stand design,

347
00:18:25,830 --> 00:18:28,100
you probably wouldn't have
all these independents

348
00:18:28,100 --> 00:18:30,690
because they're not efficient.

349
00:18:30,690 --> 00:18:32,710
You would have a engineered system

350
00:18:32,710 --> 00:18:35,488
that tied all these systems together.

351
00:18:35,488 --> 00:18:39,300
But the bottom line is, is
that our farm grew rapidly

352
00:18:39,300 --> 00:18:42,423
from the very late nineties to now.

353
00:18:44,067 --> 00:18:47,313
And the expansion was not
the result of good planning.

354
00:18:48,418 --> 00:18:50,877
The expansion was the result of need.

355
00:18:50,877 --> 00:18:52,590
Three times a day,

356
00:18:52,590 --> 00:18:56,420
every one of our
refrigeration units is logged

357
00:18:56,420 --> 00:18:59,810
in terms of what is the
temperature at that time.

358
00:18:59,810 --> 00:19:02,986
And if there's any...

359
00:19:02,986 --> 00:19:05,940
The crew, the retail crew who's doing,

360
00:19:05,940 --> 00:19:08,576
and the kitchen crew doing the logging,

361
00:19:08,576 --> 00:19:10,930
if the freezer refrigeration

362
00:19:10,930 --> 00:19:12,880
doesn't meet the minimum standard,

363
00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:15,680
that they have to let
management know right away.

364
00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:20,680
And this has proven useful
for us over the years.

365
00:19:20,940 --> 00:19:23,313
We can show a food inspector what we do.

366
00:19:25,658 --> 00:19:28,650
We've had minimal loss or spoilage

367
00:19:28,650 --> 00:19:31,300
because of a system failure.

368
00:19:31,300 --> 00:19:36,300
And we feel that we're always
putting out healthy product.

369
00:19:36,750 --> 00:19:39,023
Within the kitchen, for safety,

370
00:19:40,060 --> 00:19:44,090
my general manager, Jeff,
purchased a date system

371
00:19:44,990 --> 00:19:48,123
that's based on the computer in there.

372
00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:52,560
And within our labeling processes,

373
00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:55,510
the expiration dates are also applied

374
00:19:55,510 --> 00:19:58,480
to many of the products that we're making.

375
00:19:58,480 --> 00:20:01,010
And we have a very strict date code policy

376
00:20:01,010 --> 00:20:03,913
on the big products as well.

377
00:20:05,070 --> 00:20:06,475
- Right. Great.

378
00:20:06,475 --> 00:20:07,690
I'm sure there's more
you could tell us about

379
00:20:07,690 --> 00:20:12,550
but I think we'll move on to Nancy's video

380
00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:16,180
and I hope folks have
more questions for John.

381
00:20:16,180 --> 00:20:18,010
And if you put them in
chat, we'll talk to both

382
00:20:18,010 --> 00:20:21,920
of the farmers after I
do Nancy's presentation.

383
00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:23,100
So thanks so much, John.

384
00:20:23,100 --> 00:20:24,453
So I'm going to try to
share my screen again

385
00:20:24,453 --> 00:20:27,720
and see if we can go back easily.

386
00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:28,553
Okay.

387
00:20:31,380 --> 00:20:32,813
All right, so that was John.

388
00:20:33,890 --> 00:20:34,723
And,

389
00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:40,640
now we'll see Nancy
Franklin of Riverview Farm

390
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:42,813
talking about her operation.

391
00:20:44,520 --> 00:20:45,940
And again, there's no music

392
00:20:45,940 --> 00:20:48,770
there's only sound when Nancy's speaking.

393
00:20:48,770 --> 00:20:51,743
So, and that's in
Plainfield, New Hampshire.

394
00:20:53,070 --> 00:20:56,150
And these are some beautiful
shots of what people see.

395
00:20:56,150 --> 00:20:57,883
Actually, what we'll see is,

396
00:20:59,110 --> 00:21:02,410
well, this, they have lots
of signage at the farm store

397
00:21:02,410 --> 00:21:04,960
and information on how to
move on to pick your own.

398
00:21:08,500 --> 00:21:11,193
Lots of farm made products.

399
00:21:11,193 --> 00:21:13,320
When folks come to pick the blueberries,

400
00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:15,350
they'll see actually the
blueberries and raspberries.

401
00:21:15,350 --> 00:21:18,110
Of course, we got there early,
before anything was out.

402
00:21:18,110 --> 00:21:19,463
This is just early spring.

403
00:21:20,310 --> 00:21:22,833
Imagine the corn maze
and pumpkin fields there.

404
00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:30,710
- Nancy, tell us what you

405
00:21:30,710 --> 00:21:33,790
are going to do this
year for customer safety

406
00:21:33,790 --> 00:21:36,580
and for, you know,
COVID, what's left of it.

407
00:21:36,580 --> 00:21:38,090
- [Nancy] So last year,

408
00:21:38,090 --> 00:21:39,770
well, normally we would have been open

409
00:21:39,770 --> 00:21:42,910
seven days a week, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

410
00:21:42,910 --> 00:21:47,910
Last year, we were open six
days a week, 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

411
00:21:49,380 --> 00:21:51,490
We're going to keep the Mondays off.

412
00:21:51,490 --> 00:21:52,323
That was nice.

413
00:21:53,630 --> 00:21:56,650
And we're not going to be open at 9:00 AM.

414
00:21:56,650 --> 00:21:59,180
It's probably going to
go back to 10:00 AM.

415
00:21:59,180 --> 00:22:00,680
And we haven't decided whether five

416
00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:05,120
or five thirty maybe would be
a better time, but not six.

417
00:22:05,120 --> 00:22:06,830
- And what's your season for visitors?

418
00:22:06,830 --> 00:22:10,710
- We start around the 1st of August.

419
00:22:10,710 --> 00:22:13,550
We have late season
blueberries, mostly Elliot

420
00:22:13,550 --> 00:22:16,560
but there's a few slightly earlier ones,

421
00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:17,620
rows of earlier ones.

422
00:22:17,620 --> 00:22:20,750
And then we go through the end of October

423
00:22:22,270 --> 00:22:24,650
and then our daughter,
a weekend or two later,

424
00:22:24,650 --> 00:22:27,710
starts up with her wreath making stuff.

425
00:22:27,710 --> 00:22:31,743
But for the pick your own part,
yeah, through October 31st.

426
00:22:34,221 --> 00:22:37,550
And the reason why we extended
the hours last year was

427
00:22:37,550 --> 00:22:40,943
because we knew it gets
busy here on the weekends,

428
00:22:42,023 --> 00:22:46,460
and just to space people out
so they could have more hours

429
00:22:46,460 --> 00:22:48,260
during the day that they could come.

430
00:22:50,700 --> 00:22:52,690
Closed Mondays.

431
00:22:52,690 --> 00:22:54,540
It was nice for us to
just sort of take care

432
00:22:54,540 --> 00:22:56,180
of stuff that we would
normally just try to

433
00:22:56,180 --> 00:22:58,200
squeeze in somewhere or other.

434
00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:01,990
But the real reason behind it was that,

435
00:23:01,990 --> 00:23:04,470
because of Spotted Wing Drosophila,

436
00:23:04,470 --> 00:23:06,500
we have to spray once a week

437
00:23:06,500 --> 00:23:08,943
for that stupid little fruit fly.

438
00:23:09,930 --> 00:23:11,320
Really annoying

439
00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:13,510
cause there's a new generation
every eight to ten days.

440
00:23:13,510 --> 00:23:15,940
So typically what we would do before

441
00:23:15,940 --> 00:23:20,350
was spray one part of the
blueberries or raspberry patches

442
00:23:20,350 --> 00:23:22,180
and close off the other part.

443
00:23:22,180 --> 00:23:26,800
And then the next day spray
that and sort of alternate.

444
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:28,580
So that people would be shoved to either

445
00:23:28,580 --> 00:23:31,040
one part of the patch or another,

446
00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:33,570
but by being closed on
Mondays, Paul could go

447
00:23:33,570 --> 00:23:34,580
out Sunday evening

448
00:23:34,580 --> 00:23:36,300
because that's when this insect is out,

449
00:23:36,300 --> 00:23:37,570
is in the evenings.

450
00:23:37,570 --> 00:23:39,570
Go out, spray all the blueberries

451
00:23:39,570 --> 00:23:40,870
all the raspberries at once

452
00:23:40,870 --> 00:23:43,363
so that when we opened again on Tuesday,

453
00:23:45,140 --> 00:23:46,850
people could go everywhere
in those patches.

454
00:23:46,850 --> 00:23:48,893
So they could be spaced out better.

455
00:23:50,340 --> 00:23:51,870
We did like Mondays off.

456
00:23:51,870 --> 00:23:53,850
And I know there was
another orchard nearby

457
00:23:53,850 --> 00:23:55,190
that said, we're going to copy that.

458
00:23:55,190 --> 00:23:56,540
So they were closed on Tuesdays.

459
00:23:56,540 --> 00:23:57,743
And I suspect we're all going

460
00:23:57,743 --> 00:23:59,804
to be doing the same thing this year.

461
00:23:59,804 --> 00:24:01,450
Because why should we
work seven days a week?

462
00:24:01,450 --> 00:24:02,980
- You're planning on
keeping Mondays closed?

463
00:24:02,980 --> 00:24:04,363
- Yeah.
- Yeah, good.

464
00:24:05,542 --> 00:24:07,340
- Yeah. Now we didn't do
school tours last year either

465
00:24:07,340 --> 00:24:10,540
which is usually kindergartners,
maybe first graders

466
00:24:10,540 --> 00:24:12,550
and the schools weren't going out either.

467
00:24:12,550 --> 00:24:14,430
I don't know if that's going to resume

468
00:24:14,430 --> 00:24:17,950
and if it does, maybe
we'll still have a Monday

469
00:24:17,950 --> 00:24:19,520
as an option for that.

470
00:24:19,520 --> 00:24:21,740
It's usually like a 9:00 AM.

471
00:24:21,740 --> 00:24:23,640
By 10, 10:30, they're done.

472
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:25,593
So, haven't figured that part out yet,

473
00:24:26,635 --> 00:24:28,910
but yeah, we'll see how that goes.

474
00:24:28,910 --> 00:24:30,990
So yeah, we did that.

475
00:24:30,990 --> 00:24:34,330
And then in addition to
having the barn set ups here,

476
00:24:34,330 --> 00:24:36,420
we took what was supposed
to have been just housing

477
00:24:36,420 --> 00:24:40,360
for a tractor and made that
a satellite of the barn.

478
00:24:40,360 --> 00:24:45,360
So we had jams, maple syrup,
honey, some bagged apples

479
00:24:45,490 --> 00:24:48,040
a smaller kind of container for cider

480
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:49,990
that we would put ice in overnight

481
00:24:49,990 --> 00:24:52,240
and then had cider in there,

482
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:54,223
another table, another scale set up.

483
00:24:55,180 --> 00:24:57,245
We use Square,

484
00:24:57,245 --> 00:24:58,140
is it Square or Square Up?

485
00:24:58,140 --> 00:25:01,820
For cashing out stuff over there, too.

486
00:25:01,820 --> 00:25:05,630
So, that also just helped
to spread people out here.

487
00:25:05,630 --> 00:25:07,090
We also, on weekends,

488
00:25:07,090 --> 00:25:10,130
once we really got going with
apple season in particular,

489
00:25:10,130 --> 00:25:13,140
had a sign out here that
said only seven people

490
00:25:13,140 --> 00:25:14,733
in the barn at any one time.

491
00:25:16,020 --> 00:25:17,610
And if you had a large party,

492
00:25:17,610 --> 00:25:20,360
maybe just one of you
from that party to go in

493
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:27,430
- [Mary] That's where she
was just speaking to us

494
00:25:27,430 --> 00:25:28,853
in that barn area.

495
00:25:29,705 --> 00:25:30,960
And we're going to see across the way is

496
00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:33,530
the extra flex space that she's used

497
00:25:33,530 --> 00:25:36,773
for refreshments and additional sales.

498
00:25:43,055 --> 00:25:44,730
- Can you talk about again,

499
00:25:44,730 --> 00:25:46,170
just the hand washing station and the...

500
00:25:46,170 --> 00:25:47,280
What you have over here,

501
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:48,113
the bathroom.

502
00:25:49,284 --> 00:25:54,284
- Yeah, in the barn we have a bathroom.

503
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:01,720
And then during the season

504
00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:04,240
we'll get a couple of porta-potties to go

505
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:06,440
about where the tractor
is sitting right now.

506
00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:07,273
- Okay.

507
00:26:10,118 --> 00:26:11,570
- I think they usually
put like a hand sanitizer

508
00:26:11,570 --> 00:26:13,328
thing in those.

509
00:26:13,328 --> 00:26:14,810
- Or hand sanitizers in the bathrooms.

510
00:26:14,810 --> 00:26:16,075
- I think so.

511
00:26:16,075 --> 00:26:16,908
- They usually do.

512
00:26:16,908 --> 00:26:19,010
- What we did this last year
in addition to that was,

513
00:26:19,010 --> 00:26:21,770
we just also rented a
couple of washing stations

514
00:26:21,770 --> 00:26:24,180
to sit outside of those two.

515
00:26:24,180 --> 00:26:27,100
So that would have like soap and water

516
00:26:27,100 --> 00:26:29,270
you had to activate with a pump,

517
00:26:29,270 --> 00:26:30,580
with your foot kind of stuff.
- Yes, yeah.

518
00:26:30,580 --> 00:26:33,063
So we had that too,
just to make extra sure.

519
00:26:44,500 --> 00:26:46,200
- Right, this was a charming sign.

520
00:27:35,790 --> 00:27:37,660
- Not everybody likes dogs.

521
00:27:37,660 --> 00:27:39,970
Not every dog gets along
with every other dog.

522
00:27:39,970 --> 00:27:42,680
I can't vouch for people's dogs,

523
00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:44,240
whether they've had
their rabies shot or not.

524
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:45,400
- Right.

525
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:48,690
- And first and foremost,
we're growing food

526
00:27:48,690 --> 00:27:52,330
and we can't have dogs
lifting their legs to pee

527
00:27:52,330 --> 00:27:53,680
- on your berries.
on the berries.

528
00:27:53,680 --> 00:27:55,510
Like who wants to pick those?

529
00:27:55,510 --> 00:27:57,990
And when people pick,
they go to the first bush

530
00:27:57,990 --> 00:28:00,604
where they see color and they'll pick.

531
00:28:00,604 --> 00:28:01,570
I was looking at the barn door one time

532
00:28:01,570 --> 00:28:06,570
and this car gets out, this
family with like a Saint Bernard

533
00:28:08,410 --> 00:28:11,750
on a leash with an eight
year old at the other end.

534
00:28:11,750 --> 00:28:13,780
Takes that girl right over
to the raspberry bush,

535
00:28:13,780 --> 00:28:14,630
lifts his leg and pees.

536
00:28:14,630 --> 00:28:16,593
I'm like, oh no.

537
00:28:17,660 --> 00:28:20,410
This is why we can't do this.

538
00:28:20,410 --> 00:28:21,660
And it just gets so busy.

539
00:28:22,535 --> 00:28:23,490
Like even this one goes inside.

540
00:28:23,490 --> 00:28:24,968
He's not happy, but it's like,

541
00:28:24,968 --> 00:28:26,747
we can't have you out and around.

542
00:28:26,747 --> 00:28:28,320
And not everybody knows how to behave

543
00:28:28,320 --> 00:28:30,350
around a dog they don't know.

544
00:28:30,350 --> 00:28:32,900
Little kids want to go and
pet every little animal.

545
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:43,400
It's always good to warn
people about the ground.

546
00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:45,230
Every so often, walking in the orchard,

547
00:28:45,230 --> 00:28:46,470
there's a woodchuck hole.

548
00:28:46,470 --> 00:28:47,605
- Oh, my.

549
00:28:47,605 --> 00:28:48,770
- So, yeah.

550
00:28:48,770 --> 00:28:50,620
People need to be aware that,

551
00:28:50,620 --> 00:28:53,990
you know, we can't control
everything ground wise

552
00:28:53,990 --> 00:28:54,840
that's out there.

553
00:28:57,060 --> 00:29:01,443
Yeah. I mean, over the years,
you kind of figure out.

554
00:29:03,410 --> 00:29:05,704
Like if we ever find deadly
night shade out there,

555
00:29:05,704 --> 00:29:06,900
it's like, we gotta get that out of there.

556
00:29:06,900 --> 00:29:10,170
Cause little kids will think
it's some little fruit.

557
00:29:10,170 --> 00:29:11,330
I had a woman call me one time.

558
00:29:11,330 --> 00:29:15,000
She was up in the raspberries,
which are up at front

559
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:16,293
that way towards 12A.

560
00:29:17,506 --> 00:29:18,937
And she's calling me from her phone,

561
00:29:18,937 --> 00:29:20,820
"What are the blueberries
that are in the raspberries?"

562
00:29:20,820 --> 00:29:23,620
I'm like, "There are no
blueberries in the raspberries."

563
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:26,450
Forgot now what it was that she picked,

564
00:29:26,450 --> 00:29:28,247
but it's like a poisonous thing.

565
00:29:28,247 --> 00:29:29,280
"Well, my child's eating them."

566
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:30,350
No, do not.

567
00:29:30,350 --> 00:29:31,280
No, no. Don't.

568
00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:32,820
There's, there's no...

569
00:29:32,820 --> 00:29:34,044
- She was up there?

570
00:29:34,044 --> 00:29:34,877
- Yeah.

571
00:29:34,877 --> 00:29:35,710
- And called you down here?

572
00:29:35,710 --> 00:29:36,543
- Uh-huh.

573
00:29:36,543 --> 00:29:37,376
- Oh, that was good.

574
00:29:37,376 --> 00:29:38,209
- Yep.

575
00:30:03,180 --> 00:30:05,330
- Right. So if there's
apple cores and other kinds

576
00:30:05,330 --> 00:30:07,730
of food stuff left around,

577
00:30:07,730 --> 00:30:09,030
bugs are going to find it.

578
00:30:26,130 --> 00:30:30,370
So that was our little
overview of Riverview Farm.

579
00:30:30,370 --> 00:30:31,580
That was great, Nancy, thank you.

580
00:30:31,580 --> 00:30:34,870
So now I'm going to ask you a
few questions that we didn't,

581
00:30:34,870 --> 00:30:37,260
that we talked about in person,

582
00:30:37,260 --> 00:30:39,370
but we didn't get them onto the video

583
00:30:39,370 --> 00:30:40,770
if you're up for that Nancy.

584
00:30:41,823 --> 00:30:44,931
So some things we didn't
talk about were how you,

585
00:30:44,931 --> 00:30:48,100
how you did the corn maze this year,

586
00:30:48,100 --> 00:30:49,800
or last year and how you're
going to do it this year,

587
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:51,383
if it's the same or different.

588
00:30:52,443 --> 00:30:56,220
- Okay. So our maze is
maybe three acres in size.

589
00:30:56,220 --> 00:30:57,760
It shares a field with pumpkins

590
00:30:57,760 --> 00:30:59,320
and we alternate back and forth

591
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:01,540
one year and the next,
switch sides, (indistinct).

592
00:31:04,430 --> 00:31:07,550
And we have an artist friend design it.

593
00:31:07,550 --> 00:31:10,530
And last year, instead
of having dead ends,

594
00:31:10,530 --> 00:31:13,200
we just made it one long
continuous winding path

595
00:31:14,580 --> 00:31:15,840
so that people wouldn't be getting

596
00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:17,260
into a dead end and suddenly coming

597
00:31:17,260 --> 00:31:21,460
upon other people who may
or may not have been masked.

598
00:31:21,460 --> 00:31:23,390
We told people to wear masks

599
00:31:23,390 --> 00:31:26,080
in around the barns and
around the parking areas.

600
00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:30,100
But when they were out picking,
they were probably fine.

601
00:31:30,100 --> 00:31:33,510
But still have a mask
with you in case you ran

602
00:31:33,510 --> 00:31:36,723
into somebody you knew or had
to help somebody or whatever.

603
00:31:37,894 --> 00:31:42,360
So just the continuous path
seemed to work out pretty well.

604
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:46,270
It's not the huge draw, I don't think.

605
00:31:46,270 --> 00:31:48,050
It's kind of a secondary use

606
00:31:48,050 --> 00:31:51,230
of that field to put some crops into.

607
00:31:51,230 --> 00:31:54,633
This year, I think we're
going to go back to dead ends,

608
00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:56,580
hopefully.

609
00:31:56,580 --> 00:31:58,650
And it's going to have actually some

610
00:31:58,650 --> 00:32:00,530
of the same characters this
year that we had last year

611
00:32:00,530 --> 00:32:03,343
but then additions to
that in other places.

612
00:32:04,443 --> 00:32:06,550
So I think we're going
back to the way it was.

613
00:32:06,550 --> 00:32:10,800
We haven't really gotten
to where it's anywhere near

614
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:13,220
up to where we have to rototill the paths.

615
00:32:13,220 --> 00:32:16,210
Yeah. So stay tuned.

616
00:32:16,210 --> 00:32:17,333
- Okay.

617
00:32:17,333 --> 00:32:18,550
- But hopefully things are better by fall.

618
00:32:18,550 --> 00:32:22,077
That opens around Labor
Day weekend and continues.

619
00:32:23,050 --> 00:32:27,423
- Now you did venture into
curbside pick up a little bit.

620
00:32:27,423 --> 00:32:29,450
How did that work for you?

621
00:32:29,450 --> 00:32:30,840
How did you do that?

622
00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:33,130
- Well, because we use Square,

623
00:32:33,130 --> 00:32:35,630
people would put an order through there

624
00:32:36,722 --> 00:32:38,270
and so it would show up for us that way.

625
00:32:38,270 --> 00:32:40,860
We didn't do email or calling.

626
00:32:40,860 --> 00:32:42,910
People would put their order in

627
00:32:42,910 --> 00:32:44,913
and pay for it that way, too.

628
00:32:46,330 --> 00:32:47,630
And we were paying attention,

629
00:32:47,630 --> 00:32:49,620
listening in on these different webinars

630
00:32:49,620 --> 00:32:51,010
that extension was having

631
00:32:51,010 --> 00:32:52,820
leading up to like in the spring

632
00:32:52,820 --> 00:32:55,353
and seeing what other people
like Moulton's were doing.

633
00:32:56,350 --> 00:32:58,480
And in a bit of a panic.

634
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:02,170
So we did have kind of a
curbside pickup for the front

635
00:33:02,170 --> 00:33:06,820
of our apple barn with the
cider presses and cold storage.

636
00:33:06,820 --> 00:33:10,090
But honestly we had maybe
20 people the whole season

637
00:33:10,090 --> 00:33:11,203
that did it that way.

638
00:33:12,350 --> 00:33:14,600
Turns out people really
wanted to be outside.

639
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:19,430
So we had a lot of new
time, new customers here.

640
00:33:19,430 --> 00:33:21,260
We gave out an awful lot of directions

641
00:33:21,260 --> 00:33:23,650
to where everything was.

642
00:33:23,650 --> 00:33:27,720
So yeah, curbside was,
I don't know if we'll,

643
00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:29,670
maybe we'll keep it up this year

644
00:33:29,670 --> 00:33:33,970
but I wouldn't expect it
to get any bigger at all.

645
00:33:33,970 --> 00:33:36,990
We're really pretty much pick your own.

646
00:33:36,990 --> 00:33:37,823
- Right.

647
00:33:37,823 --> 00:33:38,960
- Yeah.

648
00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:41,920
- Would you talk about
your outdoor dinners,

649
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:43,142
what you did last year

650
00:33:43,142 --> 00:33:44,530
and what you're going to do this year?

651
00:33:44,530 --> 00:33:46,780
- Last year they were canceled outright.

652
00:33:46,780 --> 00:33:49,660
Even if it was someone...

653
00:33:49,660 --> 00:33:52,940
Amy, our daughter, is the
one that does all that stuff

654
00:33:52,940 --> 00:33:54,780
and she partners with a caterer out

655
00:33:54,780 --> 00:33:56,433
of Vermont, Artisan Eats Vermont,

656
00:33:57,940 --> 00:33:58,993
of Vermont,

657
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:03,430
and she like has one
group where it's like,

658
00:34:03,430 --> 00:34:06,410
they're all in their own little
cohort, their own bubble.

659
00:34:06,410 --> 00:34:08,830
But Amy was still like,
nope, we're just not

660
00:34:08,830 --> 00:34:10,930
not at all that year.

661
00:34:10,930 --> 00:34:14,250
This year, she is back
to doing them again.

662
00:34:14,250 --> 00:34:15,820
She started off a couple of weeks ago.

663
00:34:15,820 --> 00:34:20,003
She had a tea party that was
in the late morning time.

664
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:24,080
I think she does maybe a
couple or three tea parties

665
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:26,480
but then it's dinners
in the orchard which,

666
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:27,500
I don't know that schedule,

667
00:34:27,500 --> 00:34:29,520
but she does have some set up

668
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:31,410
and it's typically eight people

669
00:34:32,820 --> 00:34:35,740
and one person will make the
reservation for the groups

670
00:34:35,740 --> 00:34:37,173
So they all know each other.

671
00:34:38,049 --> 00:34:41,240
She only started this probably
two years ago anyways,

672
00:34:41,240 --> 00:34:45,000
but she would have one or two dinners

673
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:47,990
where you didn't have to know
everyone else in your party.

674
00:34:47,990 --> 00:34:51,090
You could just make reservation
for one or two people

675
00:34:51,090 --> 00:34:54,440
and up to a limit of whatever
it was, eight or ten people.

676
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:56,830
She's thinking about maybe
doing that again this year

677
00:34:56,830 --> 00:34:58,240
but I don't think she's really opened

678
00:34:58,240 --> 00:34:59,850
that up yet as a possibility.

679
00:34:59,850 --> 00:35:03,190
So she's kind of keeping
that out for maybe later on

680
00:35:03,190 --> 00:35:05,393
in the summer or an early fall thing.

681
00:35:06,940 --> 00:35:09,600
But yeah, works out well.

682
00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:10,433
- And would you tell us a little

683
00:35:10,433 --> 00:35:13,593
about how she managed the
wreath making classes this year?

684
00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:16,960
- So this year, yeah.

685
00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:19,430
She still had the classes,
but it was kind of

686
00:35:19,430 --> 00:35:21,790
like the dinners where you had to be

687
00:35:21,790 --> 00:35:24,720
with people that you knew.

688
00:35:24,720 --> 00:35:27,830
She had fewer people per class.

689
00:35:27,830 --> 00:35:30,000
She could do some,

690
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:32,170
more than one class per day

691
00:35:32,170 --> 00:35:33,740
but she always wanted to make sure

692
00:35:33,740 --> 00:35:35,750
the barn was aired out in between,

693
00:35:35,750 --> 00:35:37,863
which takes probably just a few minutes.

694
00:35:39,451 --> 00:35:41,670
But yeah, so she really
did cut back on the wreath

695
00:35:41,670 --> 00:35:44,150
making classes part of it.

696
00:35:44,150 --> 00:35:46,840
I would imagine this year it's
going to be back to normal

697
00:35:46,840 --> 00:35:51,840
because yeah, she's got
all adults who, I'm sure,

698
00:35:53,220 --> 00:35:55,890
hopefully, will be all vaccinated.

699
00:35:55,890 --> 00:35:58,543
but maybe we'll still
continue with the masks.

700
00:35:59,679 --> 00:36:02,048
You know, it's, that's a November thing.

701
00:36:02,048 --> 00:36:03,680
So we'll see what we're doing.

702
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:05,720
I'm a little anxious about

703
00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:09,300
letting go of the whole mask thing

704
00:36:09,300 --> 00:36:11,983
until children can be vaccinated.

705
00:36:13,100 --> 00:36:15,200
I mean, this is very
much outdoor activities

706
00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:16,210
that we do around here

707
00:36:16,210 --> 00:36:17,950
but as long as they're still vulnerable

708
00:36:17,950 --> 00:36:20,083
because they can't be vaccinated yet,

709
00:36:21,970 --> 00:36:22,803
I don't know.

710
00:36:22,803 --> 00:36:25,820
I think we might still
really ask people to

711
00:36:25,820 --> 00:36:30,820
mask when they're in
around other people, too.

712
00:36:31,092 --> 00:36:33,400
Unless that changes by the time we open.

713
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:34,515
We'll see.

714
00:36:34,515 --> 00:36:35,348
- Right.

715
00:36:35,348 --> 00:36:36,582
- Yeah.

716
00:36:36,582 --> 00:36:39,180
- Looks like we got a
ton of chat questions.

717
00:36:39,180 --> 00:36:41,210
I guess I'll start at the top.

718
00:36:41,210 --> 00:36:43,504
Let's see what we have.

719
00:36:43,504 --> 00:36:46,150
- Do you want me to keep track of chat and

720
00:36:46,150 --> 00:36:46,983
- Sure.

721
00:36:46,983 --> 00:36:48,470
- I can kind of monitor the questions

722
00:36:48,470 --> 00:36:51,220
and between you and Nancy
and John and others,

723
00:36:51,220 --> 00:36:53,200
everyone can chime in.

724
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:54,760
- Sure.

725
00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:58,980
- Okay, I'll start with one
that's for both John and Nancy.

726
00:36:58,980 --> 00:37:01,870
What type of insurance
policies do you have

727
00:37:01,870 --> 00:37:06,330
since you both have staff
and visitors on your farms

728
00:37:06,330 --> 00:37:10,460
and did you have to change any
of your policies for COVID?

729
00:37:10,460 --> 00:37:12,730
And while you two think about that,

730
00:37:12,730 --> 00:37:15,980
I just want to say,
this has been fantastic.

731
00:37:15,980 --> 00:37:18,590
Really appreciate you sharing everything.

732
00:37:18,590 --> 00:37:19,790
For those of you who might've had

733
00:37:19,790 --> 00:37:21,880
a hard time seeing the videos,

734
00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:24,010
we will post links specifically to

735
00:37:24,010 --> 00:37:26,660
the videos on the website.

736
00:37:26,660 --> 00:37:29,080
So John, we'll start to start with you.

737
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:30,920
Tell us about your insurance policies

738
00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:32,570
and then Nancy, you can chime in.

739
00:37:34,780 --> 00:37:37,240
- The insurance policy, the insurance,

740
00:37:37,240 --> 00:37:40,230
the exposure very seriously.

741
00:37:40,230 --> 00:37:43,680
So we meet, I meet every year

742
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:47,730
with our broker and we've
had the same broker now

743
00:37:47,730 --> 00:37:50,690
for a number of years.

744
00:37:50,690 --> 00:37:54,310
I don't know what to say
other than our broker

745
00:37:54,310 --> 00:37:57,710
and the company we're using is very aware

746
00:37:57,710 --> 00:38:00,403
of the activities that
we have here on the farm.

747
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:07,640
We know we have this exposure

748
00:38:08,720 --> 00:38:13,147
and probably high chance for damages

749
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:20,243
so we consider ourselves to be insured.

750
00:38:21,820 --> 00:38:26,820
And obviously our insurance
rates are based upon our size.

751
00:38:27,857 --> 00:38:31,700
So we are audited every
year where the auditor

752
00:38:31,700 --> 00:38:35,010
is looking of course at
our labor, our payroll,

753
00:38:35,010 --> 00:38:36,243
and our sales.

754
00:38:39,465 --> 00:38:43,913
So, unfortunately, as a
farm that's going to invite

755
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:48,530
the public onto our property,

756
00:38:48,530 --> 00:38:51,260
we just have to bite the bullet

757
00:38:51,260 --> 00:38:54,760
and buy a fair amount of insurance.

758
00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:56,960
- Yeah. Nancy.

759
00:38:56,960 --> 00:39:00,800
- So we use Farm Family Casualty Insurance

760
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:03,823
and have several
policies, different types.

761
00:39:04,660 --> 00:39:07,000
Yeah. So we have liability
insurance and it's very similar

762
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:09,250
to what John was saying, where
it's an audit every year.

763
00:39:09,250 --> 00:39:13,524
You sit down with our
insurance agent and go over

764
00:39:13,524 --> 00:39:16,340
what's new, anything
different, nothing different.

765
00:39:16,340 --> 00:39:19,833
There wasn't really an increase for COVID,

766
00:39:20,980 --> 00:39:23,680
but we're careful anyways.

767
00:39:23,680 --> 00:39:25,503
That liability insurance,

768
00:39:27,510 --> 00:39:29,440
I wish parents would
sometimes really understand

769
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:32,880
that they really seriously
have to watch their children.

770
00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:35,850
There's even a terrorism clause
in this insurance policy.

771
00:39:35,850 --> 00:39:37,820
If you start reading the
fine print, like, oh my gosh

772
00:39:37,820 --> 00:39:39,430
we're covering a lot of stuff here.

773
00:39:39,430 --> 00:39:41,020
So yeah.

774
00:39:41,020 --> 00:39:43,370
Yeah. We're, I think
we're pretty well covered.

775
00:39:44,980 --> 00:39:48,530
And that's also why we have
signage up about, you know

776
00:39:48,530 --> 00:39:49,560
this is a working farm

777
00:39:49,560 --> 00:39:52,520
so be aware of the uneven
ground, the irrigation pipe,

778
00:39:52,520 --> 00:39:54,750
stay away from the pond and the river.

779
00:39:54,750 --> 00:39:57,110
We had an incident many years ago

780
00:39:57,110 --> 00:39:58,930
with a very independent cat

781
00:40:00,910 --> 00:40:01,900
and he had been injured.

782
00:40:01,900 --> 00:40:04,030
I can't remember if he still
had stitches on his neck

783
00:40:04,030 --> 00:40:06,740
or what, and it was back when
we used to do strawberries

784
00:40:06,740 --> 00:40:08,120
pick your own.

785
00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:09,860
Parents were out picking strawberries.

786
00:40:09,860 --> 00:40:11,870
Son was throwing cat up in the air

787
00:40:12,720 --> 00:40:15,340
and cat defended himself and bit the kid.

788
00:40:15,340 --> 00:40:19,250
This was before you really
had to worry about rabies.

789
00:40:19,250 --> 00:40:23,790
Like it wasn't a requirement
to get vaccinated for rabies.

790
00:40:23,790 --> 00:40:26,450
That came probably a year or two later.

791
00:40:26,450 --> 00:40:28,920
So this kid ended up,

792
00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:31,760
his oral antibiotics or
whatever he was getting

793
00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:33,660
actually weren't working

794
00:40:33,660 --> 00:40:35,980
so he had to be hospitalized.

795
00:40:35,980 --> 00:40:37,340
I was in a panic

796
00:40:37,340 --> 00:40:38,890
and that's when we sat down
with an attorney and said,

797
00:40:38,890 --> 00:40:41,350
okay what do we need to do
to keep from being sued?

798
00:40:41,350 --> 00:40:43,130
And he said, you know,
you gotta warn people

799
00:40:43,130 --> 00:40:46,350
just like the ski areas do where they say

800
00:40:46,350 --> 00:40:48,680
if you fall and break your
leg or something, oh, well

801
00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:49,970
that's on you.

802
00:40:49,970 --> 00:40:52,610
So that's why we have
that sign at the entrance

803
00:40:52,610 --> 00:40:56,000
to the retail barn that
says, you know, working farm

804
00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:58,470
watch your children be
careful and all that.

805
00:40:58,470 --> 00:41:02,680
Now on the other sign, Where
it's what we're picking now,

806
00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:05,690
I also put in a little
apple tree shape and said

807
00:41:05,690 --> 00:41:08,840
please do not climb the trees
because we don't want people,

808
00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:10,410
we don't want them
falling out of the trees.

809
00:41:10,410 --> 00:41:12,660
Also, we don't want them
ruining next year's crop

810
00:41:12,660 --> 00:41:15,150
which is in the works when
we're already in the works,

811
00:41:15,150 --> 00:41:17,518
when we're picking apples.

812
00:41:17,518 --> 00:41:19,010
So, you know, we don't
want them breaking branches

813
00:41:19,010 --> 00:41:21,820
or all that stuff, but yeah.

814
00:41:21,820 --> 00:41:24,050
Spread the word as much as we can

815
00:41:24,050 --> 00:41:25,600
why we want them to be careful.

816
00:41:26,940 --> 00:41:28,018
- Yeah. Yeah.

817
00:41:28,018 --> 00:41:28,851
That's important.

818
00:41:28,851 --> 00:41:30,050
And Nancy actually had some questions

819
00:41:30,050 --> 00:41:31,610
about how you're informing people.

820
00:41:31,610 --> 00:41:34,360
So we might circle back to those

821
00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:36,630
but you already started to answer those.

822
00:41:36,630 --> 00:41:40,430
So I'll move to a question for John

823
00:41:40,430 --> 00:41:42,920
which I think is also relevant to Nancy

824
00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:45,430
which is what are your
staffing challenges?

825
00:41:45,430 --> 00:41:48,293
What were they during COVID
and what are they now?

826
00:41:49,320 --> 00:41:50,730
- It's a good question.

827
00:41:50,730 --> 00:41:52,980
You know, and staffing
and safety go together

828
00:41:54,030 --> 00:41:58,920
because good staff members
tend to be more safe

829
00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:03,890
or understand the dangers or
risks in any of their jobs.

830
00:42:03,890 --> 00:42:05,870
We are lucky.

831
00:42:05,870 --> 00:42:10,870
We have a very stable labor force.

832
00:42:11,740 --> 00:42:15,600
What was interesting during COVID is that

833
00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:20,600
we had just opened at the
beginning of the COVID season

834
00:42:20,900 --> 00:42:22,500
or whatever you want to call it.

835
00:42:23,840 --> 00:42:26,429
We had been open about a week

836
00:42:26,429 --> 00:42:29,820
and then the seriousness
of COVID hit in March

837
00:42:29,820 --> 00:42:32,020
and not knowing what to do,

838
00:42:32,020 --> 00:42:36,570
we immediately met, reduced our hours,

839
00:42:36,570 --> 00:42:41,570
and we told our senior staff
members that we understood

840
00:42:41,810 --> 00:42:43,400
if they did not want to work

841
00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:45,630
and not want to meet with the public.

842
00:42:45,630 --> 00:42:47,930
Several of them took us up on that.

843
00:42:47,930 --> 00:42:51,540
So that immediately
created staff shortages.

844
00:42:51,540 --> 00:42:53,490
The good thing that happened was

845
00:42:53,490 --> 00:42:56,070
the college kids that are
showing up from college

846
00:42:56,070 --> 00:42:58,890
because the colleges were closing down.

847
00:42:58,890 --> 00:43:02,390
We were able to backfill
with our regular college kids

848
00:43:02,390 --> 00:43:04,390
and some new folks.

849
00:43:04,390 --> 00:43:06,280
We do have,

850
00:43:06,280 --> 00:43:08,231
in terms of safety,

851
00:43:08,231 --> 00:43:12,770
we develop protocols
and policies pertaining

852
00:43:12,770 --> 00:43:14,300
to COVID testing,

853
00:43:14,300 --> 00:43:19,300
pertaining to isolation, quarantine.

854
00:43:19,750 --> 00:43:23,000
And again, I have a great, great group

855
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:26,450
of cooperative employees.

856
00:43:26,450 --> 00:43:29,060
And then as is publicly known,

857
00:43:29,060 --> 00:43:32,450
we went through the whole season

858
00:43:32,450 --> 00:43:35,580
from March up until the middle of December

859
00:43:35,580 --> 00:43:38,090
with our closing date
being New Year's Eve.

860
00:43:38,090 --> 00:43:41,260
And we had an employee
who did not feel well

861
00:43:41,260 --> 00:43:44,700
and per our protocol and
requirements, we said,

862
00:43:44,700 --> 00:43:48,600
well, you can't come back to
work until you are tested.

863
00:43:48,600 --> 00:43:49,820
Would you please get tested?

864
00:43:49,820 --> 00:43:51,680
And this employee did.

865
00:43:51,680 --> 00:43:54,300
And wham, at 11 o'clock
on a Friday morning,

866
00:43:54,300 --> 00:43:57,820
we found out that it was a positive test.

867
00:43:57,820 --> 00:44:01,420
Within an hour, We
informed our staff of this.

868
00:44:01,420 --> 00:44:03,620
And then by five o'clock that afternoon

869
00:44:03,620 --> 00:44:06,490
we were shut down for
the rest of the year.

870
00:44:06,490 --> 00:44:10,423
That was because we followed
our own self-imposed protocol.

871
00:44:11,650 --> 00:44:14,730
That was a challenge that
I hope I never face again.

872
00:44:14,730 --> 00:44:18,090
December is not prime time for the farm,

873
00:44:18,090 --> 00:44:20,320
but certainly the monetary loss

874
00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:24,690
at that time was far more than
I ever would have expected.

875
00:44:24,690 --> 00:44:27,500
And should that occur
during our regular summer

876
00:44:27,500 --> 00:44:31,093
or fall season, it could
be quite, quite costly.

877
00:44:34,099 --> 00:44:37,840
We've already rented a separate box office

878
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:41,290
and the farm crew will be
operating independently

879
00:44:41,290 --> 00:44:45,000
of the retail and kitchen crew.

880
00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:47,050
They'll have their own sign in system,

881
00:44:47,050 --> 00:44:50,330
their own meeting point each day

882
00:44:50,330 --> 00:44:52,470
and we'll get them separated.

883
00:44:52,470 --> 00:44:54,580
And then we'll get some
of the farm crew folks

884
00:44:54,580 --> 00:44:58,300
cross trained to handle some retail duties

885
00:44:58,300 --> 00:44:59,133
if we need them.

886
00:44:59,133 --> 00:45:01,950
Are we expect expecting
to have COVID issues?

887
00:45:01,950 --> 00:45:06,950
No, but one thing we have
learned is to be prepared

888
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:09,363
for who knows what might happen.

889
00:45:10,957 --> 00:45:14,230
I don't want to go
through a shutdown again

890
00:45:14,230 --> 00:45:17,128
but it's what we felt we had to do.

891
00:45:17,128 --> 00:45:20,419
And we were very forward
with our customers.

892
00:45:20,419 --> 00:45:22,070
We announced it immediately

893
00:45:22,070 --> 00:45:24,000
that we'd had a positive test

894
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:26,820
and that any customer
that wanted to call us

895
00:45:26,820 --> 00:45:28,990
could contact us in some way.

896
00:45:28,990 --> 00:45:31,770
And we responded to quite a few

897
00:45:31,770 --> 00:45:35,080
inquiries as to when this person worked

898
00:45:35,080 --> 00:45:38,543
and what this person was doing that day.

899
00:45:39,710 --> 00:45:43,020
So it was quite an experience.

900
00:45:48,359 --> 00:45:51,280
- In the summertime we tend to have

901
00:45:51,280 --> 00:45:52,930
high school and college students.

902
00:45:54,270 --> 00:45:57,180
And then we lose the college
students in the fall.

903
00:45:57,180 --> 00:46:00,010
One of our, and then we
have some in the retail barn

904
00:46:00,010 --> 00:46:02,750
especially then we have different people.

905
00:46:02,750 --> 00:46:03,583
One of them is a friend

906
00:46:03,583 --> 00:46:05,440
of ours and she was asking me early on.

907
00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:07,577
So, so what are you doing to make sure

908
00:46:07,577 --> 00:46:09,030
that we're going to be okay?

909
00:46:09,030 --> 00:46:10,360
And so I had explained
all the different things

910
00:46:10,360 --> 00:46:12,609
we were setting up and the plexiglass

911
00:46:12,609 --> 00:46:14,740
and all those other hand
sanitizer, satellite

912
00:46:14,740 --> 00:46:15,573
she says, oh, okay, well

913
00:46:15,573 --> 00:46:17,140
looks like you've worked working on it.

914
00:46:17,140 --> 00:46:18,140
So that's good.

915
00:46:18,140 --> 00:46:19,800
We were fine.

916
00:46:19,800 --> 00:46:23,480
We have one employee who's excellent.

917
00:46:23,480 --> 00:46:25,560
She was going to go off
to Dartmouth last year

918
00:46:25,560 --> 00:46:26,600
for freshman year.

919
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:30,830
But when Dartmouth came
in with these, you know

920
00:46:30,830 --> 00:46:32,340
advertising all the different restrictions

921
00:46:32,340 --> 00:46:33,460
that were going to be happening,

922
00:46:33,460 --> 00:46:36,920
she decided to take a gap
year, which was great for us.

923
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:38,860
Cause she was really good.

924
00:46:38,860 --> 00:46:43,640
She's a field hand and just
smart, energetic, great.

925
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:46,240
She's going to be going
off to college this year.

926
00:46:46,240 --> 00:46:49,460
Yeah. And we also had a
manager for a few years.

927
00:46:49,460 --> 00:46:52,870
He'd worked for us as
just a regular employee

928
00:46:52,870 --> 00:46:54,380
for a long time.

929
00:46:54,380 --> 00:46:57,240
Over the winter, he decided
to go into construction

930
00:46:57,240 --> 00:47:00,940
where he could get not only weekends off

931
00:47:00,940 --> 00:47:02,390
and maybe better pay,

932
00:47:02,390 --> 00:47:06,730
but he also had a retirement 401k stuff

933
00:47:06,730 --> 00:47:08,250
that we did not offer.

934
00:47:08,250 --> 00:47:10,680
I think we were going to start
offering health insurance

935
00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:13,546
because we really felt we
should be paying for that.

936
00:47:13,546 --> 00:47:15,436
But he got that with the other thing too.

937
00:47:15,436 --> 00:47:17,170
So we're already short handed.

938
00:47:17,170 --> 00:47:18,783
We could really use a manager.

939
00:47:20,140 --> 00:47:22,340
As far as summer help, we're okay.

940
00:47:22,340 --> 00:47:25,750
But come fall, I think
we're going to need to find

941
00:47:25,750 --> 00:47:27,883
another two or three people.

942
00:47:29,185 --> 00:47:32,763
So usually for us word
of mouth works the best.

943
00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:36,240
If we have to advertise
in the local paper,

944
00:47:36,240 --> 00:47:37,350
I'm going to get some people

945
00:47:37,350 --> 00:47:39,270
that we might just have
to let go right away.

946
00:47:39,270 --> 00:47:42,310
They don't really have the experience

947
00:47:42,310 --> 00:47:45,400
or show up when they should or they decide

948
00:47:45,400 --> 00:47:47,080
this isn't what they thought it was

949
00:47:47,080 --> 00:47:48,690
and they don't show up at all.

950
00:47:48,690 --> 00:47:50,990
Yeah. Usually word of
mouth works pretty well.

951
00:47:52,054 --> 00:47:53,833
So hopefully we'll be
in better shape then.

952
00:47:55,750 --> 00:47:56,910
- Yeah. Thank you.

953
00:47:56,910 --> 00:48:01,380
I think hiring good people
is an issue everywhere.

954
00:48:01,380 --> 00:48:05,000
So we have more questions
about the signs and here's one

955
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:06,930
I think meant for Nancy

956
00:48:06,930 --> 00:48:09,530
but John by all means jump in.

957
00:48:09,530 --> 00:48:11,550
So people want to hear more

958
00:48:11,550 --> 00:48:14,200
about your signage and in particular,

959
00:48:14,200 --> 00:48:19,200
do you have a hold harmless
clause stated on your sign?

960
00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:22,670
- No. When we were first getting

961
00:48:22,670 --> 00:48:24,320
into pick your own strawberries, we went

962
00:48:24,320 --> 00:48:29,320
to another local place and
right off you enter the driveway

963
00:48:30,060 --> 00:48:32,200
and there was this huge sign

964
00:48:32,200 --> 00:48:34,190
don't don't don't don't

965
00:48:34,190 --> 00:48:35,710
no, no, nope.

966
00:48:35,710 --> 00:48:37,440
Not at all welcoming.

967
00:48:37,440 --> 00:48:40,250
You know, you just wanted
to turn around and leave.

968
00:48:40,250 --> 00:48:42,950
I try to word things in a nice way

969
00:48:42,950 --> 00:48:45,423
but that certainly gets across the point.

970
00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:49,140
On the other sign, it says
what we're picking down there.

971
00:48:49,140 --> 00:48:53,410
We also say, yeah, no dogs anywhere.

972
00:48:53,410 --> 00:48:55,760
You know, keep them in
your car in the shade.

973
00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:57,400
We can get you water for your dog

974
00:48:57,400 --> 00:49:00,230
but it cannot be out and around the farm.

975
00:49:00,230 --> 00:49:02,306
The children must be
supervised at all times by

976
00:49:02,306 --> 00:49:04,750
the adults that they came with.

977
00:49:04,750 --> 00:49:06,900
In other words, we are
not your babysitter.

978
00:49:06,900 --> 00:49:07,930
So stuff like that.

979
00:49:07,930 --> 00:49:11,393
No smoking in the barns or the
fields, that sort of stuff.

980
00:49:12,604 --> 00:49:16,053
We don't state that it's
your fault if you get hurt.

981
00:49:17,590 --> 00:49:18,990
Hopefully that's understood.

982
00:49:21,880 --> 00:49:23,860
- I think Nancy makes an excellent point

983
00:49:23,860 --> 00:49:26,530
about signs because I, too, Nancy,

984
00:49:26,530 --> 00:49:28,973
have seen these negative signs at farms.

985
00:49:29,983 --> 00:49:33,940
I think you can do a lot of
retail damage and resentment

986
00:49:33,940 --> 00:49:36,570
and even almost challenge.

987
00:49:36,570 --> 00:49:38,920
You know, you're challenging the person.

988
00:49:38,920 --> 00:49:39,753
We believe in signs.

989
00:49:39,753 --> 00:49:40,830
We have a lot of signs

990
00:49:42,956 --> 00:49:44,570
but we try to work to make them positive.

991
00:49:44,570 --> 00:49:48,070
You know, our dog sign
starts off, we love dogs.

992
00:49:48,070 --> 00:49:50,775
But, you know, and our mask sign,

993
00:49:50,775 --> 00:49:55,775
we never required masks in the farm stand,

994
00:49:56,340 --> 00:50:00,110
but our signage begging people

995
00:50:01,064 --> 00:50:05,110
and telling them about
we want to feel safe.

996
00:50:05,110 --> 00:50:08,303
We want them to feel safe, all this stuff.

997
00:50:09,460 --> 00:50:14,460
I honestly think we had 99%
mass compliance from day one.

998
00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:20,893
And the couple of folks who
wouldn't wear their mask,

999
00:50:21,860 --> 00:50:26,590
even during the governors mandate time,

1000
00:50:26,590 --> 00:50:29,940
I mean, there were just very
independent minded persons.

1001
00:50:29,940 --> 00:50:32,530
And of course I'm saying
that politely here in public

1002
00:50:32,530 --> 00:50:34,040
because I could say it impolitely

1003
00:50:34,040 --> 00:50:35,440
if we weren't on the screen.

1004
00:50:37,293 --> 00:50:39,510
They never intended to wear a mask

1005
00:50:39,510 --> 00:50:41,273
nor did they want to.

1006
00:50:42,190 --> 00:50:44,663
So yeah, we use a lot of signage.

1007
00:50:46,110 --> 00:50:49,760
In fact, we were even
criticized because somebody

1008
00:50:49,760 --> 00:50:53,260
didn't feel welcome because
we did require a mask.

1009
00:50:53,260 --> 00:50:54,960
Well, so be it.

1010
00:50:54,960 --> 00:50:59,100
I mean, we do a lot of signs

1011
00:50:59,100 --> 00:51:00,363
and I was lucky.

1012
00:51:01,300 --> 00:51:04,630
We have right in the next
town, in Center Harbor,

1013
00:51:04,630 --> 00:51:06,360
a relatively new business.

1014
00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:09,770
And they crank out these
relatively inexpensive

1015
00:51:09,770 --> 00:51:11,750
custom made signs.

1016
00:51:11,750 --> 00:51:13,290
Right overnight, man.

1017
00:51:13,290 --> 00:51:15,380
I was over there every other day

1018
00:51:15,380 --> 00:51:16,650
at the beginning of COVID

1019
00:51:18,206 --> 00:51:22,520
and she just treated us
promptly and the price was right

1020
00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:25,043
to make all these different signs.

1021
00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:27,673
- That's great to hear.

1022
00:51:27,673 --> 00:51:31,220
Yeah. Jada pointed out in chat

1023
00:51:31,220 --> 00:51:34,220
how it's a delicate balancing act

1024
00:51:34,220 --> 00:51:38,530
between getting important messages across

1025
00:51:38,530 --> 00:51:42,630
and sounding unwelcome
and both of your farms

1026
00:51:42,630 --> 00:51:47,630
do a really great job
on that high wire act

1027
00:51:47,880 --> 00:51:52,270
of communicating and educating
while also being welcoming.

1028
00:51:52,270 --> 00:51:56,230
I think we have time for maybe
one or two more questions.

1029
00:51:56,230 --> 00:51:58,596
Here's one for John.

1030
00:51:58,596 --> 00:52:01,370
So you mentioned having done curbside

1031
00:52:01,370 --> 00:52:03,083
but shutting down the kitchen.

1032
00:52:03,980 --> 00:52:05,600
And here's the question about

1033
00:52:05,600 --> 00:52:08,670
did you consider doing takeout
for breakfast and dinners?

1034
00:52:08,670 --> 00:52:11,580
How did you make your decision on that?

1035
00:52:11,580 --> 00:52:14,300
And then sort of a follow up is

1036
00:52:14,300 --> 00:52:16,160
you talked about how you're kind of

1037
00:52:16,160 --> 00:52:17,590
taking it slowly this year.

1038
00:52:17,590 --> 00:52:18,960
You're going to do the corn maze

1039
00:52:18,960 --> 00:52:22,553
but probably not doing
other events or dinners.

1040
00:52:22,553 --> 00:52:26,570
What's your thinking there
in terms of moving forward

1041
00:52:26,570 --> 00:52:28,150
with events at some point?

1042
00:52:28,150 --> 00:52:31,660
Or not, or just deciding it's, you know,

1043
00:52:31,660 --> 00:52:34,243
taking too much away from your core focus?

1044
00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:37,380
- You know, that's a good question.

1045
00:52:37,380 --> 00:52:40,850
And it's a big debate we're
having among my entire team.

1046
00:52:40,850 --> 00:52:43,900
A lot of the planning of
course takes place months ago

1047
00:52:43,900 --> 00:52:45,510
that we made the decision.

1048
00:52:45,510 --> 00:52:49,100
Those of you out there who've
asked about the staffing,

1049
00:52:49,100 --> 00:52:51,620
you probably are focusing in

1050
00:52:51,620 --> 00:52:54,000
on what the real problem is.

1051
00:52:54,000 --> 00:52:59,000
To do it safely for the
staff and for your customers,

1052
00:53:00,190 --> 00:53:02,260
you need more staff.

1053
00:53:02,260 --> 00:53:06,100
The reason we've cut
the events out is that

1054
00:53:07,420 --> 00:53:10,470
A, we are concerned
about health standards,

1055
00:53:10,470 --> 00:53:15,470
but B, we've been so fortunate
to see a very large increase

1056
00:53:16,900 --> 00:53:21,900
in our core business that we
can't take on these events

1057
00:53:22,819 --> 00:53:25,530
either economically or safely.

1058
00:53:25,530 --> 00:53:29,630
Really, that's probably why
we're doing fewer events

1059
00:53:29,630 --> 00:53:32,574
because we were a big event farm.

1060
00:53:32,574 --> 00:53:34,390
I mean we were sitting around every year

1061
00:53:34,390 --> 00:53:36,950
coming up with workshops

1062
00:53:36,950 --> 00:53:39,290
and farm to table dinners and breakfasts

1063
00:53:39,290 --> 00:53:42,030
and suddenly, due to COVID,

1064
00:53:42,030 --> 00:53:43,210
due to COVID,

1065
00:53:43,210 --> 00:53:46,940
we were inundated with core business.

1066
00:53:46,940 --> 00:53:50,180
It was like, Aw man, thank
goodness we had COVID

1067
00:53:50,180 --> 00:53:51,760
to fall back on

1068
00:53:51,760 --> 00:53:56,150
to say we couldn't do a farm
to table dinner or breakfast.

1069
00:53:56,150 --> 00:53:59,460
We had many requests and are
getting requests every week

1070
00:53:59,460 --> 00:54:02,373
for private dinners and private events.

1071
00:54:03,400 --> 00:54:05,190
We just can't do it.

1072
00:54:05,190 --> 00:54:07,920
So we have to look at our business plan.

1073
00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:12,170
We have to see where we're
going, but let's face it.

1074
00:54:12,170 --> 00:54:14,150
I mean, COVID has been the driver

1075
00:54:14,150 --> 00:54:17,233
and we don't know what the
next turn is going to be.

1076
00:54:18,093 --> 00:54:20,770
You know, we used to bring in 50...

1077
00:54:20,770 --> 00:54:25,480
In 2019, we had 50 something tour buses in

1078
00:54:25,480 --> 00:54:29,120
and we kind of weren't real
crazy about them anyway.

1079
00:54:29,120 --> 00:54:31,810
So when they didn't show
up last year at all,

1080
00:54:31,810 --> 00:54:32,810
we were like...

1081
00:54:32,810 --> 00:54:34,150
Well, two of them showed up.

1082
00:54:34,150 --> 00:54:35,230
They begged to come.

1083
00:54:35,230 --> 00:54:37,763
And it was like,
hallelujah, no tour buses.

1084
00:54:38,710 --> 00:54:40,440
We don't know what to do this year.

1085
00:54:40,440 --> 00:54:41,273
I mean it...

1086
00:54:41,273 --> 00:54:44,910
I'm so happy to hear
Nancy say I don't know,

1087
00:54:44,910 --> 00:54:47,200
because we're in that position too.

1088
00:54:47,200 --> 00:54:49,403
How do you turn away business?

1089
00:54:49,403 --> 00:54:51,950
You, you just, you're turning away.

1090
00:54:51,950 --> 00:54:54,010
You're wanting to do the best job you can

1091
00:54:54,010 --> 00:54:55,660
with the best business you have.

1092
00:54:55,660 --> 00:54:58,660
And then those other event things

1093
00:54:58,660 --> 00:55:01,653
maybe don't contribute a
lot to the core business,

1094
00:55:02,830 --> 00:55:07,370
but it really is about
keeping your staff healthy

1095
00:55:07,370 --> 00:55:08,960
and not overworked

1096
00:55:08,960 --> 00:55:11,760
and doing things that just
puts a lot of stress on them.

1097
00:55:13,230 --> 00:55:15,470
- Yeah. That's a great point.

1098
00:55:15,470 --> 00:55:16,910
Great closing words.

1099
00:55:16,910 --> 00:55:18,240
Before we officially close,

1100
00:55:18,240 --> 00:55:21,420
I just want to turn it
over to Nancy and then Mary

1101
00:55:21,420 --> 00:55:24,930
to see if you have some
closing words, Nancy,

1102
00:55:24,930 --> 00:55:26,580
about where are you going next?

1103
00:55:26,580 --> 00:55:28,080
And it could be, I don't know.

1104
00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:31,240
And then I'll turn it
over to Mary to wrap up.

1105
00:55:31,240 --> 00:55:34,413
And then I'll say a couple of end remarks.

1106
00:55:35,880 --> 00:55:37,170
- Hmm. Yeah.

1107
00:55:37,170 --> 00:55:38,663
Some of that is I don't know.

1108
00:55:40,450 --> 00:55:45,280
Some things I think we are
planning for to bring back.

1109
00:55:45,280 --> 00:55:47,410
We have the Max Maple Creamies

1110
00:55:47,410 --> 00:55:49,640
down the road from McNamara Dairy.

1111
00:55:49,640 --> 00:55:52,090
And they usually come in
with a really cool food truck

1112
00:55:52,090 --> 00:55:53,470
and do the Maple Creamies here

1113
00:55:53,470 --> 00:55:56,670
but that's a long line of
people going for those.

1114
00:55:56,670 --> 00:55:59,150
Last year, they didn't
come because they set up

1115
00:55:59,150 --> 00:56:02,180
a drive-through situation at their place,

1116
00:56:02,180 --> 00:56:04,960
which was good and yet, at the same time,

1117
00:56:04,960 --> 00:56:08,390
we had cars going there first
and then coming back here

1118
00:56:08,390 --> 00:56:10,640
and they're trying to
make an acute right turn

1119
00:56:10,640 --> 00:56:12,250
up our driveway when somebody else

1120
00:56:12,250 --> 00:56:13,600
is trying to come in.

1121
00:56:13,600 --> 00:56:16,490
I'm surprised no one
crashed out on River Road,

1122
00:56:16,490 --> 00:56:17,400
quite frankly.

1123
00:56:17,400 --> 00:56:18,890
We also have one way traffic

1124
00:56:18,890 --> 00:56:20,970
but sometimes somebody
doesn't read those signs

1125
00:56:20,970 --> 00:56:22,393
and they're really confused.

1126
00:56:23,400 --> 00:56:24,420
I think we're going to see

1127
00:56:24,420 --> 00:56:26,270
if we can get the maple creamy truck back.

1128
00:56:26,270 --> 00:56:28,710
So some things like that, yes,

1129
00:56:28,710 --> 00:56:31,460
we're going to bring back and other stuff,

1130
00:56:31,460 --> 00:56:34,253
it's like, we're still
waiting to see how things go.

1131
00:56:35,352 --> 00:56:36,293
Yeah.

1132
00:56:38,670 --> 00:56:40,380
Our children are saying, you know,

1133
00:56:40,380 --> 00:56:42,880
every time we get new customers,

1134
00:56:42,880 --> 00:56:45,160
they seem to stay and
they'll come back again.

1135
00:56:45,160 --> 00:56:46,933
I'm like, okay, so,

1136
00:56:48,260 --> 00:56:49,430
we don't have quite the honey crisp crop

1137
00:56:49,430 --> 00:56:50,310
that we had last year.

1138
00:56:50,310 --> 00:56:51,920
So I hope we're going to have enough to

1139
00:56:51,920 --> 00:56:54,280
keep everybody happy, but yeah,

1140
00:56:54,280 --> 00:56:58,420
we're kind of getting prepared
for it might be crazy again.

1141
00:56:58,420 --> 00:57:00,783
Yeah. That's where we are.

1142
00:57:02,460 --> 00:57:05,640
- I just want to thank
Nancy and John so much

1143
00:57:05,640 --> 00:57:07,590
for letting us come on your farm

1144
00:57:07,590 --> 00:57:11,240
and interview you and film you
and also appearing tonight.

1145
00:57:11,240 --> 00:57:13,810
I think you had great information to share

1146
00:57:13,810 --> 00:57:16,130
so really appreciate your time.

1147
00:57:16,130 --> 00:57:17,620
And also thank you to Jada

1148
00:57:17,620 --> 00:57:22,580
for being our film master
with her smartphone,

1149
00:57:22,580 --> 00:57:26,060
which is amazing photos
and videos with that.

1150
00:57:26,060 --> 00:57:28,830
I also want to put in a
plug for UNH Extension,

1151
00:57:28,830 --> 00:57:31,730
to all the farmers who are on the call.

1152
00:57:31,730 --> 00:57:32,563
Don't forget about us.

1153
00:57:32,563 --> 00:57:35,250
We're here for all sorts of
help from food safety, you know

1154
00:57:35,250 --> 00:57:38,080
to plant guidance, farming guidance.

1155
00:57:38,080 --> 00:57:39,480
There's all sorts of experts

1156
00:57:40,470 --> 00:57:43,060
at UNH extension and UVM extension.

1157
00:57:43,060 --> 00:57:44,620
And we're ready to help.

1158
00:57:44,620 --> 00:57:47,220
So give us a call if you
have any kind of questions.

1159
00:57:48,370 --> 00:57:49,260
- Great. Thank you.

1160
00:57:49,260 --> 00:57:53,250
And let's see, I'll close
with one more slide,

1161
00:57:53,250 --> 00:57:56,400
which is to let you know that

1162
00:57:57,330 --> 00:58:00,733
as of now we have one more
of these get togethers.

1163
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:03,763
It'll be, we're skipping next week.

1164
00:58:04,599 --> 00:58:08,190
And on Tuesday, June
15th, from 2:00 to 3:00 PM

1165
00:58:08,190 --> 00:58:10,880
we're gonna be moving back to Pennsylvania

1166
00:58:10,880 --> 00:58:15,420
and talking with a farm
that does farm tours

1167
00:58:15,420 --> 00:58:17,863
as well as overnight stays.

1168
00:58:19,220 --> 00:58:22,030
On our website here, you
can register for that.

1169
00:58:22,030 --> 00:58:24,530
And also, somebody asks
how long it will take

1170
00:58:24,530 --> 00:58:26,490
to put up this recording.

1171
00:58:26,490 --> 00:58:28,033
I'm going to say by Friday.

1172
00:58:29,771 --> 00:58:32,210
We usually try to get
it done in a couple days

1173
00:58:32,210 --> 00:58:34,690
but sometimes it takes a little longer.

1174
00:58:34,690 --> 00:58:37,190
Certainly by Friday, the
(indistinct) will post

1175
00:58:37,190 --> 00:58:38,900
not only this recording,

1176
00:58:38,900 --> 00:58:41,010
but also the excellent videos

1177
00:58:41,010 --> 00:58:44,810
that Mary and Jada and John
and Nancy put together.

1178
00:58:44,810 --> 00:58:47,610
And we'll also list resources,

1179
00:58:47,610 --> 00:58:49,370
links that were mentioned today

1180
00:58:49,370 --> 00:58:51,750
as well as contact information.

1181
00:58:51,750 --> 00:58:54,550
We'll send you an email
when all that is posted.

1182
00:58:54,550 --> 00:58:57,960
You can visit our website at
any time to also take a look

1183
00:58:57,960 --> 00:59:00,960
at some of the resources
that we've already got posted

1184
00:59:00,960 --> 00:59:02,810
from previous sessions.

1185
00:59:02,810 --> 00:59:05,930
So with that, I want to especially close

1186
00:59:05,930 --> 00:59:10,660
by thanking Mary, thanking
Jada, John, and Nancy

1187
00:59:10,660 --> 00:59:13,090
and all of you for joining us today

1188
00:59:13,090 --> 00:59:17,750
and sending in such excellent
questions in advance.

1189
00:59:17,750 --> 00:59:19,650
Sorry, we didn't quite get to all of them

1190
00:59:19,650 --> 00:59:21,740
but feel free to reach out.

1191
00:59:21,740 --> 00:59:22,670
We'll be sharing...

1192
00:59:22,670 --> 00:59:25,860
Everyone who participated today will be

1193
00:59:25,860 --> 00:59:28,190
sharing their email addresses.

1194
00:59:28,190 --> 00:59:30,050
And we welcome you to reach

1195
00:59:30,050 --> 00:59:32,240
out and follow up with questions.

1196
00:59:32,240 --> 00:59:33,090
So thank you all.

1197
00:59:33,090 --> 00:59:35,233
And hopefully we'll see you again soon.