Heartwood Farm

Business Focus

Heartwood Farm is a one man, small vegetable farm and sugaring operation in the Northeast Kingdom, committed to organic growing practices. Sells mostly hyper-locally to the likes of Buffalo Mountain Coop, Parker Pie, Sterling College, and the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, as well as the Montpelier and Burlington Farmers’ Markets.

Loan Summary

When a freak hailstorm took out the majority of Heartwood Farm’s spring plantings, Andy Paonessa turned to the Vermont Farm Fund for a $10,000 Emergency Loan. The money helped him close his income gap, without dashing his plans to invest in the growth of the farm.

The Backstory

2013 was Andy’s fourth growing season on leased land in South Albany. Making the most out of his small acreage, Andy follows succession planting, allowing him to harvest from his fields multiple times a season.

He had just finished planting his first round in late May, spending three weeks getting it all in the ground, when he saw the storm coming. He ran home through his fields as fast as he could to try to escape the quarter-sized hail. The storm ultimately dumped 4” of rain on Andy’s fields, taking out hundreds of feet of planted spinach and greens; all his early spring bunching greens and cabbages; beds of peas and small seedling root crops; half his onions and garlic; and thousands of summer transplants ready to go in the ground.

All tallied, Andy lost over $10,000 that evening, not to mention three months’ time and labor washed away.

The Vermont Farm Fund understood my needs like only another farmer could, requiring minimal paperwork and turning the loan around fast.

The Bottom Line

A $10,000 zero-interest loan from the Vermont Farm Fund gave Andy a cushion to run his farm over the summer, recouping as much lost income as he could with his successive plantings, and make it through the leaner winter and spring. This enabled Andy to access his savings to implement his planned farm investments, building a hoop house and investing in equipment that will enable him to extend his growing season and increase his efficiency.