A Message to Our Community

A message to our community,

Over the past few days I have witnessed the destructive power of nature followed by the most powerful outpouring of the generosity of human nature I have ever personally experienced. From the bottom of my heart, I thank each and every one of you who has reached out to show my family love and support.

I want to tie up a few loose ends and answer some questions before moving forward. No, we don’t yet know the cause. The fire tore through and gutted the market. Though you may have seen the front side still standing in the days after, it was protected from fire by a wind that ripped through from the west. Unfortunately, there will be no saving that structure. We were, however, able to pull down the “Bauman’s” sign from over the doorway. The fire burned through the big barn to the north of the market before spreading east to another barn and tool shop. Those structures are all gone. We remain incredibly grateful to all the fire fighters and first responders who came out that night. Thanks to their actions, we can say the farm house is safe (albeit with some melted siding), and all the back greenhouses are in relatively good condition. Some plastic covering will need to be replaced in time. There was one tractor in our workshop, and many countless small tools and equipment, but all the big tractors and farming implements were far enough away or off-site. Most importantly, the crops remain in the field, and we can still farm them.

As for the bunnies, our sweet Ginger and Cinnamon, I did not intend any ill will or deception when I failed to mention them in my original post. I wrote that statement as the barn was still smoldering, overwhelmed by what felt like an insurmountable loss. My children loved those bunnies. In fact, it was one of their first questions the next morning when I had to sit them down and tell them about the tragedy. “Did the bunnies make it?” No. They did not. They were right near where the fire started. Sadly, there was never any hope of reaching them. “Will we get new ones?” Maybe. Some day. There’s a long road ahead before that. Ginger and Cinnamon were loved. We have heard your concerns. Thank you to all who loved to come visit our market and say hello to our sweet bunnies.

My father-in-law, Jim, and my mother-in-law, Barbara, along with their sons Dan and Stephen have a long road ahead of them as they work through paperwork, insurance claims, planning, rebuilding, and farming the plants that are still very much alive and growing in our fields and greenhouses. Farm life goes on. I do not envy the tough decisions they are currently making, and I stand beside them in support. Sometimes I don’t feel as much a part of the Bauman name because I “only married into it”(a ridiculous sentiment, I know). Farm life may not have chosen me, but I chose farm life. I am a Bauman. I may not always be directly out in the fields in the heart of it, but I love my behind-the-scenes role of managing the website and instagram. I like taking happy farm photos, sharing updates on u-pick hours, running out as quick as possible to snap a beautiful picture of the rainbow over the fields, driving with my husband to go pick up berries from the field, seeing him take our kids on tractor rides. That will continue. I have learned in my twelve years of marriage that there is nobody in the world quite as hopefully optimistic as a farmer. Every crop planted is a gamble in some sense. Will it rain enough? Will the deer get to them? We plant anyway. We work hard, and we adjust. Farm life goes on. We will rebuild.

As website manager, I don’t want to write any more fire statements. I want desperately to bring happy news. So I’m here to bring you a piece of that today. Thanks to the generosity of so many, we’ve been able to quickly turn things around and start the market back up already (It may look a bit different for a while)! A special thanks to Schutts Apple Mill for the tent and the greater farming community for everything we needed to get up and running. We are here and we are ready to welcome you back to our market. Thank you for welcoming us back.

With gratitude,

Julie Bauman