Intervale Farmers' Equipment Company

By Becky Maden, Treasurer of IFEC

It is a hot July day, summer sun glaring through the haze of dust on Intervale Road. As I ease the tractor into the driveway leading to the shared Farmer Barn and equipment yard, I see a fellow farmer working under a tractor with a pile of tools scattered next to her. I wonder what is broken and who got stuck fixing it. The thought of helping clashes in my brain with the list of things I still have to do. This is the paradox of farming in the Intervale: fellow farmers share equipment and deep community bonds but also must navigate the needs of their own independent businesses in the midst of an already strained and chaotic way to make a living. After a moment more of staring at the farmer’s dusty legs, I wander over, ready to offer my hands in assistance for a few minutes.

To much of the general public, the Intervale is a confusing muddle of farms and organizations. Some people enjoy the landscape as a place to walk, run, or ski; others visit for festivals, to pick up their CSA share, or just to buy a few plants at Gardeners’ Supply. The non-profit Intervale Center owns and/or manages most of the farmland in the Intervale. Under their umbrella several incredible programs thrive, including the Intervale Conservation Nursery, the Intervale Food Hub, and Success on Farms. Ten independent farm businesses lease land from the Intervale Center and sell their product in various ways throughout the community, including City Market, the Burlington Farmers’ Market, and CSAs.

In 2007, several of these farms partnered with the Intervale Center to form a collective called the Intervale Farmers’ Equipment Company (IFEC) that would purchase and manage the equipment and greenhouses that had previously been owned by the Intervale Center and leased by the farmers. With an initial purchase of over $130,000 in greenhouses and equipment and a 2012 operating budget of $80,000, IFEC has proven itself to be an integral element in sustainable food production in the Intervale.

With the departure of Intervale Compost Products (now called Green Mountain Compost) from the Intervale in the summer of 2011, an opportunity arose for IFEC to lease from the Intervale Center the office, shop, and a small portion of the land vacated by the compost company. In the midst of several spring floods and devastating crop losses, IFEC member farms held several meetings before finally agreeing to a significant increase in fees in order to have access to the new space.

On August 23, 2011, IFEC signed a lease agreement with the Intervale Center. Six days later, each IFEC farmer watched the season come to an abrupt end with flooding caused by Tropical Storm Irene. The support of the community from that day forward has been endlessly amazing, from volunteer hands and food on the day of the flood (thank you, City Market!), to benefit dinners, concerts, free yoga, fund raiser after fund raiser, and endless hugs of support that have carried all of the farmers through the tremulous fall and winter months.

The incredible force of City Market members and their Patronage donations swept into the world of IFEC right when the group was nervously navigating between individual farmers’ financial strains and the needs of the collective. It was with incredible insight and thought that City Market realized that one way to help farmers stay in business was to help keep their equipment collective viable. The generous patronage refund donation City Market members pledged to IFEC will keep the group alive and thriving as we enter a fresh new season. The money donated to IFEC will help pay the bills to keep the shop in IFEC possession through the spring months. More importantly, it will outfit the shop with tools the farmers need to maintain and build equipment to achieve a higher level of agricultural self-sufficiency.

It is with great pleasure and honor that the farmers of IFEC thank the members of City Market for this outstandingly generous donation. We hope that we can return the good will to each and every one of you with the carrots we pull from the loamy Intervale earth, with the greens we gently mix into delicious salads, with the squash we lug and store with sweet sugars lingering all winter long. We are grateful to be part of this thriving food community. Thank you all for support, kindness, and deep generosity.