Chandler Pond Farm

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Created on Friday, 09 September 2016 20:52

Written by Tyler Hall

Lyndonville - Summer is winding down to it's last couple of weeks for 2016 and for one local business its time to move on to other adventures. The Martin family is saying goodbye to Chandler Pond Farm in Lyndonville after nine years of owning it.

After this weekend, a new family is taking over Chandler Pond Farm. Rob Martin says, "It's actually a young couple from Southern New Hampshire. They are taking over they are not going to continue with vegetables, they are going to do the hay and grass fed beef as well as small fruits like blueberries and strawberries. Our oldest daughter is 11 and we can see her growing up so fast that we thought now is the perfect time."

The Martins have been planning to relocate from the farm for the past two years. Tamara Martin, co-owner of the farm says before coming to this decision, "We didn't tell anyone because we had to work it out with our family and our close extended family and then friends."

Tamara Martin encourages the community to continue to buy local and support small businesses because you don't realize when you commit every week to making sure that some of your budget goes to a local food, such as a local farm how much of an impact that has.

Meanwhile, what makes the selling of the property different than any ordinary purchase is the fact that the farm is under a land trust. Tamara explains the land trust aspect, "It wasn't for sale like a normal sale, like the richest person could buy it. It had to be someone with a business plan who wanted to work on a farm."

While the Martin's are excited to move on with their lives, they will miss the community they have created. Rob Martin, a sixth generation Vermont farmer says moving on is difficult. "I'm a little bit more of an introvert, its been the customer based and the community we built. We are going to miss all of the familiar faces that we've come to know over the years."

Tamara Martin has a different take on moving on from the farm compared to her husband. "Well I think, we all feel like the food, we're really spoiled, we feel like we eat like kings you know for being boppers, like you know we can eat as many heirloom tomatoes and grass fed steaks as we want because we grow it ourselves so we often think oh man we're never going to eat like this again," Tamara says.