The anticipation and excitement was high for the launching of Quarterfield Markets. It was the first indoor farmer’s market in the area with 42 vendors and 8 outdoor vendors making its grand debut on April 5. The plan was to be open 6 days a week matching the hours of Hertzler Farm and Feed. We had worked hard rennovating an existing room at the farm supply store creating a welcoming and unique vendor space.
We painted yellow shelving black, created new shelving using pipe and boards, reoiled pine board floors, and found creative ways to repurpose and give new life to shelving and items we had around the store and farm. It was a lovely inviting space.
The dynamite team-the shakers and bakers-behind the market. The market was the vision and dream of our daughter Jill Hostetter (on right) and granddaughter Lauren Hertzler (on left) quickly caught the vision.
Our team of vendors was exceptional and chosen with care. All products had to be homemade, handmade, hand produced/crafted or created. Each vendor had their own designed space with a centralize checkout station. They fully embraced our concept and were so excited to promote and be a part of our grand adventure.
The overall view of the main market space.The food area we called “The Pantry”.Lamb, beef, poultry, and pork.
The day of the launch was gorgeous and over a 1000 people came to enjoy the day and shop.
Instead of shopping carts, we had shopping baskets.
There were food trucks and a barnyard with chicks, a bunny, sheep, a goat family and a trio of baby pigs.
“Too Dippin’ Good”, a dessert food vendor.Archer’s BBQ: The best barbecue in town!Beverage Vendor: “Sippin’ Spot”Outdoor Pop Up VendorsYou can drop your knives, clipper blades, scissors, almost anything that needs a sharp edge at the store and he will pick them up and sharpen them.Our Transportation Manager: Obe Hostetter
Exactly one week later the market laid in ruins, burned to ashes.
On Wednesday evening we invited the vendors to a meeting on our front lawn and also to give them opportunity to see the devastation first hand. The mandate was clear. We would rise again and rise quickly. The date was set for one month, an almost unseemingly possiblity, with a tent market. Ideas were tossed around and the vendors pledged their support and help.
We were alerted to the fire at 6:54 p.m. on April 12, a Saturday night. It was a night we will never forget and crawled into bed at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning full of grief and exhaustion, mixed with lots of questions about the future and a sinking feeling of total helplessness. Sunday morning we realized it was not just a bad dream but a horrible stark reality. A stinky, acidity, smoky smell lingered in the air and the view from the kitchen window was witness to the stark reality of the overwhelming task before us. A firetruck had spent the night and was still maning the smoking ruins.
Our retail store-the main room.Looking in the front door of the store.
There was no way we could drag ourselves to church. We were physically and emotionally drained and needed to be just us-a family in grieving. In the afternoon an amazing thing happened; cars and pickups started pouring in filled with caring friends and neighbors wanting to help.
For the next two weeks there were 25-45 people each day sorting through the ruins, picking up trash, cleaning and drying photos and personal items.
We had a storage room where Jill and I were storing household items and keepsakes as they were in the process of moving to Powhatan.
Track loaders, dump trucks, and excavators arrived. The farm shop and baler were also destroyed but most of the tools were salvagable and had to be moved to another building.
The burned up round baler that was in the shop. They had just finished maintanence on it earlier in the afternoon and had it ready for this year’s hay season.Only a handful of treasurers were spared. An old milk can from Gene’s home in Denbigh.On the left is a quilt made by my Grandmother Heatwole (Fannie Belle Heatwole) and on the right by my mother (Fannie Showalter Heatwole). I had put them in plastic totes to “protect” them in storage.A bed spread made by my mother from scraps of material from my “homemade” dresses as I was growing up!!!We had to build a new space for the pressure tank for our well water system.The shop with the burned out storage area on the left.
An existing warehouse had to be readied to serve as new storage for the feed store. There was so much to do and so many willing hands to do it.
Repairing the dock.
Mealtrain was set up to provide food and for one full month I did not fix a meal. Many people benefited from those wonderful, delicious meals delivered with love. Go-Fund-Me and private donations provided the necessary funds to keep us surviving. Our church had a community barbecue fundraiser. We needed so much and so much was given. Boxes and boxes arrived from Amazon with office supplies and equipment. One Amazon driver said, “I have never delivered so many boxes to one place”. Local businesses helped us get our new office set up and flooring put in. Another got our water restored, another replaced an electric pole and another removed some trees.
A team of fifteen students came from Liberty University for a Saturday workday. After a hard day of work, a full belly of food and relaxing on the lawn they enjoyed a hay ride.
People were truly the arms of Jesus holding us up and helping us get back on our feet. The community of Powhatan and beyond truly was amazing.
A friend and former pastor came from Pennsylvania to sit with us. It was what our weary souls needed. Thank you Tim.
The transformation has been amazing. It is now been a month and the ruins are cleaned up. We have felt a strong mandate from the community to rebuild. Social media buzzed with a desire to see us rebuild and to pledge to help that happen.
Our feed store reopened in five days in a revamped version. The Farmer’s Market relaunched yesterday, exactly one month from the fire, in an outdoor tent setting.
An Old Hickory storage shed came in two days after the fire. It has become our new office and sales for feed, lawn and wildlife seeds, fertilizer, lime, shavings, hay and straw.
Our vendors from our Farmer’s Market, that had been open for only one week, gathered on our lawn several days after the fire and the mandate from them was clear. They were solidly behind us and wanted to be a part of a relaunching. A blog post about the relaunching will be coming soon. After the fire, channel 8 and channel 12 (local news stations) came out and interviewed us. One reporter said, “We heard about the fire and began to look at social media. We saw the support of the local community and noted that something special was going on and wanted to cover it.”
Relaunch Day-May 10: The market is set up and ready for business.
It was an amazing Relaunch day with absolutely perfect weather, lots of excitement and crowds of people. Until a permanent facility can be built, the market will be open Thursday and Fridays 8 am – 5 pm and Saturdays 8 -12 noon weather permiting.
We can never express our thanks adquately. Caring and sharing is never about public praise and so we are refraining from publicly naming people or businesses. You know who you are. May God bless you and please accept our humble and grateful thanks
This puzzle piece that was found among the ruins seems a fitting ending to this post. I had a puzzle library of over 500 puzzles that people could check out. The fire was furious and almost nothing survived it’s consuming fury. But the few finds were surprising and this puzzle piece was one of them. A fragile thin piece of cardboard, charred black, but still intack. I just wonder how! Sometimes it takes more than a fire to bring total ruin. From the ashes, we will rise.
The following verse is a comforting promise from God….good can come out of bad…. joy and beauty where they are ashes.
“To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” This verse is often interpreted as a promise from God to replace sorrow and despair with joy and beauty.” Isaiah 61:3
Never could we have imagined such a devastating fire that almost completely destroyed our business and farm shop. Here is our story.
Saturday evening, April 12, Gene and I were in our comfy spots in the living room, me resting in the lazy boy chair catching up on social media and Gene stretched out on the sofa watching TV. Our peaceful quiet evening was shattered at 6:55 when my cell phone rang. It was Luanne from up at the horse stables. “Are you burning something down there”? I responded, “No” and she said, “You better look out your window.”
The sight from my kitchen window stunned me. I yelled to Gene, “The store is on fire.” He leaped off the sofa, shoved on his shoes and raced to the store on the golf car while I dialed 911. Then I took my first picture.
6:56 p.m.
Mike, Luanne’s husband, was there in an instant. He and Gene tried to enter the store but the smoke was too thick.
4 minutes later…7 pm. The retail store was totally engulfed. Black smoke was pouring from the old dariy stanchion barn which we used to warehouse feed.7 minutes later…7:03 p.m. They quickly ran out of water. Ironically the county “dry hydrants” were dry and they had to pull from a nearby pond in Maple Cottage.
The fire trucks started to arrive and water sprayed on the fire. Heavy smoke was also coming from the back left of the stanchion barn where our main warehouse of feed was located.
7:06 p.m……10 minutes. The firemen attended to break into the stanchion barn door.
7:07 p.m….. 11 minutes7:09 p.m…… 12 minutes. The stanchion barn was fully engulfed.7:12 p.m…. 15 minutes. The whole structure was a totaly engulfed inferno. There was no saving the stucture-just trying to control the spread.
It is a terrible thing to sit in a lawn chair in your backyard and watch your business, your livelihood, burn to the ground and there is nothing you can do. By this time there were lots of fire and tanker trucks. 55,000 gallons of water were dumped on the fire. I am not sure how many counties responded to the call but I know we saw Amelia, Goochland, and Huguenot. Someone said they were about 15 fire trucks here.
We lost a total of six buildings, five of which were attached to our store complex and the farm shop which was to the right.
7:27 p.m…. 31 minutes.
I asked about the towering, black smoke billowing from the structure. I commented to the fire chief I couldn’t figure out what was burning as there were no tires or anything rubber that I could think of. He said it was the feed. Feed have oils in it and even though it is vegetable based, it burns black. I found that very interesting.
7:36 p.m.
Family and neighbors gathered to watch and grieve with us. There were literally the arms of Jesus surrounding us and holding us up. We knew they cared and it was good to have people to help process what was happening. Someone said that cars were parked all they way out the driveway to the road.
Later we were told that the smoke was seen in Amelia and Cumberland. Someone traveling on 45 from Farmville saw the smoke. Bits of insulation floated to a neighbor’s field a mile or more away.
The sheriffs department flew a drone overhead the entire time shining a light for the firemen and watching for spreading flames and hot spots. They told us that there were four or five other drones of neighbors taking a look but they stayed their distance and did not interfere.
7:41 p.m.7:46 p.m…. 1 hour.
The really bright yellow over the top of the firetruck are the four propane tanks that were at the back of the store. They did not explode but vented as they were suppose to do fueling a very hot fire that spread to our personal storage room and farm shop. Our daughter and her husband (Jill and Obe) are in the process of moving to Powhatan and had a significant amount of things already moved and in the storage room by the shop. To make room in our house, I had stored some of my personal things also; pictures, family treasures, quilts made by mother and my grandmother, blankets, books, childhood toys and treasures, floor shampooer, grill, etc.7:47 p.m. The storage room and shop are now engulfed.
Our round baler was in the shop getting it ready for the hay season. They finished at 4:30. The smoke was too intense to get it out. We had an appliance man add freon to a fridge in the store earlier in the afternoon and he asked me to check it an hour or so later to make sure it was working properly. I checked it at 4:30 also. Nothing seemed amiss and the fridge was working properly.
8:50 p.m.8:55 p.m. Two hours….all that was left was an arid smelling, smoking and burning shell of a stucture and rubble. Amazingly the feeders on the front dock of the store survived!
We started Hertzler Farm and Feed in October 1983. It had survived the test of time for 42 years. Quarterfield Markets, the pride and vision of Jill and our granddaughter Lauren, which had been open one week was gone. On launch day the Saturday before we had over 1000 here. Now all that was left of our business was hay, straw, fertilizer, lime and shavings as they were in another warehouse and containers.
Finally at 1 a.m in the morning we gathered in the living room of the house to decompress and process as a family. At 2 a.m. we all headed off to bed, exhausted, emotionally drained, sad, and weary. There were so many questions and so few answers. A firetruck stayed and kept watch all night for flare ups and hot spots. All I could say as I crawled into bed was….God I trust you. We are all safe, it could have been much worse. Give us peace, wisdom and your guidance for the future.
This week we had a really funny bunny thing happen.
Jill’s phone rang, “I am stuck in the bunny pen.” Jill was busy and she knew I would get a big kick out of this. “Lauren is stuck in the bunny pen. Would you like to go let her out?” Immediately the mischievous instinct took over. I say to Wray, one of our employees, “Lauren is stuck in the bunny pen. Would you like to go with me to let her out?” You should have send him grin!
We hopped on the golf cart to go 100 feet and drove past Kevin and Rich who were working on the side of the warehouse. We spread the news. Lauren is stuck in the bunny pen. You want to go along to let her out. Away we all went with big grins and wise cracks forming in our heads.
Isn’t this just the cutest bunny!
There was talk of just leaving her there for a while. Rich said he could bring her water and I offered her a pillow but after some good ribbing and empty threats we let her out.
The latch to the pen is tricky. This problem has happened before. If you go in and shut the door too tight it latches and there is no escape. So I rigged up a cord and threaded it through the wire and put a big ring on it so that it would not slip back through the wire and lock me in when I was using it for chickens. The problem was Lauren shut the door and it latched. When she tried to open it by pulling the emergency cord, the cord broke. She was stuck.
Oh dear Lauren, you sure gave us all a good laugh in the midst of a hard week. Thanks for the good laugh. This is the end of my funny bunny story.
A new adventure is coming to reality for our family, Hertzler Farm and Feed and the community of Powhatan with the soon to open Quarterfield Markets.
Quarterfield Markets is the vision and motivation of the next generations of Hertzlers to offer a new opportunity for Powhatan and perserve the future of Hertzler Farm. It will be an indoor, year-around farmer’s market operating in conjunction with Hertzler Farm and Feed.
Our Vision: Quarterfield Markets offers a collective of shops, creating opportunities for local producers and artisans to promote locally grown, raised, produced and sourced items. The Markets will give an authentic farm experience for families, support local business and develop a support system for a collective of local vendors.
We have an amazing line-up of local vendors selling their homemade, homegrown, handcrafted wares: coffee, sourdough breads, treats and yeast breads, free-range eggs, grass-fed beef, poultry, and pork, bagels, pasteurized milk (packaged for animal consumption), cheese, butter, elderberry syrup, honey, candies, baked goods, elderberry syrup, muffins, cupcakes, freeze-dried fruits and candies, homemade barbecue sauce, cream cheese, duck eggs, baskets, herbal supplements for cats, dogs and pet pigs, plants, cutting boards, charcuterie boards, vases, lavendar products, oregano and black seed oils, pretzels, vanilla, fresh flower arrangements, 3D printed toys and fidgets, graphic tees, candles, pottery, soaps, candles, skin care products, pet treats, dog collars, leashes, bandanas and harnesses, blacksmith items and metal art, reusable cloth towels, swiffer covers and bar dishwashing soap, body oils and lotions, dried flower items, flower confetti, luffa sponges and soaps, eucalyptus oil and body scrub, pine oil and cleaner and on-site knife sharpening while you wait……and more.
We have been busy as spring bees getting ready for our grand opening Saturday, April 5.
Opening day, Saturday, April 5, we will be open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. with most of our vendors on site. Normally, our hours will be as follows: Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 12 noon.
Where is the market located?
The market is in an adjoining room inside the Hertzler Farm and Feed store. This provides the opportunity for the market to be open whenever the feed store is open versus a 3-4 hour window of summer farmer’s markets.
Opening Day:
We are excited for opening launch day. There will be an outdoor “barnyard” with some animals for the children to pet and love on.
There will be several food vendors: Too Dippin’ Good (desserts), Sippin’ Spot (Drinks), and Archers Barbecue (Pork and chicken).
Popup vendors (outside):
Stay Sharp: Bring your knives, hoes, farm tools, scissors….anything that needs sharpening. He will sharpen while you wait or have them available for you the following week. He will be providing a weekly pickup service.
Blacksmith demonstration.
Stone ground cornmeal grinding: Freshly ground cornmeal (on site) will be available.
Tales of Joy: Gail Timberlake will be selling and signing her book “Two Cows and a Plow”.
As the season progresses, we are hoping to have produce vendors on Saturdays.
We are so grateful for the outpouring of support from the local community and the faithfulness of God as we prepare to launch this new adventure. Come see us and shop local!
Ryan Hostetter is taking the picture. Left around the table: Me (Pat), Lauren Hertzler, Harrison Davenport, Karla Hostetter, Emily Hertzler, Gene, Obe Hostetter and Jill Hostetter.
What a year! It is one that will go down in the archives of my mind as very difficult and challenging. The whole year we just hopscotched from one mud puddle to the next. It was a good thing we had our wading boots on and an umbrella over our heads. However, I have to say it was not all gloom and doom. Through it all the sun shone brightly. We saw and basked in it.
The year started with the first puddle. In January our granddaughter Karla had a very serious and life-threating sledding accident when she careened into a post, shattering her spleen and a kidney. The weather was too bad for med-flight to transfer her from Harrisonburg to Charlottesville to the trauma center so an ambulance inched it way over the icy Afton Mountain while paramedics manually squeezed blood into her veins. They made it and she has made full recovery. She had the worse possible injury to her spleen but with modern technology the doctor was able to repair it. The kidney had been without blood flow for 12 hours. After 4 hours, medically it is considered dead and non-reviveable (if that is a word!). Going against the advice of all her colleagues, the doctor said, “I have to try.” God heard our prayers and miracleously blood began flowing and the kidney was restored to health. God can do the impossible and she is a walking miracle. The sun shone bright revealing God’s tender care for her.
The next puddle was in March when my dad left this world and went to be with Jesus. Death is never easy and we miss daddy but do not miss the suffering and demented condition he was in. Dementia is a cruel taskmasker. Mother had passed away three years prior from cancer so now the reins of the family are officially in the hands of the next generation. The sun shone bright as we grateful gathered to remember daddy and reflected on our godly family heritage.
On Mother’s Day the sun glowed with sunshine. Our daughter Jill and her husband Obe came for the day and announced that they were moving to Powhatan in 2025. We never saw this coming and our hearts overflowed with shock and joy. They had been praying and seeking God’s wisdom. This was brewing in their minds for quite awhile. Jill had a dream, a vision for the tired farm and store to revitalize and give it new life. It was time to make a change and easy to welcome it. Jill was ready to leave the corporate world and return to the farm to help her dad. Gene has been struggling with his health (long-haul covid) for several years and it was becoming more and mored challenging for him to do what needed to be done on the farm. He needed help and until that moment we didn’t have a path to move forward.
The reality of the next puddle was not anticipated or predicted.
Two weeks later Gene was in the emergency room with severe septic shock due to an exploded gall bladder and had a 50% chance of making it. The next five months were a blur of surgeries, medical procedures, scans, relapses, therapy, doctors, nurses, pain meds, infections and sleepless nights. Several times he came home from the hospital and within days was back in the ER. More than once we wondered if he really was going to make it. Our days were filled with discouragement and uncertainity. Finally on September 5 he came home and little by little he is getting better. It is a long road to recovery. He had lost 43 lbs. and had to regain strength to even stand and walk. The mud in those puddles was thick and sticky, threatening to sink us but God’s arms were around us through the support, encouragement, prayers and love of family and friends. We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
This Christmas season we as a family were reflecting on the events of the past year and the unimaginable blessing, hope and joy that the announcement from Jill on Mother’s Day held. It was our lifeline as our ship was sinking and we grabbed hold of it with all our strength and held on. What looked dark and unnaviagable has become full of hope and anticipation.
Change is coming to the farm and store as the next generations, full of energy and vision, are involved. It is good and we see the blessings that have come out of the hard times. The sun has burst through the storm clouds and glued our family together in way we never dreamed possible. So with great gusto we wave goodbye to 2024 and look forward to the changes of 2025. Stay tuned.
It has been six months since this horrible medical crisis started. In some ways it is hard to believe and in other ways it seems eons ago. The other day Gene read through all my blogs post and it helped him to fill in some gaps and to bring some mental clarity to what he endured. Last night I read through them. This Thanksgiving season I am so grateful to God for healing Gene and that we are soundly on this side of the ordeal. He is improving. As I read, I was reminded of how much I did not share, how close we came to losing him and some really tough and hard stuff he went through.
Gene continues to improve even though at times it seems slow. This is a journey and it is taking time. One of the things he can’t do yet is drive. Two weeks ago his doctor did give him his “learners permit” for the golf cart if he had an adult with him. He is doing therapy three days a week, still uses a walker although he will probably graduate from it soon, has become more stable on his feet, is gaining weight-25 lbs so far, taking his own showers, dressing himself and becoming more involved in the daily farm decision making. He has starting going to church again-just for the worship service but hey, that is an improvement. He is making his own coffee in the mornings and walking around the house more and has not fallen for several weeks which is a big deal! He had a real issue with stablilty and lack of core strength.
I do have a story….
Three weeks ago, he graduated himself to a cane (without therapy’s permission) and went on a little adventure. I was just ready to walk out of the house to go to work at our store when I heard the front door close. I went to look and there he went plodding across the yard, the cattle guard and down the drive in the pasture.
He was told to walk more but not like this! I went to the kitchen to do a quick thing and tried to decide what I was going to do. Do I let him go or do I go after him??? I went back to the front door and looked again and didn’t see him. I went outside on the walk and I could see him a good ways down the road on the ground.
I hopped on the golf cart and went to his rescue. He could not get up and had skined both knees, bloodied two fingers, split his forehead, bruised his shoulder and had a cut on his forearm. Now pray tell me, what would he have done if I hadn’t seen him go. He would have laid there until Tim fed hay to the cows or I had gone to the house to check on him an hour or so later. If he had left one minute later, I would have been gone and would not have known he wasn’t in the house. He did not tell me he was going nor did he have his cell phone with him. He said he started picking up speed as he walked and couldn’t slow himself down and lost his balance.
The next day his therapist was not happy, read him the riot act, and took his cane away. If he had broken a hip, he would have ended up back in the hospital, probably required surgery in the abdomen area which they said he just can not have again. With his age, all that he has been through and his still weakened condition, it probably would have done him in. It sobered him. Oh the trials of a caregiver!!!
Six months ago, we could hardly imagine where we are at now. The promise of his surgeon, “you will get better” is starting to feel within reach even though the goal post has moved several times: September, October, Christmas. Probably a more realistic goal is spring. He has a lot of muscle to rebuild.
I know people are wanting an update but it feels like there isn’t much to write, which is a good thing. A VERY GOOD THING!
We have gotten into a comfortable routine and he is improving. Sometimes I see notable new accompolishments and then other times it is just maintaining a routine. It has already been three weeks since he came home which is hard to believe and in that time his walking and stablility have improved although he still has to use the walker, his appetite is better and he is gaining weight, his voice is not as weak, he can shower and shave himself, and his mind is clear. We have a lot to be grateful for.
Home Health and Physical Therapy are still coming to the house which has been a huge blessing. Today PT worked on strengthening the muscles that help you stand up from a sitting down position and he also did three stair steps.
We know this stage is going to take time. They are saying it will probably be Christmas before he feels like life is getting back to normal. Until then….
Two weeks ago I wrote a blog post about two cows hit by lightning. (Lightning Strike) One was a nursing mama. When I went out to the field to see what had happened, I saw a young baby calf high-tail it at high speed out of the area, down along the edge of the woods by the field.
For days we searched the farm looking for the calf. Several times we spied it, but it was always when one of us was by ourself and there was no way to catch the little speed demon. He also started hanging out with a group of bulls which presented its own challenges in trying to catch him. Once a calf is a week old he is faster than you on his feet and it becomes a cat and mouse catch scheme to snatch them. We started calling him “Greased Lightning”. He kept slipping away from us.
We felt time was running out for the little calf as he desperately needed his mama’s milk. We knew he was too young to make it on his own with only grass to eat. After about two weeks we gave up as we weren’t seeing him anymore. And then the other day we spied him…..it appears another mama has adopted him as her own. She was already nursing a slightly older calf and there he was just nusing away. That almost never happens.
Grease Lightning is the one in the back.
It makes me wonder, why did she rescue him? Did she realize he was an orphan? Did she know his mama was killed? Did he beg for help in calf language? Did she choose him or did he choose her? Cows always ID their calves by sniffing. It is amazing how in a big herd of cattle, even if they are all mingling together, mama and babe do not get mixed up. They know their own.
Both calves are slightly thin, he from his trauma, and the other one because he is having to share the milk with his new brother. Greased Lightning has escaped death twice; once by lightning and the other by starvation. Somehow the name just fits him.
I am a country gal who enjoys writing, gardening, baking and my family. My husband and I own a retail feed store and it keeps us active and busy. We love living in the country and on our beef farm. We retail natural, Angus, dry-aged beef in our store and a local "natural" store.
My writings, called "From A Grandma's Perspective" are mostly inspired from our five delightful grandchildren. These along with "Life Perspective" can read on our web page at www.hffinc.com under the "Who We Are" tab.
By the way, I love hearing from people who read my blog!!!
