As the coronavirus continues to ravage Vermont's economy, no one is being spared, least of all the state's small farmers.

When restaurants and bars were ordered closed by Gov. Phil Scott at 2 p.m. on March 17, the bottom fell out for many producers, like Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro.

Mateo Kehler, CEO and co-founder of the farm, as well as the cheesemaking operation it supports, Cellars at Jasper Hill, said 35 percent of his sales were to restaurants and food service distributors.

"That ended abruptly overnight," Kehler said.

Coronavirus alters the course of business

Overall, Kehler said his sales are down about 45 percent, which led to the drastic decision to disperse the farm's herd of 45 Ayrshire cows. The cows have always been at the heart of the business. Some are being "parked" at another farm Kehler and his brother, Andy, own, or at a neighboring farm. Others, the older cows that don't deal well with change, will be sold for beef.

"When you look at opportunities to cut cost in the short term in order to conserve cash it's a little bit like cutting off your own arm, if you will," Kehler said. "This moment will alter the course of our business and our lives, but it was an easy decision, because at the end of the day, Jasper Hill is a collection of people. If it's a choice between cows or people, we're going to choose people."

Jasper Hill Farm and the Cellars at Jasper Hill have a total of 104 employees.

The pigs bring home the bacon

Sugar Mountain Farm in West Topsham is a much smaller operation, consisting of its owner, Walter Jeffries. Jeffries raises pigs and trees on about 1,000 acres.

"It's the pigs that bring home the bacon," Jeffries said. "Forestry is a slow crop,"

It takes 30 to 70 years to grow the hardwood trees Jeffries has planted on his land, which starts at 1,400 feet above sea level and goes up to 2,360 feet. Jeffries also has a USDA approved butcher shop on the farm.

Jeffries sells mostly to stores and restaurants, so when the restaurants closed, he took a hit similar to Jasper Hill Farm.

"I used to be doing around $5,000 a week," Jeffries said. "Right now my sales are around $500 to $1,000 a week."

The situation was grim, but took a turn for the better over the weekend when Jeffries commented on a Facebook post by Eric Warnstedt, co-owner of Hen of the Wood, sympathizing with him over the impact of restaurant closures. People noticed.

"I've had a large surge in sales to individuals and families," Jeffries said. "I was out doing deliveries to homes last Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday."

Seven people bought 20-pound boxes of pork. Others bought entire pigs, or half of a pig.

"My sales aren't back to where they were, but I'm making some of it up," Jeffries said. "It was totally unexpected."

Jeffries always made some sales to individuals, but it was only five or 10 percent of his business. Now it's about 70 percent.

"I'm thinking about how to pursue it," he said. "I'm thinking about ads on Facebook. I'm shocked at how fast it happened."

And it looks like word of mouth might accelerate things even more.

"Two of the people were saying they were going to pass out information to their friends," Jeffries said.

Back to basics

Vermont Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts is keeping a worried eye on farms like Jasper Hill and Sugar Mountain, as well as on the dairy business, as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic plays out.

Tebbetts said the severity of the impact depends on what sector and scale you are, and where your markets were at the time the virus hit.

"Dairy initially saw a great influx of people buying fluid milk that has slowed recently, and that's concerning," Tebbetts said. "We just don't know what the future holds for the price, but all the forecasts are not great. It's not headed in the right direction."

Cheesemakers like Cellars at Jasper Hill faced immediate losses, not only from restaurants closing, but also because they were selling in the bigger urban markets like New York, Boston and Washington, D.C., where COVID-19 has hit the hardest.

COVID-19 is the official name of the disease related to the coronavirus that first started to affect people in China at the end of 2019.

Symptoms of COVID-19 can include fever, cough and breathing trouble. Most people develop only mild symptoms. But some people, usually those with other medical complications, develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal.

"On the meat side we've seen our plants in Vermont very active," Tebbetts said. "People are bringing animals in to be processed. Traditionally this has been the slower part of the year."

Tebbetts theorizes the coronavirus crisis has motivated people to get back to the basics in their food choices.

"There's been a reset, looking for protein, meat, potatoes, cheese, butter, yogurt and root vegetables," Tebbetts said.

Maple syrup has been selling quite well too, according to Tebbetts.

"People may be buying more than they need," he added. "That's human nature. It happens during a snow storm."

Anyone who can sell online is well-positioned, Tebbetts said, as are CSAs, where customers buy directly from farmers.

"CSAs are very active now, they're essential," he said. "A tremendous way people can help their farmer is to sign up for one. Those are safe, delivered right to your door, no person-to-person contact."

Staying strong

Some of the small farmers contacted by the Burlington Free Press said they are experiencing little impact from the pandemic.

Minda Brown at Misty Knoll Farms in New Haven, which raises turkeys and chickens, said the poultry farm is selling out every week. Misty Knoll sells mostly to natural food stores like Health Living and City Market.

"Stores are very busy because everybody's on a shopping binge," Brown said. "Stores are having a hard time keeping things on the shelves."

Deven Temple, bookkeeper at Pete's Greens in Craftsbury, said the business has seen an increase in CSA shares. Pete's Greens grows root vegetables, tomatoes, cabbages, peas, kale, melons, cucumbers and more, over more than a dozen fields around the area.

"People are looking to get away from the grocery store and they're turning to their local farmers," Temple said.

Pete's Greens is practicing stringent safety measures in this age of the coronavirus. Each employee has an individual kit of the items she needs to do her job, from pens to calculators to safety equipment.

"Nothing is shared, everyone has their own tools," Temple said. "You can't come into the facility. We've kind of stopped that because of all of this."

An unsure future

Temple isn't sure what will become of the farmers' markets Pete's Greens attends, as well as the farm stand it operates.

"If anything we're going to try to grow more than before to help out our local communities," Temple said.

Pete's Greens is donating produce to the town of Craftsbury and the town of Albany, where it's based.

"We're running strong, trying to fill the needs of our people," Temple said.

How can I help?

Mateo Kehler of Jasper Hill Farm said a lot of people have been asking him what they can do to help. Jasper Hill has online shopping, but Kehler said that really isn't the answer.

"We need our distributors, retailers and restaurants to survive," Kehler said. "If we come through this, but our customers don't, that's going to be devastating and it's going to really collapse the capacity of small businesses to bounce back from this. We need our customers to survive."

So what should you do?

"Go to your local cheese shop and buy Vermont cheese, buy Jasper Hill cheese," Kehler said. "That's the best thing for us."

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers. Sign up today for a digital subscription.