This year, Homestead Creamery is working with Good Food For Good People to supply us with local vegetables and fruit. As promised, the first delivery of vegetables was this week. The items that were delivered looked and tasted good.
Vegetable Delivery 31 May 2011
Paul and Samantha Sausser have sold the farm and disappeared. Their phones have been disconnected, and they’ve left scores of angry customers and unpaid debts across Central and Western Virginia.
The Lynchburg News & Advance has the story.
Channel 10 sent a reporter to Sausser Farms in Phenix in an attempt to get an interview, but the reporter couldn’t find Paul or Samantha Sausser.
We drove nearly three hours to Phenix, hoping to talk to Mr. Sausser. No trespassing signs keep us from going any further but the stand, much like the one in Chirstiansburg looks pretty much deserted.The farm phone number is disconnected. Neighbors tell 10 On Your Side they saw the Saussers packing items up. A few chickens are left behind. We were then directed to the Sausser home but dont find any one here either. We see evidence something once grew here and in some cases, still is. There are some signs of life, like eggplant and fresh picked zucchini.
Read (WSLS-10)
Several Valley residents, as well as some in Richmond and Roanoke, are upset they aren’t getting the vegetable deliveries they pre-purchased. In fact, some are so upset, they are even calling police.
Sausser Farms promised its customers five pounds of vegetables a week, but for the past three weeks, customers haven’t received any produce.
The Better Business Bureau began receiving complaints about the farm a few weeks ago. They have been in contact with the farm’s owner who says the problem is simply a bad season.
The BBB says they don’t think this case is a scam, just bad management.
WHSV has the article
My purchases at the Salem Farmer's Market, Saturday, August 8, 2010
I didn’t get to the Salem Farmers Market until 1:30 today, and most of the vendors had already left for the day.
I bought corn and peppers from one vendor, potatoes from another, and tomatoes, cucumbers, and green beans from another.
A Staunton woman bought 2 shares from Sausser Farms and planned to pickup her vegetables at the Stuarts Draft stand. She received very few vegetables before the Stuarts Draft stand closed and has been unable to get a refund either.
The Stuanton News Leader has the story.
My purchases from the Salem, VA Farmers' Market Saturday, July 31, 2010
The 5 pack included a 3.12lb chuck roast, 1.48lbs ground beef, 1.27lbs stew beef, 4 ground beef patties, and 2 ribeyes that weighed a total of 1.25lbs. We bought soap from Mountain Scape Soap Company, and last, but certainly not least, we bought a cherry pie from another vendor.
After we finished at the farmers market, we ventured a couple of blocks east and bought hot dogs at the Ol Mule Hot Dog Company.
Terri Davis contracted with Sausser farms to sell vegetables to Homestead Creamery, but she wasn’t paid and took the Saussers to court.
The court date was June 28th, and Paul and Samantha Sausser didn’t even show up. The judge ordered the Saussers to pay over $5,000.
Paul Sausser said they didn’t go to court because they don’t believe in suing. According to Paul Sausser, if you sue someone, you’ll go to hell.
As usual, Paul Sausser had an excuse for not honoring his contract. He claimed that Homestead Creamery hadn’t paid him all they promised to pay; therefore, he couldn’t pay his contractor.
I have 2 questions for Paul Sausser. Do you also go to hell if you swindle 6,000 people out of $210,000 (stealing)? Do you go to hell if you make promises you know you can’t keep (false promises)?
The article also states that the Saussers plan to close “a bunch” of their stands for the next 3 weeks. They’re planning to let the most recent crop grow, and hopefully, they’ll have enough vegetables to supply the stands when they reopen.
What happened to all of the potatoes? What grows well in the August heat?
The article also mentioned a CSA near the Saussers and listed the produce they supplied to their shareholders this week.
The Lynchburg News & Advance has the story.
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I received an [e-mail](http://hosted.marketingcenter.intuit.com/18111/57aa937490/5401107/f7179a3de3/) from Sausser Farms stating that they’re harvesting potatoes, and the Roanoke and Lynchburg shares will consist of 5lbs of potatoes this week. I guess Homestead Creamery missed out on the potatoes this week.
The email’s posted below:
Hello Sausser Farms Members,
This e-mail is for those of you in the Lynchburg and Roanoke areas.
There will be no survey this week. This week we will have lots of potatoes. Our plan is to bag them in 5 pound increments and hopefully every share will be able to get 5 pounds. If you bought two shares, then we hope to be able to give you 10 pounds.
And depending if we are able to harvest any additional items this week, we will have some of them available as well. But the big thing is the potatoes, because once we start harvesting them we only have a limited time to get them to market so potatoes are our focus right now.
Hours for Friday:
Forest, Lynchburg: 10-Noon (or until supplies last) and 3-6 (or until supplies last).
Roanoke: 9-3 (or until supplies last).
Hours for Saturday
Myers & Rhodes in Lynchburg: 9-3 (or until supplies last).
Roanoke: 9-3 (or until supplies last).
SPECIAL ORDERS
If you would like to make a special order request, please call Samantha at the farm and let her know what you are looking for and which day you would like to pick them up. The number is 434-542-5957.
Pick Your Own At The Farm
We want to thank those of you who have come out to the farm to pick your own produce and to volunteer in helping us pick. It has been great to meet you and your help is very much appreciated. If anyone else wants to come out to the farm and pick their own or volunteer pick, please feel free to come any day but Sunday. You may want to call ahead just in case.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
We especially want to thank you for your continued support despite the challenges we have faced. Those of you who have been so forgiving and merciful to us, we can’t thank you enough for the grace you have extended to us. You are a light in a dark world!
And despite the challenges, the criticisms, and the threats, we will continue to plant, harvest and deliver to the best of our ability until the season is over.
Thank you,
Sausser Farms
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Sausser Farms
9175 Patrick Henry Hwy
Phenix, Virginia 23959
One of the Sausser Farms tomatoes we received from Homestead Creamery that looked okay, but actually wasn’t.
The End of the Tomato
the inside
Option A box
We only received 1 Sausser Farms vegetable box from Homestead Creamery this week. It included a tomato that was already rotten on the bottom, another tomato that’s mushy, 1 zucchini that’s mushy at the top, several very hard squash, and some withered purple basil.
We signed up to buy one 5lb Option A box and one 5lb Option B box each week.
Option A is supposed to be a combination of potatoes, tomatoes, onions, squash, and herbs.
Option B is supposed to be a combination of cucumbers, egg plant, greens, string/pole beans, broccoli, and zucchini.
Sausser Farms has added a big, ugly disclaimer to the “Bulletin Board” page of its website. It states:
I pulled a google cache of the page that was taken on May 19th, and the disclaimer wasn’t on the page then.
Paul Sausser, who now runs Sausser Farms, served jail time and paid restitution for a 2002 criminal conviction for writing bad checks in Pennsylvania.
After serving 3 months in jail, a judge sentenced him to 3 years probation, and the prosecution agreed to drop other charges that included “theft of services and theft by deception.”
He violated probation in 2006 when he failed to pay restitution, fines and court costs of $16,967, and he was sentenced to another 3 years probation.
As usual, he had an excuse – it was due to a messy divorce.
His probation ended in November 2009, and he bought the farm in Phenix, VA in December 2009.
His occupation in Pennsylvania was listed as a home builder, but he advertises himself as a 3rd generation farmer here.
How does that work? My grandfather was a farmer. If I decide to become a farmer, does that make me a 3rd generation farmer?
The Roanoke Times has the story.
When signing up for the Sausser Farms Co-op, I was told that I’d get 12 ears of corn each week during corn season. Homestead Creamery stated that their vegetables would include 12 ears with each share box, too.
There was a notice on the [Sausser Farms website](http://www.sausserfarms.com “Sausser Farms”) stating that we won’t get any corn this year because the corn crop died due to the heat and the lack of rain.
The corn is toast! The high heat and lack of rain have put an end to the corn. We had to plow under 15 acres of corn. While we use drip irrigation on just about all of our other produce, we don’t with the corn. We are extremly dissapointed about losing all that corn.
It has been hot and dry, but some local farmers have had corn. Magnolia Market in Buena Vista [announced on July 2nd](http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=135337883146115&ref=ts#!/group.php?gid=110242532321363&v=wall&story_fbid=139765782702371&ref=mf “Magnolia Market”) that a local had dropped off some corn. [This week](http://blogs.roanoke.com/sosalem/2010/07/14/lots-of-fresh-produce-on-the-salem-farmers-market/), local farmers at the Salem Farmers Market have sweet corn available. Several local farmers had sweet corn available at the Roanoke Farmers market on [July 1st](http://www.facebook.com/pages/Roanoke-VA/The-Historic-City-Market/42393313870#!/video/video.php?v=898989959813&ref=mf). The Charlottesville city market has had corn since at least [June 24th](http://www.facebook.com/pages/Charlottesville-VA/Charlottesville-City-Market/90079662898). An [article in the Madison County Eagle](http://www2.madison-news.com/mce/news/local/article/mc_farmers_fight_weather/58233/#When:19:00:19Z) on July 15th said that “the corn still looks beautiful and soy beans do too.”
It sounds like Sausser Farms’ corn was planted late. If they were planning to provide us with corn each week of the corn season, shouldn’t they have staggered their plantings?
According to an [article at N.C. State](http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/plymouth/cropsci/docs/late_planted_corn.html), the period from July 1st to July 20th is most likely to be dry and hot in Virginia and North Carolina, and corn should be planted so that silking occurs at least a week after this period.
Long-term weather records show that the period from 1 July to 20 July is the most likely to experience lower rainfall amounts, higher average temperatures, and high humidity. Therefore, late-planted corn should be planted so that silking occurs at least a week after the end of this period. When using an early maturing hybrid, growers should plant from 10 June until 25 June to avoid this period and still have a reasonable harvest date. After 25 June, the reduced number of growing degree days will result in a severe delay in harvest with an increasing chance of freeze damage before the crop matures.
I’m not sure why, but I went ahead and filled out the Sausser Farms survey for this week. I’ll try again this Saturday. Maybe I’ll get some okra that I can use in a gumbo.