Despite a greenhouse fire hitting the business in the midst of the busiest season of the year, Petal Pusher's Farm in Laconia, N.H., is recovering with assistance from the local business community and a positive attitude.
On April 23, Petal Pusher Farm, a retailer that grows 100 percent of its vegetable inventory, reported a structure fire in a greenhouse behind its retail facility. The store's owners, who live adjacent to the retail business, reported no damage to their home.
Manager Emily Dickson says the business was operational the next day. She says local fire officials belive the fire may have been started by a stray cigarette igniting a compost pile, which spread to the rest of the greenhouse.
"Fortunately, the store was fine," Dickson says. "The owners live on site and their house wasn't touched. We did lose most of one of our greenhouses; we lost the end wall, the plastic that covers the greenhouse, we lost our burners that heat the greenhouse as well as some fans, hoses and whatnot. It did, unfortunately, destroy one of our composting machines."
Dickson says the composting machine lost in the fire was valued at about $20,000. However, thanks to donation of time and resources from friends, family, neighbors and even employees of Moulton Farm garden center in nearby Meredith, N.H., the store is putting a dent in the cleanup efforts.
"We've been recovering nicely so far. We've had a lot of volunteers, friends and family," Dickson says. "We've also had a neighboring farm [Moulton Farm] donate some people and time to help us clean up. So, we're recovering pretty well. Our greenhouse is back up and running. We bought some plastic to cover it, we've cleaned up most of the damage. We'll have to plant some more vegetables that we lost, but we're fully functional. We've had a lot of people donate some time to help us clean up plants and they've been great.
"We're just thankful that no one got hurt and that it wasn't as bad as it could have been," Dickson added.
The fire could hardly have come at a worse time, with preparations for Mother's Day weekend and the busy late-spring growing season set back by the incident. However, Dickson says the team at Petal Pushers Farm is confident the business will be able to catch up and bounce back.
"We've done the best we can," Dickson says. "Unfortunately, we've had to spend a lot of our time cleaning up after the fire, so it's prevented us from doing some other things that we would prefer doing to prepare for the big Mother's Day weekend. But, we're doing the best we can, we're all in high spirits and just plugging along."
Petal Pushers Farm opened in 1994 and employs 10 people, including seasonal staff.
Photo courtesy of Petal Pushers Farm.