((PKG)) THANKSGIVING FARMS
((Banner: Plants in the Pandemic))
((Reporter/Camera: Jeff Swicord))
((Producer/Editor: Jacquelyn De Phillips))
((Map: Adamstown, Maryland))
((Main characters: 1 female))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, Partner, Thanksgiving
Farms))
Thanksgiving Farms is fifty-seven acres [twenty-three
hectares]. We like to grow a little bit of the odd and unusual.
So, we grow pretty much everything. The only thing we do
not grow is corn. We're ladies. Corn is heavy and we're not
picking up.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, Partner, Thanksgiving
Farms))
I run the garden center part. I have 20 grow houses full of
plants right now. I grow everything from petunias to
Calibrachoas to tropical plants. I plant them at a certain time
so that they get ready by Mother's Day. Mother's Day is our
Christmas in the greenhouse industry. That’s when
everybody brings their mom out. They get flowers.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, Partner, Thanksgiving
Farms))
In normal years, we have half of it sold by May 10 and then
you sell the rest of it at the end of May and two weeks into
June. On a glorious sunny Saturday afternoon in May, we
have seventy-five to a hundred cars in our parking lot.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, Partner, Thanksgiving
Farms))
When I heard about the coronavirus, I went and I turned all
my greenhouses down 10 degrees, just to try to get my
plants in a holding pattern because I don't know when I'm
going to be able to sell them. Danger of losing, besides my
sanity and the lining of my stomach. That is a horrible,
horrible thing to think about. I want to be optimistic but, at
the end of the day, I know realistically a monetary amount, I
don't know, a lot. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, a lot.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, Partner, Thanksgiving
Farms))
This gets me through the day. My stomach, that is where
my stress went. It went into my stomach. So, I'm living on
Coke Zero and Tums right now. You do what you got to do.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Chyron: Louisa’s Mom))
((Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, Partner, Thanksgiving
Farms))
It is a very rare bird that wants to one day go, oh, I want to
farm. Pretty sure you have to be born into it. To be a
farmer, you have to be optimistic. You have to be a
gambler. Sometimes, you have a thunderstorm that will
wipe your seeds. Sometimes, you get it all the way down
and you're two weeks from harvesting your field and you get
a 15-minute hailstorm that totally disintegrates everything.
You just have to go, oh, OK, well let's start over. That's what
you got to do or else you will never make it.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((NATS: Louisa Zimmermann Roberts))
One day at a time.
((NATS: Other woman working))
Yep, that’s all you can do.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, Partner, Thanksgiving
Farms))
Nobody has ever prepared you for a pandemic, ever. So,
I'm going to dig in deep. I'm going to probably stay up many
nights trying to figure out how to get through this. But, we
will. I will find a way. I'm not going to let this take away my
identity of something that I have worked on my entire life.
I've been in this business since I was five. I am not going to
give it up to COVID-19. Believe me. That is not going to
take us out. We will find a way. Just getting there is going
to be the hard part.
((MUSIC))
((Banner: Plants in the Pandemic))
((Reporter/Camera: Jeff Swicord))
((Producer/Editor: Jacquelyn De Phillips))
((Map: Adamstown, Maryland))
((Main characters: 1 female))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, Partner, Thanksgiving
Farms))
Thanksgiving Farms is fifty-seven acres [twenty-three
hectares]. We like to grow a little bit of the odd and unusual.
So, we grow pretty much everything. The only thing we do
not grow is corn. We're ladies. Corn is heavy and we're not
picking up.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, Partner, Thanksgiving
Farms))
I run the garden center part. I have 20 grow houses full of
plants right now. I grow everything from petunias to
Calibrachoas to tropical plants. I plant them at a certain time
so that they get ready by Mother's Day. Mother's Day is our
Christmas in the greenhouse industry. That’s when
everybody brings their mom out. They get flowers.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, Partner, Thanksgiving
Farms))
In normal years, we have half of it sold by May 10 and then
you sell the rest of it at the end of May and two weeks into
June. On a glorious sunny Saturday afternoon in May, we
have seventy-five to a hundred cars in our parking lot.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, Partner, Thanksgiving
Farms))
When I heard about the coronavirus, I went and I turned all
my greenhouses down 10 degrees, just to try to get my
plants in a holding pattern because I don't know when I'm
going to be able to sell them. Danger of losing, besides my
sanity and the lining of my stomach. That is a horrible,
horrible thing to think about. I want to be optimistic but, at
the end of the day, I know realistically a monetary amount, I
don't know, a lot. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, a lot.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, Partner, Thanksgiving
Farms))
This gets me through the day. My stomach, that is where
my stress went. It went into my stomach. So, I'm living on
Coke Zero and Tums right now. You do what you got to do.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Chyron: Louisa’s Mom))
((Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, Partner, Thanksgiving
Farms))
It is a very rare bird that wants to one day go, oh, I want to
farm. Pretty sure you have to be born into it. To be a
farmer, you have to be optimistic. You have to be a
gambler. Sometimes, you have a thunderstorm that will
wipe your seeds. Sometimes, you get it all the way down
and you're two weeks from harvesting your field and you get
a 15-minute hailstorm that totally disintegrates everything.
You just have to go, oh, OK, well let's start over. That's what
you got to do or else you will never make it.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((NATS: Louisa Zimmermann Roberts))
One day at a time.
((NATS: Other woman working))
Yep, that’s all you can do.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, Partner, Thanksgiving
Farms))
Nobody has ever prepared you for a pandemic, ever. So,
I'm going to dig in deep. I'm going to probably stay up many
nights trying to figure out how to get through this. But, we
will. I will find a way. I'm not going to let this take away my
identity of something that I have worked on my entire life.
I've been in this business since I was five. I am not going to
give it up to COVID-19. Believe me. That is not going to
take us out. We will find a way. Just getting there is going
to be the hard part.
((MUSIC))
