RISEN FROM THE ASHES

February 18, 2013

Washing veggies for transport is one of the major winter jobs for employees. Crates of stored veggies are dumped into the barrel washer where they are cleaned. Then employees inspect them as they come out on the conveyer. Photo by Tabitha Armstrong

CRAFTSBURY - In January 2011, Pete's Greens of Craftsbury was in ruins after a fire destroyed the production facility. A new, 160,000-square-foot facility stands in its place with with freezers, a large root storage room, the washing and packing floor, the seed starting area, a small visitor’s room, the kitchen where employees get their meals and the extra summer produce is canned and stored, and expanded office space.
Pete's Greens has taken the lead in Vermont's changing agricultural industry, with a focus on buying local, fresh food.
"We were in the process of building an addition," Pete Johnson, the owner and the founder of the company, said. "We knew the addition wouldn't be a permanent solution to our space problem but we weren't ready to take the leap and build a whole new facility. The fire forced us to," he said with a smile.

For more on the resurrection of Pete's Greens, with photos, see pages 1 and 12 of Tuesday's edition of the Newport Daily Express for Feb. 19, 2013.