Amaltheia Dairy Needs Help After Freak Storm

Asking for help isn't always easy, but sometimes we learn that seeking help from our community is the best way to get through things.

My name is Katie Hornick, I am a hairdresser here in Gallatin Valley, partner to Amaltheia vegetable farmer, Nate Brown and soon to be mama to our baby girl that is due to arrive earthside any day now!

On June 8th, our beloved farm Amaltheia Dairy suffered a direct hit from a freak storm. We've never witnessed a storm with this much intensity. It brought in massive amounts of hail and 4-5+ inches of rain within an hour. It decimated the majority of our vegetable crops that supplies our community with fresh vegetables. Anything that wasn’t covered with row cover was shredded. After the storm, there was a river running through the field which was unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Some spots on the field had 4 inches of hail where it had piled up. Many vegetables were ready to be harvested and sent out to our csa members, farmer’s markets, local restaurants, and grocery stores. Things can be so promising one day (or hour) to the next. The beautiful fields are gone. That is the gamble in farming, knowing that mother nature can take it all away in an instant, but never knowing it will happen to you.

Time will tell how things recover and we are trying our best to devise a plan for replanting, etc, but our main concern is having the funds for the month of June to pay our employees and get things back up and running as they were after this major loss. Our hearts go out to them because they put in countless hours planting, watering, and weeding these crops. We will be using the funds to cover our loss of June income and help cover expenses. This includes payroll for our employees, destroyed row cover and all of the time and effort that will need to go into replanting as this will set us back additional months. We ultimately hired more employees this year in hopes of Nate being able to step back a little to be more present with our growing family.

Any assistance will help and we are so very appreciative of the amazing community we are surrounded by. Thanks to the many people who have already reached out asking how they can help.

Nate and I feel excited with baby girl coming into the world and feel lucky to have family and friends nearby. We will appreciate your support to keep our great crew working and the farm going.

We can’t wait to get our veggies back up and growing and into your hands and belly. Thank you.