We are Boersma Family Roots Farm. We are a small farm in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We are far north with a short season. Our farm is family-owned and operated. We've been operating for going on our 10th year, starting from absolutely nothing to what it is today. We raise mostly vegetables for farmers' markets, schools, local grocery stores, and more. We grow using regenerative practices with no chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides. Our focus is community growth and health. Thanks for reading the upcoming story and reason for the GoFundMe.

It's already challenging enough being in the north trying to grow in a short season. But it does not compare to today. Today was a devastating day. We lost a large chunk of three of our four greenhouses due to the continual mass snowfall that flattened them. The damage is unimaginable and soul-crushing, to say the least. The big one collapsed right in front of me as I was about 30 minutes from finishing clearing it. It took the breath right out of me and made my family cry. Not only did we lose about $50,000 in monetary investment, but the time it took to build and fight for it has been taken. We've dealt with loss before on the farm due to the weather, but this one left one hell of a mark.

This is a huge hit to our farm. We have spent the last almost 10 years putting everything we had into building up this food system. And it could not bear the weight of this winter. The continual snowfall was just impossible to keep up with. We've been working tirelessly the last month, forgoing our winter leisure activities in a desperate attempt to keep everything clear. And today we realized we were never going to catch up. Working weekly more than a full-time job's hours shoveling, snowblowing, and more, we still lost the battle. It just came too quickly and was too constant. Filled with too many random breakdowns of equipment and days where the cold was near impossible to endure, our every move felt like slow motion. It was totally out of our control. Mother Nature won, and we are beyond humbled.

While our lights have been dimmed today, our spirit is still strong. We want to continue on. We want to be able to continue to provide to our community what we have and more in previous years. We are putting our pens to the paper to come up with plans to rework and rebuild. We have to come up with strategies to adapt to this upcoming season. And we already have design changes to strengthen our hoops so that they can withstand what seems to be a potential record snowfall. If we have another winter like this, we aim to be ready. As always, it's going to take a lot of hard work and money to get it going again. In time, we are confident we will figure it out in one form or another.

Over the years, we have been praised by so many members of our community for our role in building up our now unbelievably great local food system. We feel obligated to push as hard as we can to keep going in that direction. We have had so much encouragement. We don't want to let anybody down.

Stating all that, we really hate to ask for help, but we feel like we just have to try. The damage is so much. The pain is so real. If you can donate anything to help fund our recovery, we would be beyond grateful. The low-end estimated damages are about $50,000, not including labor or time. We're setting up a GoFundMe for less than half the material cost value to help ease the burden if at all possible. If we can reach anything close to our goal, it would make our reconstruction possible. If you are able to help or know others that can, please send and share. Thank you all for over the years being such great patrons and supporters of what we have been doing. Our goal is to keep doing it for many more. We love you all no matter what. Even in these hard times, we have optimism and faith the future holds more to come. Until we see you again, take care and God bless.