Before the pandemic, Liz Barton was working full-time at the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology and her husband, Mike, was running his own landscaping business. The pair had two young children and were managing to maintain a small farm with a vendor space at Haymaker Farmers’ Market weekly. After the Stay-at-Home order in March of 2020, the Bartons were all home together, giving them the opportunity to work more on their farm as a family. Mike dialed his small business back and put the majority of his focus on the farm, which is something he had always wanted to do. “2020 was like the impetus of that,” Liz said. “Experiencing a pandemic and realizing that life is about doing the things you wanna do and not just always saying you'll get to it.”
Liz continued her full-time work, switching to a hybrid work schedule. By 2022, they closed the landscaping business, giving Mike the opportunity to have a full-time commitment to Barton Farms and Gardens. “We were already doing the farmers market and had an audience and some pretty loyal customers. Mike loves nothing more than being at home, gardening and farming so he was in his best element. We were all home together, which is what he really loves, too.
I feel that we were lucky that our kids were so young during the shut down, so it didn’t effect them much. Mike was home so childcare wasn't an issue, which was the biggest issue for a lot of people.”
As the farm scaled up, the Bartons were getting more involved with the community. They host an annual plant sale on their farm and had the honor of hosting the Haymaker Harvest Dinner on their property, which is a fundraiser for the farmers market. “It was rewarding because so many people that have been customers for a really long time and were able to come out and experience this farm to table dinner.
As president of Haymaker Farmers’ Market for 11 years, Liz spoke about her experience in that role during the shut down. She reminisced about the camaraderie of the board and volunteers from the market, saying that the market only had to close for one weekend while they came up with a solution to continue operations. “We created a drive-through market at the church where board members would volunteer weekly. People could order in advance or could just drive through the line. If it was available, vendors would put stuff in your trunk.
Something that the pandemic taught people was farmers in the community still had products that the big stores didn’t. A lot of farmers and small farms did well during the pandemic.This is what community is all about. We came together. The pandemic had obviously so many awful elements—lives lost, businesses lost. There's a lot of terrible elements, but there was this community effort to do good things and I think that it inspired people.”
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