Life on the gourd farm in challenging times
Like all of you, we find the recent times challenging. Challenging to even know what is really going on, and even more challenging to know what’s coming. At this time everyone in our circle is healthy and doing well, and we are very grateful for that.
Meadowbrooke Gourds is a small company that has grown and crafted gourds on our farm for the past twenty-five years. We employ about twenty people who grow, wash, and craft every gourd we sell. Our farm is located in the Cumberland Valley of Central Pennsylvania, the most beautiful place to live and work (just my opinion). Over these twenty-five years, we have had really good times with a scattering of challenging times. We have overcome the challenges of the past and expect to overcome this crazy virus challenge too.
The gourd shop at our farm has been temporarily closed, as have most of our customers' retail stores. Our current situation is that we have lots of gourds both crafted and ready to be crafted with no stores to sell them in. For the first time ever we find ourselves with nothing to do. This is the latest challenge and we expect to find the answer through more creativity. As a group of highly creative and hardworking people, we want to help ourselves and others the best way we can. We don’t have any orders coming in so we are getting creative again, and asking how can we help our community?
All of our classes and our Spring Create Your Own event were canceled, and we knew that our customers were disappointed to not be able to visit our farm to be creative and enjoy time with their friends and family. What would help so many people with nothing interesting to do at home? How could we take all the classes that we do at our farm and bring them right into your home without the risk of large public gatherings? We think our new Craft Kits just might help both of us.
We have introduced a completely new line of gourd Craft Kits online this week with many more to follow in the coming weeks and months. We have started with Easter and All Seasons and will release Fall and Christmas designs later in the year. Each of these kits will come with simple instructions that are fun and easy enough for adults to do with their children and friends. Together maybe we can find something fun and creative to do, and share a few smiles along the way.
Hopefully, we can look back on this time and realize it wasn't that bad after all. It was just life with its good times and challenges too. Without the challenges, we wouldn’t appreciate the good times. The good times will be here soon if we just stay calm and do what we can for ourselves and our community.
Ben Bear
Owner, Meadowbrooke Gourds