The cleanup and rebuilding of Rehoboth Ranch, the 287-acre farm north of Greenville severely damaged by a tornado on April 4, is in full swing. The Hutchins family has raised almost $70,000 on GoFundMe. Hundreds of people are showing up to get the three barns cleaned up. They need help sorting debris and hunting for objects that blew into adjoining pastures. The sheetrock project scheduled for tomorrow has been moved to next Saturday, April 19 due to a delay in the roofing project. If you’d like to help, email [email protected]. Check their Facebook page for updates.
Rehoboth Ranch will get product to markets this weekend. You will find them at McKinney Farmers Market at Chestnut Square, 8am-12noon; Coppell Farmers Market, 8am-12noon, and the Dallas Farmers Market from 10am-5pm.
Rehoboth Ranch’s Texas Meats Supernatural was the first vendor to bring grass-fed beef to the Dallas Farmers Market over ten years ago. They have been local leaders in the non-GMO-fed meat, poultry, and eggs movement that is so prevalent on Dallas menus. I contacted the Dallas Farmers Market and Chefs For Farmers, an organization dedicated to promoting the local food movement, to see if they have plans to support Rehoboth Ranch. I haven’t heard back from the DFM, but Chefs for Farmers responded. “CFF is not currently involved in the rebuilding of Rehoboth Ranch, but we do want to do something to help them,” says Iris McCallister, co-founder of Chefs for Farmers. “We are hoping to come up with something else (maybe a smaller event) to benefit Rehoboth Ranch.” I asked if she knew of any chefs who had been out to Rehoboth and she wasn’t aware of any.
I say we Ranch Up, folks. If we are going to talk the locavore talk, then let’s walk the fields of Rehoboth and help get them back in business. Get busy.
Update: From DFM: Grow North Texas, in conjunction with the Dallas Farmers Market and the Dallas Farmers Market Friends, is working to determine what to provide in the way of donations, help with clean-up and/or rebuilding. Susie Marshall, president of Dallas Farmers Market Friends, executive of Grow North Texas, and president of TOFGA, on behalf of the group, is working with Rehoboth to determine their real needs at this time. She says: “The devastation seems overwhelming but our community has stepped up and we are all coming together to help this wonderful farming family. Many have made donations already and we are looking to fill in the gaps of what they still need. Not only these organizations I am representing in this effort, but also many individuals within them, are opening their pockets and their hearts.”
