WEST PAWLET, Vt. (WCAX) – The owners of a southern Vermont animal sanctuary have taken up a new hobby. They’ve sold coffee, been on National Geographic and now, they’re growing crops.
What was once a nightmare has become a dream come true for Erika and Mark Gutel. In December of last year, Kinder Way Sanctuary was destroyed by a winter storm.
“I looked at Erika’s face and she was just blank. I’m like, it wasn’t a dream,” Mark Gutel said.
We’ve introduced you to the Gutels before. The owners of Kinder Way Farm Sanctuary rescue animals from unfortunate situations, adopting or rehoming them.
Now, the sanctuary has a new home. As a part of the Gutels’ journey to recovery, they needed a space that would help generate revenue for their charity organization. What used to be Liebig Strawberries in West Pawlet is now Kinder Way Berry Farm and Sanctuary.
“It was a battle, I mean this farm was so perfect. It had the blueberries, it had the potential with the strawberries. You know, it had the land that we could use for the animals. It had the pond, everything was here that we could make work,” Mark Gutel said.
The Gutels now manage about eight acres of blueberry crops.
“We had no idea how to run a berry business, but it was fun,” Mark Gutel said. “I treated it just like the coffee shop. People came in, people picked berries. We talked about life. We saw potential, throughout the year, we have been building barns. Fencing small areas that we could.”
But the couple didn’t do it on their own. Ernie Pomerleau of the Pomerleau Foundation wanted to lend the couple a helping hand in honor of his daughter, who died of cancer.
“She with her cousins always wanted to buy a farm and protect animals. Honest, I can’t make this up. One day we want to do this, so she’s done it,” Pomerleau said.
The Gutels plan to continue building on the land, planting more berries, adding a performance space and welcoming more animals into their fleet.