MILTON, Vt. (WCAX) – In the early ‘90s, Ted Beaudoin and his sons opened Beaudoin’s farmstand in Milton.
Beaudoin always had a full-time job so the stand was unlocked while he was away. It was based on the honor system — you weigh and pay.
Reporter Joe Carroll: Did you ever get cheated?
Ted Beaudoin: No, I always figured if somebody needed something and they took it and they didn’t pay for it, must be they needed it more than I did.
Times have changed. “It’s a different, different time now,” Beaudoin said. Now the stand is run by his grandson, Justin. It leaves the 88-year-old with some time on his hands.
Beaudoin has a tradition. “I make quite a lot of pickles,” he said. He preserves and cans cucumbers and beets for the farmstand.
He’s been pickling since he was a kid in Winooski. “Everybody had a backyard, so they had room for their gardens,” Beaudoin said.
Reporter Joe Carroll: Does this get tedious?
Ted Beaudoin: No. It’s a good pastime, gives me something to do.
Justin has another job on the farm – looking out for his grandfather. “I’m here, around here every day, so I keep my eye out, make sure he’s remembering his age,” Justin said. “Sometimes he likes to think that he’s in his 40s again.
“I can’t make a move without him checking on me,” Beaudoin said.
Justin has good reason to worry about him. Last year Beaudoin was close to death. “I guess everybody said my skin color was gray,” he said. “I wasn’t hoping but I thought the end was near.”
Beaudoin said he had no energy and would routinely faint. “I passed out in the hallway, I passed out here in the basement,” he said.
“Passed out waiting on customers,” said Irene, Beaudoin’s wife of 66 years.
After months of tests, doctors figured out what ailed him. He had a rare disease called Amyloidosis, where deposits build up in vital organs. For Beaudoin, it was the heart. But medicine took care of the problem almost overnight. “Like a miracle happened,” Irene said.
“I still think the good lord wasn’t ready for me,” Beaudoin said. Now, he says he has a new lease on life. “I don’t feel 88.”
At the farmstand, Beaudoin helps out as much as he can. “I like people,” he said. “The way I feel now, I could live to be a 100.”
Fresh vegetables and a fresh outlook on the future.