“We do all of this to help one person at a time”

Brenda Bot and Tom Peters of Peaceful Valley Farm.

We started a farm as a hobby farm as we are retired. We’ve had horses, cows, chicken and bees. We were giving away eggs to the postman and others. People started asking to buy our products. I have chronic Lyme disease so I was making jams and preserves for my own wellbeing. Now on our Peaceful Valley Farm website we sell eggs, chicken, beef, maple syrup, honey, jams, relishes, tomato sauce and salsas, along with honey-based soaps and honey-roasted peanuts. We also offer fresh pies and cinnamon buns.

We share the proceeds of our farm with community groups and our charitable projects. We help a single mother in Sint Maarten who has a severely disabled child with money for her medical needs. We helped the mother’s other daughter find a better school than the one she was in. She is doing very well now.

My husband, Tom Peters, is my own frontline worker procuring supplies we need as I am more vulnerable to Covid-19. He never complains and is always happy and dirty, keeping our much loved zoo at Peaceful Valley Farm happy. We do all of this to help one person at a time. Tom was out delivering to customers and a mother called me and said Gramp (we are fondly known as Gramp and Gram) had made her little girl so happy. She waited in the window for him and he waved at her. That is why we are doing this; the smile on the little girl’s face touched our hearts. I made cookies to send over to her as a surprise from Gram and Gramp. We now have nine grandchildren, some of them surrogate, and they all have their own gardens at the farm. We love our community and we enjoy giving back where this is a need.