GOSHEN — Over its seven seasons in operation, Oliver’s Farmstand has faced its share of animal challenges, with raccoons and red squirrels tempted to indulge in the self-serve stand’s bounty and leave without paying.
But those pests rank as petty pilferers compared to the latest unwanted guests — a family of bears.
“We had some encounters caught on video,” owner Ruby Hutt said. “We’re told it’s a mother with three cubs living in the swamp.”
After helping herself to some bread, Hutt said, the voracious intruder raided the freezer and proceeded to make off with or otherwise spoil some $3,000-worth of pies, pizzas, chicken, sausage, steaks, bacon and more.
“We had to pull the entire freezer,” Hutt said. “It could be our profits for the month.”
Hutt reached out to state officials, including the Massachusetts Environmental Police, but no one seemed to have a solution for her problem. The stand is in the village center, just off a major highway.
“We can’t discharge firearms,” Hutt said, and she doesn’t want to risk any deterrent option that might send the bears into the roadway.
So she has decided to put an electric fence around the stand that will be activated at night. The farm stand, which has always been open around the clock, will now be closed from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. — to people and, she trusts, bears.
“We hope we can deter it,” Hutt said. “I hope it’s clear enough to people, with cones and signs.”
Hutt, whose husband runs an excavation company, started the farm stand when she was home with her young son, who lent his name to the business. Oliver’s Farmstand supplies foodstuffs from more than 75 Massachusetts companies and two dozen others from the Northeast, she said. She goes to Valley farms herself to pick up fresh produce daily and gets some of the other provisions delivered.
The self-serve, all-hours model, with buyers operating on the honor system, has worked.
“We’ve been able to maintain,” she said. “People haven’t been the problem.”
Bears, on the other hand, will get into anything, she noted.
“I think we’ve avoided (bear trouble) so far because we’re in the center of town,” she said.
She applied this year for a local food infrastructure grant offered by the state but wasn’t successful.
“We’re trying to figure out something for next year,” she said. “Maybe we’ll try for another grant,” which could pay for a prefabricated structure that can be closed at night.
Meantime, Oliver’s Farmstand is preparing for its second annual Season Celebration, a benefit for It Takes a Village, a parenting support group in Huntington. The celebration, in partnership with Pause and Pivot Farm in Williamsburg, with local vendors, live music and more, is set for Sept. 16 from 11 to 3 at the farm stand in Goshen.