Judge: Produce farm must pay contractor

A Lynchburg woman won a default judgment against the embattled owners of a Charlotte County produce farm Wednesday when they didn’t show up for the hearing.

Terri Davis claimed Sausser Farms owners Paul and Samantha Sausser owed her $5,500. After briefly hearing Davis’ evidence, that she was under contract with the Saussers and had not been paid for part of the summer, General District Court Judge Edwin Burnette granted her the amount plus interest.

Contacted by phone after the hearing, Paul Sausser said he didn’t come to court because he felt he was being extorted.

“We’re Christians. We don’t believe in suing,” he said. “We truly believe if you sue, you die and go to hell.”

Davis and another Sausser business relation say the complaints go beyond one unpaid contract.

Earlier this year, the Saussers sold $35 shares in the farm to customers in exchange for five-pound boxes of produce weekly for 24 weeks. Davis, who promoted the farming co-op to her friends, family and restaurant contacts here, said her phone has been ringing off the hook.

“They’re not where they’re supposed to be and when they do show up, they don’t have what they promised,” she said.

At Myers and Rhodes Equipment Co. in Lynchburg, one of Sausser’s pickup spots, Connie Rhodes said Wednesday that unhappy customers also call her frequently to see if representatives are there from the farm as promised with produce.

“We have had problems getting rent,” Rhodes said. “At this moment today, we are current.”

Contacted by phone after the hearing, Paul Sausser said he has lost half a million dollars in produce this year due to the weather. Sausser said he knows some people are “bent out of shape,” but he blamed the outcry against him and his family on a lack of understanding on how vegetables make it to market.

“We’re doing our best to catch up and satisfy everyone,” he said.

He said Davis was a contract worker who was to be paid to sell vegetables to Homestead Creamery, a Franklin County company that offers home delivery of dairy products. He agreed he did owe her some money, but said he was unable to pay her because Homestead Creamery had not paid him in full.

Davis said after the hearing that she had not contacted Homestead Creamery to see if the company had made payment to the Saussers. Representatives from Homestead Creamery could not be reached Wednesday.

Although he disputed the amount, Sausser said he would pay Davis the court-ordered amount within 30 days.

Sausser said some customers have been unfair. While he understands some are disappointed, he claimed to have other satisfied customers, including two with cancer who have thanked him for providing healthy food. He said customers in Lynchburg have cursed at his daughters and that one person spit on his wife, Samantha. He claimed to have gotten 15 death threats.

He said “atheist,” liberal journalists with a “personal vendetta” against farmers have made the situation worse.

Other farmers in Charlotte County are in equally bad shape, he said.

Charlotte County Extension Agent Bob Jones said he couldn’t speak directly to Sausser’s troubles, but county supervisors did last week declare a drought disaster because of extreme heat and lack of rainfall. While some crops can survive if they are irrigated, tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables can’t stand the extreme, over-100-degree heat, Jones said. Bees and insects that pollinate the crops won’t fly in the heat, he said.

“This is my 22^nd year in Charlotte County and I can’t remember anything like this,” he said.

Fifteen miles away from the Saussers in Pamplin, Lisa Moussalli owns and operates Frog Bottom Farm with her husband. Like the Saussers, the Moussallis offer shares in their farm in exchange for produce. Moussalli said she doesn’t know the Saussers or anything about their operation, but said she isn’t very worried there will be backlash against Frog Bottom.

“I’m hopeful folks won’t be scared away from something that sounds like that,” she said.

The Moussallis charge shareholders $650 per share for 26 weeks of produce and offer half shares for $350. She said the farm — about a third of the size of the Saussers’ — produces enough for 200 shares.

This week, Moussalli said, a full share includes three pounds of tomatoes, two pounds of onions, two heads of garlic, four sweet peppers, two jalapeno peppers, four cucumbers, four melons and two eggplants. She said Frog Bottom couldn’t produce that much, or half that much, for $35 a season.

“We feel we grow really delicious vegetables and they’re really fresh,” she said. “While we want to be able to earn a living from what we do… we’re not getting rich off this.”

She said Frog Bottom could not survive on a $35-per-share price.

A contract provided by Davis, the woman in court Wednesday, showed Sausser had agreed to provide 750 shares to Homestead Creamery customers alone.

“We’re replanting,” Sausser said. “That’s all we can do. I can’t control the weather, nor can any other farmer.”

He said he would be closing down “a bunch” of Sausser Farms’ stands for three weeks so that new crops coming in will have a chance to produce. By Aug. 20, he said, he hoped the fields would be producing again as expected.

In the mean time, shareholders needing produce should call him directly at (434) 542-5957, he said.

“If it gets down to the last week in October and people are still bent out of shape because they didn’t feel they got their $35 worth, we’ll reimburse you,” he said.