Yes, it’s one of those truisms that’s valid just about anywhere but it seems particularly poignant in a little town like Northfield home of WallGoldfinger. After all, when Robert Frost, that sometimes crusty but soft hearted New Englander, had those thoughts, his point of reference was his fiercely independent New Hampshire neighbors, stoic figures who would also bend over backwards to help one another. It’s not much different here in the middle of Vermont, even now.

So, when our fellow Nantanna Mill resident, Glen Loati and his bread bakery La Panciata, needed a lift — literally — W/G’s building superintendent, Chet Brown, master shipper and ace forklift operator, stepped in. Glen’s problem was a weekly two ton shipment of organic flour* for his burgeoning bakery but no loading dock on which to receive it. WallGoldfinger has a dock and, better yet, a forklift, so hauling those pallets of 50-pound sacks became a simple affair.

Well, neighborly, yes. But naïve, no. Shrewd Vermonter that he is, Chet negotiated what we think is an excellent and almost equitable trade: in exchange for a little forklift time, WallGoldfinger employees are rewarded a couple of times a week with steaming loaves of all kinds from La Panciata’s ovens. We’re reluctant to admit it: we think we may have gotten the slightly better part of the bargain, although Chet wryly notes that he tells Glen every week what a strain those pallets are putting on his beloved Daewoo G30S forklift.

* Small World Department: Richard “Jez” Harrington, W/G project manager, is the principal supplier of this flour. Jez is still the proprietor of an organic milling operation which he founded several years before joining WallGoldfinger.