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Rural Development grant helps market, grow Kentucky Spring Lamb
The bleating of sheep when they hear the feed bucket can be deafening.
“BAAAAA! BAAAAA! BAAAAA! BAAAAA! BAAAAA! BAAAAA!”
Like a nearby car horn or a low-flying jet, the sound can stop conversations cold.
To a sheep producer, that is the sound of money, and more and more… [Read More]
03.20.2023
Sustainability at the Core
For many, apples are a sweet addition to a balanced diet. For Eric Jorgensen, one of the founders of Finnriver Farm & Cidery, apples are a way of life.
Jorgensen and his partners started their small organic fruit and vegetable farm in Chimacum, Washington, on the state’s… [Read More]
03.15.2023

Entrepreneurs and RD: a Match Meant to Bee
Mark and Linda Graf have a crew of over 400,000 bees in over 100 hives working for them near Emerson, Nebraska. The Buzz, their store on Main Street, sells local honey and related products.
The Grafs are shining examples of entrepreneurship in rural America. Linda describes… [Read More]
02.14.2023
Building Small Rural Businesses
Small businesses are the center of rural communities and ensuring they have the tools needed to be successful is important for their sustainability. Fable Farms, a wine company in Washington, felt the strain during COVID-19 in 2020. Finding supplies for the business and getting… [Read More]
02.13.2023

Helping the Wool Producing Industry One Sheep at a Time
Shaniko Wool Company and its partners have been raising sheep for 128 years. Over the last several years, the company has emerged as a leader in the wool textile industry, becoming the first RWS-certified company in North America in 2018.
“We felt this was an opportunity to… [Read More]
02.08.2023

USDA Partners with One Small Farm to Make Enormous Impact
Deep beneath the cool waters of the largest estuary in the United States, rests a hidden world teeming with limitless possibilities. Chesapeake Bay is considered a national treasure, with a watershed stretching 64,000 square miles, touching six states, and impacting more than 16… [Read More]
10.19.2022

Freeze Drying Lessens a Farmer’s Financial Risk Plus More
Rachael Ryan is a life-long farmer from southern New Mexico. Over the years she’s seen the ups and downs of her farming business called Back Yard Farms. --And she especially knows about the downs that come as an ag producer.
She loves farming, but she knows farmers are at the… [Read More]
07.27.2022

What a great idea, how come nobody thought of this before?
The workers at Backyard Farms in Vado, New Mexico have barely begun another day of freeze-drying produce when another truck carrying hundreds of pounds of apples arrives to deliver its load.
Since Backyard Farms began freeze drying food it’s become a beehive of activity. All… [Read More]
04.07.2022

RiverCrest Ranch Finds Community, Opportunity in USDA Grant
RiverCrest Ranch has always been a place worth sharing. Nestled in Oregon's Applegate Valley, the ranch's 11 and a half acres still hold the remnants of an 1870s hydraulic gold mining operation and "the best swimming hole on the Applegate River," according to owner Cathy Rodgers… [Read More]
03.31.2022

Making Own Products is a Dream Come True for Small Rural South Dakota Business
In the spring of 2017, Chad Blase quit his full-time job to go back to work with his parents on their dairy farm. Within months, milk prices were sinking and Chad and his partner Laura Klock, along with Chad’s parents, Amy and Gary Blase, realized it was time to have some… [Read More]
07.20.2021