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Rachel Ashley’s Story
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We started Rainshine Family Farm in 2008, and are entering our fourth year of growing food for our local community. We currently cultivate 2.5 acres near the Willamette River in Corvallis, OR; and we grow about 40 different annual and perennial crops for our 50 member CSA, our neighborhood farm-stand, local restaurants, and a retreat center in the Cascades. All our crops are grown using organic methods and we strive to work with nature and nurture long-term soil health. We consider ourselves stewards of the land we work and value this relationship as the foundation of food security. We have a strong commitment to growing heirloom varieties valued for their full flavor and using non-GMO seed sources. The healthy lifestyle, the community created around food, and the ecological benefits are the main reasons organic farming is important to us. We love our jobs!
We are amateur seed savers and would like to expand our seed saving and crop improvement abilities. We have been saving some of our own seed for a few years and find it to be vibrant, viable, superior, and well adapted to our growing environment. We would like to diversify our income by selling our seeds. We will use your $2000 in grant money to buy seed growing, harvesting, drying, cleaning, and storage equipment. Extra equipment will help us become more efficient at saving our own seed and working towards our goals.
We consider our customers to be our community because we know their names, their kids, what they like to eat, and where they live. Our unique location, located one mile from downtown Corvallis, allows many of our CSA members and farm-stand patrons to walk or ride their bikes to pick up produce and visit. We are committed to being of service to our community, holding the belief that group-reliancy is integral to reconnecting with a common way of life in which vibrant food is produced locally and affordably. Our creation of this urban farm has allowed our community to get truly local food when it\’s at its freshest and healthiest. Many members have stated that this community created around food is the thing they love best about our farm. We happen to agree.
