By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – Good things are happening in the farming business in our community, but you’d be forgiven if you were unaware of a few of the smaller operations that are working hard every day to bring us fresh produce for our tables.
Three of those small farms were recently awarded some hefty grants to expand operations, and we thought you’d like to know about them.
AgWest Farm Credit is an agricultural lending cooperative, serving producers an agribusinesses throughout the west. Their New Producer Grant helps producers start or grow an operation, access educational support, and build connections with other producers. In 2023, AgWest Farm Credit awarded 30 motivated individuals with grants to help them pursue their dreams, including three in Sequim and Port Angeles.
Those winners are Flora Farm, a medicinal herb farm and herbal apothecary in Port Angeles, Tampopo Farm, a 2-acre farm growing veggies and flowers in Sequim, and Hope Rising Microgreens of Port Angeles. We spoke with Denice Gustafson, co-owner of Hope Rising Microgreens, who was recently awarded $15,000. She said over 450 people applied for these grants, so she was shocked when she heard the news.
“And only 30 people received it, and it was from Alaska to Arizona, and I had no idea. I just applied hoping that I would get it. And it was a new operator Grant, so it was for anybody that had been in operation under two years. So, everybody was relatively new at what they were doing and…definitely needed it.”
Gustafson, a mother of 5, along with her partner Jon Walsch, grows highly nutritious microgreens of broccoli, radish, spicy salad, sunflower, pea, red cabbage, mustard and arugula, and hope to add more varieties soon. We asked how the grant money would be used.
“We first purchased a 10×20 shed and insulated it, set it up with growing racks, growing lights. With the grant, we have now purchased a 12×20 shed, and we’re going to connect the two sheds. The newer, bigger shed will be the germination and growing part of it, and the old shed, it will be the refrigeration units and the processing. So, it’s right here outside my house. So it’s perfect.”
Hope Rising Microgreens delivers their greens within 24 hours of harvesting to ensure freshness, and they offer a subscription service so that customers can receive their microgreens either weekly or bi-weekly, serving Port Angeles, Sequim, and Port Townsend.
Find out how you can have microgreens on you table in a matter of days by going to hoperisingmicrogreens.com.
(Photo courtesy of Denice Gustafson)