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Booms and Busts: A century of trying to protect a family ranch
Above: LJ and Karen Turner at the Turnercrest Ranch. A homemade wooden sign hangs on a wooden post right off Highway 387, about an hour south of Gillette, Wyo. Beyond the sign is a long stretch of dusty road. A couple deer stand on alert in the tall prairie grasses, and beyond them, water…
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Bill and Kate Harwell: Sky Island Farm
Above: Kate and Bill Harwell own and operate Sky Island Farm in Hoquiam, Washington. It’s 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, rain or shine. “Every single season,” Bill Harwell said, as he sorted heirloom tomatoes in the late September sun in Hoquiam, Washington. First generation farmers Kate and Bill Harwell own and…
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Annika Charter Williams: Food Hub
Above: Annika Charter-Williams holds her son, Willie, and daughter, Stevie at their ranch in Shepherd, Montana. Annika Charter Williams helps her 4-year-old daughter Stevie pull on a pair of pink and brown cowboy boots. It’s early morning in late-August. Annika’s father, Steve, rides up to his daughter and granddaughter on a chestnut brown horse.…
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Steve Helling: Prairie Hillside Garden
Above: Steve Helling at home in Brookings, South Dakota. “I want to tell my story because I think it’s important for other people considering starting out in smaller scale agriculture to see an example of what can happen down the road. Since we’ve been doing this and living this for 38 years, it has…
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Doug Lewis: Transitioning to Organic
Through education, patience and practice, farmer Doug Lewis has succeeded in keeping his family’s farm in business. Today Doug and his wife Mary run Agristar, an organic farm in North Powder, Oregon. Agristar was born out of the Farm Crisis of the 1980s and the Lewis’ have fought methodically and strategically to be where…
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Nash Farms:Farming with Family
Above: Tom Tschida at Nash Farms in Carbon County, Montana. Rusty, but functioning, antique tractors and a modern solar array frame Tom Tschida as he describes the unlikely way he became a rancher. “I’d been away working for a long time when [my parents] bought this place and started building it up. A few…
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Hyatt Family Farm
Above: Sean and Denise Hyatt run Hyatt Family Farm in Milbank, South Dakota. Sean Hyatt is a sustainable and organic hog producer in Milbank, South Dakota, two hours north of Sioux Falls. “In my mind there wasn’t any other way I wanted to farm, other than sustainably,” said Sean. Sean’s production methods of pork…
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Ellen Hartstirn: La Grande Community Garden
Above: Ellen stands in the La Grande Community Garden. Ellen Hartstirn spends most of her time at the La Grande Community Garden in La Grande, Oregon. “It’s just a beautiful place to be,” said Ellen standing next to her budding brussel sprouts. “I grew up with parents who were gardeners and I enjoyed gardening…
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Ernest Weston:Thunder Valley CDC
Above: Food Sovereignty Program Coordinator at Thunder Valley, Ernest Weston, stands in a newly built green house on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. “I remember the morning I left for school. I loaded up the Dodge pickup at 4 a.m. and then went inside to say goodbye to my family. We all…
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Judy McCullough:Fighting for Ranchers
Above: Rancher Judy McCullough at home at Empire Ranch, in Moorcroft, Wyoming. Ranchers aren’t born, they’re honed in competition. On the ranch, you’re competing against everything. Competing against the elements, against frostbitten winters, blistered summers and drought. You’re competing against time and age. You’re competing against other producers, sometimes your neighbors and you’re always…