 Steve Fry, my wife Suzanne, and we are in Medford, Oregon. Centrally located between Central Point and Jacksonville, we are in West Medford. And we're out here at 2184 Ross Lane. We've built a new processing facility and a farm stand, a farm store the girls like to call it, and a processing kitchen in the building. I am Tara Fry. I am the youngest of the Fry girls. And we are here at our processing center in Medford. And I'm Amber Fry, and I'm the eldest of the Fry girls. This center here processes the vegetables from our farm. It's also here to serve as a location to process organic fruits and vegetables from other small farms here in the valley. We bring all of the crops from the different farms that we have to be washed, sorted, packed, and then also cooled before they go out for delivery. We also have a farm store on the front that we are using right now to sell our products along with our new line of products that has just come out of jams and pies and breads. Salsas. And then we also are bringing all other farms, produce, local potteries. We bring a lot of local fruit, some other organic farmers. And then we also have a processing kitchen where we take any of the products from the farm that's left over and turn it into the pies, the jams, the sauces, ferments, all of that that we now carry in the store and soon will be selling at the farmers market. When we first started, there wasn't enough money to carry us through the winter. Right? In the markets. So I would have to get a winter job. And I would get in a truck because I knew how to drive a truck. And I had a license and I'd get the truck and be gone for weeks at a time. So that was hard on everybody and, you know, it was, it was crazy, but I knew as soon as spring came, we could start a garden. And I told Susie, as soon as you make as much as I am making and driving a truck, I'm out. And that's what we did every summer. And I think it was, he did that two summers. Two or three? Just two. I mean, pretty quickly in that, you know, from the spring to the fall, we could, you know, did fine. So he didn't have to go back out. We took a loan out from the bank. It was very hard to get loans at that time, but I think we did it on our houses. We didn't have a house. Oh, we had. When do we get our house? Anyway, we were able to get a loan. We got a loan? A loan to get us through the first winter. Really? Yeah. Like, I don't know, you know, $10,000 or something wasn't much, but. Well, we were really crafty with the money deal because, you know, during the holidays or whatever, they give you credit cards with no interest. Okay. For six months. So we would work that ink. We'd use those credit cards for like free money and we blow those up to as far as we can go. Interest free. And then we'd pay him off at the end of the season. And oh my goodness, your credit rating goes through the roof. You get great credit and you get cheap money. Yeah. Because the banks would not loan us money is what I remember. Well, we ended up getting some just a little bit. Maybe it was from my mom. Your mom gave us some money to buy a house. Yeah, that was before. Anyway, we couldn't get loans from the bank very easily. You know, even, you know, even to run the business. You get a loan in the spring and pay it off in the winter. Small farms, they suffer that way. Yeah. They truly suffer. The new guys start now. It's really hard on new people. It costs a ton of money to run a farm. I don't care if it's a half acre or a hundred acres. It costs a ton of money. And the banks don't want to even go close to farmers. They run when they see you come in the door. That's why it took us a long time to even buy our property. I mean, this is... We've only had this property here. We bought the property over here. And we keep buying property to the west. But oh shoot, we've only had this property maybe 10 years. And we've been in the valley for 27. How long did it rain fast? Well, the good news was we had a neighbor. So we're on this half acre. We had a neighbor that liked our style of farming. She wanted to keep her ground organic. We're all organic. She liked us. We had a lot of little girls running around, babies. And she had property right next to the half acre. Marta traced her. And she rented us maybe 5 acres, 10 acres. 10 acres. 10 acres. 10 acres. So that was a big jump. From half to 10. Which is good because on the half acre, we were kind of wearing out our welcome there. Because you just start accumulating things. And it was great. It was time to move. It was perfect. He wanted to use this property. You know, we'll be indebted the rest of our life to this guy. He gave us our first break. And we bought the property actually right across the street from where we were. We bought a house. Our mom gave us a down payment. And we bought a house right across. And then the farm that we... The next farm we had, the 10 acres, was adjoining that property. So we've lived this blessed life the whole time. Okay? And then we went from that 10 acres. It was on a hillside. It was hard to farm. Though we're row crop veggie guys. It was pretty difficult. And the water irrigation ditch was drying up faster. The water was really bad. Yeah. So it was like, I was getting fed up. I need another piece of property. This is not working. I'm selling everything we can grow. She's selling everything at the growers market. Into the year, there's nothing left. We can move on. A guy comes to us and says, hey, Jackson Road's available. We're right now in Ashland. We got that. And it was great. Wow, 20 acres. 20 acres. Of flat ground. We walked down there. On Bear Creek. It's like, what are we going to do with all this land? You know, it seemed really big. 20 acres at that time did. Yeah. And then the billings off course things started. And our landlord thought he could turn that farm dirt into part of that off course. And gave us a month to month lease. And that just, oh, month to month really. That was horrible. But then. Then. Within the week that we got that news. It was like the day after. Yeah, it was just. It was like the next day. We were crushed. It's like, what are we going to do, you know? We can't do that. Well, are we going to have to start farming? And then the next day this guy calls Robert, who owns this property. And he had property. He wanted us, you know, he wanted to rent. Yeah, Robert McWilliams, man. Sold us this property right over here. 17 acres. He wanted to rent it to us. And I said, well, Robert, I'm tired of renting property. I don't want to do that. I want to buy you at that property. Make me an offer. I can't refuse. Let's do something. And he did. He says, well, how about if we do this, this and this? And I said, sold. We're in. We'll take it. Yeah. So we bought 17 acres. And then we lease 30. And he has this 30 right here. 35. They came with it. So we bought 17 and we rented 35 in the same day. And you can have your month to month rent and say goodbye. I could insert a bad word here, but I won't. This is where they're going to be sorting all of the produce. So they'll put it into the bin there. It gets washed, scrubbed. It has bristles right there. And then comes down, gets dried as it comes through here and then sorted into different places and boxes. And so all along the line, they'll be guys working to make sure that everything's going right. If anything looks bad or not to, to standard, then they'll be pulling it out. And then in the end, they'll be, you know, putting them down here on boxes and pallets and then moving them into the cooler. Anything like lettuces, anything, kales, leafy greens, all have to get dunked in the dunk tank. It helps them keep cooler, gets the core temperature down so that they can last longer. So all of that will be on the other side of this processing the rack or the line. Is a wholesaler in Eugene that at the time was owned by farmers and was distributing organic produce. And they're looking for more farmers to support when they're selling. So they sent a representative down, one of the owners and the company, David Lively, came and visited my farm and our farm and talent. We're sitting up there on top of the hill and you can see the whole valley here is beautiful, beautiful view. And, you know, we're talking about farming and feeding people and organic, you know, pine the sky dreams, you know. And, you know, it was just like, well, you can always sell your extra stuff up here. We service the co-op, we bring stuff down to the Ashland Community Food Store, we'll haul your stuff back up to Eugene. And so it was like, well, by golly, when we moved over here, they were the first ones I called. I mean, the real goal for this is to help allow other small organic farms or medium-sized farms enter into the wholesale market. A lot of different farmers feel like this community is starting to get saturated with, you know, more and more small growers. And to make the steps to selling into the wholesale world can be a little bit difficult. And so our goal, and I think my parents' goal, is to really help farmers expand their business by giving them infrastructure that they might not have on their facility. So it would be people bringing in their product to be washed, cooled, sorted, all of those components that they might not have on their own farm themselves, and then stored in the refrigeration and shipped out. So helping farmers kind of create one less step that they have to do on their own. And something that will be at a value that, you know, they can't process it for what we can because we are fortunate enough to have the infrastructure that we have here. You probably have... O.G.C. might be a quarter or something like that. And then local stores and, you know, all the local things is probably another... Restaurants. Restaurants. Another quarter? Oh, that's probably a half. Half? Or maybe a third. And then we have growers markets. And then I have my CSA, you know, that we get some from. But O.G.C. is a big part. And really good people to work with. But... That business is building. And we have great... And then about the same wholesaling around town. It hasn't really grown, you know, that much. It stayed pretty steady. And the growers markets have been steady ever since, you know, the beginning and it's gotten better. I think it was a natural progression to kind of continue to build on what my parents have started. We have a great clientele base, a great customer base here in the Rogue Valley. And to offer them more products than just the organic vegetables was something really exciting for us and for my family to be able to do. And then to have a farm stand where they could get those products every day and not just have to wait for the farmers markets where, you know, they might not be able to take the time off to get there. Something that would be more consistent, a little bit easier to access. And then having products that they know is local, that's organic, that's made fresh. Giving them that option to purchase something new was something that my mom and dad had always dreamed about. I envisioned the farm, believe it or not, I had the view of this farm, the way you see it today, right now, total with all the stuff that's here. This is the view I had 20 years ago. I envisioned this farm as it sits today, as you see it now, with this nice big building, a farm stand with a big solar ray back here and a nice shot, greenhouses all over the place, guys working, everybody happening. I mean, I didn't share that with a lot of people, but people knew that that's what I, this is what I've always envisioned. This has been my dream from the day of the month, to be honest with you, to have all this stuff in place. It took him 20 years because I never had a son. 20 years because I had to do it by myself. That's it. Nothing but arguments the whole way. It's not what arguments. It's farming, you know, I was more the kind of, well this feels nice here, you know, it's like comfortable and wanting to move slowly and methodically, you know, a little bit more. So there was, yeah, you know, so he would look at this and then I go, well what about all these things and having what it takes to make it all work, you know. It's been a really good man. And I had to really get to the point where I could say, oh yeah, that could work, you know. I could eventually win her over, but she could tweak, you know, all of our brains to a little bit of her subject. No, the match is perfect here. Dad's a dreamer and he wanted all the bells and whistles and myself and my mom and Tara would kind of reel him back in of really what we could afford and what was really necessary. And, you know, we want to keep his dreams alive as well and tell him, you know, in a couple years maybe we could do that or in a couple more years we can continue to add on and, you know, bring in more of what you want. But he's practical as well. I mean, once he kind of sees it on paper and sees where things are going and really what the expenses are, it was no problem. He had no qualms about changing his vision to make it work for what we were able to bring together. And also he went, I mean, we went around to all the different farms down in California, big farms that have huge infrastructures down there and we saw what they had and it wasn't even close to what Dad was dreaming. He was dreaming way outside the box from what even they had and they were multi-million dollar farms and so for him it was like, oh, okay, so if they can make it on this we can make it on something much even smaller than that. So it was, you know, once he saw it all come together and what other people had, his dreams kind of went down just a little bit but it was, you know, we steered everyone into the right direction. It was all coming together really nicely. So this is the processing kitchen. There's a few of our guys that were. So we have kettles and we have a big oven for all of our pies using a lot of stuff that we have on the farm and then anything we don't have, we bring in. So this garlic is from Oshala out in the apple gate. Great people. Our peppers that she's using. The dehydrator's hole. The dehydrator's hole over here. We have, what are these in there, plums? No. Oh, our heirloom tomatoes. Yeah. So just dehydrating heirloom tomatoes already tastes delicious but dehydrated, oh my gosh. He came over here and we knew some people over here in this valley over here to a little piece of land, a friend of ours let us put a trailer on a piece of land that he owned and let us farm this little half acre block that opened half acre yet. So we started with that and I had a tractor and a tiller that I brought from California and started with that and Susie was doing the growers market so we got into the grower market deal with a half an acre of ground. Grower's market, man, it's perfect. Even though the growers market we're making 500 a week. That was great. We did plants, that's when we started our little nursery. We had like a... Put up a little greenhouse. A little 20 by 50 foot greenhouse. Oh, this is a big time, you know. And we did flowers, mainly dried flowers at that time. Dried flowers, yeah. And vegetables. And I remember calling the co-op the first time they were asking their produce manager if she wanted any kale. Yeah, we had kales and charts. We didn't know, you know, it was like in the spring and we didn't really know what... You know, we'd grown it before but we didn't know there was really a demand for it. Ashland Community Food Store, you know, the old store they had over there. And it was great. That was marvelous. OSU Master Gardener's Fair. We did that. Oh, man. That was great. We've done the Master Gardener's Fair at OSU probably 30 years running. No, because we've only been here about 26. Well, it feels like it. 26 years? Yeah. But we did it the first year, so it was probably been 25 years. The first year we moved here, we got in the Master Gardener's Fair plant show because we had plants. These old plants are the first year. So it's been 27 years that we've been with those cats and have not missed a show. That sets the spring into a motion for us. So we're really thankful for that. I'll support them until I'm buried in the compost pile for what they've done for us. And what they do for small growers is marvelous. You know, when we were kids, it was just something that we did. After school, we'd come home. They would be, at that time, the processing center really was at our house. So mom and dad would grab everything from the farm, bring it to the house, and process everything at the house. So after school, we'd come home and we'd be washing tomatoes or washing the salad mix and cutting it up into little pieces and doing things on the farm that it wasn't even like a, it wasn't a job to us. I mean, mom would give us money to go shopping for school shopping. That was our big treat before school started. So it wasn't like it was ever a chore to us. It was just something that we did. And a lot of my three older sisters, the two oldest, I think at the time that mom and dad started, they were so much older and mom and dad were so small that they didn't work on the farm as much as us younger kids did. So when I was in high school, I mean, this was coming to a head and I always was on the farm, working every summer, even after schools. And so it was never something that I didn't think I would be doing and then going away to college and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and, you know, getting a bachelor's in biology. It was just something that I, it was always so near and dear to my heart, this like kind of nature living. And then having Amber come back and saying that she wanted to be part of the farm, it was like a no-brainer. Why wouldn't we do this together? I know that you need to make money to support your family. Why wouldn't I do everything in my power to help you do that and help mom and dad do that? So it wasn't ever like pressure to do anything. It was always my choice and Amber's choice and mom and dad, you know, they were always hoping that they would have us come back on the farm. People would ask me when I was younger, oh, you're going to be a farmer when you grow up? I would always say no. That was my go-to answer. And I think now it's like, why would I ever say that? You know, this is a great, this is the best thing I could ever ask for. I get to work with my sister all the time and her daughter. I get to be with mom and dad, sometimes good sometimes bad. But it's the best life we can ask for. Yeah, for sure. I felt the same way. They were still pretty small when it was time for me to kind of move on. Even in high school, I didn't want to be a part of the farm at all and I left for a long time and then I had my daughter and that was the first thing that my husband and I decided on when we were thinking about having kids and once we had her was like, okay, how are we going to make this work to get back on the farm? And so now that we're here, it's been great and now fresh ideas having Tara here with me to brainstorm and bring something new to the farm and help mom and dad kind of transition it to another level and kind of bring our spin to things has been really good and refreshing and it's exciting to see what the future will hold to. Because mom and dad, they're old school. I feel like they're just stuck about the old hippie way of farming. That's how they started. That's how they grew all their food that they ate and that's how it was for them. That's what they needed to do to survive and for us now it's like we have never experienced that side of things and so for us it's like they got the old school they're still doing what they do on a regular basis and then we're trying to run this side of it and adding a new kind of modern what people want nowadays kind of spin on things and I think overall it's working but it's hard with the balance between them and us in trying to maneuver our ways together. I think part of it is just that's how you made your living and so you wanted it to build and you wanted to do good and you wanted good customer relationships because we have five kids We have five babies growing up We're raising five kids and they're going to go to college and all these things they're athletic they have sporting requirements they got to buy new cleats every time they change a sport socks, soccer socks we're able just to get by with a little bit for crying out loud the pads when the kids were little skiing outfits, snow skiing outfits prom dresses prom dresses for crying out loud we have to go to Portland mom every year school starts they can't buy clothes in Medford that would be horrible we got to go to Portland to get our outfits really Portland there's a little side note so the girls would help me that's the only help I would ever have in market was my girls when they were little if they could hand me a bag they were at market and if they could add numbers together then they were helping people they were making change six years old so they would help me at the market sometimes I'd have to tell somebody can you just help them a little bit so they grew up doing that but the pay that they would get was to be able to go school shopping in Portland and get their back to school clothes carte blanche they would just go crazy I wouldn't let them spend that much but that was their pay so I couldn't hire somebody to help me but they would help me and they learned a lot I think so to do that and everybody says so why did you just keep growing why is your business getting into where it is now why? I had five girls they all went to college I never went to college my daughter was the first kid to go to college so I wanted my kids to be more educated than what I grew up with and what I did my kids are going to go to school as long as they want to and that was always in the back of my head that's what motivated me I want my kids to be educated that rules that way you can make an educated decision if you want to come back to the farm you can go out and I want my life and God bless you I want you to do that but the farm is always going to be here for you we're not going anyway farmers I don't know too many that retire just go golf the rest of their life we never got the golf that much as we grew the farm we grew vegetables we didn't get summers off my girls never got summers off we didn't go camping much because summer this is not California this is southern Oregon I feel pretty blessed to be here and I found this place soil was not real expensive when we got here it's still about the same as it's always been for here again soil but we didn't get summers off that's why we would take winter trips so I had to buy winter stuff we would go to Canada and spend weeks up there with our family with her family and hang out in the winter okay so the girls were a big part of it the girls were always the other one was that we were building and so we hired and hired somebody back in the half acre day I knew this thing had I can't do everything and that's the other big big thing that has influenced the farm the first two guys we got two guys to help us the two guys that started with us one of them was the guy you were talking to and his brother Popo and they're still with us today that's a very big part of it the kids are one thing but the real truth is you got to keep employees working year round they need checks just like everybody else everybody has to eat and live my guys live here in the valley and so we built a core a family core of employees that we could have before to have year round and you got to do some volume to be able to have a stash of cash that you can pay these guys out checks during the winter so that was a big part of it they've been doing it for a long time I mean my dad is always a big dreamer I feel like and my mom's more like the realistic one and so he's been wanting something like this I mean they've been doing it outside the guys have been working till 12 o'clock at night working outside for years 10-12 years and for them to finally have a place where they can come inside and work shorter hours has always been something dad's been wanting to give them just never had the means to do it and so now he it's more for the employees than anything else we were able to get a couple of grants for the project we received a grant through the Southern Oregon regional solutions team which is a state run agency for projects that would help with infrastructure in the area we received $395,000 from the state of Oregon through the legislative budget and then we also received a USDA grant the local food promotion grant for $100,000 and that's for infrastructure in the building for equipment and also for some of the running costs and then we had some private donors that lended money to the project and then we were also able to get a large loan from farm credit services to tidy up everything else so all in all we received about half from farm credit and half from grants and donations $1.1 million we get this little sniff of some state money and it's like okay Amber this is it is this what you want to do you want to continue working on the farm you want to go in and have a farm stand and build this building and we can do this and she talked to her husband which is actually her husband is a trained mechanic so we did something right there we taught her to come back to farm bring a mechanic with you the guy's a certified welder he's everything you want in a farm mechanic so he got my vote right away and the decision was yes okay so let's move forward so Amber writes up grants and writes up all these proposals and works with all the government officials from the state and before you know it we get this giant grant to build a processing facility she was running the whole thing she would keep everybody on budget she'd keep everybody on time she built this on time and under budget I mean that's a slogan they love to use but she actually did it and you end up with this giant processing building fully equipped with a beautiful kitchen and a farm stand on the front it's magic my world revolves around magic Mr. Obama wanted to give us this give us this solar power thing over here 25k solar rate it was like you know two thirds of it came from Mr. Obama well thank you very much sir Amber was the one that I never thought of she always loved the big city ever since she was like first grade she loved Corvettes she loved diamonds she loved the big city but when it came time to do something else she wanted to move back here and she wanted to raise her daughter on the farm and she wanted to be here and this is her you know her contribution to that and coming back and embracing the whole thing and I think she's really found a niche for herself that she never yeah yeah yeah if my husband wasn't agreeable I probably wouldn't have been able to come back this spouse away is I think a lot on the decision hopefully you know when you find a spouse everybody has you know similar goals I think from the beginning of our relationship we always kind of had an idea of wanting to return back to the area maybe not being on the farm but wanting to be close to our family and so that was something we both knew we wanted going into it is that family was really important in being close to family when we were raising our own was something that we wanted to do and the best part with Matt is that his parents are here he grew up on a cattle ranch he knows farming he was a mechanic all growing up he knows how to work hard and he loves mom and dad and so it's not like he fits in with us like it's no big deal he's just another son and another brother but with star her husband being in the military that's a little bit harder just because they can't choose where they want to go and then us other three we don't have husbands for them it's just that they're doing what they want to do exactly and I don't know our other sister Aurora who's up in Portland when she gets married I feel like when you have kids that's how it worked for me my thoughts of how I wanted to raise my daughter and my thoughts of how I wanted my life to look and the nostalgia of the farm weighed in way stronger than when I was single or even just when we were married it was a thought in the back of my mind when I do but it wasn't something that was immediate so it's hard to say yes or no they'll come back or they won't life changes and the feeling once you get married and have kids the feeling of wanting the similar way to how you grew up I think plays into action a little bit more Kara is really good she's steady and she has been here on the farm since the beginning she's kind of left she knows everybody she knows what it is just to work and work until it's done she's a lot like her mother she's the worker she gets her head down she was a great athlete in school she just put her head down and play hard and that's all she's ever really known she's been the bull she gets it done so Amber couldn't have done it really I don't think without Tara they bounce off each other really well they can argue through points and somebody will win and they still love each other after they're done that's the beauty of family working together family if you can keep it together it's going to be a strong unit of the work that has gone into this before she came back I was full time on the farm working with mom and dad picking flowers, making flower bouquets doing markets, doing all of that and so when it came to doing this project I didn't do much other than a few budget things I'd have one day a week where I'd come in and be with her doing whatever she needed me to do going and doing errands and writing things up for her and doing the budget stuff but other than that I've been in the farm doing farm work because mom and dad had really had a hard time even letting me move to the farm because I had such a presence in the other part and doing flower bouquets and doing that and mom's not 100% okay with change and so having me leave her which there's only a certain few that work with her and so having a huge part of her leave was really difficult and so giving me that one day a week was a struggle and so I didn't do a whole lot of getting this project it was all Amber and dad doing the whole project so for them it's hats off to them because they got it done and they are doing a really good job now I'm full time here full time at the store I stole her away it was finally it was just like okay mom I can't you know I'm going to be leaving you and this is what it's going to have to be and you're going to have to hire some other people to fill in my spot I don't think she's 100% happy with it still to this day she still wishes that I could work on Mondays with her and pick flowers with her and make flower bouquets but as of now I'm here full time with Amber I think the girls are kind of happy that they're able to do it themselves they see it well they designed the whole thing that's their deal that's their deal I think if we did a farm stand it wouldn't look like that but they did a farm stand and it's Kess's now Amber is directing traffic this morning is our dad going to do this, this, this I need this and this and this that's how it works good I need a leader I'll follow I'm ready that's easy the transition of farm so that's the next generation the guys love them they've always known them and that's what we're transitioning the whole deal we're getting close to that point where we can start thinking about how that's going to happen and it's been a pretty good ride we want to set them up so they can succeed and that the next generation can succeed they have their kids working here some of their kids are working here we want it all just to keep moving forward we look back but we don't think backwards we see what we've done in the past but we always want to move forward I'm a forward thinker forget the past the infrastructure that we've been able to bring into this facility is a lot different than what they've been working with in the old facilities the processing equipment that is in here is going to really help cut down on the amount of time that's spent washing, sorting and cooling the products and help to bring more shelf life to the product and also help to cut down a lot of the loss that we would have without it so without this project coming to fruition my parents would have a hard time continuing to expand the farm and grow the farm and then we were also having a hard time keeping up with the demand of the products that we have so overall it's been a huge component to really keep the farm going the whole processing facility of it yeah I mean there's disagreements they come up and sometimes they tell us we've been doing this for 25 years we know what we're doing but we just have to remind them that they put this project in our hands they trusted us to get this far with it and they need to continue to trust us in moving it forward a lot of it has had to do with branding and website even social media a lot of things that Tara and I feel like are our stronger suits they don't feel it is necessary and it's a fine balance of keeping it family farm oriented small but also making sure that we're keeping up with the changing culture and the changing demands of what people expect from a company I think when it was beginning we would have a lot of dinners we'd have everyone would come to the table with what they wanted and we'd hash some stuff out and then it would come up with a plan I think now that it's everything's going Amber and I make a lot of decisions together she'll bring something to me we hash it out and then we don't always have to run it by mom and dad because it's not something that we think they need to be dealing with because they have so much on their plate but as of right now when they have ideas they just tell us that that's what we need to be doing so it's not like we're brainstorming with them it's them telling us that we need to do and then us coming up with ideas and doing it Tara and I work together every day and we brainstorm with each other and most of the time we're on the same page and if we're not one of us convinces the other one whoever actually has the stronger will on that one piece usually wins and then mom and dad they tell us pretty much what they want done if we disagree with it usually we can talk to them about it and say I'm not sure about your ideas sometimes it works, sometimes it does it my dad probably has the strongest will out of all of us so he wins no matter what it is his farm so Tara and I do have to be sensitive about that even though sometimes we're like wait this is our project it is still his farm it's still his land his dreamy we have to we have to listen to him but overall I mean we're all pretty self motivated people and if we see something that needs to be done it gets done and we all trust in each other so it's not no one's going oh you did that that's not right it got done it's done we move on to the next thing there's not a lot of dwelling on I think our main thing was our logo yeah not that they disagreed with what we chose in the end but they disagreed in changing it altogether they were really they didn't care at all they didn't want to put the money into it they didn't care at all to change the website the branding of the new facility was a really and the new products just the branding overall the hardest things that we had to really put our foot down and say no this needs to change you know the website was really outdated and the functionality of it wasn't great but it was serving them for what they thought was necessary and then also the logo and all of that it worked for a long time but now that we're doing value added products and everything has to have kind of a consistent look to it we needed something more streamlined and so that was something that Tara and I really pushed for and we got but they did not want to change it at all to start out with but other than that I mean there hasn't been much there's little things that come up on a day to day basis but we kind of just move past it and keep looking forward to the best thing about working with our family that most there's not a lot of things that any of us dwell on for too long it's like okay over that move to the next thing and I think we're all too busy to really put too much time and thinking of those things too that's the best part about families that you can get into a fight with them and two seconds later it's like wait what would you say to me I can't even remember now that's how it is on a constant regular with us we get in arguments and then it's like wait what were we arguing about this building is for the reason we built this building is because as a small farm you can't afford the services that we can afford here you need to get it outside of the valley you'll get to a certain point as a small farmer in a community and tap it out run out of customers and so then you want to go to a wholesaler this building will help you get into that with the processing line the cooling facility the trucks will be parked here OG Seal dock at this dock we'll put it on the truck for them we'll be able to distribute to Ashland, Medford and around this area for them this is a collaborative effort this building that's the big reason we built it in the kitchen and in the farm store they'll be able to sell their products as well they'll be able to do value-added stuff in the kitchen it's a rental kitchen they want to make pickles or they want to do their whatever the jams it's a certified kitchen so you can come in here and do your thing and make a product we'll sell it out front if you don't have a store for it since we were little since the beginning they owe a lot of their success to the community and it's been really difficult for them to get where they're at today they started out with literally nothing they've always felt the need to give back and so I think with that want and need to give back to the community and help support other farmers with a dream to farm they've wanted to be super transparent and they've wanted to offer any assistance that they can to help better the local farming community without us working together especially in these ages it's harder and harder so I definitely I mean that's what they're all about is community support and working together to try to better everybody and farming I think if you ask them it is a non-profit organization you definitely don't do it for the money you do it for the love so we need to get more money for our box per product it's got to go up and it's going up more California just passed a labor law that they're going to have to start paying farm workers overtime after eight hours like they don't need it like everybody else gets for some reason farm workers don't need that well they're going to get it and that's going to jack up food prices people my age are retiring there's less farmers coming in that's going to jack up farm prices seeds getting more expensive multinational corporations and the country of China is buying up and producing all the seed that's going to raise food prices the GMO thing is going to crash that's going to raise and that's just me predicting the GMO thing will crash and oh there's a lot of reasons for over chemicalizing the food chain one of these days somebody's going to say that causes cancer the food you're eating causes cancer instead of fighting it after the fact cancer comes from a lot of different things stress being one of them but food and chemicals that are known to kill animals and pollute the water somebody's going to say this causes cancer we got to do something different that's going to be a big crash all your sugar right now comes from GMO sugar they spray the dog out of it corn they spray the heck out of it grains they spray the heck out of it with roundup they spray the heck out of this stuff you got to do your math look at the numbers man it ain't going to last forever this is a short term chemical wind deal it's not going to last immigration we're not letting people come up here that will work the farms that's going to crash all this stuff that we do is hand by hand it takes hands to pick beats up out of the ground to make a chart bunch to make kill bunches it takes hands you don't let people in here to do it white folk ain't going to do it that's a fact I want them to make more money they deserve it but food is going to pay for it you're going to pay for everything at the market and that's what needs to happen when you can't build a house for under but look what those guys are driving look how they live that's what the food industry needs to be at we should be at carpenter's wages these guys picking fruit cutting chickens cutting up beef picking carrots they should be at a carpenter's wage we should all be the same that's sustainable sustainable money makes the world go around baby you would guess that his grandpa was a revivalist a tent revivalist in the 30's hallelujah praise the lord pass the ammo baby we got into it because it feels great you're producing good food that people can actually live on you can have your kids on your job site you get to go home of your kids every night oh and you're your own boss and you get to grow things that's the one thing that we both had in common we both enjoy growing things it's magic I first lived with him and he had a garden I had gardens but I moved into his garden I said can I put a row of flowers in your garden he gave me one row I can't eat flowers we grow 15 at least 15 acres of flowers now we got flowers everywhere flowers are beneficials you just can't be narrow minded you got to be an open minded sort in our line of business if you want to get out and farm get out and do it if you quit that's okay too because it's not for everybody don't beat yourself up it's not for everybody I guess we want to maybe just thank the community for building my parents up and the way that they have we wouldn't have ever been here without the support and people buying local and wanting it to be a thing that people buy local organic food and now it's become a huge business that we have run and we want other small farmers to have the same success that we have because there's a huge demand for it and we can't do everything for small farmers to become big it's not any competition to us there's so much demand for it and so for the community to support us the way that they have and to help smaller farmers have that support as well I think we're really excited about and we want to thank the community for everything that they've done for us it's been a huge effort from everybody to get this to where it is right now we thank people for trusting in us we thank people for joining in in helping us get to where we are and we look forward to what it can bring to the community bringing more small farms and helping younger farmers and the next generation of farmers continue to want to farm because it's not easy and anything that we can do to work together to make it easier and more efficient and not have to work as hard as our past generation and to be more profitable to get the word out to support the younger kids in the schools to the older people in retirement communities we need to be able to do that together so this part of the work I think is to try to do it together because that's the only way it's going to work for a small community of farms