Leila Rezvani, left, co-owner of Keshtyar Seeds at Stonebridge Farm in Chesterfield, John Collector and Brooke Bullock, owners of Stonebridge Farm, are shown with sheep and rotational grazing fences. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS
“If we value farms growing food that’s good for people and good for our world, we need to invest in them,” says Bullock. “I really hope policy makers keep putting money towards local farms, not taking it away.”
By Jacob Nelson
For the Gazette
09-09-2024
Excerpt:
The other farm on the land is Keshtyar Seed, a hand-scale vegetable and seed farm run by Rezvani and Bullock. They grow a wide variety of produce sold in many of the same markets, as well as rare and threatened plants grown specifically for seed.
“These seed plants are mainly from the SWANA region (Southwest Asia and North Africa), where my father is from,” Rezvani explains. “We sell to two small seed companies — Experimental Farm Network and True Love Seeds — and a few other people.”
As these young farms get started, a big part of the farmers’ focus is on preparing for climate change and all its repercussions. Among them, the toll of increasingly extreme and erratic weather has already left an impression.
“I was responsible for a farm in a very vulnerable place in New Orleans,” recalls Bullock. “Hurricanes came, everyone I loved evacuated, and I had to stay for our animals.”
Read the complete article here.