Gorilla Greens: Grow racks and germination room expansion

Gorilla Greens is a microgreens business in Bend and had a two-part project. In the first half of the project, the owner expanded and made their germination room to be more streamlined and efficient. This reduced water consumption by 50%. The second part of this project consisted of the purchase of new growing racks. Due to both of these changes, the business is now ready to acquire new wholesale accounts and continue to grow.

Fibonacci Farm: Heated greenhouse equipment

Fibonacci Farm grows for direct-to-consumer sales. Their project was to purchase and install a propane heater in one of their 70ft x 40ft greenhouses to extend the front end of their season. Last year, they did not have tomatoes until the third week of August. This year, because of the heated greenhouse they were able to bring tomatoes to market on the last week of June – eight weeks earlier than in 2022.

SunLife Farm & Ranch: ASP Composting System

SunLife Farm & Ranch is currently working toward the final installation of their ASP composting system. Due to delays with their contractor, this project is still in progress, but they hope to have it running this winter.

While we await final project photos, the photo featured here was taken by Cody Roux Media at SunLife Farm & Ranch’s lavender field.

Lazy Z Ranch: Fructose pump and trailer

Lazy Z Ranch purchased a trailer and syrup pump setup to be able to better distribute feed to their apiary when natural forage is lacking.  Previously, sugar syrup was mixed by hand and transferred to 1 gallon jugs;  many hundreds of gallons per season were distributed by hand.  Because of this grant, they were able to get the trailer, a pump, and a tote of syrup to park at the apiary and feed the bees SO easily. This has led to saved time, energy, and efficiency in getting their bees’ needs met.

DD Ranch: Pivot irrigation system

DD Ranchidentified a 3-acre plot of land that was difficult to irrigate. Through this grant, they were able to supplement an NRCS grant to install a center pivot irrigation system. The NRCS grant only covered 47% of the price of the pivot itself, not including labor and excavation; the OFEG covers a small amount of the equipment and piping for the system. It will be used to irrigate this land to grow forage for their animals.

Wild Grown Farm: Greenhouse irrigation system upgrade and heated printer

Wild Grown Farm in Redmond had two main focuses: 1. irrigation and energy upgrades to their greenhouse system and 2. a printer for plant labels. They fixed the wiring in their greenhouse; installed capillary mats to soak plants from below, generate humidity in the greenhouse, and provide insulation in the early spring; and installed an irrigation control system and timer that can be operated via a phone app. After completing this project, they decided to use the remaining grant funds to purchase a thermal printing label maker, which they use to price and label their plants instead of hand-writing all labels.

Mahonia Gardens: Hoop house

Mahonia Gardens grows produce in Sisters on their small vegetable farm. With the short Central Oregon growing season, a grower can never have enough frost-protected and season-extending growing space. The addition of this “gothic-style” hoop-house and overhead irrigation kit, which was a relatively easy build, added another season extension system to their repertoire. This season they planted tomatoes, broccolini, early kale, and carrots in this particular hoop house.

Hive & Pine Farm, LLC: Mechanized seeder and starter kit

This project was focused on bringing efficiency to the seeding/germination and transplantation of vegetable starts at Hive and Pine Farm LLC, near Sisters. The farmer, Thomas, has begun a seed trial to  “demonstrate the efficacy of the equipment to heighten production while also reducing labor inputs, making for an overall more efficient operation and higher productivity of food.” We are excited to hear more about the specific improvements that this equipment will make!

In Cahoots: Apple processing equipment

In Cahoots Heirloom Apple Collaborative grows heirloom and rare varieties of apples in Terrebonne. They also work with other local apple growers to supplement their supply in order to sell at a more competitive wholesale scale. Through this project, they purchased a state of the art fruit processing equipment, including a fruit grinder and apple press. They will be working with a local processor to create cider to sell as a value-added product.