Big things are happening at Rustic Roots Farm! After purchasing new land in June 2025, we're building our future farm from scratch. To meet our goal of farming full-time on our new land by 2027 and build on 13 years of momentum, we are asking our community (and probably even strangers from afar!) to invest in our farm's growth.

This fundraising campaign has a very large financial goal, $100,000 in donations. Our plan to get there is to find 4000 people willing to donate $25. Finding 4000 donors is also a big goal, but we are optimistic that we can reach our goals! Will you be one of the 4000 people we need to help us build our new farm?

We are so excited about our long-term plans for the future of Rustic Roots Farm. Our new land will allow us to increase our crop production area from about 2-ish acres to 4 acres. We will also be building a barn-like structure (in the veggie biz we call it a wash/pack building) where we will wash, process, refrigerate, store, and distribute our vegetables. We can’t wait for the day when we have a metal roof over our head with insulated walls! We will be increasing from three high tunnels to six high tunnels, and we will have one heated structure to support our seedling growing needs. Our new land will also allow us to have a proper farm stand to sell vegetables, with plenty of parking. We are also dreaming and scheming so many other plans to bring more food to our community AND bring our community to the farm. 🥬 🍅 🥒 🍆 🥕 🌶

We know that these long-term plans are as ambitious as our fundraising goal. As we have developed these plans over the past year and a half the number 25 kept coming up a lot! We purchased this land in 2025, we anticipate farming for 25 more years (that puts Erica at 67 years old and Dave at 73 years old!), and we kept landing on $25 as the ask we wanted to make to the public for donations. So, will you be one of the 4000 people in 2025 that gives us $25 so we can keep farming for 25 more years?

Our plan for the $100,000 is as follows:

$40,000 Electric Costs- this is the cost to install electricity at the new field which will include setting new electric poles, powering our wash/pack building, powering our high tunnels, powering our well, and whatever else we need to power up!
$10,000 Deer Fence- this is the cost for the materials to fence in four acres of vegetable fields so we can be free from deer pressure. We anticipate doing all of the installation ourselves.
$20,000 Septic Field - blah, necessary but not a fun or fancy piece of infrastructure
$30,000 Concrete Pad - this is the cost to pour a concrete pad for a 1200 square foot building that will be our wash/pack building.

Once we get these core pieces of infrastructure in place, we will feel confident we can really dig in and start producing at full capacity. We anticipate getting a building loan in 2027 0r 2028 to actually build the wash/pack facility on top of the concrete pad that we are having poured. We anticipate a loan in the amount of $150,000 to make all our building and infrustructure plans come to fruition. This crowd fundraiser is vital in keeping us on track to relocate our farm and give us a good foundation (literally!) for a large building project in a few years.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story, consider our plans, and we hope you feel compelled to donate and help us keep farming in Farmington and for our surrounding communities in Franklin County!

Sincerely,
Erica and Dave

Support Rustic Roots Farm as we put down new roots!

By Rustic Roots Farm

Support Rustic Roots Farm as we put down new roots!

Can you give $25 so we can start farming on our new land?

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