the second year we built the milk parlor, and in the third we built
the creamery and began making cheese. For a lot of good reasons we
probably should have thrown in the towel years ago, but we're more
than a little stubborn I guess," Turnbull adds, laughing.
Today the couple has 160 sheep and the farm sells its artisanal
cream cheese spreads, natural cream cheese, fresh sheep milk cheese
and blue cheeses, to retail stores primarily throughout the West.
The company's award-winning Willapa Hills natural-rind blue
cheeses are also found in restaurants and cheese shops in New York.
(The Willapa Hills Big Boy Blue won first place at the American
Cheese Society in 2012.) In early 2014, they will launch a new hard
cheese inspired by Pecorino Romano that is to be called Ewe Old
Cow for its mixed foundation of sheep's and cow's milk.
Even though the journey has been challenging, the couple is
committed to their efforts. "It's worth it. We love what we're doing.
It's purposeful," explains Turnbull. "We want nothing more than
to stay in farming and share the experience with our children and
invite them to be involved. A core value for us is to include our kids
in all we do. They see the seasons, the ewes lambing, the cycle of life.
We love being outside."
A New Model
Turnbull is part of a trend—some call it a movement—of growth in
smaller and organic farms that some predict will change the business
model of American farming. This wave, a small but perceptible one,
is building on the increased interest in local foods. Since the 1970s,
large farms with 500 acres or more have been swallowing up small
and mid-size operations, producing more and more food, according
to the USDA. But the last Agriculture Census in 2007 (the 2012
census is not yet published) found a 4 percent increase in the number
of smaller farms, marking the first increase in the numbers of any
farms since the Great Depression.
These statistics support what industry insiders are seeing—a
rise in smaller, sustainable farms. One reason is that people are
increasingly seeking out produce grown with fewer or no pesticides
in their own communities and livestock and poultry raised without
growth hormones and killed humanely. In 2012, the USDA tallied
7,864 farmers markets, a 9.6 percent increase from the previous
year, and its most recent data estimated that direct-to-consumer
sales exceed $7 billion annually.
The Influence of Slow Money
One of the biggest drivers in this movement is the Slow Money
Alliance, founded in Boulder, Colo., in 2009 by Woody Tasch, a
venture capitalist who was chairman for ten years of Investors Circle, a
nonprofit network of investors and foundations dedicated to sustainability. Tasch is also the author of the book Inquiries into the Nature of
Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered (Chelsea
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PHOTO: WILLAPA HILLS
natural selections
"We want nothing more than to
stay in farming and share the
experience with our children.
They see the seasons, the ewes
lambing, the cycle of life."
Green, 2010). Over the past several years, Tasch has crisscrossed the
country on a book tour, sharing his ideas at conferences, universities,
co-op grocery stores, bookstores and even a grange hall.
Since 2009, Slow Money has helped channel $30 million to
210 food businesses nationwide, including farms, grain mills, local
processing and distribution companies and farmers markets, says
Jake Bornstein, a Slow Money senior associate. The national office
is lean, as Tasch has spoken of purposefully wanting to foster strong
regional chapters and keep the national office in a support role.
The organization hosts annual national gatherings (the last one in
April brought a crowd of 650 to Boulder) and initiates programs
like the Earthworm Angels investment group and, later this fall,
Gatheround, a new crowdfunding platform for food enterprises.
Around the country are 16 state chapters (plus one in France),
each with its own regional approach and personality. Slow Money
Northwest's website is chock-full of innovative projects, such as its
Farmer Reserve Fund that helps farmers receive microcredit. The
Willapa Hills farmers received a $6,000 low-interest loan to buy
equipment, including a 600-gallon vat, which enables them to make
as much cheese in one day as they previously could in a week.
The vibrant North Carolina chapter has helped channel
$750,000 in small loans to some 80 food businesses, including funding for Massey Creek Farms, north of Greensboro, to expand its
sustainably grown and grass-fed livestock. Slow Money Maine has
channeled about $3.6 million in loans and donations to food enterprises; $450,000 went to Maine Farmland Trust to fund a bridge
loan protecting Rokes Egg Farm in Camden. And its No Small
