The Biden Administration recently announced that roughly $2 million in grants have been awarded to nine Montana small businesses and agricultural producers to help expand markets and create economic opportunities in rural areas.
One of those receiving the money is the County Rail Farm in Huson.
"We grow organic and organically grown vegetables and flowers mainly in Montana but also a little bit into Washington and Idaho," one County Rail Farms owner, Tracy Potter Fins, explained. "But primarily for Montana markets, we grow for wholesale and retail, so we do the Western Montana Growers Co-op, and we sell through the Clark Fork Market downtown. And we saw through a wholesale flower distributor as well called Farm to Florist Montana."
"We were really excited to be awarded funding through the rural producer program grant program federally run by the USDA, and we were awarded funding for our organic produce and flowers, so value-added meaning that it's organic, so it has more value in the markets — and we are awarded specifically for our vegetable programs, which is all organic. So, we grow tomatoes, garlic, and arugula primarily in that program," Fins continued. "And we were awarded to expand our market into high-end wedding flowers. So wedding flowers that are organic and local, rather than shipped in."
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