Change has no constituency.

Those words, from an author 500 years ago, have been running through my mind on a constant loop for the last month as I have been working on a solution to losing the USDA based grant funding for our farm. This funding was earmarked for sustainable projects exactly like ours. I was so excited and grateful to get it despite the more than a year I had to wait for it. But then all of the sudden it was gone with a single email.

One email. No explanations. It was formally, officially, awarded to us; then cancelled. Just gone.

Over $300 thousand gone.

I've spent the last month doing chores while looking for new sources of funding and coming up blank. And when my depression gets too strong, I would take walks through our woods and orchards. Trying to remind myself why I'm doing this.

It was on one of those walks that I noticed the earth beneath my feet was bone dry in February. Every step I took sent up puffs of dust until the legs of my pants were dust covered to the knees.

That's when it was burned into me: I have no choice. I need to make up the lost grant money fast. We need to keep our work moving forward because climate change is working faster than we realize.

So here I am online asking any allies we have to donate what you can so we can replace the funding and expand our breeding material.

We need to get this planting in the ground fast, because I worry that we won't have time to wait for the funding to reappear. We need to get this new breeding material growing so we can get plantings established that can withstand climate change and the climate chaos that will come with it. We need crops to feed our cities.

Here is my ask...

Help me raise 1/3 of the lost funds so I can get moving on the expansion of our genetics.

First we will protect and secure the farm land for future generations.

Our plan is to plant 14 acres of hazels and chestnuts from the top 10% of our breeding material. That will be 10000 plants which cost an average of $30 per plant to establish according to the vanished grant experts

.

Your money will go to this goal.

Please help us raise the funds to keep our work moving forward.