Canvas Ranch Archives - Positively Petaluma

Petaluma’s Canvas Ranch Awarded Grant

On April 26, The FruitGuys Community Fund, a non-profit that supports small family farms will announce Canvas Ranch as a winner of the 2016 FruitGuys Community Fund Sustainable Agriculture Grant Program. Canvas Ranch is a 28-acre family farm that produces vegetables, fruit, grains and wool.

The funds from the grant will allow them to purchase a grain dehuller to provide dehullling services to local grain producers. This essential piece of equipment doesn’t exist in the area. Grains are a key crop for small farm diversification and sustainability as over-wintering maintains water-holding capacity in soils. Crop rotation helps control pests and disease, and increases soil biodiversity.

The FruitGuys Community Fund is committed to supporting small farmers across the U.S. who are the catalysts for environmental and economic sufficiency, sustainability, food safety and food access. This year’s group of applicants was the largest and most diverse to date, with submissions and farming project proposals from all across the US.

From their website:

Canvas Ranch is a 28-acre family farm in Petaluma, CA, started by Deborah Walton and Tim Schaible. Together they produce vegetables, fruit, grains, and wool. Deborah also started a nonprofit, the North Coast Heritage Grain Alliance, to support small farmers pursuing alternative and rotational grain crops for food, beer, and spirits-making. Their $2,500 grant will allow them to purchase a grain dehuller to provide dehulling services to local grain producers. No one in the area owns this essential piece of equipment. Grains are a key crop for small-farm diversification and sustainability: overwintering maintains soils’ water-holding capacity, and crop rotation helps control pests and diseases and increases soil biodiversity.

Petaluma, California: Local Farms Featured in KRCB’s North Bay Bountiful

KRCB, North Bay Public Media, is running a segment called North Bay Bountiful. From their website:

“Cultivate. Celebrate. Connect. The San Francisco North Bay area enjoys an incredible bounty of resources—both natural and creative—that enrich all our lives. Our land and seascapes offer breathtaking vistas while also serving as the source of an amazing variety of food and products. There is a pervasive sense of appreciation and connectedness around this bounty, and ample evidence that residents care deeply about optimizing and preserving it. Our arts and culture reflect a joyous recognition of all that lives and grows and sustains us here—body and soul. We share a common mindfulness of just how precious and precarious our resources are.”

As part of this special focus, we were pleased to find several Petaluma, California farms featured in this great series. We are happy to share them on our site.

Tara Firma Farms

For more information about Tara Firma Farms see our previous post: #Petaluma’s Tara Firma Farms Connects With The Community

From KRCB YouTube Description: “‘Grow the mind to grow the soil, to grow food that strengthens the community.’ That is the mantra of Tara Smith of Tara Firma Farms in Petaluma, California. Thanks to Farm Shorts. More info at : http:///www.northbaybountiful.org“

CLICK HERE OR PAGE 2 BELOW TO SEE CANVAS RANCH

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From Marketing Executive to #Petaluma Farmer: Deborah Walton created Canvas Ranch

When you hear about the Walton’s on a ranch, you can’t help to think about the American Television show ‘The Little House on The Prairie.’ But these Walton’s are not from Spencer’s Mountain or Simi Valley. Deborah is a native to Mill Valley who replanted with husband Tim, an artist, in the Two Rock Valley.

I had the pleasure of meeting Deborah at Graffiti Restaurant one night while listening to Peter Welker’s Jazz Sextet on the Petaluma Riverfront. Deborah is a former marketing executive for Santa Rosa Junior College and Bodega Land Trust. Besides ranching she still helps a non-profit Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa with marketing communications.

One way she creates luck for herself is to read the classified ads (today for her it is craigslist). She found a three line ad with a piece of property on it…and she said “Oh my god, it’s actually affordable and it was right around the corner from where we were currently renting” Tim was in New York at the time and she called him up and said “Hi honey. I bought a farm.”

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