With "soil" much closer to beach sand than a crumbly fertile loam, this five acre lot sitting in wind-swept Washoe Valley was an unconventional place to start a farm. The only roots growing here were the metaphorical kind.

Garrett’s parents purchased this sagebrush-covered lot in 1993, and proceeded to build a home and raise a family. A love for horses, and a passion for rodeo, were at the center of it all. Tractors leveled a pad, panels went up, and horse and cow hooves pounded the sandy soil for the better part of fifteen years. But as the kids grew up and moved on, rodeo faded into the past, and the worn-out arena sat empty.

Half a decade later, one of those kids was back close to home, and pondering how to incorporate farming into the next chapter of his life. That flat piece of family land seemed like an important piece of the puzzle. There was just one glaring challenge. The fertility of that "soil".

Some things about a farm you can influence. Some things you can't. With folks like Gabe Brown, and organizations like Kiss the Ground, trumpeting the ancient horn of regenerative agriculture, it seemed "soil fertility" might fall squarely into the former category. Cautiously optimistic, we broke ground at Ripcord in Fall of 2021.