Boundless Farmstead

If you have like 7 minutes, please give this a listen. I hate seeing and hearing myself 😅, but I wanted to talk directly to you. The Fill All Pantries fundraiser is as near and dear to me as the Fill Your Pantry event.

Please help us raise funds to feed our community!

My name is Grace and this is my second year at Boundless. Here are some rambles of how I came to be a part of this awesome group of people.
I was born and raised in California’s Central Valley, where summer meant heat rising straight off the pavement and drought was simply part of the landscape. My nana moved to Bend in the ’70s, so some of my earliest memories are of visiting her here, learning that there were places where the air smelled like pine and the mountains felt close enough to touch.
When I graduated from undergrad with $42 to my name and absolutely no idea what I was doing next, I moved in with her.

I fell hard for Oregon. For the lush greens of the Willamette Valley. For moss. For the constant rain I had spent my childhood wishing California would receive. But somewhere in all that green, I found myself missing the browns I had grown up with. Missing the crackling heat. Missing the strange beauty of a landscape that could look so unforgiving and still manage to make a life.
The contrast.
As a kid, I was loud and wacky and perpetually lost in some elaborate imaginary world. I could spin a story faster than an adult could tell me to stop talking and eat my dinner. I was always ready to be silly, always making something up, always looking for the next little adventure.

Then I worked in wildland fire, where I learned how to be quiet, stoic, and tough. Fire gave me an enormous love for wild places. There was something sacred about hiking into country where human feet had never been, about seeing a landscape without roads or buildings or anything telling you what it was supposed to be.
But eventually I started wondering whether I was loving wild places in the way they needed to be loved. Sometimes it felt like I was leaving more footprints than I wanted to.
I needed something gentler.

I stumbled into Boundless through a friend of a friend who listened to me complain about my life and then handed me a solution.
And somehow, I ended up here.
This is my second year at Boundless, and it has taught me to look at food very differently. I grew up in a big family in a suburban neighborhood, pretty disconnected from where our food came from. I wanted to start

Hi! My name is McKenzie, and this is my second season at Boundless. Before working here, I spent many years working as an environmental consultant. It was meaningful work, sure, but eventually I found myself feeling like a cog in a machine—endlessly burnt out and wondering if this was going to be my life.

At Boundless, I haven’t felt that way once. Yes, my body is perpetually exhausted, but I have never felt burnt out. Going somewhere every day where you can see the fruits (or veggies🤪) of your labor, while being surrounded by an amazing group of people, completely nourishes my soul.

Before Boundless, I thought I had my life figured out. I thought the endless cycle of 9–5 was going to be the rest of my life. Working on the farm completely changed the way I see my life. I’ve realized there is no finality to the growth you can experience. If you feel stuck, you can change it. There is always another adventure around the corner.

I’m originally from Anchorage, Alaska, and wide-open nature will always feel like home to me. I have a golden retriever/chow mix who has been through everything with me as an adult and continues to be my favorite adventure buddy.

I also have a 1989 Micro Warrior Winnebago that was my home for three years and is now reserved for weekend adventures. I love all sorts of crafts, from sewing my own clothes to making my own jewelry. Nature is my safe space, and I spend as much time in it as I can—or protecting it.

I’ve spent many weekends camping, hiking, backpacking, and kayaking. I love to cook, and my favorite meal is homemade curry ramen. 🍜 Traveling has always been a huge part of my life, and I dream of eventually visiting every continent.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for updates from the farm throughout the week! 🥕

Hey it’s Ali or as my hometown friends and my dad would call me, Gator!
My strengths are potatoes and cake!
My weaknesses hammers and twine, maybe that’s butt backwards but for me it’s as accurate as it gets!

This is my 5th season at Boundless and 6th season farming, the first being on an apprentice farm called Horton Road Organics near Eugene in the Willamette Valley. To be honest I’m a lifer, what does that mean…Megan and David can’t get rid of me. I’m in it for the long haul, they’re my family!

Farming has become one of the most important parts of my life, it’s pretty much my identity at this point. I give to it and it gives to me. I feed it and it feeds me. It’s given me life, in the form of community, nourishment, laughter, growth.

On any day, I’m as grounded as a root beneath the surface or my bike’s tire tread on a trail. I often dream of Jupiter, its moons and the neighboring wormhole in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The both I am covered in dust and gifted balance. I am Foolery, Tomfoolery and I kneel (weeding in the dirt) like Armstrong. I’m full of infinite depth yet as simple and straightforward as it gets…

I think one of my favorite parts of life is that I found what I love and I love that I wake up everyday excited to go to work, even when I’m tired I am so so so happy I get to go to the farm. I’ll bask in the sun, frolic in the flowers, joke with the crew and sniff out treats with Scout and Ozlo (the farm dogs) any day!!!!

Coming to ya live this week on Boundless’ insta stories, Ali’s POV!

Introduction to Sarah - 3rd year Boundless crew member

My name is Sarah and I’m proud to introduce myself as the version Sarah who farms, because this is by far the happiest, most fulfilled version of myself to date. 3 years in and I still pinch myself that this is my job when I catch a moment of silence harvesting herbs, laugh until I cry weeding carrots with the crew or witness the beautiful abnormalities of nature (like the 5 legged frog we saw last week) and realize it’s just another day at work.

I have always felt a very strong connection to earth and my guiding star in my spirituality is the belief that we are nature’s chance to experience itself. I believe my purpose here is to appreciate the beauty and power of earth and bear witness to her magic. Farming has been such a practice of noticing natures signals and relinquishing control to the cycles of the year. I can now say I truly love each season when it used to be strictly summer or bust for me!

Outside of work you’ll find me… honestly probably spending even more time outside - on my paddle board, on a trail or on a blanket at a park with a good book. I also try to get into the yoga studio as much as possible. At home, one of my daily pleasures is my morning coffee on the couch with my sweet husband Curtis, kitties Oia and Oslo and the newest addition to the family, Ruby the rescue pup.

Eugene was home for nearly all my life before moving to Bend on somewhat of a whim. While I do miss the ferns and moss and soft light of an overcast sky, Bend immediately felt like home.💙

Catch me on the Boundless Farmstead stories doing an IG takeover this week showing what it’s like working on my favorite 20 acres in central Oregon!

Re-introduction to David-

I met David near the middle of his 27th year on this earth, but I am told he grew up on the edge of a lake in the clean cold Alaska air, choosing to spend many of his moments in the quiet solitude of a dock. Just a boy with his pole and his patience and his perseverance.

David has an air of someone who grew up in wild, wide-open spaces; untameable in nature, an unquenchable desire to roam, and a growing catalog of skills, identification, and mental maps.

When David is not farming or physically exploring the natural world, he is pouring over maps, exploring the terrain with his mind. He is honing his archery skills or turkey calls. He is fermenting vegetables, making hot sauce, or doing a ridiculously large canning project with me. Or in slower days, he is reading a fantasy novel, playing chess, or (secretly and occasionally) watching sports with friends.

Ive never met a man who has such firm beliefs and such a sturdy moral foundation, yet possesses a gentle loving heart and soft underbelly. At his core, he wants to do good on this earth, which used to look bigger and louder like protesting and rallying and organizing, and now looks more intimate like helping individuals, feeding people, listening to Mother Earth, and being a dependable foundation to all around him.

As his wife, some of my favorite things about him-

💚He will always find and revel in the magic of the universe- cooing over a nest of eggs, wondering over wildflowers and insects, watching every sun rise and sunset.
💚 His love is never hidden or mysterious. I know every moment that he loves me fully.
💚He will challenge you to be your best self everyday, yet give you grace when all you have in you is "trying"
💚With David, anything is possible with enough research, thought, hardwork, and trust.

A reintroduction-

My name is Megan and here is a little backstory:

A two-acre field of wild daisies was the foundation of my life. Grass stains my medium on a canvas of secondhand denim. The entire mossy, dripping, green world my muse.

I used to pull each individual petal from the white clover, place it in between pursed lips, and suck the tiniest sweet nectar off each end. To jump from one puff ball to the next playing hopscotch under ancient oaks. To sit for hours with my sister cracking the ends off green beans for my mother to can for winter nourishment.

I went from a little girl who refused to wear dresses, was too squeamish to hold an earth worm (so I carried them on leaves to neighboring tortoises) and was deemed "Motor Mouth" because of my love to explore the world verbally. To now, a grown ass woman, who loves to wear dresses (but usually wears canvas pants), will field dress a deer or skin a rabbit, and still talks a bit too much, but loves to listen a whole lot more.

I've kept my head down most of my life. Not metaphorically, but literally. As there is so much to explore within the length of each step. And I've never been one to travel much because there is so much wonder just at the end of my fingertips, begging to be questioned, discovered, observed, sought.

I was born in the high desert of Oregon, spent my childhood in the lush wet fields and forests of the Willamette Valley, returned to the high desert for my adolescence, back again to the Valley for college, and like a lava rock magnet, was pulled back over the Cascades to my high desert home.

The high desert is the place where my roots tap deeply, as most here must. For if they do not, if one's roots lie shallow and short, one will surely shrivel up and disappear in this harsh land. Blown away in the constant mountain wind. Sucked dry by long drought. Left alone, unentangled in another's roots for the cold harsh winter.

I think I was put on this earth to pull and lengthen and stretch and grow and tend other's roots. To help them sink with vigor and love into the earth, into their foundation, into their life source. To remember what it is to feel and live deeply.

Just wanted to give a shout out to all our partners/buyers! These folks are dedicated to buying from us weekly (or twice weekly), often times even through the winter when all we have is carrots, daikons, and parsnips. These restaurant and grocery accounts are the backbone of our business and we are so grateful to them! Thank you to all of our value-added and bakery partners- often times these folks are really going the extra mile to support us (like buying edible flowers just to use on Leaven & Love cookies or our veggies to use on tim currie & family focaccia)

(Honorable mentions to Chef Betsy McDonald & Chef Jaclyn Perez Worthy Brewing Co. and Ken's Artisan Bakery & Pizza who buy from us fairly often)

If you want to support local agricultural and the local food system, these are the places to do it.

Farmer/Rancher friends, give a shout below in the comments if you want the community to know about another big local food supporter of yours!

(Part 2) Drought: Boundless Farmstead resides in the Central Oregon Irrigation District (COID) and has senior water rights. We are in one of the most secure irrigation districts in Central Oregon, and yet, we are already starting to see water curtailment due to drought (down to 70%). Fortunatley, David and I installed a very efficient irrigation system from the beginning, and have been working on building organic matter in the soil for the last nine years. We are still in a very favorable situation and can operate fairly well down to 50% allotment. Our peers in junior rights districts cannot say the same. Some districts have been cut-off, some have a cut-off date looming. Our friend Sarahlee. who owns and farms Rainshadow Organics, recently took out over $200,000 in loans to drill a conditional use agricultural well, because her irrigation water was projected to shut off in late July/early August. She tells me she is currently at 20% allotment and dropping, and is still in the last stages of having her emergency well up and running. 

These are the times where we need our community to continue showing up for us. Not just out of fear of "explosive diarrhea", but out of fear that if you do not come to market, do not eat local food consistently, we will stop existing. When there are no local farms left, the next time something bad happens in the national food system, you will have no one to run to. 

We hope you will continue to mask up and attend markets, go out of your way to buy local food, help your elderly neighbors pick-up their CSAs and market hauls. And just remember, this is nature's medicine and defense against smoke and stress- antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins found in fresh, nutrient-dense foods. 

What you eat matters.

(Part 1) The fragility of the national food system has been illuminated, for the umpteenth time, by Cyclospora outbreak. Once again, showing how the concentration of food growing and processing to a few ultra large farms and companies creates huge problems rapidly. When these problems do arise (as inevitably they do at least once, if not more often, per year), they leave eaters scared, confused, and vulnerable. We saw it during Covid, we continue to see it during large storms and heat waves, we have seen in because of ICE raids, we saw it during the last food-borne illness outbreak. So, why do we continue building a food system created on such a weak and fragile foundation? Why do we continue supporting such a disaster with our food-buying dollars?

During each of these national food system shattering events, local farms (ourselves included) see an influx of customers that come in like a storm and gradually trickle away. In some ways, it brings me excitement, like maybe we are all starting to understand the importance of local food systems over national food systems, human scale over industrial scale, humanitarian over oppressive, regenerative over extractive. Then, as folks fade away, I feel a wave of grief and confusion. I feel an anger over being exploited. To me, the local food system is all about the community and the relationships. To me, it is about working together to create a healthier place and healthier people. When people come and go so quickly and thoughtlessly, my heart aches. 

And now, we reach a point of vulnerability in our own local food system- wildfires, smoke, and drought.

Wildires and Smoke: We are currently surrounded by wildfires and the smoke drifts in and out depending on the wind. So far, Central Oregon has been fairly lucky as our AQI remains low. Farmers will continue working outside regardless of the smoke, regardless of the heat, and the vegetables will continue growing. We will continue to harvest these vegetables and bring them to market, to Locavore, to our restaraunts. And if there is no one there to eat them, they will rot, compost, and thus our savings and bank accounts.