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Among the 24 people who are taking Jefferson Economic Development Institute’s current “It’s Your Business” class are entrepreneur hopefuls with ideas such as Community Supported Agriculture, saddle making, cooking school and catering, an audio/visual enterprise, and property management.
Renee Casterline, whose family has been in the county for five generations, is working on a business called Fancy Free Farms. She sees a future in Community Supported Agriculture, which matches investors and local farmers to grow crops and keep the vegetable supply local.
Casterline’s idea is that she would farm on her parent’s land and individuals in the community would buy shares in the form of a commitment to buy a certain amount of her product for a certain amount of time.
“You might buy a weekly basket of produce for a set period of time,” Casterline said in describing her plan for a CSA. “The farm promises that customers will get whatever is fresh and ripe that week. You don’t know what you’re getting until that week, and what you get changes as the season changes. You show up at a distribution center and get your food... you can pay for it all in advance or make a downpayment and then make payments.”
The CSA model has been around for quite a few years, Casterline said, but has yet to make it into the mainstream.
“It’s a way of getting financial support for a farm and committing to provide food,” she said. “... The guiding idea is a commitment partnership between the eater – the client – and the farmer.”
Casterline said she has a strong desire to farm and it was while she and her parents were in the waiting room before her mother received her cancer diagnosis that they all decided it would be good for Renee to farm on the family’s land.
“It’s a pull for me to return to the place my family has been invested in,” she said. “CSA is a model for me to be able to farm and have some minor measure of security. My dad farmed, and I saw how many things can go wrong. The CSA makes it more of a community effort. People who buy shares can work on the farm, but they’re investing and recognizing that things could go wrong. They’re willing to invest in local foods.”
Casterline said the CSA model is a way to be more connected to your food source. “I can grow this food for you, and you know where it comes from; you can walk the row, you can pull a carrot... That’s part of the dream. This year it’s going to be smaller than I want, but I’m going to start it.”
Gerry Silva, a retired resident of Etna, is taking on a second career as a saddle maker. Silva works part time and just sold his first saddle. “This doesn’t require a lot of money, and I am lining up some more clients,” he said. Silva is also mentoring others, which is a good way to pass along skills and keep business going. “It’s great when someone has a talent to pass it along,” he said.
Elizabeth Keane recently moved to Mount Shasta from the San Francisco Bay Area and is working towards having a cooking school and catering business. She said she wants to be active in the community, too. “This is a place to grow and do what I love to do,” Keane said.
Will Pool, who is looking towards getting his audio/video business up and running, said, “I’ve done videos for bellydancers, musicians and there are a lot of things you can do with video.”
Sometimes being alert to social trends and being agile enough to move on them can launch a new enterprise. Jessica Murr saw an opportunity in real estate and is moving on it quickly. By this summer she hopes to have her company, Platinum Property Management, off the ground. Her idea is to pair people who are losing their home with people who were speculating in real estate when the real estate bubble burst and now have empty homes they need to rent but live too far away to do it themselves. She is concentrating her efforts in Lake Shastina where, she says, there are in the neighborhood of 500 empty homes and between 100 and 200 of them are in the foreclosure cycle.
“I’m adapting to fit a need. This is a way to help people solve a problem and I want to fill that need for them,” Murr said. She is quick to credit JEDI with helping her with the organizational and structural aspects of business. “I have had six or seven classes with JEDI and it’s made a big difference.”
Among the 24 people who are taking Jefferson Economic Development Institute’s current “It’s Your Business” class are entrepreneur hopefuls with ideas such as Community Supported Agriculture, saddle making, cooking school and catering, an audio/visual enterprise, and property management.
Renee Casterline, whose family has been in the county for five generations, is working on a business called Fancy Free Farms. She sees a future in Community Supported Agriculture, which matches investors and local farmers to grow crops and keep the vegetable supply local.
Casterline’s idea is that she would farm on her parent’s land and individuals in the community would buy shares in the form of a commitment to buy a certain amount of her product for a certain amount of time.
“You might buy a weekly basket of produce for a set period of time,” Casterline said in describing her plan for a CSA. “The farm promises that customers will get whatever is fresh and ripe that week. You don’t know what you’re getting until that week, and what you get changes as the season changes. You show up at a distribution center and get your food... you can pay for it all in advance or make a downpayment and then make payments.”
The CSA model has been around for quite a few years, Casterline said, but has yet to make it into the mainstream.
“It’s a way of getting financial support for a farm and committing to provide food,” she said. “... The guiding idea is a commitment partnership between the eater – the client – and the farmer.”
Casterline said she has a strong desire to farm and it was while she and her parents were in the waiting room before her mother received her cancer diagnosis that they all decided it would be good for Renee to farm on the family’s land.
“It’s a pull for me to return to the place my family has been invested in,” she said. “CSA is a model for me to be able to farm and have some minor measure of security. My dad farmed, and I saw how many things can go wrong. The CSA makes it more of a community effort. People who buy shares can work on the farm, but they’re investing and recognizing that things could go wrong. They’re willing to invest in local foods.”
Casterline said the CSA model is a way to be more connected to your food source. “I can grow this food for you, and you know where it comes from; you can walk the row, you can pull a carrot... That’s part of the dream. This year it’s going to be smaller than I want, but I’m going to start it.”
Gerry Silva, a retired resident of Etna, is taking on a second career as a saddle maker. Silva works part time and just sold his first saddle. “This doesn’t require a lot of money, and I am lining up some more clients,” he said. Silva is also mentoring others, which is a good way to pass along skills and keep business going. “It’s great when someone has a talent to pass it along,” he said.
Elizabeth Keane recently moved to Mount Shasta from the San Francisco Bay Area and is working towards having a cooking school and catering business. She said she wants to be active in the community, too. “This is a place to grow and do what I love to do,” Keane said.
Will Pool, who is looking towards getting his audio/video business up and running, said, “I’ve done videos for bellydancers, musicians and there are a lot of things you can do with video.”
Sometimes being alert to social trends and being agile enough to move on them can launch a new enterprise. Jessica Murr saw an opportunity in real estate and is moving on it quickly. By this summer she hopes to have her company, Platinum Property Management, off the ground. Her idea is to pair people who are losing their home with people who were speculating in real estate when the real estate bubble burst and now have empty homes they need to rent but live too far away to do it themselves. She is concentrating her efforts in Lake Shastina where, she says, there are in the neighborhood of 500 empty homes and between 100 and 200 of them are in the foreclosure cycle.
“I’m adapting to fit a need. This is a way to help people solve a problem and I want to fill that need for them,” Murr said. She is quick to credit JEDI with helping her with the organizational and structural aspects of business. “I have had six or seven classes with JEDI and it’s made a big difference.”
