County Rail Farm + Field Five Flowers is located in Huson, MT, just west of Missoula. The two acre vegetable operation, County Rail Farm, has been running since 2011 by Tracy Potter-Fins, a queer farmer who likes a good dance party and cooking for friends & family. Field Five Flowers is run by Bethany Stanbery, a queer artist, metalsmith, and designer. Field Five encompasses not only field five but also many other areas of the farm since 2020!
Tracy grew up in Moscow, Idaho and went to college in New York state, where she farmed for three summers after traveling abroad and working on small organic farms in Europe. She has worked as a beekeeper, sheep shearer, and baker (but her favorite job is being Mama T).
Bethany (aka Mama B) grew up in Helena, Montana and has excelled at various careers including as a professional ballerina, aerialist, and restaurant manager. She makes one of a kind hand fabricated jewelry in the winter (and sometimes summer months) and is a full time flower farmer and designer in the summer months – Field Five Flowers. See her jewelry work at www.thegildedmuse.com
Imogen is 1 and loves to run, read books in the morning, chase Nibs the dog, taste dirt, and tear apart flower arrangements.
County Rail was founded by Tracy and Elliott-Margaret DeBona (ie @smalltimeshirt / Small Time Shirt) in Dixon, MT. Tracy and Elliott met in New York state while working at Hearty Roots Farm, a large CSA delivering to the Hudson Valley and New York City, and moved to Montana in 2011.
We are so thankful for all the support we’ve received from our great friends, members, and the farming community. After 6 wonderful years leasing land in Dixon, MT County Rail now has a permanent home on 10 acres in Huson, just west of Missoula. This is traditional land of the Bitterroot Salish (Selis), Pend d’Oreille (Qlispe), Nez Perce (Nimiipuu), Coeur d’Alene (Skitswish), Ksanka and Ktunaxa peoples, and we actively acknowledge and work to make reparations for the rights that were and are violated in the process of our occupation of this ground.
If you’d like to visit, get in touch! County Rail is open to all visitors as long as we have some notice, and we will soon have a guest space for farm stays, if you’re into that kind of thing.
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Check out this short documentary about County Rail, with enormous gratitude and credit to Cassandra James and Carrie Laben – it’s from a few years ago so don’t be fooled by how different we/things look today. Coda, our original farm pup, left us in April, 2021.
County Rail-The Real Dirty Chicks of Dixon Montana from Cassandra James on Vimeo.