PALISADE — When Robert Stanley harvests honey from the apiary and orchard he and his wife, Laura, operate in Palisade, he’s participating in a tradition that dates back to World War I. Soldiers returning to the civilian world were encouraged by the federal government to raise bees as a peaceful, economically viable livelihood set in the outdoors, which experts were already discovering was a powerful place to process trauma.
Both Stanleys did combat tours with the U.S. Army — Robert as a tank mechanic, Laura in intelligence. Both were injured in Iraq — Laura in a vehicle rollover and Robert when he was hit by a tank. Both served multiple tours before Robert retired in 2010 and Laura in 2022.
They settled in Palisade, where they can raise their children in a small-town setting. Out on the Western Slope, they can fulfill their dream of owning land and participating in agriculture.
They bought 3 acres on a corner lot with access to irrigation water rights from farmers upstream of them on the Colorado River and started converting it to agricultural status. Robert’s day job is with the Western Area Power Administration in Montrose, and Laura is a county commissioner-appointed veteran service officer with the Mesa County Veterans Service Office.
Laura had always wanted to try beekeeping, so once they were settled, she joined the Western Colorado Beekeepers Association, with a branch specifically for veterans and first responders. She went to meetings and “was totally overwhelmed,” she said. But before long, she and Robert were adding the apiary — now with 32 hives — to an orchard with peaches, cherries, apricots, pluots and plums. The only catch: Soon they were selling products, but their business plan was severely lacking. And they dreamed of funding a farm where they could grow their own food and teach local kids about the benefits of farming.
Enter a seemingly unlikely aid: Goodwill of Colorado. Since 2023, with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it has operated a program called FarmAble that assists veterans and underserved farmers with hands-on business planning, economic stability and navigating USDA grants and loans.
Maddi Hughes, a program specialist for FarmAble, says the program was much needed, because veterans and agriculture “go hand in hand. “
“Agriculture requires a lot of discipline,” she said. “It requires waking up at the crack of dawn to milk your cows, to plow your fields, to seed and pick rocks.” What’s more, when he speaks with veterans who have experienced trauma from being in service, she says, “they say, ‘I want to get out of society. I want to reconnect with the land.’”
Military veteran producers are underrepresented in Colorado (current estimates put them at around 10%). They’re often first-time farmers and in many cases need help when trying to turn farming or ranching into a business.
On Feb. 5, Hughes launched the first class in a 10-week program she created called From Field to Funded that walks participants through the steps of starting an agricultural business. They include things like creating a mission and vision, developing a business concept and analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The classes tackle areas such as operations planning, market research, sales, management, financial planning and funding preparation.
Throughout the course, participants build their plans section by section, focusing on practical decisions such as what they will produce, who their customers are, how products will reach the market, what resources and infrastructure they need and what funding options may support their next steps.
The goal is to help give producers a stronger understanding of their operation, a more realistic growth plan and a written document of how they’ll go about starting a business — instead of the plan residing in their head — that they can use in conversations with lenders, funders and agricultural service providers.
The Stanleys were in the first class, which graduated in April.
From field to funded
The Stanleys were already growing fruit, tending bees and selling some of their products at Smith’s Family Orchard when Laura heard about From Field to Funded.
Their two young sons, Covie and Wayne, were already becoming adept farmers too, at the tender ages of 7 and 8. Both have beekeeper suits — they look like something tiny astronauts bound for the moon would don before boarding a rocket.
They sell their honey in traditional bear-shaped bottles, hard candies made with honey and jams and salsas made from the fruit at their farm. Their stand sits at the end of the family driveway. They donate their proceeds to charitable causes like the American Heart Association’s Kids Heart Challenge, for which they raised $1,200 last season. And on teacher appreciation day at their school, they load up their teachers — and janitors, and lunch ladies — with their farm-grown goodies.
Seeing how farming has helped his kids grow into such outstanding humans — and understanding the need to find the next generation of farmers in a declining industry — Robert says he wanted to extend the same opportunity to other children in the Palisade region.
But he needed funding and wasn’t sure how to get it, which Hughes says is a common problem among her participants at a time when the need is heightened “with everything that’s going on in the world, including the drought.”
If a producer wants to go to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which offers funding for things like water conservation projects, “you can’t just walk up to someone and say, ‘Hey, I need $500 but I’m not going to tell you what for,’” she adds. “You have to have written down what you’re doing, where you’re going and how you’re going to implement your plan. You have to have those so you’re not a phony.”
Through the program, veterans wanting to make a living out of farming or ranching can also practice mock interviews, learn about banking and finance and figure out a succession plan for the day they may find themselves ready to hand off their operation.
If things continue on the track they’re on now, the Stanleys will have two farm educated, upstanding successors to carry on helping their community.
In an even better scenario, Laura and Robert will help build an army of new producers, to keep Coloradans fed.