Episode 65 // Alyson Dorr of The Red Barn
This week we’re in Columbia Falls, Montana (pop. 4,710) with Alyson Dorr of The Red Barn. Alyson is a fourth generation farmer who is helping bring up the next generation of family farm kids. She and her husband Casey share their little slice of heaven through The Red Barn, their luxury loft vacation rental, their farm-grown peppermint oil, raw honey, and pastured, all-natural pork. And she’s telling us all about it on today’s podcast.
We are living the legacy of my grandparents’ hard work.
— Alyson Dorr
You’ll love hearing about the amazing legacy that Alyson and her family get to carry on and what they’re doing to preserve that. She also has a great take on 4-H livestock and land stewardship. Alyson is being featured in the Where Women Cook Holiday magazine, which will be on news stands October 1. Be sure to go grab a copy and check out the links below. We’ll also be featuring stories of rural revival on the blog this week, so go to ruralrevival.co to follow along.
Listen right here or on these platforms: APPLE | GOOGLE | SPOTIFY | STITCHER
There was value put to work ethic, and that’s kind of what I want for my kids, which is why we’re here. We could choose to live other places, but I love that for myself, the satisfaction of doing real labor and seeing the work of your hands, and it’s meaningful. And it’s just kind of part of who I am. It was engrained from my dad and my grandfather and the way they live.
— Alyson Dorr
There’s an audience of people who need to hear about what real farm life is like, what real rural life is like, what it is to raise your own food. And to understand that people are looking for authentic. And if we don’t start to tell that story ourselves, as people living a rural life or as a farm kid, if I don’t share my grandfather’s stories or my grandmother’s work ethic, or the genius of my dad and the hard work and the little he has to show for it, that somebody else will. And it’s those stories that kind of pollute food culture and the media in the United States. And I feel like in so many ways people are coming back to a place where they want connection, they want to eat local.
— Alyson Dorr
PODCAST SHOW NOTES AND LINKS:
Glacier National Park
Flathead Valley
The Red Barn
Columbia Falls, Montana
The Shops at Station 8
Columbia Falls Community Market
Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholarship
Glacier Raft Company
4-H
Five Marys Small Business Course
Five Marys Farms
Farm Kid & Co.
Jeremiah and Rachel Spray
Where Women Cook Holiday
Instagram: @theredbarn_mt
Facebook: @theredbarnatglaciercountry
Website: www.montanaredbarn.com/
Find out more about the rural revival happening in Columbia Falls, Montana here: