Rye Rising: The Grain That Gives Back

Sarah Jones didn't start out as a farmer, but when she married into a 4th generation farming family in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, Jones Farms Organics, she went all in. She recently co-founded the Rye Resurgence Project when she saw that rye, traditionally a cover crop, could be a profitable cash crop. Rye uses far less water than other crops being grown in the valley, and because it covers the ground in the winter, it protects and nourishes the soil. Its many varieties can be used for a wide variety of products including bread, cookies, beer, whiskey, and livestock feed.

Jones has also opened a retail store, Hooper Junction Mercantile, which sells a variety of local food and locally-made products, and where she's planning to install a mill where people can mill their own grains.