Kate Stone founded Stone Gully Farm in 2013 when she and her husband moved to Kentucky and purchased a 180-acre Owsley County farm. She received one SOAR Farm Loan in 2022 and another this year for $7,500.
Her sales have doubled every year since 2020 — growing from $3,200 in 2020 to $51,014 in 2023. Stone has the ambitious goal of reaching $100,000 in sales in 2024.
Stone Gully Farm undertakes a variety of tasks. The largest is as a sheep/lamb operation with 60 head. The farm is also very active at the Red River Gorge Farmer’s Market, which was started by Jan Knappage, another one of the loan fund’s recipients. At the market, the farm sells vegetables, herbs, lotions/salves, and wool products such as scarves that Stone makes from wool from her sheep.
The customers for her products come at the farmer’s market, at large events in Northern Kentucky and Owensboro, and increasingly online through her website and two stores on Etsy.
The newest loan will be used to purchase bulk supplies, such as fragrance oils soap bases, beeswax and lavender. The second will be to purchase mineral tubs for sheep and to set a new power pole for her propagation tunnel.
The Kentucky Highlands SOAR Small Loan Production Fund was established in 2016 through an initial $950,000 in capitalization from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund investing tobacco settlement funds.
The fund has approved 342 loans for more than $2.5 million in less than 8 years, and more than $1.57 million in principal repayments have been made. Because of its revolving nature, the fund has almost tripled in size.