Kelly is a chef, and continuing that career in Fallon may also have appeared an impossible endeavor. But she didn’t feel that way. Where others might have seen just infertile land and limited job opportunities, Kelly zeroed in on the enduring family dairies and farms in the region that produce incomparably savory winter squash, tomatoes and peppers, and where herbs like rosemary and thyme grow wild. She learned of the vibrant Basque settlers in the region who brought their unique culinary traditions with them to Nevada. While the land to the average eye appears arid and incapable of producing crops, Kelly points out that Churchill County is in fact agricultural, with some 50,000 acres irrigated with water from the Truckee-Carson Irriga- tion District. “And I ended up meeting a lot of really cool people,” she recalls. “I liked the town because it has a little bit of everything.” She readily lists those: an arts council, a youth group, and an over- flowing cornucopia of locally sourced food, including at the restau- rant, The Slanted Porch, where she went to work as a sous chef in March 2010. A few years later, the restaurant would be featured on the Live Well Network cable show: Food Rush. “We found,” she says, “that this was a community that had a lot going on.” This would later include the Fallon Food Hub, which was a nat- ural draw for a food aficionado and chef such as herself. Found- ed in March 2016, the small cooperative grocery store in Fallon’s historic district sells $35 annual subscriptions to patrons. Patrons who subscribe receive a discount on seasonal produce baskets and a 3 percent discount on purchases, plus a vote in Food Hub oper- ational matters. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 2012 Census of Agriculture, Churchill County is home to more farms than any other Nevada county and most of these farms are small and mid-acreage. When one considers that USDA defines the popularly used term “locally sourced” as any food product distributed within a 400-mile radius, Fallon’s truly home-grown farm-to-fork industry may be a rarity in the nation. The Food Hub has become vital to the community, especially in the older part of town where it is located, as there are neither grocery stores nor public transportation in the area. The Food Hub has also expanded to sell value-added products as well as health and beauty products. What it needed, however, was an executive director and funding to pay this person’s salary. In 2017, RCAC's Loan Fund provided a $50,000 working capital loan to the Food Hub for that purpose. This funded the position which, today, is Kelly’s full-time job. Her duties include managing staff and the Food Hub’s various pro- grams, writing grant applications, running the store and managing its finances. As she shows a visitor around the cozy store one sunny fall after- noon, it’s easy to see her affection and knowledge. She picks up a couple of jars beside the checkout counter, which contain rosemary and thyme, and explains that a local farmer found the herbs grow- ing wild on his property. Kelly handles some healthy snack peppers and, nearby, Hopi Orange Winter Squash, that she mentions is the first crop this particular farmer attempted to grow and which the average consumer might assume are run-of-the-mill pumpkins. Her authority on the subject is obvious, as is her delight in picking apart what makes for delectable pleasure. 10