When my husband, Oliver, and I launched our Evergreen® business, Icicle Brewing, we were well aware of the risk involved in a capital-intensive business. Oliver is fifth generation in a farming family in the Yakima Valley in Washington state, and he had been raised through repeated, necessary cycles of bank loans and equipment expenses and the continual underlying stress of unpredictable events that shape life and finances on a farm.

But he also understood the long-term view and growth mindset that is essential for farming and for Evergreen business. He had observed the expansion and evolution of his family’s farm from hops to include apples and cherries, had raised his own cattle in college, and he always had an entrepreneurial vision to build something of his own.