By Alisha Romig | The Register-Guard
COBURG — Marie Bowers never thought she would spend her life working on a farm.
But the 32-year-old woman — who graduated from college and started a career in the financial industry — has returned to her roots as a family farmer.
“I don’t want to say that I don’t like rules,” she said with a laugh. “But I love this. I love farming. I love that I get to physically work hard and do something that I enjoy every day. Plus, I don’t have to wear makeup.”
Bowers and her husband, Tristan Stagg, work at the Harrisburg-area grass seed farm owned by her parents, Eric and Vikki Bowers. And she and her husband recently bought a farm north of Coburg.
Her parents’ business, Bashaw Land and Seed, specializes in growing and harvesting different types of ryegrass and fescue. The company is named for the area’s clay-like soil, which isn’t ideal for growing many crops but works well for annual ryegrass, Bowers said. The family farms roughly 52 square miles of fields in Linn and Lane counties, from Brownsville to Creswell.
