MEET YOUR FARMERS
Meet Raul & Mary
Raul Godinez and Mary Stickley-Godinez are experienced farmers with a strong background in horticulture. Raul grew up working in the orchards and farms in Washington state. As a teenager, he worked at a nursery, where he was trained to graft a wide range of ornamental landscape plants. He transferred this knowledge to fruit trees and at age twenty, started his own nursery and grafting company. He spent the next eighteen years growing fruit trees and grafting for orchards and farmers throughout the United States. In 2005, he moved to Virginia, where he eventually met Mary. Mary grew up in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The daughter of several generations of farmers, her family had an orchard and gardens filled with vegetables and ornamentals. She earned degrees in horticulture and landscape design and also her International Arborist Certification. She has worked a number of jobs in the industry: inventory manager for a perennial nursery; producer of a radio talk show about plants; enhancements manager for a landscape maintenance company; plant purchaser, production manager, designer’s assistant, greenhouse manager and landscape designer for various design/build companies and garden centers; and finally, ten years as manager of gardens and grounds at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. The pair met in 2008 when Raul did a grafting demonstration at an event Mary attended. In 2010, they started Countryside Farm and Nurseries, which grows many varieties of fruit trees for the wholesale trade as well as grafts and buds fruit trees for other orchards and nurseries. In 2018, they started Cross Keys Farm, the next step in their dream of allowing people to experience the joys of a healthy lifestyle through fresh, locally grown produce. With their combined expertise, Raul and Mary provide consultations to home gardeners and professional growers, and Mary teaches, lectures and writes on many garden-related subjects. |
“A society grows great when old men plant trees
in whose shade they shall never sit.”
—Greek Proverb