Thistle Hill Farm offers wide variety of baked goods

Dawnielle Neville comes from a line of Rainier locals. Her grandfather homesteaded a property off Avery, and their current home on Thistle Hill was inherited from her father who also worked the land. In 2020, Neville formulated Thistle Hill Farm as a business when she began experimenting with baking sourdough, an activity that skyrocketed during the pandemic.

"It's my personality where if I get intrigued by something then I start researching it and ask, 'I can do this, right,'" said Neville. "So it kind of started from that. I was just making those for us; [for] my family. That's how everybody starts out, right? You just kind of start giving it away."

Thistle Hill Farm made its formal business debut at a church bazaar in the fall of 2024 and participated in the Rainier Spring Bazaar and Scappoose Farmer's Market in 2025. Neville has built up a base of customers who place direct orders which are either picked up at the Thistle Hill Farm or an arranged local spot.

In addition to a variety of sourdough flavor options, Neville also sells farm fresh eggs and flowers, the latter of which are supplied by her cousin. "She had so many Dahlia tubers, so she gave me her leftovers a few years ago, and we've now built this flower business," said Neville. "I'll cut flowers for my weekly bread customers if they want a bouquet with some eggs and a loaf of bread. In the spring, we're selling the tubers to other backyard growers or people that want to expand their flower farm."

Neville bakes full and mini-loaf sourdoughs that come in a range of flavors, including traditional sourdough, cinnamon raisin, roasted garlic and rosemary, jalapeno cheddar, and cranberry orange. She also offers a new flavor - at a customer's request - using kalamata olives and herbs. Neville emphasized the focus on fresh ingredients. "I don't buy bottles or packages of garlic; I'm using fresh garlic," she said. "I'm roasting [and] chopping my own garlic, using fresh rosemary locally if I can't get it from my own garden. I always use Tillamook cheddar and fresh jalapenos, it's never in the can."

Neville is looking at ways to grow her orders and customer base, but in a controlled way that still gives her the balance of work and time focused on her family and the farm. One of the things she said she loves about making bread for others is "hearing the stories about how people eat their bread," especially those who have been advised by their doctors to eat sourdough because it's "healthier for their gut." Elaborating, Neville said, "There's some people that are diabetic that can't eat a lot of bread items, but they can eat sourdough and their doctors encourage them. You don't have to cut that out of your life. You can enjoy things and still be healthy."

For more info, visit Thistle Hill Farm on Facebook. Contact directly through Facebook to place an order and at the upcoming Rainier Spring Bazaar on April 18.