Salute and Serve
Four Missouri veterans traded in their uniforms for entrepreneurship, first serving their country and now serving their communities with products and services. Their work is fueled by passion and purpose. As America marks its 250th birthday, meet the veteran-owned businesses making Missouri—and the nation—stronger.
HEROIC HEALING
After Doug Washburn, founder of Gagoti Healing, located at French Village, passed away, Victoria Casteel took over the business. Victoria, who served as a truck driver in the army, carries on Doug’s mission of wanting to get natural healing options into military hospitals.
More than 60 products are on the company’s website, but there is one that Victoria says stands out: ESP 15, Rapid Wound Care. This product, Victoria says, draws the impurities from the skin and replaces it with vitamins and minerals. “It is the heart of the business,” Victoria says.
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Something else that takes heart is running and owning a small business, but the skills Victoria learned during her time in the army have set her up for success.
“There’s no business that is going to grow overnight,” Victoria says. “It is going to take a lot of hard work and dedication, and we like to let the products speak for themselves.”
MEAT MASTERS
Army veteran Steve Markway is the head of production at The Farm Table, a farm at California, Missouri, that sells beef and pork cuts. His daughter, Nicole Bestgen, is the farm’s marketing expert.
Before The Farm Table took off, Steve sold quarters, halves, and whole cows to people he worked with. Then in 2020, he started The Farm Table, offering by-the-cut meat.
“I always laugh. When you send your daughter to an ag college and she’s ma- jored in marketing and ag business, you know you’re going to change the way you do business.”
Customers can order from the website or stop by the farm’s retail location. Steve and Nicole love to answer guests’ questions and educate consumers.
HOTEL HOTSHOTS
Everett Reed’s original desire to open a hotel and mercantile stemmed from wanting to give back to the community that helped raise him. The EC Reed’s Mercantile and Hotel in Marble Hill does just that. Everett, a US Navy and Coast Guard veteran, and his wife Christy Reed are both on a quest to provide the best service possible.
“Everyone gets treated exactly the same when they walk through our doors, and that’s the very best we could give them,” Everett says.
Supporting small businesses is a priority for Everett, and he encourages others to make it a priority as well. “Collectively, they make up a huge part of what makes America what America is,” Everett says. “An individual grain of sand is just that, but put enough of them together and it’s a beach.”
GRATIFIED GARDENER
Before James McPherson spent his days working at the Weston Garden Center, he was a captain in the Air Force.
James is now co-owner of the Garden Center and has worked there eight years growing and selling herbs and edible plants. “I like nothing better than to get my hands in the dirt,” James says.
The Weston Garden Center sells flowers, seed packets, native plants, and gardening supplies.
The garden center is named as a Certified Nursery by the Missouri Department of Agriculture’s Plant Pest Control Program, meaning each year the garden is inspected for pest infestations.
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When we support and buy products grown, manufactured, processed, or made in Missouri, our state becomes stronger. Buy Missouri is a program within Lieutenant Governor David Wasinger’s office that promotes these products to our fellow Missourians, the country, and the world. The Buy Missouri program already has more than 650 members and continues to grow. To learn more about hundreds of Buy Missouri businesses as well as the ones featured in this issue or to enroll your business, please visit BuyMissouri.net.
This article was originally printed in the July/August 2026 issue of Missouri Life.
