Just Good Food Spring Workshop Series and Beyond
The Incubator Plots, Equity Garden and Classroom space all came about from a dream for a community workshop space and hub to share regenerative practices, farm and rural skills, good food, community conversations and a culture of learning and helping one another.
As part of our core work to teach through collaboration and participation, Elizabeth and the team at Colorado Farm and Food Alliance developed a concept to host a workshop series that would be fun and educational and also build out the community workshop and garden spaces.
This spring’s workshops range from regenerative practices in agriculture like pollinator strips and growing cover crops in the market garden, to timber frame construction, and farm/ranch fire-wise mitigation. Workshops are offered to the public free of charge and are designed to provide additional support for the participants in the Incubator program.
This season we are hosting four aspiring farmers, each on their own ⅛-acre Incubator Plot allowing them to nurture and grow their budding farm businesses. From cut greens and sunflowers to medicinal herbs, these farmers are busy starting their seeds and tending to their plots in preparation for May plantings.
The participants range in age from 23-56 and are enjoying getting to know one another and helping each other with garden tasks like spreading compost and running flood irrigation. At the conclusion of the season, farmers who wish to continue with their farming endeavors can receive consulting on next steps for obtaining land such as long-term leases, rent to own agreements, etc.
We are also working with community members who have farm operations they are looking to transition to young farmers as they near retirement or simply have available farm land that they are not utilizing. None of this would have been possible without the generous support of many producers and volunteers, donors, and everyone who came out to our Equity Garden Farm Dinner last fall, and to other contributors and foundations including the Just Transition Fund and the Foundation for Sustainability and Innovation.
We want to extend a big thank you to all who put their blood, sweat and tears into the construction of the timber frame classroom over a single weekend! We also want to thank everyone who helped by contributing a paver for the pathway, which we will be installing this summer as an entryway to the classroom. The bricks will be produced by local company, Delta Brick & Climate Co.
This innovative start-up is working with irrigators and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to remove sediment from the Paonia Reservoir to make ceramic tiles, pavers, and also increase water capacity in the reservoir. They are also working to destroy escaping methane from local abandoned coal mines, which is a super-potent climate pollutant, and to utilize it as an energy source to fire their kilns.
We also want to thank all of our sponsors and underwriters who make events like workshops available to everyone in the community. This year, some of our recent instructors have included Chuck Peacock and Emiliano Lopez, agronomists who taught us the importance of the soil food web and demonstrated tests that we can perform on our own land to determine soil health, porosity and other biological indicators.
Mason Babcock, co-owner of Alexis Grey Tree Services and head of the Paonia Fire Department, taught us about good practice in fire mitigation and how to use biochar and hugelkultur instead of burning to deal with yard brush.
Carol Sikora graced us at the start of spring with a class on planting cut flower gardens. And Elizabeth led a workshop on pollinator gardens to start the series.
We are still looking forward to an upcoming workshop on incorporating cover crops into the market garden with Candice Orlando from RockNRoots farm who uses clover in her hemp fields and is experimenting with other techniques. Finally, to close out our Spring Workshop Series, Wild from Menagerie Woodworking will lead a hands-on demonstration of how to build a garden observation bench out of locally sourced fruit tree wood. We are very grateful for all of the local wisdom we have and that these wise folks are willing to teach us what they have learned.
At Colorado Farm and Food Alliance, we strongly believe in educating about stewardship of the land, of helping teach our next generation of farmers and the health of our local food systems.
We strive to create innovative, accessible and educational programming that benefits a diverse spectrum of the community, educating about the importance of food security, local farm culture, and sustainable practices that can benefit Colorado now and for generations to come. If you share these values and appreciate this work, please consider a contribution so we can continue to serve the community and provide needed and desired programming in rural communities who are transitioning to a more sustainable future.
