2015 Winter CSA 1st Box!

“We still (sometimes) remember that we cannot be free if our minds and voices are controlled by someone else. But we have neglected to understand that we cannot be free if our food and its sources are controlled by someone else. The condition of the passive consumer of food is not a democratic condition. One reason to eat responsibly is to live free. (pg. 323, The Pleasures of Eating)”
― Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

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Thanks to everyone who participated in Valley Roots' inaugural Winter CSA.  What a year 2015 has been and I reckon 2016 is going have its share of fullness too!  Many Blessings and Happy Holidays to all.  Here's the box:
Arkansas Valley Organic Growers (our partner Food Hub to the East)
4 lbs  ORG Butternut squash
2 lbs  ORG Acorn squash

Arkansas Valley Organic Growers is a group of farmers dedicated to Farm-Fresh local food for homes, restaurants, and groceries.  They are based out of Avondale, CO (near Pueblo) and whose member farms are all along the Arkansas River all the way up to Buena Vista with Weathervane Farm (who has supplied Valley Roots with an awesome broccoli and excellent soil grown tomatoes).  The very excellent farmer of Dan Hobbs is a large part of this food hub, and who has also been instrumental in launching the Valley Roots Food Hub.  The organic roasted green chiles we carry are from Dan's farm and as he says, "this year was a special crop that lead to a real deep flavor."

Green Earth Farm, Saguache
1 ea  ORG red onion
1 ea  ORG yellow onion
Green Earth Farm is a Colorado Certified Organic Farm that produces a wide variety of medicinal and culinary herbs and is co-managed by founders Thomas and Lillian McCracken, who both have extensive backgrounds in sustainable agriculture and a long term commitment to environmental preservation.  The Farm is located at 7900 feet in Saguache and is surrounded by wilderness, between an ancient seabed and one of the world’s oldest and largest caulderas. The rich soils, pure water and air, and pristine high altitude climate produces potent herbs, sweet tender vegetables and nutritious grains.

Absmeier High Altitude Garlic, Alamosa
1 lb  CNG garlic
The idea to grow and sell garlic had been a thought in the back of the owner, Adrian's mind for quite awhile, but he hadn't mentioned it to many people. Once he checked into it and got the answers he needed, he talked to his close friends and family, told them to set aside a couple of days, and be prepared to get to work! Well, work is what we all did. Adrian has a multi-disciplined background including farming and ranching. As a result, he has produced excellent crops of quality garlic!  We have grown a variety of garlic as proof that Colorado LOVES garlic and wants to share it with you.

We offer 7 varieties of hardneck garlic, both as seed and food, which include Krasnodar White, Georgian Fire, Armenian, Leah, Chesnock Red, German Extra Hardy and Purple Glazer. The hardneck variety of garlic produces scapes (the "flower stalks" of hardneck garlic plants, although they do not actually produce flowers). Once the scape begins to curl, making a full circle, they are snapped off. This allows the garlic to continue growing to its full potential. The scapes, when cooked, are similar to scallions. Check our "Extras" link for some great tasting recipes.
We are a Certified Naturally Grown (CNG) farm which is based on the premise that we practice natural farming methods. In other words, we do not use any synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or GMO seeds, just like organic farms. Our garlic is grown naturally in the "Land of Cool Sunshine".

Southern Colorado Farms, Center
5 lbs  ORG carrots
Southern Colorado Farms was founded in 1977 to focus on key specialty crops for regional eastern markets. Major crops grown are lettuce, romaine, spinach and organic carrots. The organic carrots, interestingly enough, are grown for Gerber Baby Foods. Southern Colorado Farms works with all the major national processors for their regional plants.  Long time SLV resident and farmer Amy Kunugi provides Valley Roots with the exceptional Organic Bangor carrots which are winter stored all the way into May.

White Mountain Farm, Mosca (Valley Roots home base)
3 lbs ORG potatoes, mixed fingerlings
5 lbs ORG red potatoes
White Mountain Farm is located in an ancient lake bed called the San Luis Valley. It lies between the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo Mountains of the Southern Colorado Rocky Mountains, at an elevation of about 7600 feet.  The farm has been in the family since the 1930's. In the late 1970's and early 1980's, the main crops were organically grown wheat, alfalfa, and sheep. In 1984 we started experimenting with Quinoa and in 1987, White Mountain Farm was incorporated, named after Mount Blanca, and started growing certified organically grown Quinoa and potatoes. Since then we have added rye and a variety of vegetables to our rotation. In 1987, White Mountain Farm was the first large-scale Quinoa operation in North America. Over the past years we have been selecting the best tasting Quinoa and potatoes to offer our customers. Our goal is to offer good tasting, high quality Quinoa and potatoes at reasonable prices.

Brightwater Farms, Monte Vista
3 lettuce heads (red leaf, butterhead, and/or green leaf)
1/2 plant kale
0.04 lb Genovese basil

Mennonite Towes brothers have entered the floating-raft, hydroponic, year-round, intensive, greenhouse production sphere with passion and dedication.  The new start up near Monte Vista is an in an interesting and efficient way to produce quality head lettuce, basil, and kale year round in high alpine Colorado.  It's like a new-age chinampa system, similar to what the Aztecs practiced.  Hydroponics boasts less water consumption per unit of food produced, faster growth, and the indoor greenhouse provides climate control for optimal conditions.  These greens are unwashed and come with the ROOTS still attached.  They are alive!  For Solstice 2015, here's yer fresh greens!

Colorado Mushroom Farm, Alamosa
12 oz crimini mushrooms
Long time valley employer and quality commercial producer of Rahka Mushrooms now is Colorado Mushroom Farm.  They produce consistent and quality mushrooms with sterilized biomass media inoculated with specific mycelial fungi in indoor controlled temperature and humidity environments.

J-Cabz Farms, Jaroso
3 lbs pinto beans
Carlos and Annette Benavidez  purchased J-Cabz Farm in 2008, which encompasses approximately 760 acres in Jaroso CO.  The Benavidezs were originally from Bosque N.M. which is about 35 miles south of Albuquerque.  Carlos was Born and raised on a farm and have done this for basically all his life although mostly as a tenant farmer.  After 27 years I was able to gather enough money for a down payment on a piece of ground.   Fortunately I couldn't  afford any property down there so we settled on a beautiful place in the S.E corner of the Valley called Jaroso. Annette and I just celebrated our 35th wedding  anniversary last week . We have three girls, Melissa Marks with husband Nathan and daughter Maddi who live in Rio Rancho N.M.  Celeste Grabowski, husband Andrew son Tyler who live in Annapolis Md. and Tawnya Archuletta, husband Joshua, son and daughter Austin and Caylee, who live in Big Spring Tx.    There are about 520 acres of tillable land on J-Cabz Farm. Alfalfa is the primary crop grown on the property.   Carlos has grown canola and other small grains but at this point, Carlos is still searching for a crop that can help make the payments on this place.

Simply Honey, Alamosa
1 pint honey
Simply Honey is progressive natural honey company. We pride our self on managing our bees in a sustainable bee friendly manner.  We pack all of our own honey and do not buy honey from other producers. We offer raw unheated honey, from the San Luis Valley, Northern and Southern New Mexico. We produce 4 different floral source honey's and beautiful white comb honey. Every crop is packed separate and never blended. You will notice the year of the honey on every jar. Like a fine wine honey should be celebrated for its character.

Jackson's Honest Chips, Crested Butte
Made in Denver with San Luis Valley potatoes from White Mountain Farm!
We started Jackson's Honest Chips based on our passion for providing healthy, great tasting potato chips for our four children. For years we were alternately flabbergasted and bemused by the breadth of snack foods that were fried in some combination of highly processed and denatured polyunsaturated vegetable oils. So we started making potato chips in our own kitchen using the healthiest frying oil we could find: coconut oil. Lo and behold, they tasted great, our kids loved them, and my husband and I knew that coconut oil was a far healthier fat to fry in than vegetable oils.  As concerned parents who follow a combination of Paleo, Weston Price, organic, local, and seasonal diets, we focus on the types of fats our children consume. Our visits to various health food stores and natural grocers across the country always ended in the frustration that we couldn’t find a potato chip fried in a healthy oil like coconut oil. Sure there were organic varieties; there were rippled, kettle, and root vegetable derivatives; there were dozens of different flavors too. And while the last decade or so has brought tremendous changes in potato chip flavors, brands, and varieties, the reality is that nearly every single manufacturer uses the same highly processed vegetable oils or vegetable oil blends to fry their potato chips: canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, corn oil, soy oil, or cottonseed oil.

‘Eating is an agricultural act’; these are the words of Wendell Berry. The tag line on our bag reads: ‘From the field, the farmer, and the fryer…to you.’ And when we decided to see if we could sell coconut oil potato chips, we wanted to make sure that – at every step of the production process – we were doing what was right for the consumer, for the farmers, for the environment, for our suppliers, and our employees. So we source potatoes from small-scale family farmers that we know and trust who use organic or biodynamic methods on their farms and never use GMO varieties. We purchase the highest grade organic coconut oil from companies that treat the soil and their workers fairly and use traditional coconut oil extraction techniques. We use sea salt so consumers can benefit from its many trace minerals. Finally, we had our bags designed and produced right here in the U.S.

Chavez Family, San Juan Mountains
0.3  lb Wildcrafted & Salted  Pinon Nuts
Truth is......I was envisioning something special to put in the 1st Winter CSA box.  Something that captured the spirit of the season, and the essence of what local foods mean.  Don't worry, I resisted the temptation to wrap the CSA box with candy cane red ribbon!   Then, there was the Chavez's wildcrafted salted Pinon Nuts.  This item is one of the most indigenous in the box, and perhaps a rare delicacy.  The forest provides.  Next to the mushrooms, squash, and beans, these Pinon Nuts represent our bioregion before humans.   And then a staple of humans after that for generations, perhaps 12,000 years plus.  These are our historical foods here.  Indeed, what has been eaten, and what we would be eating more of without fossil fuels.  Get yer recipes going.  Today in the year 2015, during the depths of winter, below zero to single digits at night and sunny but never coming above freezing in the day, I think about all those years of people eating dried mushrooms, pinon nuts, beans, and squash around Solstice Fires.  Add in Valley Root's bison (grown by my buddy Kevin Off on the alluvials of the Rio Grande River) and the trout (grown by mastermind and Saguache County water wizard Kermit Krantz), we're doing pretty good.  Local foods are still alive and thriving here in one of Colorado's cornucopias.