9/11/15 Colorado abundance is here and........winter's coming!

“Eating with the fullest pleasure - pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance - is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living in a mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend.”
― Wendell Berry

People, plants, and animals/fish.  From top left, Toews brothers in their new greenhouse near Monte Vista:  Brightwater Farms producing hyrdoponic head lettuce, basil, and kale.  Did you eve wonder what's up with the Fava Beans?  Not only only do some people love them to eat, but Paul New and White Mountain Farm grow them not only for their food value but for also for their leguminous symbiosis with rhizobium bacteria which have the unique ability of fixing atmospheric nitrogen into nitrogen nodules in the root system.  These nodules on Paul's Fava Beans looked like tapioca pearls.  Now that's alchemy!  Horse power still rules the roads south of Alamosa in Amish country.  I love to see the kids all piled in a buggy ripping down the road.  Kermit Krantz at Frontier Trout Ranch near Saguache, farming three-dimensionally without the drag of gravity.  Finally our own Paul New discussing Fava Beans and his various Quinoa strains.

Phew!  I can't believe we are already in September.  It seems just yesterday I was launching this blog with this same pint in hand along the Buena Vista stretch of the Arkansas River.  For all this year's CSA shareholders, a sincere thank you for making this season awesome.  I can't tell you how great it is to have a CSA alongside a wholesale program.  It allows flexibility and diversity that otherwise couldn't be attained.  And for my wholesale customers, wow, your dedication to local, quality, and freshness gives me shivers just thinking about the impact we could have if more businesses put their dollars where their future is.  Let me just name you here: Valley Food Co-op, Milagro's, SLV Local Food Coalition, Zapata Ranch, Trinchera Ranch, Saguache Works, Elephant Cloud, Crestone Mercntile, Bliss Cafe, OFIA, the Local Market, Delish Food Truck, Simple Foods Market, Seasons Cafe, Ploughboy Market, and The Lettucehead Food Company.  Week after week your customers come to you expecting the best, and the fact that you choose to put your money into your community by working with Valley Roots Food Hub is the reason this whole thing is afloat.  So, let's go to these businesses and spend some cash, let's tell them we appreciate their dedication, let's tell them we notice what they do, and, well, it wouldn't hurt also to remind them their orders are due by Tuesday 4 pm!  Just kidding, that's my job.  But, then, let's seriously grow this list.  Starting with the schools and hospitals of our region.  Let's demand that our children deserve to be fed with healthy local food.  Boulder public schools have done it.  Santa Fe Public schools have done it.  And they all work off the same USDA supported $2.68 per lunch.  Let's demand that the sick, injured, or healing need the best, most nutrient dense food we can possibly give them.  "Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine thy food," said the father of modern medicine Hippocrates.  We want the most public of public institutions to nurture and build community economics, not export their dollars to US Foods/Sysco, Shamrock, Cargill, feedlot beef, etc, etc.  We have for too long made feeding the masses the cheapest possible task.  And as an anthropologist, I can understand why we came to this point, but its erroneous.  Something I like to refer to "anti-ecological:" that which is best for us takes more time, costs more, and otherwise will disappear if it were not for those beings capable of practicing anti-ecology: humans. 

See you at Slow Money in Snowmass next weekend.  We're going for the big, slow bucks.  We are hiring, the hub warehouse needs development work, and we want to put as much renewable energy behind this enterprise as possible: solar thermal, solar electric, biomass methane, and biodiesel for the trucks. 

https://slowmoney.org/harvest-weekend/

Also, with the hiring efforts you will be seeing some new faces that hopefully will be with us for a long time!

Here's the box (I admit, something about this box made me feel good):

• 1/2 Watermelon!  This came from the Pueblo area from Francisco, White Mountain Farm's lead farmer
• 1 Butternut Squash, Millibgerger Farms via our partner hub to the East, AVOG
• 1-2 white Patty Pan Squash, Tom Navarro, new producer from San Luis
• 1-2 Yellow Patty Pan, Tom Navarro
• 1 bunch Red Beets, White Mountain Farm
• 1 bucnh Carrots, WMF
• 1 bunch, Purple Carrots, WMF
• 1 head Napa Cabbage, Green Earth Farm
• 1/2 pound Crimini Mushrooms, CO Mush Farm, Alamosa
• 1 oz Rosemary, GEF
• 1 cucumber, AB Yoder's Family Farm, Alamosa
• 1 Bunch Yellow Onions, WMF
• 1-2 Heirloom Tomatoes, AVOG

In food we trust....