We've got this tradition all throughout agricultural history
in North America of having to step up at different times
to counter these corporate interests that
want to take land, take water,
take our resources,
take our markets.
And when needed, farmers come together.
And this seems to be one of those times.
And this is why we're getting involved in this project
and we're interested to see where it goes.
Dan Hobbs. This is Hobbs family farm in Avondale, Colorado Pueblo
County. We're about 15 miles east of the city of Pueblo.
We basically have evolved into three enterprises.
One is our garlic deal and the other is
fresh vegetables and the other is open-pollinated seeds.
And then lastly, just because we love the whole learning
process of agriculture, we're
getting into heritage grains.
We have a very long growing season - we're at about 4,600 feet.
We have warm days, well hot days really,
and cool nights and so that diurnal temperature
swing really adds something special
to the quality of the vegetables and the seeds.
We've got these silty clay loam rocky ford soils that
are classified as irrigated
soils soils of national importance.
They're very low in organic matter.
But high in mineral content.
And we've basically set the farm up as a rotational system
kind of along the lines of a lot of the sort of conservation
farms of the 1930s and 1940s following the Dust Bowl.
A lot of the iconic dustbowl photos in fact,
were taken here in the Arkansas valley on black Sunday
and out into the panhandle of Oklahoma.
So the system is basically divided up
into five acre fields.
We have six 5-acre fields.
One is in alfalfa grass.
One is usually in an annual cover crop
for plowed down peas and wheat that
we keep our own seed from.
And then we have a garlic allium field and then basically
a pepper and mixed vegetable field and then another veg seed
field.
And then the last piece we're about to put
into a mulberry and pie cherry orchard.
This farm is really set up along the lines of what I would
say is elemental agriculture.
We basically, in this five year rotation
that we have here, we spread aged manure on just
before the garlic crop and then we have one full,
5-acre field that's devoted to a plow down crop
to the Austrian winter peas and a white winter wheat
that we've been maintaining.
And so between those two things.
And the constant rotation is the basis
of our fertility program.
And then we don't own our own livestock.
And so we've made a relationship with a biodynamic farm
down the road to graze their cattle here in the winter.
And so that's been an important strategic relationship
to bring the animals onto the property without owning them
and without all the headaches that go with it.
And the reason for that was because I
work with the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union in the off season
and travel extensively and work with farm
groups around the southwest.
So that's the fertility program.
And there's no plastic on this farm, or at least
not in the field. We're flood irrigators and water deeply
every ninth and 10th day.
And we're teaching these plants to work for a living.
It seems to be holding true that some of these seeds
are adapting over time and are drought hardy
and if they're not we're kicking them
out of the mix. We're
trying to focus on plants that are
climate change ready and ready for the harsh conditions
that we encounter here in the southwest.
You know I think one of the things that interested me
when I first got into farming and still holds my interest is
this notion of the farm organism and individuality
and all of the relationships that happen on the farm you
know the relationships in the ecology of the agriculture.
The soil and the plants and animals and the insects
and the farmer. And I just love that role
of trying to guide this system.
you know and always ever trying
to improve the systems and the relationships in the farm
organism. The organic certification is still very
valuable, particularly like this garlic crop
one of our main activities here that we produce about 7,000
to 8,000 pounds annually and a lot of the seed
sized garlic goes to national - four or five
national seed companies.
They require that certification for their customers.
And so we've been certified
now I guess for 18 years.
And it's largely because we market
outside of our local region. We feel
compelled to make it work even though we've had lots
of hard years and especially the last few years
with the droughts and the flooding
and the hail and all the other things we get around here, we
want to demonstrate that it can work.
We are excited about all these young farmers
that are coming on.
And we want to we want to stay in
and we want to mentor some of these people
and share the seeds and share what skills and knowledge
we can with some of these folks to help give them a leg up.
And this also really motivates me
on the professional side with the Farmers Union work
and the co-operative development work
to help strengthen and establish these alternative systems.
So that
So that people that want to do it can stay into it
and get into it.
So we're going to stick with it.
And then just this ongoing challenge
of encouraging and facilitating the relationships
on our piece of ground are just endlessly gratifying and we
learn something every year.
And we still try something every year.
And that keeps it fresh and exciting for us.