{"id":52957,"date":"2020-06-30T05:03:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T11:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/seeking-food-security-some-durango-area-residents-turn-to-local-farmers\/"},"modified":"2020-06-30T11:03:09","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T11:03:09","slug":"seeking-food-security-some-durango-area-residents-turn-to-local-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/seeking-food-security-some-durango-area-residents-turn-to-local-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking food security, some Durango-area residents turn to local farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Linley
Linley Dixon, co-owner of Adobe House Farm, holds up turnips grown at her farm north of Durango in the Animas Valley. Dixon had to adapt quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic to sell directly to customers, instead of through a farmers market.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When COVID-19 shut down social gatherings across the state, Linley Dixon with Adobe House Farm knew she had to do something differently. Farmers markets made up a majority of the farm\u2019s sales, and market sales to restaurants went down.<\/p>\n

Like many other farms in the area, Dixon started selling directly to customers online. By the middle of June, 150 families were ordering produce online and picking it up directly from Adobe House Farm.<\/p>\n

New networks between Southwest Colorado farmers, markets and restaurants, as well as agile digital marketplaces, are springing up to create a critical lifeline for the struggling industry.<\/p>\n

For example, Dixon has also started using Roll, an electric bike rental system, to deliver boxes of produce to people\u2019s doors.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Adobe House Farm\u2019s sales increased.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal farms are able to adjust to where people are comfortable,\u201d Dixon said, noting many people were hesitant to go to a grocery store during the statewide shutdown order.<\/p>\n

The public health crisis has awakened people to the reality that when there is a disruption like a pandemic or a natural disaster, and trucks can\u2019t deliver food, it\u2019s \u201cnot so devastating if food is sourced locally,\u201d Dixon said.<\/p>\n

Building communities through food<\/div>\n

Family farms across the country have been hit hard by the impact of COVID-19 on their markets, but in Durango, where local products have received immense community support, demand for fresh produce has surged over the past couple of months.<\/p>\n

\"Linley
Linley Dixon, co-owner of Adobe House Farm, looks over vegetables growing undercover. The farm sells produce directly to 150 families in the area.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Tyler Hoyt, co-owner of Green Table Farm in Mancos, also sold most of his produce through farmers markets. He had a delivery system before the pandemic, but it did not make up a large portion of the sales.<\/p>\n

When Gov. Jared Polis instituted his \u201cStay at Home\u201d order across Colorado in late March, Green Table Farm\u2019s delivery sales skyrocketed, increasing by 400%.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ran out of stuff to sell people,\u201d Hoyt said.<\/p>\n

He attributes the success to the fact that people in the area wanted delivery service \u2013 they didn\u2019t want to go to grocery stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally, this is a lean season before the farmers markets, but we were absolutely making money this year,\u201d Hoyt said.<\/p>\n

He is also on the farmers market board in Durango and said that even with social-distancing restrictions, the market is doing as well as it would in a normal year, if not better.<\/p>\n

The millennial age group is busy on the weekends, Hoyt said, and they like the convenience of a Community Supported Agriculture system or a delivery system.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the market is going to shift toward that,\u201d Hoyt said.<\/p>\n

CSA is a fast-growing part of the local seasonal food market. A farmer offers a certain number of \u201cshares\u201d of his or her local produce to the public. Interested consumers buy a membership or subscription and receive a box of seasonal produce each week throughout the season.<\/p>\n

\"Linley
Linley Dixon, co-owner of Adobe House Farm, pulls weeds around her lettuce plants. For Dixon, the pandemic has highlighted the importance of having local sources of food.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In other words, the CSA model is built on relationships in the community, and many local farmers attribute their success during COVID-19 to those partnerships.<\/p>\n

Hoyt said he prefers interacting with people at the farmers market booth and letting people pick which items they want, though farmers markets are currently allowing only farmers to touch produce with gloves.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarming is a tough business with COVID, fire, drought and so many things you don\u2019t have control over,\u201d Hoyt said. But local farms are flexible enough to adapt and make changes, Hoyt said.<\/p>\n

Boardroom decisions that funnel down to hardworking contract farmers aren\u2019t adaptive enough, which is why corporate-run farms collapse, Hoyt said.<\/p>\n

Yet not all local farmers have felt the boost. Sheila Payne with Mocking Crow Farms said her farm is still relatively new, but she relies almost entirely on word-of-mouth and farmers markets, which is difficult during a pandemic.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Payne\u2019s sales to local residents have remained consistent.<\/p>\n

Farms built to last<\/div>\n

Max Fields and James Plate of Fields to Plate Farm sold out of their winter crop of carrots in March. The two had to set some aside for farmers markets in town.<\/p>\n

When restaurants shifted to takeout and delivery service, local relationships and partnerships helped keep Fields to Plate profitable during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"Linley
Linley Dixon, co-owner of Adobe House Farm, inspects lettuce. The farm&#x2019;s sales have increased since the governor&#x2019;s &#x201c;Stay at Home&#x201d; order in late March.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Restaurants like Zia Taqueria and El Moro were \u201cso adaptive to everything we were doing,\u201d Fields said. The farm had an abundant number of microgreens, so El Moro picked them up again for their menu. This system supports local farms and maintains an uninterrupted food supply chain for restaurants.<\/p>\n

With a farm that grows a diverse number of crops, \u201cif one thing flops, you have plan C, D, E, F or G,\u201d Fields said, whereas a large farm that grows only one type of crop is not as flexible for different sales avenues or options.<\/p>\n

More people in the area started cooking at home when restaurants closed, so local farms became a resource for nutritious food when public health became the community\u2019s focus, said Becca James with The James Ranch.<\/p>\n

The lesson to learn from meatpacking facilities forced to closed is that a \u201ccentralized food system leads to an insecure food system,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n

\"Tomatoes
Tomatoes growing at Adobe House Farm, north of Durango in the Animas Valley, will end up on a local dinner table.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

James and other local farmers and ranchers say the state needs a paradigm shift for farms and ranches to remain viable in the face of multiplying disasters to come \u2013 not only pandemics, but fires, drought and other symptoms of climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a diverse farm is so key to weathering the storm,\u201d Fields said. Subsidizing farms to mass-produce crops that are exported out of the country is not a sustainable business model, Fields said.<\/p>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic\u2019s disruption of the food system in the United States, Fields said, is an opportunity to start talking about positive change.<\/p>\n

ehayes@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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