Gunnison Gardens

07/30/2024

Tuesday Topic: Garlic Harvest! Learn about the lifecycle of garlic and harvest 1,200 linear feet of garlic bulbs. Meet at the farm at 5:00 pm for this soil scavenger hunt.

07/23/2024

Tuesday Topic: Perennial fruits! Come taste our Romeo sour cherries & Nanking bush cherries. Raspberries are loaded with fruit at the greenhouse/shop, and elderberries are in full flower. Check out the apple trees loaded with tiny green apples. Rhubarb is nearly finished, and we ate all of the honeyberries :) Let's talk perennials, Tuesday 5 - 7 pm at the Gunnison Gardens farm.

07/16/2024

We have fungus! Canada Thistle Rust Fungus, that is! Come to our Tuesday Topic 7/16/24 to learn about this biological control method and pick up a FREE stalk of rust fungus to distribute on your property. We will also release bindweed mites, another biological control from the Colorado Palisade Insectory. Learn to control invasive weeds naturally without harmful synthetic chemicals.

Puccinia punctiformis is unavailable at this time due to regulatory reclassification.Please check back later.

07/09/2024

Tuesday Topic: How to trellis cucumbers. Learn to maximize your harvest in your greenhouse or high tunnel by trellising your cucumbers the easy way. 5 pm to 7 pm at the Gunnison Gardens farm. FREE to all.

07/02/2024

Tuesday Topic: How and when to hill your potatoes. Come learn about the life cycle of potatoes, and how to get the best production from your tubers.

06/11/2024

Tuesday Topic -- W**d Tea! Learn to brew and apply an amazing DIY free natural fertilizer.

06/04/2024

Transplanting tomatoes in tunnels - tonight!

05/26/2024

Potato planting this Tuesday 5/28/24. We will also have seed potatoes for sale from Gunnison Valley Producers' Guild. Get your seed potatoes and learn to plant for maximum yield.

05/21/2024

Tuesday training - Green beans in high tunnels! The great thing about having 5 high tunnels on our farm is that there's always something to learn & do, even if the weather "stinks". Come plant green beans this evening -- we'll be sheltered and dry in the southwest high tunnel.

05/15/2024

I need help on my farm! My college students (great workers, all) are out of town, and several workers I had lined up couldn't make it, and the farm needs to be planted. SEEKING 3-4 FARM WORKERS FOR MAY ONLY. Possible continued work through summer and fall.
Hard work, gratifying, outdoors, mission-driven...
Also open to suggestions about where to post, how to find workers, etc. That said, I'm busy farming and don't have a lot of time for social media & job boards.
If you want to volunteer, please come on Tuesday evenings. We have a different topic every week, and it's fun.

05/13/2024

Tuesday night workshops -- starting this week. Join us at the Gunnison Gardens farm, every Tuesday evening, all summer long. Learn to grow your own food, hang out with like-minded souls, get some dirt under your fingernails and have fun.

04/27/2024

The Guild's Spring CSA is live! 6 weeks of fresh local veggies including spinach from Gunnison Gardens, lettuce from Mountain Roots Infinity Greens, cucumbers, microgreens, beets, strawberries from our greenhouse, and much more. May 1 - June 5. Sign up here: https://forms.gle/Jp9NNnGm5yozpKtd6

04/10/2024

7 spaces remaining in the CB South Vegetable CSA

04/01/2024

Farmer Training Program! Gunnison Gardens and Mountain Roots Food Project have developed an 18-month paid training program in regenerative agriculture. If you, or someone you know, wants to learn all aspects of running a vegetable farm business in our climate, please contact us.

03/14/2024

Farm and Garden Poetry Slam! Join us on Saturday March 23rd at the WCU University Center Theater for laughs, poetry, popcorn, and a cash bar. Dress like a farmer to win great local prizes. This event is fun for all. Register in advance to enter your poem or save your seat. You can also "walk in" at the door. Hosted by the Gunnison Valley Producers' Guild - YOUR farmers having fun with YOU, and YOU having fun with YOUR farmers. Please come laugh with us!

03/07/2024

Yesterday, the Mountain Roots Food Security team helped me wash 53 dozen eggs which we donated to the Gunnison Food Pantry. The pantry loved the eggs, and it felt good to give back to the community. BUT, my farm would be better off if we could sell the eggs and use the money to pay our workers to grow more vegetables this year. That's one of the challenges of diversified small scale agriculture -- you've got to be a producer, marketer, salesman, soil scientist, ecologist, mentor, HR professional.... I love learning and wearing all these hats but I'm probably the worst at sales and marketing.

02/22/2024

Class starts this evening! Learn to grow food in a cold climate. Let's get growing!

02/19/2024

Solstice-to-Equinox CSA is Open! Gunnison Gardens is planning our crops, starting our seedlings, and preparing for a summer of vegetables, eggs, and chickens. Iola Valley Farm is sending the email this week to last year's CSA members. It's time!

01/13/2024

The girls are laying lots of eggs, even in this winter weather. Email me for a link, if you'd like to sign up for the Front Porch Egg CSA. 1 dozen eggs per week, $7.50 per dozen, pay monthly or for the full spring season.

12/30/2023

#7. Gratitude for RASPBERRIES and all who helped prune them (Carmen, Hayden, Soleil), water them (Tom), fertilize them with natural chicken stuff (Peyton, Natalie), harvest them (Benedict, Deb), and make jam (Emily, Solomyn). Not many fruits thrive in Gunnison, but raspberries really flourish. They provide us with Vitamin C, phytonutrients (ellagitannins and anthocyanins), fiber, and delicious taste. But what a lot of work! Truly a labor of love, learning, connection, and community.
Raspberries. Jam. Sunshine in a jar.

12/30/2023

#6. Grateful for gratitude. Does that make sense? The kind words, surprise gifts, little notes, unsolicited emojis, 50 cent tips at the market, and the occasional pat on the back make all the difference. Although I have my own internal compass (I know WHY I do what I do), the support I received from customers and friends in 2023 really kept me going. Homemade lunches dropped off at the farm, handmade warm hats, happy notes, watercolor chickens… thank you, thank you all.
Feel love. Share love. Be love.

12/27/2023

Gratitude #5 Pollinators! We are so grateful to the bees --- and ground beetles, earthworms, dragonflies, ladybugs, and all the working insects that help our farm produce healthy soil and healthy food. We would NEVER use synthetic pesticides on our farm. Healthy plants are pest-resistant (mostly).
Here’s a Hunt's bumblebee (orange-belted bumblebee) working hard on the farm. Earthworms till our soil, ground beetles keep the army cutworms in check, ladybugs show up when needed.
Nature. Balance. Harmony. Health.

12/27/2023

Gratitude #4. Mountain Roots – Much gratitude to Mountain Roots Food Project for working with our farm to feed the valley. Each year, we have the joy of working with the hard-working, good-hearted, intellectually curious Farm Team and Food Security Team. These energetic young workers inspire me and give me hope for the future. In 2023, Mountain Roots collaborated with our farm on farmer education & labor (1 day per week, every week!) and bought our vegetables, eggs, and chickens for their CSA and food security boxes. We are truly building a more resilient food system together.
Mountain Roots: Earth. Food. Community.

12/26/2023

Gratitude #3. Workers! So grateful to all the employees that worked on our farm this year. Somehow, one after another, workers came when needed and left (on good terms) to pursue other work. Five weeks with Alaina, 4 with Brittany, 5 with Hunter, part-time help from Anthony, Caroline, Nick, Peyton, Courtney, Carmen, Solomyn, Cristina, Max, Ryan, and EMILY. (Amazing Emily.) Did I forget any employees? All told, we had only ONE FTE (full time employee) equivalent, but wow, everyone came as needed and worked hard for spring planting, CSA harvests, farmers markets, fall winterizing… Thank you all!

12/23/2023

Gratitude #2 - Feeling gratitude to Alex Van Zandt at Gunni Gal for winter deliveries of lettuce stubs and trimmings for our chickens. Alex grows the most amazing aquaponic lettuce, bok choy, arugula, pea shoots, and more. Our girls get the trimmings after harvests, and that’s one reason our eggs taste great (and are so nutritious) all year long.
Cooperation. Community. Love.
(Love you, Alex!!)