Garlic & Lamb

A Stinking Rose for Steamboat

Garlic is one of the easiest vegetables to grow in our mountain climate. With a small investment and a little work, the gardener is rewarded with a luscious—if smelly—crop of beautiful, tasty bulbs. My general rule of thumb is to plant in late September, harvest in late July. Here are my steps to delicious garlic:

In Advance
1. Plan the garden location and size. The garden should be located where it can receive good sun and will get enough water, but won’t be in standing water. It takes about two pounds of seed garlic to plant a 4’ x 6’ bed, which produces more than my husband and I can eat in a year. Sell some, share with friends, pickle some, eat more.

2. Prepare the garden bed by removing all weeds. Loosen the soil and add soil amendments as soon as possible, so the soil has a chance to absorb them.

3. Check local garden stores for seed garlic or order it from a reputable source. Don’t use grocery-store garlic, which is often treated with sprouting inhibitor.

Planting Day
4. Peel off the outer layer of dry skin from the bulb of garlic. Gently separate the individual cloves. Depending on the variety, you may have 4-12 plantable cloves. I plant the largest cloves, and eat the smaller ones.

5. In the garden, use a narrow trowel or bulb planter to make a hole about 3 inches deep. You can add a sprinkle of bone meal to the bottom of the hole, which helps bulbs with root growth. Place the clove into the hole, root end down, and cover with soil. The root end is the dry, gnarly, rough end. Plant cloves 4 inches apart.

6. When you’ve planted all your cloves, give the garden a little water. Then cover with a good 6 inches of straw and water again. This mulch will help keep the moisture in until snow arrives and will help prevent weeds next spring.

Watch this space next spring for tips on growing and harvesting your garlic!



Mary’s Lamb Cook-Off
It’s all about LOCAL: talented local chefs will prepare mouth-watering dishes using locally-raised lamb and locally-raised produce! It’s the first-ever Mary’s Lamb Cook-Off!

Mark your calendar! This event is part of OktoberWest, September 19, at Bear River Bar & Grill on the ski mountain.

Competing chefs will receive one side of lamb and will prepare dishes for two competitions: Best Little Lamb and People’s Choice. The Best Little Lamb contest will be judged by a panel of five experts.

Please join us at 3:30 pm for the People’s Choice competition. You’ll get to sample an astonishing variety of lamb dishes, plus you get to vote for the winner!

In Cahoots!

The end of July saw a presentation at the Community Center from Cindy Dvergsten of Dolores, Colorado. The topic was about how agriculture supports civilization, but that agriculture needs a community to sustain and nurture it in return. For those who missed it, let me essplain. No, is too much; let me sum up.

Cindy started the evening by discussing the complexity of agriculture. It is many things to people: art, science, craft, culture, practice, profession, industry, business, and/or a way of life. But for how much longer? 75% of our food comes from a mere 10% of the population—specifically, giant corporations.

Only ONE percent of our population is involved in agriculture: a mere SIX percent of those are under the age of 30; most farmers are 50+ years old.

The remaining 90% of the farms in the US are family-owned, although those numbers are precarious; government regulations continue to threaten small farms. Our government's policy since the 70s has been “get big or get out,” thanks to Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz. Butz believed that if we increased the efficiency of our agricultural production that it would lead to more disposable income.

Perhaps—for everyone but farmers. JFK described farmers as those who are forced to “buy at retail, sell at wholesale, and pay freight both ways.” Mid-sized family farms are feeling the ever-tightening pinch of the soaring cost of inputs coupled with low prices paid to them in return. The majority of family farms rely on off-farm work to supplement their farm income.

As Cindy pointed out, nurturing family-based agriculture is a continuous process, creating a full-cycle feedback loop. Healthier land equals more opportunities to create wealth; biological wealth leads to social wealth, which in turn leads to economic wealth.

But Steamboat's different! I can hear the cry now. We have such a short growing season! We can't possibly compete!

Really?

In 1930, Routt County was home to 928 family farms—compare that to the 610 farms in 2007 (with $34,115,000 as their combined value of production). Those farms were prolific in raspberries, strawberries, lettuce, peas, spinach, green beans, cabbage, potatoes, oats, barley, dairy cows, and so forth. In 2007, we were in the top 5% in the US for sheep production with a mere 9,000 head, versus 52,000 in 1930.

We may have a short growing season, but our weather is unbelievable. Our potential is huge and our soil is rich. We have not had to deal with the exploitation of our land the way other areas have. By buying locally-produced food, we support our economy, our land, and our selves.

Deep Roots Presents "In Cahoots"!

In Cahoots!
Community Supporting Agriculture Supporting Community

Deep Roots and the Community Agriculture Alliance will be hosting special guest presenter Cindy Dvergsten at 7 pm on Thursday, July 30 at the Community Center. Cindy, with her husband Mike, has operated Arriola Sunshine Farms outside of Dolores, Colorado, since 1987. Lately, their focus has been on creating wholesale markets and managing via a whole-farm approach, a technique that Cindy helps other farms and ranches implement.

Cindy's presentation will be focusing on the fact that while agriculture is necessary to sustain civilization, it takes a community to support agriculture. As Scott Ford noted in, “Let's Use a Different Economic Map,” local agriculture contributes to our economy in very valuable ways, yet only about one-tenth of one percent of our labor source income comes from agriculture.

Out and about, the word on the street is that there is a high demand for locally-produced food that is grown in a sustainable manner. Small CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) are popping up around the valley, and there are even two other Western Slope CSAs that are running a thriving business bringing healthy produce into the valley for our consumption. In the spirit of keeping out hard-earned dollars close to home, how can we support local agriculture—and in return, allow it to support us?

In that vein, Cindy will be discussing ways for us in the Yampa Valley to create a community that will help sustain family farms and ranches, and the reciprocity that occurs in terms of social, economic, and environmental capitol. She has recently given a similar, well-received presentation in Mancos, Colorado, focusing on boosting the local economy and establishing its self-sufficiency by strengthening the area's agriculture.

As dry as all this may sound, Cindy is a dynamic and well-versed speaker. This is a presentation for all of us who look forward to the Farmer's Market, who appreciate roadside stands selling peaches, for those of us who recognize the blandness and petroleum dependency of eating asparagus from Argentina. It is a call to action for small family farms—those of us who raise a dozen cattle or a few pigs, who are overflowing with eggs from the family coop while others around us would pay good money for such golden-yolked treasures.

Let's put all the pieces together. I hope to see you there.