Western Colorado Alliance’s Local Food & Ag committee hosted our first farm tour of 2023 on Friday, May 19, at Early Morning Orchard in Palisade, and it was a great success! Our tour guides for the day were Kaye Davis, the Food Systems and Culinary Director, and Kasey Weingarten, the Farm Director.

Early Morning Orchard (EMO) grows vegetables like lettuces and peppers, fruit like peaches and apricots, and a good protein source in duck and chicken eggs. With several greenhouses and “hoop” houses, as well as a fruit tree orchard, EMO is able to produce food for our community nearly year-round. Much of what EMO grows supplies local food banks, like Community Food Bank. Some is sold at Skip’s Market in Fruita. (Skip, by the way, owns the farm.)

Because it’s important to provide everyone in our community with healthy food, EMO practices regenerative growing practices. These practices are critical to keep the soil healthy in order to grow healthy vegetables. That’s done by using “no-dig” methods which avoid damaging the soil’s structure and animal life (like worms), and also by planting cover crops to “keep roots in the ground” which nourish the soil’s microbial/fungal ecosystem. This healthy environment keeps the plants healthy and lessens the need for traditional “inputs” like pesticides and herbicides. (However, traditional farming wisdom like crop rotation continues to be important.)

Another tenet of regenerative farming is to incorporate animal grazing. Usually we think of cows, but in the case of EMO, it’s ducks and chickens! They pitch in by nibbling on insects and weeds in the orchard, fertilizing the soil, and laying eggs.

Though EMO grows plenty of fruit and vegetables, it’s not nearly enough to supply our hungry community. And that’s where Kaye comes in, working as a food aggregator. She works with many producers throughout the county and state, buying and aggregating their products before distributing them. This not only provides enough food for our community, but it also provides marketing for smaller producers — a big help to them. Another way Kaye helps is by paying growers up front for their season’s produce, giving them the needed capital to operate their farms.

Kasey manages the growing side of Early Morning Orchard, with the help of a team of staff and paid interns who are learning how to become farmers themselves. The greenhouses (permanent structures) and hoop houses (less permanent) shelter the plants as they begin their lives by germinating from seeds and then progress through their growth stages. They are often moved from one place to another as their needs change. Some of the plants, like tomatoes, end up outside when it gets warm enough in the spring, while others require shelter year-round. Still, others live outdoors year-round, like garlic, which is planted in the fall for summer harvest the next year. When the vegetables are ready for harvest, the farm team gathers them up and takes them to the washing and packing shed, where they’re prepared for distribution.

Early Morning Orchard is a “growing” business in more ways than one. The site we toured is the original farm, but another fruit tree orchard in a second location as well as a three-acre vegetable and seed garden have also been recently added. Diverse trees like peaches, apricots, and plums will start their lives there, and begin producing in a few years. A fourth farm location is also in the planning stages. So as the hunger for delicious, nutritious, home-grown food grows in our community, EMO will be there to fill the need.

Throughout the rest of the summer, our Alliance plans a total of six farm tours. We’ll be in Palisade, Fruita, Montrose, and Silt highlighting a variety of farms that grow vegetables, animal feed, and meat. We hope you’ll be able to join us for one of our upcoming Farm Tours this summer! Sign up for our next farm tour on June 17 at Green Junction Farmstead here!