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  • Bee Grateful Farm is a two-acre bio-intensive  farm. We're in Steamboat Springs, Colorado,  

  • we have a 309-member CSA, and we servicehandful of restaurants in Steamboat as well.  

  • Growing for nutrient density, that's one of  our biggest passions. It's all about helping to  

  • create life and keep the life in the soil,  

  • and we're able to produce the tastiest  and most nutritious vegetables.

  • Hethir and I have both always been really  passionate about really high quality food.  

  • We opened up a health food store in the early  2000s and then we were both into organic foods  

  • and Hethir has been an herbalist for about 20  years now. I went to culinary school, restaurant  

  • management school, and I cooked for nine years.  I actually stopped working in restaurants because  

  • the quality of the food is really poor that was  coming into the restaurant and we were basically  

  • just like sprucing it up in a kind of fine dining  way, and I was just like, "Wow these ingredients  

  • just aren't really incredible." We moved here  and started growing some food on the land. We  

  • were just blown away by the quality of the foodyou know the arugula that was coming out was  

  • really spicy and the tomatoes are just so sweet  and just like food that you never really taste.

  • After that we were like, okay we're going to start  getting into growing some vegetables. We started  

  • with a third of an acre of the bio-intensive  farming. The first year the weeds were  

  • insane! Like we almost gave up halfway throughOur hands were sore and we couldn't move our hands  

  • because of pulling weeds! We had silage tarps on  the back half of the land and that was really a  

  • breakthrough for us. We took those silage tarps  off and all the weeds were gone! It was nothing  

  • but worms, like there was no weeds, it was  beautiful! Ever since we started using the  

  • silage tarps, it's been like completely differentcompletely different farm. And then this year  

  • was when we went really crazy and  we were like, let's just go for it!  

  • We built five new 16-foot tunnels and we got  raspberries going into those tunnels now,  

  • cucumbers and tomatoes another one, and  basil and eggplant in the other tunnel,  

  • and then we broke ground in another acre, so now  we're a full two acres, and this is where we're  

  • staying! We don't need to get any bigger than  this! [Our family's complete!] Yeah, this is good!

  • We're farming high in the rockies at 7,200 feetIf you look up our frost free dates they say we  

  • don't have any. But we say we get around 60 to  70 days that's kind of our window. This year  

  • we got our last frost in July. It's actually  snowed at the beginning of July this year.  

  • The winds are really intense here so we have  to keep the crops covered all summer long,  

  • which is kind of challenging because you can't  really see what's growing. And then the sun,  

  • you know, is just beating down so harsh. One  of the hardest things actually about growing  

  • food in Colorado is it's really hard to get water  rights. Miraculously we applied for water rights  

  • on the Oak Creek and we have about a mile of Oak  Creek that runs through our property, and storage  

  • rights, and we got water! We have enough water to  do five acres. As a two acre farm we definitely  

  • have help. We started with three full-time  employees, once harvest season started we now  

  • have four full-time employees. That will be until  the end of our CSA. We also do have volunteers  

  • that come each week. We have a very strong  volunteer program which has been really fun.  

  • If we get one person interested in agriculture  out of these visits with them then I'm happy.

  • This year our farm is completely dedicated  to growing for our CSA members. We have a  

  • 309 member CSA. We have some great businesses  that are supporting us and letting us use their  

  • parking lot which has shade. We just have our  produce boxes and they just grab one of each item  

  • they bring their own bag. We do like to say we're  beyond organic, so we don't spray any chemicals,  

  • we focus a lot on the soil health and  soil life, that's why we don't spray.  

  • That's also another reason we use the agribon so  much. That helps with the bug pressure, the pest  

  • pressure... it's definitely there especially  being a farm in the middle of a prairie.  

  • Everything's like "Oh my gosh, here's some foodLet's go eat it!" Running this farm as a couple,  

  • as a married couple, we've had to find the places  where we really excel at, and kind of divide  

  • things so that we can do a good job and also get  along really well! I do a lot of the planning,  

  • I do all the crop planning for the year, what the  CSA boxes will look like each week, seed ordering,  

  • kind of all the behind the scenes of that, when  things go in... I also do marketing, I do the  

  • Instagram, I do the photos. Jason does more the  field management. He goes out and he gets the crew  

  • going on something. He'll kind of direct the day  based on the list of what what needs to be done.

  • Being a snowboarder and surfer my  whole life my favorite farm tool  

  • is my Onewheel. I ride the Onewheel about  15 to 20 miles a day on the farm. If I'm  

  • on the other end of the farm and I forgetwrench, it'll either take me about 10 minutes  

  • to walk to the garage and back, or i can be  literally back to the other side of the farm  

  • in less than a minute on my Onewheel. That has  been a game changer for me, like I live like  

  • the best life ever! I'm just like snowboarding  around the farm, growing delicious vegetables,  

  • like it just doesn't get any better than thatSo I'm pretty happy, pretty happy with that!

  • So we moved on to this property, I believe  it was about four and a half years ago,  

  • and we first started with the alpacas. We were  supposed to get like 5 or 10 alpacas, and we got  

  • there and I had this great idea to make hats out  of them, and we actually bought the whole herd.  

  • So we came back with about 87 alpacas. We  decided to use their fleece to make hats.  

  • We have a company called Yampaca, that's how  we sell the hats. And they're amazing beanies,  

  • they're very very warm, but  that's like our winter crop.

  • We wanted to start making some  products with local honey,  

  • so we started working with local beekeepers here  in Steamboat, and we started making these 100%  

  • local honey-sweetened caramels, with just  honey to sweeten them. And we started selling  

  • at the farmers markets, and caramel sales  started outpacing all the vegetable sales.  

  • And people were coming in and buying like  five, six bags at a time, so when the fall  

  • rolled around and we started closing up shop  on the farm for the winter, we're like, okay,  

  • let's dive into the caramels, and they're  just the most delicious candy on the planet.

  • One of the biggest blessings of having the farm  with our family is that we're raising our son  

  • here. He will go into the raspberry bushes and  he'll pick his raspberries. He'll go and check  

  • on the strawberries, let me know if they're  ready or not, he'll love to go and pick them.  

  • The other day I put some cucumbers in his  lunch and asked him how he liked them,  

  • he said, "You did a good job, Mama!" So to me  that was the greatest compliment of them all.

  • On my days off from the farm, fly fishing  is absolutely my favorite thing to do,  

  • and it's a time to relax and unwindIt's just hard to explain, you know,  

  • being a surfer my whole life, they say only  a surfer knows a feeling when you're on that  

  • wave and when you're fly fishing it's the  same thing. Like, you know, once you're out  

  • there you fully get it how it just calms you and  connects you back with nature and mother earth.

  • If you're thinking about starting a farm make  sure you're doing it for the right reasons.  

  • If you feel like drawn to doing it you should  do it. It's it's a passion project, you know,  

  • it's not something where you're going to get rich  doing, it's just something where you just love  

  • what you do, and you're willing to put in those  60 hours plus a week because you just love it.

  • I think people need to be connected  to where their food's coming from.

  • The food that comes off your local farm that  you're supporting, you know if you've bought,  

  • it it just tastes better. The nutrient content  is so much higher, it's the quality in the food,  

  • and i think that's the most important to grow  and support local farms. I just want to grow  

  • beautiful food that makes people happy  and that's kind of what it's all about.

  • Hi guys I'm Jonathan with Farmers  Friend. If you enjoyed this video,  

  • hit the like button and subscribe to see  more inspiring stories like this. To learn  

  • more about our innovative small farm tools and  supplies like easy to assemble greenhouse kits,  

  • flame weeders, and a lot more, check  out our website at farmersfriend.com

Bee Grateful Farm is a two-acre bio-intensive  farm. We're in Steamboat Springs, Colorado,  

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