Our second stop today was the Adobe House Farm, a vegetable farm in Durango, Colorado where we met a very nice man named Pete Dixon. Him and his wife Linley started the farm in 2010 on 1/3 acre of land that a friend of his graciously let him borrow. As their business grew, they continued to lease land from other people. They were able to continue through community supported agriculture (CSA), where people buy into the farm to give the farm funds to continue for the season. Eventually they were able to buy the house and land that they operate on now.
The Adobe farm has a few chickens that they use for fertilizer purposes as well as harvesting eggs. The crops that they produce are lettuce, greens, tomatoes, basil, bell peppers, asparagus, raspberries, strawberries and elderberries.
They use a tractor to till the soil but everything else is done by hand. They have multiple greenhouses and structures called cold frames that aid them in managing the temperature for the plants. Greenhouses also protect the plants from elements such as hail, but they need to be replaced every 5-6 years. Adobe House Farm started organic and was recently certified organic!
In the greenhouse, they have a wasp hatchery device that they use to kill pests instead of using chemicals. This device is a small cardboard piece that hooks onto the tomato plants with wasp eggs on it that will eventually hatch and produce pest eating wasps. Mr. Dixon sells his crops to local restaurants and takes them to farmers markets. They currently have 3 full time employees but have had as many as 6 before. On average, they yield 175 lbs. of crops every other day in the peak of the season and 115 every other day with older stock.
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