The Living Farm Practices and Operation

The Living Farm stewards 132 owned acres and an additional 80 acres under lease. Our regeneratively managed pastures nourish Black Angus cross cattle, dairy and wool sheep, and laying hens. We offer a year-round CSA and handcraft wool products from the fleece of our pasture-raised sheep.

On the Living Farm we are always interested in eco-friendly practices. We are continually working our farm towards total self sufficiency. Our ultimate goal is to take the whole operation off the grid.

Solar heated Greenhouse: We were awarded a grant from Colorado State University to run an experimental solar heating greenhouse operation from 2004-2007. We built a solar heating system for 19 grow beds in one of our greenhouses. The beds then grew salad greens all winter with only solar heat.  This system is still in place and running smoothly to this day.

Low tunnels and frost blankets: We use low tunnels in our greenhouses to capture heat for the plants for the night. We also uses frost blankets to hold in heat at night. This system has allowed us to totally stop using propane heaters in all of our greenhouses.

Passive solar heated house: We built the main house in 1996. It is super insulated and has a passive solar heat system. This house requires very little heat to maintain the house. We rarely run the heater after February and it doesn’t come on until after Thanksgiving and we live at 5500 ft. in the Colorado Rockies.

Composting: All of our plant waste from our gardens, house and greenhouses gets composted in with our animal manures to create our compost for the following year.

At The Living Farm, everything begins with the soil. Healthy soil grows nourishing plants, nourishing plants feed healthy animals, and healthy food strengthens families. We farm in a way that builds life beneath our feet year after year. Our pastures are managed to regenerate and improve the land, our animals are raised on pasture and cared for daily, and our crops are grown without synthetic chemicals and balanced for real nutrition. What we sell is what we eat at our own table.

We believe farming should restore more than it removes. Our goal is not only to produce food, but to renew the soil, care well for our animals, and contribute something lasting to the land and our community. We also believe these skills should not be lost. Through our farm, our CSA, our wool products, and our teaching, we help families learn how to grow their own food so those skills can be passed down from one generation to the next.

This is not a trend for us. It is a way of life.