The Living Farm Practices and Operation

The Living Farm owns 132 acres and is leasing 80 acres. On the farm we grow organic alfalfa and grass hay. We grow corn silage and organically grown GMO free barley, oats and triticale grains for the animals. We also lease pasture land for horses and cows.

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.

The organic philosophy at The Living Farm is one from our past, before “organic” became something you did, not who you are. Organics on The Living Farm is a belief system that is deeply ingrained into who we are. There is no certification body that can tell us who we are in our heart and soul. Therefore, we don’t feel the need to certify our farm. I can tell you who we are and how we raise every plant and animal on the farm. You can even come out and see for yourself. We have not needed any piece of paper to help us sell our farm products, they seem to sell themselves. We just raise the food as if it were going onto our table: free of chemicals, nutrient balanced and environmentally friendly.