Growing Food, and Growing Farmers  July 2011

LIZ EMMETT-MATTOX
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In the modern-day equivalent of an old-fashioned barn-raising, the Shepherd Valley Waldorf School community and farmers from Everybody Eats came together this spring to raise not a barn, but its contemporary counterpart: a hoop house.
Visible from the Diagonal between Highway 52 and Monarch Road, the hoop house is the latest step in realizing the desire of the school’s founders and current families to have a working farm on the property.

This dream has been a long time coming. In previous years, the farming impulse at the school had been limited to having a pair of goats on the property and small vegetable plots tended by students and parents.
More recently, Shepherd Valley has teamed up with Black Cat Farms which brought a small flock of sheep to graze on campus and invited the students to participate in various activities at their nearby farm.

Shepherd Valley Administrator Linda Abelkis said, “We are so grateful for the partnership with the Boulder County Farmer Cultivation Center. Their expertise allows us to advance our vision of an agricultural program on our campus.”
As the program evolves, teachers will be working to incorporate the farm into the school’s curriculum.

The partnership with Shepherd Valley was a natural fit, said Dave Georgis, founder of Everybody Eats. “Our mission is to increase the local food producing capacity in Boulder County. We want to increase the amount of food that is grown locally and eaten locally.”

In order to do this, Everybody Eats has started a farmer training program: the Boulder County Farmer Cultivation Center. The program has both a hands-on component, giving interns responsibility for a particular section or crop in the garden; and a classroom component in which they will learn about the business of farming.
Georgis said, “We’re going to cover everything from developing business plans, how the water systems work, how to find financing, marketing. Everything they need to know to launch a viable business.”

The hoop house will be used for starting seeds and to extend the growing season of crops such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. The 1.5 acre plot will be farmed as a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Families from the community have bought shares and will be working with interns from the BCFCC to plant, tend and harvest the vegetables.

As the season progresses, each member family will receive a share of the produce that is grown. Four shares have been designated as donations to low-income families in the community.
The construction of the hoop house required a waiver of the conservation easement that governs the Shepherd Valley property. When the school purchased the land in 1990, it was zoned for agricultural use, and development was restricted to five acres of the inner campus.

Georgis said, “According to Boulder County Land Use, the hoop house isn’t even a structure that would require a permit, but because we were dealing with the open space conservation easement, we had to get their approval. Fortunately, they saw that this was in line with their goals of encouraging farming and food production in Boulder County so the staff was very helpful.”
For more information on Shepherd Valley Waldorf School, see www.shepherdvalley.org. For information on Everybody Eats or the Boulder County Farmer Cultivation Center, see www.everybody-eats.org.

Photo by Juliette Wells
Raising the Hoop House at Shepherd Valley Waldorf School Farm