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Our farm has increased productivity in each year of its existence. It produced 4000 lbs. of organic produce in 2006, 6500 lbs. last year, and we are still tabulating for this season, but are already sure of another huge increase. It isn't easy for our farm team. It takes a lot of strenuous hours.
I've worked tirelessly to maintain a farm that doesn't cut corners. We go through all of the problems that a farm must endure. This year we had to deal with a season that was shortened by more than a month due to a long winter and horrendous wind storms early in the spring. We still managed to provide all of the produce to the restaurant once the gardens became fruitful. We deal with loss and we have made the commitment to staying local, which means if we are out of something, we are out. It could be that we didn't grow enough for the demand or that we put too much demand on the soil. Give us a couple years on that one, we're always getting better. We are a no-harm farm, which means we live in harmony with the living organisms on the farm and grow enough food for them too. We have chickens that live on the farm in a chicken tractor. We have honeybees that are healthy and a part of creating sustainability. Bees are disappearing in many parts of the world, not here. Our farm has a straw-bale greenhouse and a 50 foot hoop house, and because of that we still produce lettuce into the frost season for salads, cilantro, rainbow chard, spinach, and we still have squash, pumpkins, Jerusalem Artichokes (which once roasted could be "indistinguishable brown tubers" to someone who doesn't know what they're looking at.) We have local apples and have had fruit all year from our orchards and trees around Boulder.
I hope that this reply can give a more accurate description of the goals of Hell's Backbone Grill and their farm. I know that the owners of this restaurant are not in it for the money. They don't make any. Have you seen the prices of organic food? There is a lot of cost that a restaurant guest must be aware of. These owners are working with love for the earth, for the people that come through Boulder, and for like-minded employees like me.





