{"id":2447964,"date":"2019-08-25T18:16:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-26T00:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/family-community-and-fantastic-produce\/"},"modified":"2019-08-25T18:16:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-26T00:16:00","slug":"family-community-and-fantastic-produce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/family-community-and-fantastic-produce\/","title":{"rendered":"Family, community and fantastic produce"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Glenn Austin walks through his apple orchard where he uses a technique called grafting to create unique apple varieties.<\/strong>
Kelli Duncan | Special to the Daily<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

When you visit the Austin Family Farm in Paonia, it is immediately apparent that it\u2019s an operation rooted in strong values of family, community and environmental stewardship.<\/p>\n

The Austin family has always believed in supporting their community through food education, which is why it was an easy decision for them to begin partnering with the Community Market, a local hunger-relief project, to improve access to local produce for low-income individuals in Eagle County.<\/p>\n

A family legacy<\/p>\n

Patriarch and owner Glenn Austin started the farm as a small orchard in 1993, but farming has been part of his family history dating back to the 1700s.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ancestor fought in the Revolutionary War and got a land grant in Tennessee, where I grew up,\u201d Austin said. \u201cMy family has been farming ever since and my brother still farms that property in Tennessee.\u201d<\/p>\n

While much of his farming equipment dates back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, Austin\u2019s dedication to crafting new seed varieties and growing high-quality, nutritious produce at altitude that keeps customers asking for his product by name.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s kind of a science to it, and there\u2019s an art to it, and the art is what you strive for,\u201d Austin said. \u201cYou give me paper and a paintbrush, I\u2019m not an artist at all. But with seeds and soil, I like to think I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

This juxtaposition of experimentation and tradition is illustrated in the row of brand-new hazelnut trees, planted right alongside a row of green bean plants whose seed variety has been in the Austin family for generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandmother got this variety of green beans for her wedding,\u201d he said. \u201cHer aunt gave her a little handkerchief with a few green bean seeds in it for a wedding present \u2014 that\u2019s how poor they were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austin never forgot his humble beginnings, which he said taught him the value of hard work at a young age. He went to school and earned a degree in agriculture, later going on to earn a master\u2019s as well.<\/p>\n

After working for four years with Monsanto Chemical Co., Austin decided that he was going to run his farm differently by using less chemicals and, instead, rely on more natural methods to keep his soil and his plants healthy.<\/p>\n

The value of eating local<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we use cover crops, we\u2019re improving the soil in a natural way. You see, here, we\u2019re using legumes,\u201d Austin said as he pointed to the unruly plants growing at the base of his apricot trees. \u201cThey\u2019re producing the nitrogen and nutrients for the trees to use, so we\u2019re basically growing our own soil health instead of having to buy chemical fertilizers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Down to the squirming earwigs, Austin respects every part of the biological cycle that has supported farming in the North Fork Valley for generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t just go kill something because at some point or other it could be harmful, because it may be a very beneficial thing,\u201d Austin said. \u201cThe conventional farmers are convinced that if they didn\u2019t use all the fertilizers and chemicals, that you\u2019d starve because they couldn\u2019t grow enough food. But there\u2019s something called nutrient-dense food which goes a lot further.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to an article by the Bionutrient Food Association, \u201cNutrient Density is the end product of a highly functioning biological system, where the crop harvested has a measurably larger quantity of a broad spectrum of different minerals, vitamins, phytonutrients, and antioxidants than its counterparts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I like to help people understand: You don\u2019t have to have the perfect-looking stuff from the grocery stores that tastes like cardboard,\u201d Austin said. \u201cYou can have something that really has great flavor and great nutritional value but may have some defects on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austin pointed out that the produce we typically see in the grocery store, which has been shipped from large growers across the country, has less flavor because farmers are forced to harvest produce early so it lasts longer. For this reason, large growing companies often use chemical flavor additives to ensure that produce still tastes good to the consumer.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo to keep it cheap, the average piece of food that you buy in the store has traveled about 1,200 miles to get to that store,\u201d Austin said. \u201cWhat we try to do is very simple. We don\u2019t pick fruit before it\u2019s ready \u2014 we harvest it when it\u2019s ripe, when it should be picked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly Liken, food systems director for the Community Market, understands the value of eating local from her experience as a professional chef. However, buying local produce at the Eagle County farmers markets can be financially challenging for low-income families.<\/p>\n

For this reason, Liken made it a priority to ensure that customers coming to shop at the Community Market have access to local, nutrient-dense produce.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal produce means something,\u201d Liken said. \u201cWe are bringing together a community and keeping it sustainable when we are eating locally. We are eating food that is intended to be eaten in that season and therefore we\u2019re a part of creating and nurturing an authentic and real community food system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family and community<\/p>\n

Austin helps the Community Market by aggregating produce from his farm and his neighbors\u2019 farms and selling it to them at a reduced rate of $1 per pound. The Community Market is currently sourcing between 750 and 1,000 pounds of North Fork Valley produce every week with the help of Austin Family Farm.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustin Family Farm has become the perfect partner for us at the Community Market,\u201d Liken said. \u201cThe Austin family truly believes in what we are doing, and we\u2019ve been so lucky to have them working with us all summer to close the loop on such a great distribution challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family and community are important to the Austins. The farm is run entirely by the Austin family, except for harvest time, when they hire local high school kids to help out.<\/p>\n

In addition to their partnership with the Community Market, Austin and his wife, Tony, open their home to around 30 to 60 students every week to show them the farm and teach them about agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell part of the reason why we\u2019re here in Colorado is because we enjoy helping others,\u201d Austin said. \u201cI\u2019m glad that I can make a difference in people\u2019s health while also making a living for myself and for my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Austin, farming has always been about much more than making a living. It has been about connecting with the land to create something valuable, a legacy to leave to his grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have four generations on this farm right now,\u201d Austin said. \u201cI\u2019m the first, then there\u2019s my daughter, three grandsons and two great-grandkids, and they\u2019re 5 and 3. But you see, that makes a difference. You\u2019ve got a lot invested. When you\u2019ve got life invested, money doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelli Duncan is a marketing and volunteer coordinator with the Community Market, a project of Eagle Valley Community Foundation.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glenn Austin walks through his apple orchard where he uses a technique called grafting to create unique apple varieties.Kelli Duncan | Special to the Daily When you visit the Austin Family Farm in Paonia, it is immediately apparent that it\u2019s an operation rooted in strong values of family, community and environmental stewardship. The Austin family […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2447964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 16:20:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}