Sandra Dobiash was diligently weeding through selections of root vegetables Saturday morning at the Durango Farmers Market, searching for the right ones to stuff in her sack. Beets, radishes – she filled a bag and thanked the person who grew them.
“Most of the food today is questionable,” she said. “What you get and where you get it. Here, you’re able to talk to the people directly.”
Dobiash and a growing number of others prefer buying locally grown food, and that’s just what Colorado Proud’s Choose Colorado Tour was trying to promote this weekend in Durango.
“It really connects people to their farmers,” said Wendy White with Colorado Proud, part of the state’s Department of Agriculture. “From the field to the plate.”
White said agriculture is a top 10 sector of the state’s economy, contributing $40 billion annually and employing 172,000 people. Thirty-one million acres, nearly half of the state’s 66 million, is used for agriculture. More than 36,000 farms are in operation, and many of those are small, local producers. In 15 years, Colorado Proud has grown from 65 members in 1999 to 2,000 today.
“It makes a difference when people select a Colorado product,” White said. “They’re supporting farmers and ranchers. They’re supporting the state’s economy and their communities.”
This year, the 15-stop tour will be selecting ingredients for a commemorative lunch where top chefs will prepare them for Gov. John Hickenlooper and John Salazar, the state’s commissioner of agriculture. Durango producers Fields to Plate Produce of Hesperus will be providing beets – hearty root vegetables that grow well in their temperamental climate at 7,600 feet.
“We feel fortunate about getting this produce out of the county and on to the state level,” said James Plate on Saturday. “A lot of work goes in to this.”
Plate and partner Max Fields, lifelong friends who couldn’t have asked for better last names for their pursuits, put their heads together while attending Fort Lewis College. Last year, they yielded 14,000 pounds of beets and carrots from their single-acre farm.
Plate said their vegetables are stored in a root cellar made in the 1920s. From the previous season’s harvest, they sold produce into January.
The tour will gather other crops from across the state for the Aug. 27 governor’s luncheon at the History Colorado Center in Denver – Yukon Gold potatoes from the San Luis Valley, tomatoes and rhubarb from Boulder, peaches from Palisade, of course, and grapes from Burlington, to name a few.
Plate said growing food for the community in which he lives is fulfilling.
“This is the real deal,” he said. “From farm to table. Each one of those beets was picked by our hands. Pulled right out of the ground. It feels good.”
bmathis@durangoherald.com
