Episode 6: Bromley Farm: Local Food Campus
In this episode we talk about "The Farm" & what it takes to create a local food campus, from the learning curve of executing a functional corn maze all the way down to finding farmers and having animals. We are in our second year of running the farm and we are here to tell you about everything we learned in our first year to make the farm even better this year.
SHOW NOTES:
1:00- Podcast start and an overview of what we will be talking about on today’s episode including the farm and starting a local food campus.
3:50- Kim and Nate talk about the driving force within the local food campus and coming up with the plan for the farm. They talk about how creating farmers' markets made them want to help local farmers.
8:06- How to start a local food campus. They talk about where that started for them. The list of things they wanted to accomplish in the first year, and what they learned about their list being a little too ambitious.
11:30- The corn maze. They talk about the first year's corn maze and the obstacles they had to overcome including replanting the corn, starting over because of no rain in the middle of summer, the irrigation system and all the other fun things they had to deal with during the first year.
15:16- Drip tape. They talk about learning how to create a drip tape irrigation system and it taking much longer than it should have.
23:11- Green corn. They talk about the thing that they thought was so unique about their corn maze, the fact that it was green. Then talk about how quickly they realized that green corn was a bad thing due to what happens when it’s still green and it’s cold outside.
28:31- The wind. They talk about how they didn’t realize how windy it is in Brighton, Colorado where their farm is located. They tell a story of the first year's fall festival and how crazy the wind was and that they are not sure how to prepare for that in year 2.
34:01- The animals at the farm. Kim & Nate talk about all the animals & pests they they have encountered including mice, coyotes, snakes, bobcats, pigeons, black widows, geese, eagles and wild chickens.
40:00- Living on the farm. They talk about moving to the farm this summer into a small house and all the cool stuff they are doing and year 2.
43:25- Strategic Partners. They talk about how they are working with Veterans to Farmers, restaurant owners, farmers, lavender farmers, The Denver Rose Society, The FFA, The Butterfly Pavilion and the Brighton Bee Club and how much those groups have helped them with their plan for the farm.
45:08- Finding farmers. They talk about how difficult it was in year 1 to find farmers. Kim talks about meeting a woman named Josie Hart and how she introduced them to new farmers and people who want to teach classes and do farm to table dinner’s.
53:06- The chickens. They talk about working with the FFA and having kids raise chickens and the crazy story of what happened to the first groups of chickens.
57:26- The different projects the FFA kids are doing like building a shelter, raising animals and helping with various projects.
59:26- What they have learned from year one. They talk about everything they learned in year one so that they can make the farm even better in year two including marketing and working with the American ninja warriors. They also talk about how excited they are for the Farm Festival in October and what they are planning for that.
01:03:29- Wrapping up and final thoughts.
Check out the Farm at:
