Lester Karplus, Boulder County. Last year was our first attempt to begin scaling our farming adventure and many people have been enquiring as to how it is going. I thought I would share some of what is happening.

This all began as a result of the Cold Springs fire that decimated more than 25 acres of our forest land.  Since insurance only covered a few acres, the challenge was whether we lived in a burned-out forest or did something else with it.  We had already put in a tenth acre garden in 2015 and experimented with growing quinoa and can boast about some of the best fed elk in the area.  

In 2017 we worked with Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance in testing ancient and heritage grain growing at 8500 feet and are the highest test farm in the alliance at this time.  We grew 20 test crops and found a few that did well. As a result, we decided to scale the wheat, spelt and quinoa production on a couple acre plot that was fenced to keep the elk and deer out.  Mark Smith helped us to prepare the land that was full of mine holes stumps and a lot of granite. That summer he hauled in dozens of loads of manure and we worked it into the ashy, woody, granite soil that looked pretty impossible to grow much except rocks, some thistles and other hardy weeds.

We planted Turkey Red wheat in one acre in the fall of 2018 along with Spelt, a relative of the wheat family. Turkey Red wheat originates from the Ukraine and was first introduced to Kansas in the 1870’s by Mennonite immigrants. The Turkey Red is enjoying a resurgence among organic farmers and small scale farms due to its deep root system and hardy nature.  We hand planted the wheat and spelt with an Earthway seeder and the planting itself took a couple days.

Despite a late start to summer and drought at the end of the summer this year, the wheat had a high germination and maturity. The one thing we did not consider was a plethora of ground squirrels and chipmunks who had no predators in the area. They discovered the rich nutty taste and nailed down about 60% of the crop before we got to harvest.  The spelt had a very low germination rate and modest maturity, definitely more affected by low watering. Note that we dry farm, so no water inputs are added to the system. We rely heavily on the hydrology of the mountain and the ability of the crops to grow deep roots. All said and done, with the help of many friends, we hand harvested over a 10 day period a lot of wheat.

Having hand-threshed the harvest in prior years, I realized that scaling up would make my Ace bucket, chain and drill obsolete and so I ordered a small gas-powered thresher from China that arrived just in time to help with the threshing.  Despite doing a modest job of separating wheat from chaff, a few hand winnows with a fan and a couple buckets yielded over 100 pounds of wheat. (Chipmunks cleaned up the spills afterwards.)

Baking with the Turkey Red wheat was great.  After grinding some of the wheat into flour and baking a half a dozen loaves of bread, we finally mastered an excellent loaf. We fondly named it Ned Bread.

Farming at 8500 feet is not something to quit your day job to do.  A back of the napkin calculation says my great grandchildren could make money selling my farm equipment as antiques in 75 years. But it has been a great journey to understand that we can sustainably grow food up at this elevation. In addition, this year we grew Purple Mountain corn, quinoa and potatoes.  The quinoa did not do well with the drought and while it looked beautiful as it flowered, seed heads did not develop properly.  We’ll try again next year.  We have planted, (with a new seed drill), our winter wheat again along with five more test plots and look to a successful crop again next year. Anyone wanting to try their hand, is welcome to get some free seeds to test in their garden. 

(Originally published in the October 31, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)