Become a Partner!
We are looking for farmers and farm organizations to become co-site collaborators. We meet you where you and your organization is at. We customize mutual agreements where all parties involved contribute what engagement, resources and support they feel comfortable providing.
We envision sharing our mission work with our local communities.
Sign up to connect directly with the farm manager for more logistics on exact site locations and start developing your unique partnership!
From the Grassroots
We’ve started a rabbitry and ordered our chicks and ducklings for Spring 2024 Equinox! As of November 2023, we are finalizing a land agreement for 1/16th of an acre in Bear Valley. We’ll be holding volunteer days to begin bed prep for spring soon.
We are putting out the call for our first eight work csa shares. Contact us at infograssrootsfarmers@gmail.com if you or anyone you know who would be interested!
We are projecting that our new space can start with a small 10-15 csa share perhaps more as we evaluate our new home on its maximum growing compacity!
Rocky Mountain PBS Feature:
Sustainable farming to the rescue
Former Ekar’s Farm Manager Chantae Shor is excited because she says they’ve been able to double their crop yield with organic and sustainable farming practices, like building up the microbes in the soil.
“They are the little micro bacteria that are able to communicate between the roots and the plants to let them know that the nutrients in the soil are more bioavailable to them,” she said, adding that at Ekar, they also don’t practice tractor tilling. “We do all broad forking, so essentially we are taking our broad forks and we are irrigating. We’re not turning over the soil; we’re disturbing the soil as little as possible and those are organic practices.”
A conversation about agriculture in Colorado with farmers and historians.
Dr. Damien Thompson (Frontline Farming), Dr. John Freeman (Adapting to the land), Chantae Shor (Ekar Farms)
Friday 9/23/2022 8:30 AM
Host: Fiona Foster from KGNU Radio
Chantae Shor, [2021 & 2022 season] Farm Manager at Ekar Farms. "We need to Mother our Earth more. Gardening and farming is like an algae net, a net of living threads to lovely encircle what it cannot possibly hold, what will eventually move through it. May we heal ourselves through the soils of the land, reconnect our communities with the true essence of Nature and rebuild our relationships with our Earth and all its living beings together."
Damien Thompson, PhD the Co-Founder and Director of the Center for Food Justice and Health Communities. He also is the Sustainable Food Systems Specialization Lead for CU Boulder’s Masters of the Environment Program. In addition to his training in anthropology, Dr. Thompson also holds a certification in Permaculture Design, an Advanced Permaculture Design certification and a 200-hour Yoga Alliance Teaching Certification. Find out more about FrontlineFarming here.
John F. Freeman is the founder and president emeritus of the Wyoming Community Foundation. He has a PhD in early modern European history from the University of Michigan and is the author of Adapting to the Land, High Plains Horticulture: A History, Black Hills Forestry: A History, and Persistent Progressives. Find Adapting to the Land here.
“Grassroots Farmers is all about cultivating the next generation of growers, so we really want to use this site as a proof of concept of what can be done on a small scale,” said Shor.
Shor said Grassroots is raising funds to build yurts for community gatherings, so people can visit on-site and visually see where their food comes from. Shor said she hopes this sparks a change in how people purchase food.
The farm will follow a hybrid business model, which will include for-profit sales and educational purposes.
“There’s something magical that happens when we all come together and start putting our hands in the dirt,” Shor said. “We’re not just healing ourselves, we’re not just healing the soil, but we’re healing our relationship with one another and also healing our community.”
No Big Till:
Paving the way for the future of farming
2023 Earth Day Speak at Mile High Church Farmer Chantae shares insight on Earth’s Abundance!
March 17, 2023 Farmer Chantae presents Grassroots Farmers start up during Pueblo Food Project’s Sun Soil Water Ag Summit. Grassroots Farmers took home a cash donation of $750.00 that funded their chicken tractor which will be raising chicks and ducklings in Spring 2024 to be an add onto their Community Supported Agriculture shares.
Farmer Chantae speaks at time stamp 53:49-1:10:40.
“A Meaningful blend of community, farming and food!”
—Grassroots Farmers