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The Farm at Sunrise Ranch Newsletter
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January 2011
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In this Issue |
:: Farm Tours
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:: 2011 Beef Harvest Dates and Prices
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:: Office News
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:: Deliveries
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:: Camp Sunrise
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:: Markets and Fairs
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:: Storefront
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:: Interns
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:: New Faces on the Farm
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:: Garden
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::Chickens
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:: Visiting Groups
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We’re in the planning phase of the year here at the Farm at Sunrise Ranch. Of course, it’s also time for reflection upon what the past year has brought us. 2010 was a great year. Our garden was tremendous, our pastures continued to improve, we’ve connected with lots of customers and other well-wishers, and have gotten to work with some wonderful folks. We’re raring to go for 2011! Sure, we farmers get to take a little break in the winter but we’re still working on some projects around the ranch and getting our cows in a row for the coming season. We’ve always got several irons in the fire. We’re rearranging some responsibilities, trying to add a few things and do what we already do even better.
If you want to hear more about the day-to-day on the farm, we’ve got a Facebook page you can check out. Be our friend!
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Deliveries
This year we really ramped up our delivery service to the Denver area. It’s important to us to provide this service – we save everyone an awful lot of gas and vehicle emissions by going out to our customers down south once per month. Of course, it would be great if there were grassfed beef available a little closer for them but we know that for real grassfed beef, the ranches are few and far between. Still, all our deliveries are within the “100 mile diet” radius. In 2011 we’ll be changing the delivery schedule from a monthly date to dates that coordinate more directly with our harvests.
2011 Delivery dates:
June 30
July 18
August 18
September 15
October 6
November 5
other information about how you can get our beef is here.
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New Faces on the Farm
Scott Peterson joined our farm team part time this summer. He’s Anita’s (the Farm Office Manager) husband and is learning all sorts of things that will be useful as they work towards finding their own farm. He brings a wealth of skills with him: everything from being a 2nd dan blackbelt in Japanese swordsmanship to having been a ballroom dance instructor for many years. He actually enjoys being outside during inclement weather. He enjoys having a reason to be out there drinking in the beauty of it.
Kate Fallon came as an intern this summer and has stayed on. She's from South Carolina and has lived in Philadelphia and Denver. Now she's a full-time farm hand which means she does some of everything from shoveling to being at the famers' market. She and her dog, Onward, can be seen training for a marathon on the roads around the farm.
Susannah and Gary Noyes have lived on Sunrise Ranch for years and have farmed in western New York for much of their lives. Gary will be focusing our new pastured layer hen operation while Susannah will be half-time managing our garden while continuing her yummy work in the Sunrise kitchen making meals and preserving the farm's bounty.
Patrick Padden (Patrick at sunriseranch.org) and his partner Stephanie Powers welcomed Charlotte Pilar Padden into the world on December 11, 2010. She’s a magnificent baby who is pretty agreeable. It’s fun to see Patrick with Charlotte in a sling walking around Sunrise – it’s almost like he’s the pregnant one now.
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2011 Cows, bulk prices, and harvests
We really like our processor, Steving Meats. They’ve really helped us refine our standard cuts and have made it so we can offer a lot of choice to our bulk customers. Plus they’ve allowed us to bring our interns and even several customers in for tours of the plant. Even though it seemed crazy, they even saved all the bones and fat from our cows for us when we asked. We did try one other place this season when Steving didn’t have a date for us but it only confirmed that we really like Karen and Jay over there in Kersey.
We’ll be finishing a few more cows in 2011 than last year (50 this year, 45 in 2010). We’ve decided to sell 19 as bulk beef (quarters, halves, and wholes) and the rest for cuts for our packages, loose cuts, and for our own kitchen.
We have our harvest dates set for 2011. These are the approximate dates the bulk beef will be available:
1. June 27
2. August 6
3. August 27
4. September 24
5. October 29
Our prices on bulk this year are finally out. We crunched a lot of numbers and tried to predict our expenses for 2011 including anticipated higher cattle prices. This is what we came up with:
Whole beef $4.10 per hanging pound half beef $4.15 per hanging pound and split quarter beef $4.20 per hanging pound. Those prices include all harvesting, butchering, vacuum-packaging, and delivery to the farmers’ market, pick up at the ranch or (for our customers to the south) free delivery to the Denver/Boulder/Longmont area). We deliver once per month. And we’ll help you with the butchering instructions.
We’re now taking deposits on bulk beef in our online store. It may seem a little early to think about this summer and fall, but, to be honest, we’re not sure when we might sell out. For reference, in 2008 we sold 14.5 cows this way and sold out in November. In 2010 we sold 20 cows in bulk and sold out in early September. So if you’re sure you want a lot of beef it may be a good idea to put in your order early. The information is on our website here.
For those who like statistics, our 2010 bulk cows ranged from 467 to 568 hanging pounds and averaged 533 pounds. This compares to the 2009 bulk herd which was 410-660 with an average of 548 pounds. As for package weight (which depends a lot on how customers get the beef butchered), in 2010 they ranged from 308-433 and averaged 373 pounds. In 2009 it was 264-444 with an average of 377. So we tightened up our ranges last year with a slight drop in averages. Our cut rates (package weight / hanging rate) are averaging 70% which is really quite nice.
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Camp Sunrise
Last year Patrick and his fiancée Stephanie, along with Nicky Martens, organized a super fun, totally exciting, state-licensed summer camp called Camp Sunrise. Through fund raising efforts such as “The Very Vivacious Variety Show,” a silent auction, juggling ball and hoop sales and thanks to generous donors, Camp Sunrise was able to bring 9 children between the ages of 8 and 10 to camp out at Sunrise for 5 days. Camp Sunrise was filled with nature exploration, leadership experiences, permaculture, arts and crafts, astronomy, dramatic arts, wholesome meals and snacks, and of course hours of pool time!
This year Camp Sunrise will take place in the first week of August (August 1-5) and will be welcoming children ages 8-12. The cost is $300 for 5 days/ 4 nights, including all meals. Prior to Camp Sunrise we will be putting on another extravagant, excellent, entertaining, and invigorating variety show to raise funds to provide financial aid to selected participants. Contact Stephanie (spowers at emnet.org) if you want your business to be featured in our silent auction. Camp Sunrise is non-profit and is open to receiving donations of any kind. Check out our website for more information.
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Markets
For farmer's markets, we started out the year with Be Local’s Winter Market in the Opera Galleria in downtown Ft Collins and went to the first couple of markets on Drake Road in April. We took a bit of a break and then attended our regular market with the Larimer County Farmers’ Market in Old Town Ft Collins until mid-October. In November we began the winter market series again but this time Be Local also included two dates in Loveland. We’re really happy to have a venue like that in our home town. We really like where we’ve been this year and haven’t felt the need to expand too much. We love our regular customers, the new folks we meet (northern Colorado folks are so informed about their food!), the locations, and the organizations who put the markets on. Next year we plan to continue pretty much as we have.
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Farm Tours
We’re continuing to offer tours of our farm in 2011. These are a lot of fun: we all introduce ourselves and then take a walk to see the pastures and cows as well as our garden, grounds, compost area, and our wildlands. You’ll get an introduction to pasture land ecology, water in the West, permaculture, and organic food production. Then we have a homemade snacks and a prize drawing. You can buy, order, or pick up our beef at the tour or just come out to see how it’s done. We encourage the whole family to come. We try to provide activities for kids 3 and up and, with prior notice, we can accommodate those with mobility restrictions.
2011 tour dates (all on Sundays, from 2:15 to 5:30):
June 12
July 10
August 14
September 11
October 2
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Our Interns
Last year the farm had seven interns working in our fields, pastures, and kitchen. Some stayed 3 months while others have become permanent employees. Alisha and Dave came to us from New Hampshire, Kate from Philadelphia, Julie and Avana from Ft Collins, and Shannon from Chicago. Dave is now back in New Hampshire rocking the farm lifestyle, Alisha did a practicum in physical therapy in Chicago and is now storming southern California, Shannon decided that Denver was the place to be and moved out west, Kate is now a hand here at the farm (see above), and Avana has graduated from CSU. We have just been blessed with a group of folks who came out here to work and learn and simply enjoy life. We’re so grateful for their fantastic spirits and all their labor over the season.
We’re taking a break from our internship program for 2011 but we’ll still be finding ways to provide education in our community. Contact Patrick Padden (Patrick at sunriseranch.org) if you’d like more information. |
Storefront at the Farm
Scott, Kate, and Anita are whipping the farm store into shape. Of course, right now in Winter our beef inventory is pretty low so we’re going to take the approach of opening the store up for a couple of days a month until the season really starts up. We'll be posting open times on our website to let folks know until we have a regular schedule. When that happens we’re hoping to be able to sell some of extra vegetables from our garden or in the store, too, and maybe a few other items.
To get to the store, either go south from Masonville on County Rd 27 or north from Hwy 34 on County Rd 27. Go west on Country Rd 29 one mile. Turn right at the second Sunrise Ranch Rd. Our store is the 2nd building on the right with the patio and the signs. Directions are on our website.
Opening an on-farm store is a learning process for us so we’re figuring it out as we go along. We’ll keep you posted!
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 Chickens
We're excited here at Sunrise to get our pastured poultry operation going! Gary Noyes is heading up this new venture. We'll be ordering 150 Rhode Island Red and Buff Orpington chicks soon and brooding them in our freshly cleaned-out chicken house. When they're ready the girls will move into the eggmobile we'll be building and following behind the cattle as they're rotated through the pastures. Most of the eggs they'll eventually produce (by August, we hope) will be used here at Sunrise in our commercial kitchen for our community and our conference guests but if we have any extra we'll be offering them in our farm store. We'll keep you posted!
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 Things in the Office
In the office, we were busy last year adding a recipe page to our website (and lots of new recipes, too). Plus there is now a page devoted to listing our prices and availability for cuts. We wrote a new brochure to help folks find their way around beef cuts, plus a new form to try to streamline butchering instructions for our bulk customers. A big change is that we got a whole new database system to keep track of customers and such. Jamie Wilch helped us design it from scratch and we’re still refining it as we start using it for different things. It’s been (mostly) a big help so far. We do all this because we really enjoy providing what we think is the best customer service out there when it comes to beef. It’s important to us that our customers are happy and feel confident buying, cooking, and eating our beef.
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Visiting Groups
Patrick, our programs manager, hosted several groups that used the farm as part of their experience at Sunrise Ranch. The Cesar Chavez Organic Gardening Project with the I Have A Dream Foundation brought nine “Dreamers” to the property to camp out for three gorgeous evenings. High up on our secluded hillside campsite the group of nine youths and two facilitators practiced survival skills such as natural shelter making, various fire-building techniques, sensory awareness and engaged in discussion on the life and legacy of Cesar Chavez. During the day the group participated in hands on work in the garden. They planted herbs in our permaculture garden and harvested veggies for a big meal they prepared for the Sunrise farmers as a gesture of reciprocity. Here is what they had to say:
“The folks at Sunrise were great hosts and intrigued us with discussion around the ecological importance of sustainable agriculture. They really got us thinking about the amount of pollution, water, and fossil fuel that it takes to maintain our current industrialized agricultural paradigm. Seeing their way of farming provided our group with a hopeful perspective on the complex issue of modern food production.”
We hope to welcome the Cesar Chavez Organic Gardening Project back to Sunrise again next season!!
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Sustainable Living Fair
This summer we were at the Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Association’s Sustainable Living Fair in Fort Collins. Our own Helena Barrera took the plunge and we were one of 6 food vendors for the thousands of people who attended that weekend. We sold our own grassfed beef burgers along with healthier chips and sodas. We introduced a lot of people to grassfed and filled a lot of tummies. Incidentally, one of our red carrots also won second place in the “ugly but edible contest.”
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Garden
Our garden manager for the 2010 season, Sylvan Zimmerman, gave us so much variety it was dizzying. She planned over 220 different varieties of vegetables from early spinach to late kale. Even the watermelons and cantaloupes were respectable (not easy this far north). We had treats like red popcorn, snap peas and lemon cucumbers (even flowers!) as well as garden workhorses like zucchini and onions. Sylvan had it all. Of course, Patrick and our interns had a lot to do with it too: planting, weeding, irrigating, and harvesting. We wish Sylvan good luck as she goes on to work with Windsor Dairy, Queen of the Meadow, and Cresset Community Farm.
Patrick Padden and Susanah Noyes are taking over the garden duties (among others) this next season. Production will be scaled down a bit and focused in on fewer crops. Plus they have lots of permacultural ideas they want to put into place. If we have any extra produce (after our community and cenference needs) we'll be offering it in our store at the farm.
100 Sunrise Ranch Rd Loveland, CO 80538 970-679-4330
TheFarm@sunriseranch.org http://www.sunriseranch.org/farm
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