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Small Farms are Big Business
in County's Organic Industry
By Monique Cole
The organic industry is thriving in Boulder County as farmers and
wholesalers cultivate new ideas and new business opportunities.
The number of farms in Boulder County
with organic certification from Colorado's Department of Agriculture
has increased by over 60 percent in the past five years. To obtain
an organic license, farms must be free of chemical fertilizers
and pesticides for three years.
In 1997 just under 13 percent of the
certified farms in the state were located in Boulder County,
but they represented less than half a percent of the state's
organic acreage. The area's organic farms tend to be small, often
family-run, operations. Of the county's 18 certified farms, half
are under 10 acres and all but five are less than 20 acres. Some,
like Jay Hill Farm, sell exclusively at the Boulder County Farmers
Market.
In the peak growing season, owner Chuck
Rozanski wakes before dawn to work in the fields before heading
to his office in Denver where he runs Mile High Comics, one of
the country's largest comic book retailers and mail-order businesses.
After returning home, he heads back to his garden. "No one
should get a romanticized notion of what it is all about,"
he said. "It's a lot of grunt labor."
Still, Rozanski has been organic farming
for over a decade, starting in the early 1980s with two thirds
of an acre in his West Boulder backyard. When his farm outgrew
the garden six years ago, he sold the property and bought a 5-acre
farm near Jay Hill Road and the Diagonal Highway. A new 11,000-square-foot
greenhouse allows year-round cultivation, but he schedules most
of the harvesting for April through November, the Farmers Market
season.
On Saturdays, his wife, Nanette Furman,
and their four daughters, ages 10, 13, 15, and 17, sell their
produce and flowers at the Farmers Market while Rozanski runs
re-supply shuttles as they sell out. "What we bring to the
Farmers Market is extremely fresh," Rozanski said. "It's
often been picked in the last half -hour."
The majority of the 46 regular sellers
at the Boulder County Farmers Market are organic growers and
only about half of those are certified, according to Director
Chris Burke. Without a license, growers can legally call their
produce "organic," but not "certified organic."
Boulder has the biggest farmers market in Colorado and one of
the largest in the country, with annual sales from its farmers
totaling approximately $845,000, Burke added.
There is a large group of "backyard
gardeners" who sell exclusively at the Farmer's Market,
grossing less than $5,000 in a year, Burke stated. But there
are about six larger growers who bring in $40,000 to $60,000
at the Farmers Market alone. For the opportunity to sell directly
to consumers, farmers pay $100 for membership plus 5 percent
of their sales, of which 3.26 percent goes to pay city sales
tax.
"The market is designed to support
ag(riculture) and to be a real community gathering place,"
Burke said. "Originally we allowed any Colorado growers,
now it's narrowed down to Boulder County growers only. They're
some of the best growers you can find in the state, they keep
a watchful eye on trends, you never know what the new crops are
going to be."
One of the farms following a new trend
is Real Live Foods. The company grows wheat grass almost exclusively
in its 1,500-square-foot greenhouse in Niwot. Wheat grass has
a short life cycle, only seven days from seed to harvest in the
summer, according to Matt Gelder, director of operations. Winter's
low light extends the cycle to 11 days.
The grass is sold to Front Range juice
bars and health food stores to be made into a drink popular with
athletes and rich in vitamins, digestive enzymes, and chlorophyll.
The product's popularity is "growing by leaps and bounds,"
Gelder said.
Real Live Foods is likewise growing,
about 15 to 20 percent annually, Gelder estimated. Currently
the company has five full-time employees during the summer; three
year-round. Owner David Ramey plans to build another greenhouse
this year and is drawing up a business plan to attract venture
capital investors.
Chet Anderson, owner of The Fresh Herb
Co., has never received the assistance of outside investors to
build his 16-year-old business. "I just boot-strapped the
thing along," he said. "It's still a struggle, but
business is strong."
Anderson explained that it is easier
to grow organically in Boulder's climate than elsewhere in the
country. "In this climate, we don't have a bad pest problem
and we're able to maintain fertility with cover crops and compost."
During the busy season, May through
October, six employees work on the farm. Anderson owns 10 acres
and leases another 18 acres north of Boulder where he grows herbs,
salad greens, and plants. "We try to split our things equally
between wholesalers, selling direct to restaurants and grocery
stores, and selling at the Farmers Market," Anderson said.
Louisville is home to a multi-million-dollar
organic wholesaler, Boulder Fruit Express. The company supplies
organic products to grocery stores and restaurants mainly in
the Rocky Mountains. "In summertime almost all our growers
are in Colorado," said founder and president Chris Webster.
"In winter we buy from Florida, Washington, California,
and Oregon."
"Our margins are low, about two
percent, so we move a lot of product," Webster said. Close
to 95 percent of the products sold by Boulder Fruit Express is
organic. In addition to produce, the company wholesales dairy
products, like the Boulder-based Horizon line, and organic foods
such as tabouli and other salads.
"We started as a little fruit stand
hauling fruit from the Western Slope and selling it at our stand
on 53rd and Arapahoe," Webster said. Four years ago he veered
away from retail to focus on his wholesale business. Now Boulder
Fruit Express has grown to employ 25 people. Considering the
diversity of its products, the company has also outgrown its
name.
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