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‘Homegrown Stories’ features Alliance members
Four Western Colorado Alliance members were recently featured in Homegrown Stories, a project featuring food and farm systems that honor the health of families, the land and our communities.
Scott Horner wants to see the 2018 Farm Bill supporting small scale and family farmers. He calls out problems written in the version voted down by the House of Representatives on May 18th and explains what he and other producers would like to see. The Farm Bill impacts Americans’ everyday lives but most people don’t realize it does not just pertain to farmers and ranchers. See how the Farm Bill affects you.
Monica Wiitanen has been baking bread for decades, but it has only been within the last six years that she can sell her bread legally. The Cottage Food Law changed Monica’s life. She is thankful for the legislation that allows her to do what she loves most — providing delicious, artisan bread to her community. Read about what it took to get her operation up and running.
Ferguson Family Ranches is a true family operation run by Liza 
Clarke, her two sons Roscoe and Tyler Ferguson, and their families. The family’s grass-fed beef operation in Ridgway, Colorado, relies on the health of the land. The Ferguson’s cattle are never given antibiotics or hormones. Their cattle are never grain finished and are fed a strictly organic and vegetarian diet on natural pastures. Their cattle spend all summer grazing on wild natural growth crops at 9,000 ft, in the San Juan Mountains.
Wink Davis gave himself a present on his 60th birthday. He and his wife, Max Eisele, bought a farm in Hotchkiss, Colorado. Today, Wink and Max raise certified organic peaches, apples, wine grapes, table grapes and Babydoll Southdown sheep. And there’s the winery. Mesa Winds Farms & Winery rests in the North Fork Valley, north of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and south of Grand Mesa National Forest.
Read their full stories and others from around the region at Homegrown Stories, a project of the Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC), our Alliance’s regional network. Subscribe to Homegrown Stories to get the latest stories, and be a part of the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.
After working for our Alliance for 32 years, Brenda retired in 2018 and took a two-year hiatus before rejoining the fold as a board member. She is a treasure trove of little known facts about the organization after managing everything from the membership database to our communications. Her other interests include dabbling in a number of artforms, hiking, botany (her college major), t'ai chi and chi gung, and swing dancing. With roots in western Washington state, she has lived in Montrose with her husband Kevin since 1984.