Every Friday morning, from May 22 to Oct. 16, Ridgway’s Hartwell Park is filled with vendors and buyers attending the local farmers market. As the market celebrates its 26th anniversary, it continues to fulfill its goal of “providing the community with fresh local goods and produce,” in the words of market manager Jessie Bergman. “Local,” however, covers a wide range of places, including the West End, with three booths from the area at the time of publication: Cypress Roots, which could not be reached for interview, L Bar Bell Ranch and Hank’s Hens.
Cypress Roots, based in Nucla, is a small farm on which trained herbalist Nicole Brandt crafts tinctures, teas, salves and other products. Brandt also does consultations to support clients with her products.
L Bar Bell Ranch’s booth is run by Norwood's Liz Lukaszewski. Lukaszewski brings her kids to the market as well. There, they sell products from the pigs on the family farm and from beef tallow sourced through their neighbor, Jacob Gordon, also from Norwood. They sell handmade soap, lotion and balms, a product range Lukaszewski came to naturally, sourcing from her three Hereford pigs, eight adult Navajo Churro sheep and their five lambs.
“We butchered quite a few pigs, and we want to make sure that we’re using everything possible, and then we ended up with some beef tallow from a neighbor, and then we started making some other things too,” she said of the process.
Lukazewski has a busy schedule. Last year, the ranch began selling at the Norwood Farmers Market, which opens every Thursday. This year, Lukaszewski added a booth at a farmer’s market in Colona on the first Tuesday of each month, as well as Friday’s market at Hartwell Park. She notes that Ridgway’s market is different: “I think it’s just a lot bigger, so a lot more people come through,” she said. “I feel like just adding one more market lets us have more court and sell more.”
Hank’s Hens is run by Henri (who goes by Hank) Spaan. Spaan is based in Norwood, though he is from Chicago originally. Last year, he began farming for himself, leasing Indian Ridge Farms, and selling chicken meat at Ridgway and Norwood’s markets; this year, he added Mountain Village’s market, on Wednesdays. Spaan gets batches of chickens beginning in April, and they arrive weekly until July. He processes and sells them from early June through October. Spaan emphasizes the value of his location in coping with the demands of running regular booths in addition to his poultry business, which processes about a thousand birds in a season.
“What’s unique about the San Miguel area is that, as a producer, in an hour’s radius, you’ve got several really excellent markets,” Spaan noted. “It’s really easy to sell your products and get out to an audience.”
Of course, farming on a small scale has its difficulties. This summer, many vendors have been affected as heat reaches near-record highs across the Western Slope, according to data by the National Weather Service.
“It’s been hard with the pigs, for sure, because they don’t do well in heat,” said Lukaszewski. "We have to make sure that they have enough mud to keep them happy.” It will also be more difficult this year to source grass and hay for the sheep, Lukaszewski added.
Spaan agreed that the drought has created difficulties.
“[The heat] definitely stresses the birds out a little bit, but I give them plenty of shade,” said Spaan. “Mostly it’s just that the pasture’s burning up.” Spaan foresees larger consequences for cattle ranchers. “If we don’t start cutting herd sizes, we’re going to lose all of our topsoil, and it’s going to turn into a dust bowl,” he warned.
At the moment, however, the farmer’s market is thriving.
“It’s just a great vibe, being in the park with the views,” said Bergman. It continues to support sustainable, small-scale producers and provide locals with fresh, organic, local food. There are benefits for other parties as well.
“[The chickens] are raised and processed on the farm and fed organic grains, moved daily to fresh pastures, so they’re happy birds,” said Spaan.
