JULY 25, 2013 BY
This past Tuesday YVSC and 55+ locals and visitors toured the local permaculture gardens and greenhouse of Elkstone Farm. The farm’s seedhouse, 3 large hoop warm-houses, pond garden, and and all-season temperate greenhouse impressed all!
The tour was lead by the greenhouse designer Michael Thompson of Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, and hosted by Elkstone Farm owner Teri Huffington and staff Kim Brooks, Jeanie Berger, and Chloe Harstein.
View the video on our You Tube page here: www.youtube.com/yvsustainability
About Elkstone Farm
Vision: We are dedicated to responsible stewardship of the land, in the spirit of our valley’s agricultural heritage. We contribute to our vibrant, local community, by providing the finest, sustainably produced products from our farm to your table. By sharing knowledge and resources, we strive to inspire healthy living now and in the future.
Taking a cue from the valley’s earlier inhabitants, we’re endeavoring to bring commercial produce back to Strawberry Park. In the early 1900s, this fertile area just north of downtown Steamboat Springs, was known for its commercially-successful Remington strawberries. Plants yielded large berries that were ripe long after plants from lower elevation farms had stopped bearing fruit. Prosperous years promised local farmers a generous profit, but the boom ended in 1916. More
Caring about the environment doesn’t stop with concern about how we grow our food. It also includes trying to be a good steward of all our resources and evaluating options for optimally managing them. At Elkstone Farm we implement multiple approaches to help steward the land. These include: Permaculture and Organic Gardening, Building Practices, and Alternative Energy. More
About Michael Thompson
Michael Thompson was inspired in the arts of gardening, food preservation and cooking as a youth, visiting his Grandmothers farm in Ohio every summer with his family. When he and his wife bought a small miners cottage in Basalt to raise their family, they rejoiced in the old apple tree, and raised up a healthy garden, along with their two daughters. Michael took a gardening class from Jerome Osentowski, director at the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, and found enough inspiration to last the rest of his life. In 2007, he began working with Jerome in Ecosystems Design, combining his profession of architecture with the art of permaculture. In addition, “raising ladies” gave Michael the inspiration to learn the art of bread baking and to hone his skills in cooking, and when his girls began leaving for college, he began to learn the art of homebrewing beer, still one of his favorite pursuits.
Previous homes on YVSC Annual Green Gardens Tour|
In July of 2012 we joined the Garden Tour with our Talking Green program and visited the Lewis homes, Pura Vida Gardens, and the Oak Street Community Garden (downtown).
Blog post with videos and images
In October of 2010, we walked through four downtown locations: the Fielding, Rapp/Roehrs, and Sadler/Marxuach homes and the brand new Oak Street Community Garden
Blog post with images
