Just in case you were thinking 
I took the summer off, let this post assure you that I’m still kicking. The astute among you, however, may gauge my temporary absence as something more than choosing beach diversion over writing immersion. And you’d be right.
No, I’m not quitting, at least not yet. And in spite of numerous offers from the NFL, I’m not putting on the shoulder pads this season. But once again from atop Mount Muse, the Sirens have beckoned me with a book deal. While the title won’t be known until the day before it goes to press, one contender is “The Old and Rejected Works of Mark Winne.” Fortunately, more upbeat options are in the offing since my plan is to select and assemble some of my essays, articles, and posts going back 20 years. They will be thematically organized in hopes of taking a fresh look at their content as well as reflecting on their current relevance. My publishing partner in crime is Bloomsbury Press, that venerable British book maker who probably views this project with as much anxiety as the generals who witnessed the evacuation of Dunkirk.
I don’t intend to forsake this platform for too long, however, nor will I pass up an opportunity to occasionally give voice to some story that’s just screaming to be told. But I do have to put my nose to the grindstone to complete my contractual obligations—or else!
Southwest Colorado
As a small token of my appreciation for your loyalty, and with the hope that you won’t abandon me in the meantime, I offer some observations from a recent road trip up the western-facing spine of the Rocky Mountains. My route out of New Mexico took me into southwest Colorado and the San Juan Mountains. It was selected in accordance with my remembrances of food, farms, and places past. The landscape ripples with mesas, escarpments, and sweeping meadows whose lush summer grasses are slowly munched into protein by small herds of black angus.
This is also a region replete with innovative small farmers, ranchers, and food system activists as well other members of the creative food classes. My past farm visits to the region include a fruit farmer near Grand Junction who not only grew the best peaches I’d ever eaten, but also invested heavily in farm worker housing. The small homes on his property were giving his workers affordable, high-quality year-round housing, but also the opportunity to settle themselves and their families into the community.
But far and away the most unusual farm “transaction” I’ve ever encountered came from a western Colorado vegetable and poultry farmer who operated a CSA. He had been diagnosed with an operable form of brain cancer, but like too many farmers, he didn’t have health insurance. Fortunately, and generously, one of his CSA members was a brain surgeon who accepted a year’s produce share in return for a very successful tumor removal. As it turns out, the doctor felt he got the better deal!
Though wilderness, dark forests, and wildlife abound, there is little to fear in this rugged part of the state, other than perhaps the politics. You see, crossing Colorado’s southwestern border means that you are entering the Lauren Boebert Zone, better known as Colorado Congressional District 3. Fortunately for her constituents, the gun-toting, trash-talking congresswoman of uncertain intelligence only has a few months left. Her margin of victory in 2022—546 votes, the slimmest of all federal races that year—presented too big a risk for her to run again against her Democratic opponent, Adam Frisch. But for a woman who never says never, her and her carpetbag slipped over the Rockies one night to become the Republican congressional candidate in the state’s more solidly Republican eastern 4th District. She’s up against a tough Democratic opponent, Tricia Calvarese who may save the good people of eastern Colorado from the stigma of being represented by Boebert. As the Colorado cowboys say, “No brain and no shame, cause nothing but pain.”
My path takes me into the town of Durango (population 20,000, with a margin of error of +/-2%) whose robust food scene far exceeds its size. Set amidst stunning scenery and with a downtown core that retains much of that Old West charm, its ever-expanding edges are overly encrusted with uninspired growth that exists mostly in service to motor vehicles. Nevertheless, Durango’s popularity persists driving up the number of new settlers by 20 percent over the past decade. Native Americans and growing Hispanic communities also continue to deepen and enrich a culture that had, until recently, remained largely white.
Follow the road north through Durango for about 12 miles on a course that parallels the narrow-gauge scenic railroad and you’ll reach James Ranch. In the universe of foodies, James Ranch is the citadel, some might say the holy temple of local agricultural perfection, a place so in harmony with both community and nature that one could be forgiven for thinking that it was the original blueprint for Eden.
I’m sitting in the outside patio at the James Ranch Grill and Café with Jim Dyer, a long-time Durango food activist and small farmer, taking in a multi-million-dollar view. Stretched out before us is 400-acres of one of the best managed cattle grazing lands in the West. The cows eat for short periods on sections of no more than 2 or 3 acres at a time before they are moved to a new location. This is a process I witnessed during a previous visit to the ranch where one person adjusts a few electrified strands of wire fencing, then slowly moves the herd to an adjoining section of pasture. The whole process of moving the cattle took no more than an hour. This low-intensity form of ranching is easy on one’s body and lifestyle, makes for no-stressed animals, and produces the highest quality grass that the earth is capable of.
Blocking out a few bloody scenes that are a necessary part of cattle raising and meat eating, Jim and I enjoy a perfect, grass-fed, totally organic burger smothered in cheddar cheese also hatched from the same grass. Under far less brutal circumstances, the cheese comes from another branch of the ranch’s bovine community, Jersey cows. Milked in small numbers at the ranch’s New Zealand style milking parlor, the cheese is then made and aged on the premises. As David James, the ranch’s pater familia told me, “We buy our Jerseys from New Zealand, and boy, do those cows know how to eat grass!”
In keeping with one of the ranch’s major postulates of reducing labor to promote a sane and happy agricultural life, the cows are only milked once a day (two to three times a day are the factory dairy norms) and they are “rested” (not milked) in the winter when the pastures are covered in snow—animals, people, and nature take a much-deserved break. “This is how you get your children into farming—reduce the labor,” said David. By emphasizing quality of life over production and profits, David and his deceased wife of 59 years, Kay, have kept four of their five children on the farm as active managers of different parts of the operation.
Speaking through his billowing white beard that he jokingly says catches enough food for his next meal, Jim reminds me that James Ranch has diversified far beyond livestock. A very large market garden keeps CSA members well supplied and the café and their retail outlet adequately provisioned. The small retail market sells not only their meat, cheese, and vegetable products, but also the products of area farmers and ranchers. Since the ranch doesn’t grow potatoes, the grill buys 40,000 pounds a year of Colorado potatoes to keep it supplied with hand-cut French fries. A quirk of climatic fate allows the garden to sustain fresh pea production from late spring until late summer, far beyond the normal range for the region. Education and community outreach extend the Ranch’s production related focus for beyond the realm of most business enterprises. Classes of chattering students are a pleasant and regular presence throughout the different activity centers. During a previous visit I listened in on a lecture by one of David’s children for visiting students from Dine (Navajo) College.
The near perfection of James Ranch is almost enough to distract you from the fact that Durango and surrounding La Plata County have challenges and other imaginative folks. As we’re polishing off our burgers and a pint of local beer (not James Ranch), Jim shares an admirable list of community-based actions that are transforming the area’s food system.
Soil Outdoor Learning Lab opened at the Riverview Elementary School as the result of a science teacher who had a vision for real hands-on learning experience. There are now 24 education garden beds and 50 community garden beds at the school. That represents the completion of Phase One with four more phases to follow including expansion to more schools.
Good Food Collective has set about the task of “building a just and thriving food system” that is focused on using locally grown to increase access to healthy food. To that end, they bought $230,000 of food from southwest Colorado producers that found its way to schools, food pantries, and healthcare facilities. Not content to only distribute food, the Collective does advocacy and food policy work which included passage of the Colorado “Healthy Food for All” act.
Durango Farmers Market is a vibrant, Saturday local vendors market, mostly food and farm products, that infuses downtown Durango with the kind of social energy, zest for authenticity, and joie de vivre that everyone expects from a farmers’ market. Here’s an interactive map of vendors that shows you where to find the who’s that make the market a big what.
Southwest Producers Directory helps you find new and maturing growers, a positive trend that Jim Dyer notes should ensure the sustainability of local food production. Maybe more importantly, he was delighted that the producers took over this task of maintaining the directory!
James Ranch | Sustainable Beef, Cheese, Pork, Raw Milk, Fresh Eggs, and Produce in Durango, CO is the place that has raised the bar on locally produced food and eating to new heights.
Zia Taqueria has a strong community orientation and is one of the very best restaurants for sourcing local food and investing in local producers.
Garden Guys is a Colorado public radio show hosted by Colorado University Extension agents Tom Bartels and Darrin Parmenter. They also produce some great “how-to” videos that you can find at the Grow Food Well website.
Durango Farm to School is a robust connector of farms and schools
that includes such local giants as James Ranch and Cross Creek Ranch which supplies wagyu ground beef.
Old Fort Lewis provides an agricultural education and incubator program that includes a Native American focus (almost half of the college’s students are Native American/Alaskan).
Karlos Baca is a local Southern Ute Chef who spotlights Native cuisine and food production. Learn more about their collective here.
Pueblo Seed & Food Company, run by Dan and Nanna, moved their farm to just west of Cortez recently. Their work on chiles, garlic, seeds, grains, and how to use them is well worth checking out.
Durango and much of Southwestern Colorado are a special place, loaded with natural beauty and imaginative, hard-working food actors. And in my humble opinion, based on my career and travels back and forth across the country, there’s no reason why your place can’t be (and may very well be) a dynamic food place as well.