Fat City Farms, Inc. 501(c)3 Non-Profit

Board of Directors Meeting

Time and Place:

Leelee Steges’ house
Thursday January 18th 6:30 PM
830 Cemetery Lane
Aspen, CO

925-2761

Leelees’ house is .4 of a mile down cemetery Lane on the right hand side of the road. It’s on the cul-de-sac that sits right in fronts of the cemetery. As you enter the cul-de-sac, it’s the duplex straight back; Leellees’ is the left hand side one.

I will be preparing dinner for everyone, so you don’t need to bring food. Michael is bringing some of his microbrews , AJ is bringing wine, and if anyone would like to bring dessert that would be great.

Agenda

Old Business:

Fat City Farms Inc. tax-exempt application finalized and submitted – the only task left to complete here is the signing and faxing of the application to Jeff Cohen, our legal advisor, and the mailing of a check for $300. for the final application fee. Susan and I will get this handled before the meeting.

Iris Project – three boxes of separated iris rhizomes and one of potato starters were “put to bed” at Bonnie Martin’s potato cellar 925-3438 - 618-5464 at the base of Star Mesa Road, on Sunday Dec.3. Hundreds more rhizomes, which have not been separated yet, are “put to bed” under beds of straw and snow in MT’s backyard. We will need to meet with Ginny Parker to select the best places for replanting these in late April – early May, so we can again grow them out for sale as cut flowers and as rhizomes.

New Business:

Fundraising 2007 – We must create a program for fundraising to allow us to move forward with our Happy Day Ranch Plot this Spring.

A first part of our effort should be a donation from each board member;

A second and very important part of this effort should be a direct-contact program to raise funds from friends and community members who are interested in our mission. An important first step for this program will be to create stationery for our organization, and to create a mission statement and detailed description to tell people what their donations will accomplish;

A third part will be identifying and applying for grants from programs that fit our mission. One such program is the Colorado Dept. of Agriculture Specialty Crops grant program identified to us by Donna Ralston in December. We have only until Feb. 1 to submit this application, so we need to get some intense work done on it in one week’s time, if we are to succeed. Ideally, we should have someone do the research and create a draft application by our meeting, so we can just review it and submit it with any necessary changes right after our board meeting;

Crops 2007 – In addition to potatoes and irises, we will need to establish what crops we will grow at our Happy Day Ranch plot this year, and how we will go about planting them. This can be a topic for our next meeting, once fundraising is underway. However, I would like to talk a bit about another cash crop I would like to grow, a unique hops plant that grows in one place in our valley, which we could multiply and readily sell to brewers, both home and commercial. I already have part of the market for this identified, and I have bottles of ale containing the hops in question, and will bring a few to the meeting.

Board Member Contact Information

Susan Brady – sbrady@sopris.net – 544-5489 – 379-3315

Michael Thompson – Mthompson@sopris.net – 927-4458 – 274-0634

AJ Joos - aj@aspenhitech.com - 379-6993

David Bedford - davidfbedford@hotmail.com - 319-0440

Katie Leonaitis - leonaitis@sopris.net - 923-4383 - 618-1711

Jerome Osentowski - jerome@crmpi.org – 927-4158

Ginny Parker - hdranch@earthlink.net - 927-3270 - 618-8253

Sarah Pletts - pletts_star@yahoo.co.uk - 925-7018 (in France until Summer ’07)

Fat City Farm Meeting Minutes

January 24, 2007

After a wonderful dinner and delicious homebrews, the meeting commenced with an overview of the group’s development in order to help bring the four new participants up to speed.

Forgive me if I don’t get all of the details right

The concept for Fat City Farms first emerged when Planet Earth offered to donate a community greenhouse to Jerome Osentowski (Note: Carbondale now plans to erect the greenhouse on a 35 acre farm in town)

Prospective group members shared an enthusiasm for and interest in growing local food as well as a motivation and concern to better prepare the valley for the inevitable global energy decline

With the knowledge of conservation easements being placed on sold ranchlands throughout the valley, an idea emerged in which locals could lease portions of these easements in order to grow food

In time these ventures could also potentially create profitable enterprises

Newcomers

Cher learned about FCF (Fat City Farm) through Katie

She has a strong interest in food and the joy that it brings, and she is seeking opportunities to create change within our society
Her main interest is education through which she hopes to help develop prepared, informed youth

Alison & Amelia live and work at Rock Bottom Ranch (RBR) with the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES)

Their organization and current interests are education based
At the ranch, they have access to 115 acres and are considering offering community garden space to interested locals
The site has some potential limitations – high water table, but Jerome pointed out that this could also be used as an advantage (growing well adapted crops in these zones)
Their purpose in attending the FCF meeting is to exchange ideas, work collaboratively and meet others who share their interest in local food

Mark resides in Burlington, Vermont and is currently living and working on Basalt Mountain with Jerome Osentowski

His interests reside within the realm of Permaculture and so include appropriate low-tech production systems for food, shelter, basic materials goods – furniture, utensils, etc
He has a strong interest in local food production and is fortunate enough to live in an area with a well developed and passionate local food based community

After introductions, the meeting moved into a loose discussion on agenda items.

Collaboration

The need and desire for like-minded groups to collaborate was emphasized. The group agreed that the vision for FCF is to develop a CSA and civic-based production farm

The possibilities for working with the folks at RBR was discussed

RBR is primarily interested in agricultural and environmental education (moreso than food production) and so is offering up community garden based cooperation with FCF

Food Production Practicals

AJ requested a discussion on well-suited crops to the valley and the following were mentioned:

All the root crops – carrots, turnips, rutabagas, celeriac
Peas
Cold crops – broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts
Potatoes
Grains – quinoa, barley, oats
Herbs
Perennials – horseradish, artichokes, asparagus
Greens
And hot crops in hoop/greenhouses – eggplant, tomatoes, peppers
“Grass” – grazing livestock

One suggestion was the need to develop some sort of plan/system for appropriate agricultural practices in the Roaring Fork Valley

The need to develop a seasonal growing calendar was also expressed and the use of Elliot Coleman’s calendar was suggested as a preliminary guideline

Possible Cash Crops

Michael mentioned two potential cash crops for the group

Irises

He and his wife now have about 600 rhizomes waiting to be planted
The potential to grow and reproduce even more of these plants is quite significant
Benefits include
- Income
- Eye-catchers – could help to draw attention to the group’s work
- They attract beneficial insects
- Don’t seem to be preferred by deer

Hops

CSU in Fort Collins have been researching hop production and discovered a strong interest amongst local brewers for wet hops – harvested and rushed to the brewery for use within 12 hours of harvest
Michael mentioned that the naturalized hops that grows in the valley has great potential
Glenwood Canyon Brewpub is interested in buying locally grown hops as well as several members of the newly formed homebrewers club
Benefits include
- Can be trellised along fences, trees, etc
- Provides shade
- Attracts beneficial insects
- Is medicinal – sedative
- Hop eye pillows

The Colorado Department of Agriculture offers a specialty crops grant that could be available

Necessary Steps Forward

An important shared sentiment was the need to begin operations as soon as possible, without getting bogged down in excessive details

The need to start small and expanding only later in the development process was shared by several. In doing so, FCF would initially focus on one or two sites (ie. – Basalt family ranch with 2 young sons to soon inherit land, as well as RBR)

Billy’s sons (Basalt family ranch) could potentially work as the crew for the farm group. They know the mid-valley’s irrigation systems, are hard working, etc

Current limitations/hurdles to initial farm development include fencing for deer protection and the development of irrigation systems

Michael explained that he has a list of group member’s individual interests and strengths, which could be used to help streamline the initial development process

Developing a Fundraising Program

The CSA-like idea of some sort of membership fee was discussed in which individuals would give money up front and receive vegetables in exchange later in the season

It is important to determine exactly what the exchange will be for volunteer hours

There is also a need to augment the scale of meetings – AJ’s place, RBR facilities were mentioned

Promotional Opportunities

There is a strong need to develop a database (e-mail) of like-minded people who would be interested in group membership and willing to commit time to the production work

FCF also needs to advertise or introduce itself to the community

Develop a web presentation that can be e-mailed to prospective members
Organize an ACES’ Pot Bellied Perspectives session
Produce a short promotional video
Develop promotional events to help publicize the group’s mission – Thanksgiving feast/harvest celebration made from locally produced food
- By hosting an event such as this early in the group’s development, it could help demonstrate where local food production strengths and weaknesses exist
FCF’s mission could be combined with that of Slow Food to create successful food events.
- Connection with chefs in the valley has a great deal of potential – they often have a respect for and interest in fresh, organic food.
- Currently most of this type of produce is purchased from Paonia or Palisades

There is a need to develop a group logo and create a more concise mission statement that appeals to a less informed public

-The End-