November 19, 2025 • 20 mins
Today on the American Family Farmer, we’re proud to bring you a stand-alone feature interview with Dawn Broeder, founder of Farm Fusion Cooking Classes and a lifelong champion of Colorado agriculture.
Dawn’s story begins on the family farm where she was raised—an environment that not only shaped her work ethic but also gave her a profound respect for the land and the animals in her care. As a young girl, she was responsible for feeding calves, tending their living areas, caring for the chickens, helping with milking, and assisting with daily horse care. She was part of cattle round-ups and participated in the necessary but tough work of maintaining a herd—de-horning, branding, castrating, and everything in between. These early experiences gave her an intimate understanding of what it means to steward animals, manage a farm, and sustain a family through agriculture.
While Dawn’s roots were in ranch life, she also discovered a deep love for cooking. That passion eventually led her to pursue formal training at Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder, where she earned her culinary certificate and expanded her skillset beyond the ranch kitchen.
But like many who grow up connected to the land, Dawn felt the pull to return home. Today, she and her husband have blended their worlds—agriculture and culinary arts—into a truly unique operation: a barn-based teaching kitchen where they host immersive, hands-on cooking classes. Farm Fusion allows guests to experience food at its source, learn how ingredients are grown and raised, and develop the confidence to cook real, wholesome meals. From harvesting ingredients to preparing delicious dishes, students gain a genuine farm-to-table experience rooted in connection, education, and respect for where food comes from.
In this conversation, Dawn shares her journey from childhood chores to culinary school to becoming a farm-to-table educator. She explains how Farm Fusion is helping people reconnect with agriculture at a time when many feel disconnected from the origins of their food. And she offers insight into the joy, challenges, and deep fulfillment that come with building a teaching kitchen on a working ranch.
Whether you’re a farmer, a foodie, or someone who simply appreciates a great back-to-the-land story, Dawn’s passion shines through. Her work is a reminder that cooking isn’t just a skill—it’s a bridge between the earth, the farmer, and the family table.
Learn more about Dawn’s classes and story at farmfusion.org.
Website: AmericanFamilyFarmerShow.com
Social Media: @GoodDayNetworks
Dawn’s story begins on the family farm where she was raised—an environment that not only shaped her work ethic but also gave her a profound respect for the land and the animals in her care. As a young girl, she was responsible for feeding calves, tending their living areas, caring for the chickens, helping with milking, and assisting with daily horse care. She was part of cattle round-ups and participated in the necessary but tough work of maintaining a herd—de-horning, branding, castrating, and everything in between. These early experiences gave her an intimate understanding of what it means to steward animals, manage a farm, and sustain a family through agriculture.
While Dawn’s roots were in ranch life, she also discovered a deep love for cooking. That passion eventually led her to pursue formal training at Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder, where she earned her culinary certificate and expanded her skillset beyond the ranch kitchen.
But like many who grow up connected to the land, Dawn felt the pull to return home. Today, she and her husband have blended their worlds—agriculture and culinary arts—into a truly unique operation: a barn-based teaching kitchen where they host immersive, hands-on cooking classes. Farm Fusion allows guests to experience food at its source, learn how ingredients are grown and raised, and develop the confidence to cook real, wholesome meals. From harvesting ingredients to preparing delicious dishes, students gain a genuine farm-to-table experience rooted in connection, education, and respect for where food comes from.
In this conversation, Dawn shares her journey from childhood chores to culinary school to becoming a farm-to-table educator. She explains how Farm Fusion is helping people reconnect with agriculture at a time when many feel disconnected from the origins of their food. And she offers insight into the joy, challenges, and deep fulfillment that come with building a teaching kitchen on a working ranch.
Whether you’re a farmer, a foodie, or someone who simply appreciates a great back-to-the-land story, Dawn’s passion shines through. Her work is a reminder that cooking isn’t just a skill—it’s a bridge between the earth, the farmer, and the family table.
Learn more about Dawn’s classes and story at farmfusion.org.
Website: AmericanFamilyFarmerShow.com
Social Media: @GoodDayNetworks
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The American Family Farmer podcast, sponsored in part by Caldron,
The Safe, proven Way to lose weight. Check it all
out at toploss dot com. I'm Doug Stephan. This is
the American Family Farmer. Time now in the American Family
Farmer to meet Don Broder, who comes to us from
Farm Fusion. You can go to the website farmfusion dot org.
(00:20):
I always like to have when I often will ask
people Don who are on the program if they're farm
kids or not. You grow up on a farm and
the answer your answer is yes, all right, so tell
us about your experience growing up on the farm. What
kind of a farm was it?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Okay, well, you know, my dad has had all different
types of farms. I feel like growing up it was
a dairy farm when I was a young girl. And
he's still farms today. So he does alfalfa corn and
he's also a rancher, so he has angus cattle.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Uh huh. What does he think about the move toward
growing hemp on some of the land in that neck
of the woods.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
You know that he's interesting. He's kind of old school.
I think he's still a little cautious about what that
would entail. But definitely interested in all the advantages and
health benefits of him. So, yeah, something we're looking into.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, I think it's now are you on his farm
or do you have your own farm?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I'm on his farm. I'm right in the heart of it.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
The heart of When you say in the heart of it,
how do you translate that you're in the middle of
all of the work on the farm.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I sure am. That's where I built my teaching kits
in my barn, which is actually my teaching kitchen, and
it's right in the center. It's kind of up on
the hill. I've got the cornfield on one side, the
i'll fall the field on the other.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Were your jobs as a youngster growing up on the farm.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, I was mainly in charge of the calves, feeding
the calves, caring for the calves, also in charge of
the chickens, gathering the eggs, taking care of everything and
our horses, and also helped a little bit with the milking.
But they gave me more kind of the the less
important jobs, I would say, with the dairy farming, so
(02:00):
I was able to help with the cleaning, hurting them
in that type of thing. My favorite part of growing
up on the farm was having to do with horses,
where I to help with team penning and sorting the cattle.
We still do that today.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, pork and bean.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yes, I have.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I give hay rides on my farm, but they're pulled
by a massy ferguson one to eighty tractor. Although I
tried the horse thing, it's hard to mind neck of
the woods to have these horses around. I'm a dairy.
I raised replacement efforts, and it's hard. Sometimes I have
them in the same pasture with the horses, so and
I have open pastures. I just want everybody to wander
(02:42):
around and enjoy, you know, I want to say everybody,
the people who visit me on the farm, or the
animals that are here whose main job is to in
essence take care of the farm. They take care of
the fields and do a very nice job. But somehow,
sometimes maybe you found the secret at this dawn. Cows
and horses can get along together. Sometimes they do. Sometimes
(03:04):
they guess it depends on the horse as much anything else.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, right, And our horses are with the couch and
anything to do. Pretty good they are.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
They are. Yeah, okay, yeah, well that's cute. So also,
you were a cooker early on. Now I'm looking at
pictures of you that basically are it looks like you're
in a big, a big commercial kitchen. Are you preparing
things that are grown on the farm. What is the
story here and how is it connected to that food truck?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You bet?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
So?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
After my food truck I opened, well, actually during my
food truck, I opened a teaching kitchen. So I did
open a commercial kitchen in my barn. So I built
in the front part of my barn. I designed it
to be a commercial kitchen so I could use it
for the food truck. And then also I teach cooking
classes and so on my website. That's what you'll see
any type of cooking classes in there. And it's all
(03:57):
centric around and farm to table or reproduce or local
farmers and ranters. I always source my food from them
and teach people how to cook with it.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Do you teach your husband how to cook using you?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
He's learned so much?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Really? So what can your model do more? And more?
In my area anyway? And I'm guessing in your area
maybe all around the country, people who are growing their
own food on the farm are doing something that is
an offshoot of what you're doing growing and then cooking,
teaching people how to cook, or cooking stuff that can
(04:34):
be sold in the farms store. But it really is
a step in the right direction. And I'll tell everybody
why I think that in a manner of moments. Here
this is the American family farmer. Caltron is on the
top of the food chain, if you will. When it
comes to losing weight, and because it is fall, it's
time to focus on what we seem to get into
every year at this time exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
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(05:15):
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Speaker 4 (05:27):
On the scale.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
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Speaker 1 (05:36):
Elizabeth Miller from top loss dot Com and Caldron here.
That's all you got to come up with different ideas.
And Don Broder who has done that with her farm
in Fort Collins, Colorado, the Farm Kitchen. So I said
(05:56):
with regard to cooking on the farm down that it
was a step in the right direction. And I want
to pursue that with you because I think if you
look at the headlines almost any day. On my Monday
through Friday program, today we were talking about the another
outbreak of salmonello or E Coli or listeria or whatever
(06:19):
the you know, the germ of the day is. And
if we teach people how to use locally grown, locally
sourced food and cook it in the way that you are,
then there won't be these problems. But I think it
still is an uphill educational curve these.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Days, don't you absolutely right? And people, I think sometimes
don't even realize how easy it is to find local
sourced food. You know, it's just as easy as finding
it in the grocery store.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yeah, well, it may not be available year round and
that may distract people, but when it's there, it certainly
is much better. And wouldn't you want to keep your
fan People say, oh, it's more convenient for me to
go to the store. Well what's more important? What does
it mean convenient? You spend fifteen minutes less watching you know,
(07:14):
the Housewives of Beverly Hills or something or whatever it is.
Wait a minute, it was a new show, The Housewives
of Fort Collins. How about that?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Right there we go. I could do that once.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, I'm sure you good.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
No like to I'd like to teach people about, you know,
tanning and preserving as well, you know, just like Grandma did.
So you can take some of that produce and you
can still use it year round if you know what
you're doing.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Well.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
The old expression and what's old is new again. There's
a lot of that. I remember growing up on the farm.
One of the things I look forward to every Wednesday,
donuts were fried on the store and it was yeah,
oh yeah, it was fabuloso. And all of the we
used to go around pick the grapes because there were
(08:02):
grapes hanging from trees and on the bushes and stuff
all over the farm, and grape jelly that was made
to go with the doughnuts. It's just, you know, those
sorts of things seem unique today, but people like you
are giving them life.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yes, yes, and hopefully hopefully allowing people to see that
it's a pretty cool way to live. Really. You can
grow anything, you know, pretty easily in your backyard, or
you can participate in farmer stands.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah. Do you have much of what the farmers market
outlook there or what's the climate for farmers' markets in
your neck of the woods?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Yeah, so we have farmers' markets. They start in May
and they go through October. And there's a lot of
farmers around here that even let you go out to
their stands and you can pick your own berries. You
can pick some produce, you know, at the end of
the season. There's one farm that allows you to go
on and for twenty eight dollars you can just fill
(09:01):
up five huge bags grocery bags.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I have it. There's a guy is a fella here
who's got an orchard and he has a bag. You
come buy a five dollars bag and you go fill
it with peaches, apples, pears. You could fill it up
with peppers. If you want lettuce, you can fill it
(09:24):
up with cucumbers, tomatoes, just kind of one take the bag,
pay the pay for the bag, go pick your own. Yeah,
which it seems to me. Yeah, well it's good for youngsters. Now,
how about young people who are coming in to learn
how to cook? What are you doing for children who
(09:45):
may want to avail themselves of your knowledge?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, so I do have kids cooking classes, and they
are because of Food Network. I really believe this is
because of Food Network. I think Kris at a very
early age, Oh, it's ridiculous, but they see it, so
they want to They think that they can just jump
in the kitchen and know how to do that. But
you know what, they're really excited to learn how to cook.
So I have a lot of kids classes.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
What about teaching cooking on the when you went to school?
I remember, and I'm going back to those thrilling days
of yesterdyear when I was in school and we actually
had what they called home economics classes where you learn
how to cook, you learn how to sew, you learn
how to do things that were necessary and This is
for both men and women, so it wasn't a sexist
kind of thing. Men were learning how to cook. And
(10:34):
a matter of fact, I remember we had a tech school.
Once they learned how to cook a little bit and
some normal classes and they go over there and some
of the best cooks in the area came out of
these programs. So I would think that would be good
for you. Does one get teaching credits or educational credits
(10:55):
for going to your classes?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Well, actually, I was so funny that you into that.
I was a home ex teacher. It's now called Family
and Consumer science, and I did, you know, the cooking
classes and that type of thing. And while I was there,
I did line up with a community college for them
to get credit and in the chef certificate program for
taking classes, so that I do right now they don't
(11:20):
get credit for that, but I did that in the past. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yeah, well listen, why not now let's talk about hydroponics
and aquaponics. Yeah, a lot of people growing food. Do
you find the quality of the food that's grown hydraulically
in water is as good as the things that are
grown on the land.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
You know, that's an interesting question, and I think that
the things that we have. We have a big hydroponics
or aquaponicx farm here in Fort Collins that does all
the lettuce and basil for most of the restaurants. And
I think that's fantastic. I mean that grows well, grows
year round. But that's a good question because when you
take the soil away, you're kind of taking some of
(12:04):
that the flavor that you get so you know, from
the soil. So I don't know if it's if it's better.
It's just another way of growing. I think that you
can produce something year round and just another option.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Well, there are some people. I wanted you to tell
that story because there are a lot of traditional farmers
who don't think that it's right to have. I have
my we have two farms in my town. I'm the
dairy and animal guy and my neighbor is the produce guy.
And every year he starts in his greenhouse or one
of his greenhouses, he starts growing hydropronic. Said again, Doug.
(12:40):
There it is hydroponic tomatoes ahead of the seasons, so
that by normally they're not ready until July, but he
has them ready the first of June. And people, I'm
not I taste him, and for whatever the reason, I
don't get a taste out of him that. But you
know what, it's all about what you put into the
(13:01):
soil or whatever it is that you're growing the stuff.
It's going to taste like whatever the environment is right.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Exactly exactly, and if it gives me a tomato a
little bit earlier, hey, I'm more for it.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Right, yeah, right, tomatoes. Yeah, I'm having a hard time
finding good tomatoes. I like tomatoes and cabbage. There's something
about tomatoes and cabbage.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Oh, nice, interesting combo.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah. I just chop up the cabbage. I live alone,
and I chop up the cabbage and mix it with tomatoes,
and it's very good. I don't eat meat, so it's
hard for me to, you know, sometimes come up with
interesting things to eat, the eggs and things that are
around now. But what I'm finding I use a lot.
(13:46):
I wonder about you when you've come up with new ideas.
Do you use things like honey and local source? Local
honey must be out there lots of honey.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Around, I would think, Yeah, we actually have a honey
bee farmer on our farm, so I have all the
honey I want. Yes, Yeah, it's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Do you have cows on the farm. Do you have
dairy cows still on the farm?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
You know, we have angus cattle. Right now. We are
going to get another dairy hiffer because I teach cheesemaking
and right now I use a herd share, so I
get raw milk from a local dairy farmer. But we're
going to go ahead and get our own cow again
instead of milking.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
How much a raw milk is sold in your neck
of the woods.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
You know, that's because of everything that they have to
go through in order to become a herd share. We
only have about in my area, maybe three three local
dairy farmers that actually do that, and they have a
weight list. I think I was on the weight list
for two years.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Oh yeah, yeah, I had I saw on my farm
for quite a long time. And yeah, there were people coming.
They were coming from miles around, willing to pay almost anything.
Can you imagine getting twelve twelve dollars a gallon for milk? Right?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Supply enough of it because it's what people really want.
And the other the stuff that we get out of
the so called local dairies now is nothing I get
on my horse and this just really makes me crazy.
What's gone on with the American dairy farm is then, well,
your father, your father has lived with it and he's
figured out how to diversify, which has been hard for
(15:24):
some people that I'm probably old enough to be your father.
So maybe people that are our age, they go through
all of this stuff. We don't like it, but you know,
it is what it is, and so you have to
confront the realities and do something that makes sense. And
you know, in this circumstance you doing what you've done,
(15:45):
trying to make broaden the adventure. So the one final
question about how you couple all this together. So you
have the teaching kitchen in the barn, you source the
foods from local so what is that the horse and
buggy in the and the rides around the farm just
something separate that is part of the attraction. People come
out there, get cooking lessons and oh, by the way,
(16:07):
you can take a horse drawn carriage around the farm.
How does that couple together?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yep? Absolutely, that's just kind of like the icing on
the cake. So a little bit to go into the
experience of the farm so that they can get a
tour of the farm, and we don't do it with
every class. We just do it. It's kind of when
my dad isn't busy in the farm and he'll hitch
up the team and so it's always kind of a
you know, just like an exciting thing to do that's
(16:31):
extra on top of cooking.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Right. Well, I hope people will be inspired by what
you're doing. It is inspirational. The website again is farm
fusion dot org. Farmfusion dot org on the American Family
Farmer is all about the family farmer, the food, and
the families that eat it. This is, in fact, the
American family Farmer.
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Please visit bobksound dot com.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
The American Family Farmer podcast sponsored in part by Caldron,
which is the safe way for you to lose weight
and keep it off.
The American Family Farmer podcast, sponsored in part by Caldron,
The Safe, proven Way to lose weight. Check it all
out at toploss dot com. I'm Doug Stephan. This is
the American Family Farmer. Time now in the American Family
Farmer to meet Don Broder, who comes to us from
Farm Fusion. You can go to the website farmfusion dot org.
(00:20):
I always like to have when I often will ask
people Don who are on the program if they're farm
kids or not. You grow up on a farm and
the answer your answer is yes, all right, so tell
us about your experience growing up on the farm. What
kind of a farm was it?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Okay, well, you know, my dad has had all different
types of farms. I feel like growing up it was
a dairy farm when I was a young girl. And
he's still farms today. So he does alfalfa corn and
he's also a rancher, so he has angus cattle.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Uh huh. What does he think about the move toward
growing hemp on some of the land in that neck
of the woods.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
You know that he's interesting. He's kind of old school.
I think he's still a little cautious about what that
would entail. But definitely interested in all the advantages and
health benefits of him. So, yeah, something we're looking into.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, I think it's now are you on his farm
or do you have your own farm?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I'm on his farm. I'm right in the heart of it.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
The heart of When you say in the heart of it,
how do you translate that you're in the middle of
all of the work on the farm.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I sure am. That's where I built my teaching kits
in my barn, which is actually my teaching kitchen, and
it's right in the center. It's kind of up on
the hill. I've got the cornfield on one side, the
i'll fall the field on the other.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Were your jobs as a youngster growing up on the farm.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, I was mainly in charge of the calves, feeding
the calves, caring for the calves, also in charge of
the chickens, gathering the eggs, taking care of everything and
our horses, and also helped a little bit with the milking.
But they gave me more kind of the the less
important jobs, I would say, with the dairy farming, so
(02:00):
I was able to help with the cleaning, hurting them
in that type of thing. My favorite part of growing
up on the farm was having to do with horses,
where I to help with team penning and sorting the cattle.
We still do that today.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, pork and bean.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yes, I have.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I give hay rides on my farm, but they're pulled
by a massy ferguson one to eighty tractor. Although I
tried the horse thing, it's hard to mind neck of
the woods to have these horses around. I'm a dairy.
I raised replacement efforts, and it's hard. Sometimes I have
them in the same pasture with the horses, so and
I have open pastures. I just want everybody to wander
(02:42):
around and enjoy, you know, I want to say everybody,
the people who visit me on the farm, or the
animals that are here whose main job is to in
essence take care of the farm. They take care of
the fields and do a very nice job. But somehow,
sometimes maybe you found the secret at this dawn. Cows
and horses can get along together. Sometimes they do. Sometimes
(03:04):
they guess it depends on the horse as much anything else.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, right, And our horses are with the couch and
anything to do. Pretty good they are.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
They are. Yeah, okay, yeah, well that's cute. So also,
you were a cooker early on. Now I'm looking at
pictures of you that basically are it looks like you're
in a big, a big commercial kitchen. Are you preparing
things that are grown on the farm. What is the
story here and how is it connected to that food truck?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You bet?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
So?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
After my food truck I opened, well, actually during my
food truck, I opened a teaching kitchen. So I did
open a commercial kitchen in my barn. So I built
in the front part of my barn. I designed it
to be a commercial kitchen so I could use it
for the food truck. And then also I teach cooking
classes and so on my website. That's what you'll see
any type of cooking classes in there. And it's all
(03:57):
centric around and farm to table or reproduce or local
farmers and ranters. I always source my food from them
and teach people how to cook with it.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Do you teach your husband how to cook using you?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
He's learned so much?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Really? So what can your model do more? And more?
In my area anyway? And I'm guessing in your area
maybe all around the country, people who are growing their
own food on the farm are doing something that is
an offshoot of what you're doing growing and then cooking,
teaching people how to cook, or cooking stuff that can
(04:34):
be sold in the farms store. But it really is
a step in the right direction. And I'll tell everybody
why I think that in a manner of moments. Here
this is the American family farmer. Caltron is on the
top of the food chain, if you will. When it
comes to losing weight, and because it is fall, it's
time to focus on what we seem to get into
every year at this time exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
You know, we call it the eating season. There's candy,
there's food everywhere, warm bread left, and you know, while
this season is full of joy, it is just also
full of temptation. Caltrin's working with your body naturally to
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(05:15):
you are going to be sleeping better, waking up refreshed,
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And really around the one month mark is when you're
going to start to notice your clothes fitting better. Inch loss,
maybe even a few pounds.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
On the scale.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
The westside is toploss dot com. There's a big fall
sale going on right now, though. Whether you have a
little bit of weight to lose or a lot of
weight to lose, it's a great time to get on Caltrin.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Elizabeth Miller from top loss dot Com and Caldron here.
That's all you got to come up with different ideas.
And Don Broder who has done that with her farm
in Fort Collins, Colorado, the Farm Kitchen. So I said
(05:56):
with regard to cooking on the farm down that it
was a step in the right direction. And I want
to pursue that with you because I think if you
look at the headlines almost any day. On my Monday
through Friday program, today we were talking about the another
outbreak of salmonello or E Coli or listeria or whatever
(06:19):
the you know, the germ of the day is. And
if we teach people how to use locally grown, locally
sourced food and cook it in the way that you are,
then there won't be these problems. But I think it
still is an uphill educational curve these.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Days, don't you absolutely right? And people, I think sometimes
don't even realize how easy it is to find local
sourced food. You know, it's just as easy as finding
it in the grocery store.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yeah, well, it may not be available year round and
that may distract people, but when it's there, it certainly
is much better. And wouldn't you want to keep your
fan People say, oh, it's more convenient for me to
go to the store. Well what's more important? What does
it mean convenient? You spend fifteen minutes less watching you know,
(07:14):
the Housewives of Beverly Hills or something or whatever it is.
Wait a minute, it was a new show, The Housewives
of Fort Collins. How about that?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Right there we go. I could do that once.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, I'm sure you good.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
No like to I'd like to teach people about, you know,
tanning and preserving as well, you know, just like Grandma did.
So you can take some of that produce and you
can still use it year round if you know what
you're doing.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Well.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
The old expression and what's old is new again. There's
a lot of that. I remember growing up on the farm.
One of the things I look forward to every Wednesday,
donuts were fried on the store and it was yeah,
oh yeah, it was fabuloso. And all of the we
used to go around pick the grapes because there were
(08:02):
grapes hanging from trees and on the bushes and stuff
all over the farm, and grape jelly that was made
to go with the doughnuts. It's just, you know, those
sorts of things seem unique today, but people like you
are giving them life.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yes, yes, and hopefully hopefully allowing people to see that
it's a pretty cool way to live. Really. You can
grow anything, you know, pretty easily in your backyard, or
you can participate in farmer stands.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah. Do you have much of what the farmers market
outlook there or what's the climate for farmers' markets in
your neck of the woods?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Yeah, so we have farmers' markets. They start in May
and they go through October. And there's a lot of
farmers around here that even let you go out to
their stands and you can pick your own berries. You
can pick some produce, you know, at the end of
the season. There's one farm that allows you to go
on and for twenty eight dollars you can just fill
(09:01):
up five huge bags grocery bags.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I have it. There's a guy is a fella here
who's got an orchard and he has a bag. You
come buy a five dollars bag and you go fill
it with peaches, apples, pears. You could fill it up
with peppers. If you want lettuce, you can fill it
(09:24):
up with cucumbers, tomatoes, just kind of one take the bag,
pay the pay for the bag, go pick your own. Yeah,
which it seems to me. Yeah, well it's good for youngsters. Now,
how about young people who are coming in to learn
how to cook? What are you doing for children who
(09:45):
may want to avail themselves of your knowledge?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, so I do have kids cooking classes, and they
are because of Food Network. I really believe this is
because of Food Network. I think Kris at a very
early age, Oh, it's ridiculous, but they see it, so
they want to They think that they can just jump
in the kitchen and know how to do that. But
you know what, they're really excited to learn how to cook.
So I have a lot of kids classes.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
What about teaching cooking on the when you went to school?
I remember, and I'm going back to those thrilling days
of yesterdyear when I was in school and we actually
had what they called home economics classes where you learn
how to cook, you learn how to sew, you learn
how to do things that were necessary and This is
for both men and women, so it wasn't a sexist
kind of thing. Men were learning how to cook. And
(10:34):
a matter of fact, I remember we had a tech school.
Once they learned how to cook a little bit and
some normal classes and they go over there and some
of the best cooks in the area came out of
these programs. So I would think that would be good
for you. Does one get teaching credits or educational credits
(10:55):
for going to your classes?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Well, actually, I was so funny that you into that.
I was a home ex teacher. It's now called Family
and Consumer science, and I did, you know, the cooking
classes and that type of thing. And while I was there,
I did line up with a community college for them
to get credit and in the chef certificate program for
taking classes, so that I do right now they don't
(11:20):
get credit for that, but I did that in the past. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yeah, well listen, why not now let's talk about hydroponics
and aquaponics. Yeah, a lot of people growing food. Do
you find the quality of the food that's grown hydraulically
in water is as good as the things that are
grown on the land.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
You know, that's an interesting question, and I think that
the things that we have. We have a big hydroponics
or aquaponicx farm here in Fort Collins that does all
the lettuce and basil for most of the restaurants. And
I think that's fantastic. I mean that grows well, grows
year round. But that's a good question because when you
take the soil away, you're kind of taking some of
(12:04):
that the flavor that you get so you know, from
the soil. So I don't know if it's if it's better.
It's just another way of growing. I think that you
can produce something year round and just another option.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Well, there are some people. I wanted you to tell
that story because there are a lot of traditional farmers
who don't think that it's right to have. I have
my we have two farms in my town. I'm the
dairy and animal guy and my neighbor is the produce guy.
And every year he starts in his greenhouse or one
of his greenhouses, he starts growing hydropronic. Said again, Doug.
(12:40):
There it is hydroponic tomatoes ahead of the seasons, so
that by normally they're not ready until July, but he
has them ready the first of June. And people, I'm
not I taste him, and for whatever the reason, I
don't get a taste out of him that. But you
know what, it's all about what you put into the
(13:01):
soil or whatever it is that you're growing the stuff.
It's going to taste like whatever the environment is right.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Exactly exactly, and if it gives me a tomato a
little bit earlier, hey, I'm more for it.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Right, yeah, right, tomatoes. Yeah, I'm having a hard time
finding good tomatoes. I like tomatoes and cabbage. There's something
about tomatoes and cabbage.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Oh, nice, interesting combo.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah. I just chop up the cabbage. I live alone,
and I chop up the cabbage and mix it with tomatoes,
and it's very good. I don't eat meat, so it's
hard for me to, you know, sometimes come up with
interesting things to eat, the eggs and things that are
around now. But what I'm finding I use a lot.
(13:46):
I wonder about you when you've come up with new ideas.
Do you use things like honey and local source? Local
honey must be out there lots of honey.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Around, I would think, Yeah, we actually have a honey
bee farmer on our farm, so I have all the
honey I want. Yes, Yeah, it's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Do you have cows on the farm. Do you have
dairy cows still on the farm?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
You know, we have angus cattle. Right now. We are
going to get another dairy hiffer because I teach cheesemaking
and right now I use a herd share, so I
get raw milk from a local dairy farmer. But we're
going to go ahead and get our own cow again
instead of milking.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
How much a raw milk is sold in your neck
of the woods.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
You know, that's because of everything that they have to
go through in order to become a herd share. We
only have about in my area, maybe three three local
dairy farmers that actually do that, and they have a
weight list. I think I was on the weight list
for two years.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Oh yeah, yeah, I had I saw on my farm
for quite a long time. And yeah, there were people coming.
They were coming from miles around, willing to pay almost anything.
Can you imagine getting twelve twelve dollars a gallon for milk? Right?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Supply enough of it because it's what people really want.
And the other the stuff that we get out of
the so called local dairies now is nothing I get
on my horse and this just really makes me crazy.
What's gone on with the American dairy farm is then, well,
your father, your father has lived with it and he's
figured out how to diversify, which has been hard for
(15:24):
some people that I'm probably old enough to be your father.
So maybe people that are our age, they go through
all of this stuff. We don't like it, but you know,
it is what it is, and so you have to
confront the realities and do something that makes sense. And
you know, in this circumstance you doing what you've done,
(15:45):
trying to make broaden the adventure. So the one final
question about how you couple all this together. So you
have the teaching kitchen in the barn, you source the
foods from local so what is that the horse and
buggy in the and the rides around the farm just
something separate that is part of the attraction. People come
out there, get cooking lessons and oh, by the way,
(16:07):
you can take a horse drawn carriage around the farm.
How does that couple together?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yep? Absolutely, that's just kind of like the icing on
the cake. So a little bit to go into the
experience of the farm so that they can get a
tour of the farm, and we don't do it with
every class. We just do it. It's kind of when
my dad isn't busy in the farm and he'll hitch
up the team and so it's always kind of a
you know, just like an exciting thing to do that's
(16:31):
extra on top of cooking.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Right. Well, I hope people will be inspired by what
you're doing. It is inspirational. The website again is farm
fusion dot org. Farmfusion dot org on the American Family
Farmer is all about the family farmer, the food, and
the families that eat it. This is, in fact, the
American family Farmer.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
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Caltron is on the top of the food chain, if
you will, when it comes to losing weight, and because
it is fall, it's time to focus on what we
seem to get into every year at.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
This time exactly, you know, we call it the eating season.
There's a ton of dire products out there, y'all. I
know it's overwhelming. There are the quick fixes, are the
ones that you know we know have side effects. The
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So if you need a little bit of help, especially
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Please visit bobksound dot com.
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The American Family Farmer podcast sponsored in part by Caldron,
which is the safe way for you to lose weight
and keep it off.
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