Farming couple shares passion for growing

A day at the office for these two farmers is a long day, but very rewarding. It is mostly spent outdoors, doing what they love, and coaxing the earth to do what it does naturally — grow good food.

Peter and Joan Brind’Amour have been at their property on County Road 41 for two years, and it’s been a productive time for them. When they first took over the farm, it was a horse pasture. They’ve had to really work at getting the grass to grow as thick as they like it around their garden and to make the soil conducive to growing all the food they like to eat. The soil at the farm was not in great shape for growing good food, they said, and so last year they put “a huge amount of horse manure” into the soil to make it easier to work and more effortless for the plants to grow.

The Brind’Amours owned the Absolute Bakery and Cafe for three years, working long hours. But then they started growing their own food seriously in 2006, they said.

“I eat large amounts of food,” Peter said with a smile, “so we wanted to grow our own and also wanted it to be good for us.”

When they did that, they had so much left over that they began selling it and giving it to their friends. Then, about five years ago, the town got behind the farmers market, Peter said, and they decided to sell their produce there.

Much of their time is also spent doing research on the various plants, learning more with each passing year.

On their farm, called WinterGreen Farm, they have put up a second high tunnel, a rounded plastic-enclosed greenhouse structure in which they plant all kinds of crops. They had a smaller one last year, but this second one is even bigger and allows them to grow more food in the off-season. In it they have tomatoes and peppers.

“We have about 140 tomato plants, and Anaheim, jalapeno and poblano peppers,” Joan said.

The plants are covered with a white frost cloth inside the high tunnel.

“It’s like having a sweater and a windbreaker on the plants,” Peter said. “You really need to have tomatoes and peppers in a greenhouse in this climate.”

The tomato plants that are in the high tunnel are about a foot high and they were started in the house in March, Joan said. They should be ready by early August. Their favorite tomatoes are Kellogg’s breakfast tomatoes and the Brandywine kinds.

“We try to keep those for ourselves!” Joan said.

The one thing that does grow here without much coaxing or climate control is garlic, and they have plenty of it. They have 900 linear row feet of different kinds of garlic, such as hardneck and music, and they will know when it’s ready by the scape that grows out of the top of the plant, or late July.

“Then, every year, we save the biggest and fattest garlic cloves we can find to replant the next year,” Peter said.

The Brind’Amours are adamant about not using chemicals to keep the bugs and other critters away from their crops. The frost cloth they use helps keep the flea beetles away, and they’ve learned what kinds of plants are good for each other. For instance, the brassica crops — broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bok choy — are best when planted next to a smelly crop such as onions, Joan said. They leave their dandelions alone, knowing that particular weed attracts beneficial bugs that help their crops. The Brind’Amours also encourage birds to come around because birds eat bugs. The couple have cats, but only one is a mouser. They have deer fence all around their property, too. This year isn’t quite as bad for gophers and voles, they said.

They also never plant the same thing in the same place as the year before, which helps keep the soil from getting used to the same nutrients.

The key to having some of their crops all season long is succession planting, meaning they plant many of them each week, including lettuce, carrots, cilantro, arugula, beets and spinach.

In their small greenhouse, which they planted Feb. 24, they have carrots, beets, Swiss chard, garlic, spinach, bok choy and arugula. Some of that food has been ready, and they’ve been selling it to Zuma and P&D grocery.

There’s a lot of work that goes into what Peter and Joan do, but they enjoy it.

“Not only do we plant the seeds and do all the soil prep work; we also weed, thin and cultivate the crops, harvest or pick, prep and wash the food, bag it and label it,” Joan said. “It might take me the better part of one day just to dig up two 75-foot rows of carrots.”

Washing is an extensive process to get the greens or carrots ready to use or eat. The Brind’Amours use large sinks, washing them several times in clean water and then use washing machines to spin out the water from the greens.

“When we sell to the public, it’s more work, but we make them happy and get better prices,” Peter said.

The price of beet seeds went up from $42 per pound last year to $100 per pound this year, Peter said, so the Brind’Amours have to think about costs — what they spend and what they get back.

What the two would eventually like to do is see how much they can grow in the off-season.

“Everybody grows stuff in the summer, but we’d like to be able to have food all year round,” Peter said.

The Brind’Amours are preparing to put up another large high tunnel, so they will have a total of two large and one small. This will give them more room for their off-season crops.

“That’s why we decided to call it WinterGreen Farm — cause we wanted to grow greens in the winter,” Peter said.

They’re still working on perfecting their watering system. Right now they have a network of hoses that lie next to the various rows of plants, called T-tape. When the water goes through them, they become rounded and soak the ground.

“It’s good for this climate,” Joan said. “It gets the water right to the roots and is more efficient.”

They also grow beans and potatoes, traditionally early season crops. The potato greens, on top of the ground, will “freeze back” but will resprout, Peter said.

It doesn’t seem to bother the potatoes themselves. There is a “phenomenal” asparagus bed they have had for three years, and another one that they just planted, Joan said.

Long rows of raspberry and blackberry plants are planted in the sheet mulching bed, where the Brind’Amours are working on building up the organic matter. They put cardboard, newspaper, sheep wool, old garden stuff and anything else that is natural and good for the soil.

“It holds the moisture really well, but it’s hard to direct the seed into it,” Joan said.

The fruit is planted in cane form and not seed, said Joan.

The Brind’Amours hope to expand eventually. They are only using less than one acre of the 3.2 acres of their land.

“This is just Phase One,” Joan said. Each year they try something different and make a change for the better. The soil is the big thing for them, she said. “It is so much more friable now.”

They’ve enjoyed the large fruit trees that were on the farm when they moved there, trying to keep up with the apples and plums that the trees produce.

“We juice them, dry them ... whatever we can do,” Joan said.

Next year they hope to be able to offer others to come and pick a lot for themselves.

How do the Brind’Amours like working together after having been married for 14 years?

“Most of the time it’s great,” Joan said.

“At first we both did the same things…and it wasn’t working well. But now, we work together and get more done,” Peter said.

“We like to be outside, and we wanted to be somewhere where we could grow our own food,” Joan said. “But you have to have compassion and patience in this climate.”

“We’re after stuff that tastes good,” Peter said. “We do look for ease of production, but mostly flavor.”

“If we like it, then others are probably going to like it, too,” he said.

The Brind’Amours will have their organically grown food at the Mancos Farmers Market on Thursdays.