Art 2017 EDITION
WE ARE... FOOD LESS TRAVELED. WE ARE... MEEKER’S COLORADO KITCHEN & BAR coaster art.indd 2
Chef Jake Agranove and Chef Dave Ormsby are grateful for the warm welcome Weld County craft producers have extended to them in the development of Greeley’s newest, urban chic restaurant downtown at Lincoln Park. At Meeker’s it is important that our service team knows where our food is produced, who produced it and why that is important to the dining experience.
meekersrestaurant.com
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| reservations: 970-353-1883
PUBLISHER
Bryce Jacobson
BUSINESS MANAGER Doug Binder
EDITORIAL EDITOR Randy Bangert
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Rachel Spencer Samantha Fox Greeley Creative District
DESIGN & PRODUCTION CREATIVE MANAGER 501 8th Ave. P.O. Box 1690 Greeley, CO 80632 For all editorial, advertising, subscription and circulation inquiries, call (970) 352-0211.
CREATIVE SUPERVISOR Amy Mayer
DESIGN
Brian Morissette
Send editorial-related comments and story ideas to: rbangert@mywindsornow.com
NICHE AUDIENCE & BRAND DIRECTOR
For advertising inquiries, contact: bdennis@greeleytribune.com
SALES MANAGER
Art+Ag, September 2017 Published by: Greeley Publishing Co., publisher of The Greeley Tribune, Windsor Now, The Fence Post and Tri-State Livestock News 2
Kyle Knoop
Art + Ag 2017
Bruce Dennis
Steph Mighell
PHOTOGRAPHY
Joshua Polson "Keeping History Alive" photographs provided by the Shapley family
7/27/17 3:29 PM
Your WOrking Partner for over 90 years.
Your Weld County John Deere Dealer.
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Features
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Keeping History Alive Shapley Ranch in Greeley celebrates 100 years
8
To Bee or Not to Bee
The impact of honey bees on agriculture and food
12
The Art of Agriculture Celebrating local food and local people
Also 14 16 20 22 23
Say Cheese The Demand for Organic 100 Year-Old Barn Gets a Facelift Bracewell Farm Turns 100 Janet Konkel Wins Award Art + Ag 2017
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Photos courtesy of the Shapley family. 4
Art + Ag 2017
Alive
Keeping history
T
he Shapley Ranch near Stoneham, Colo., in Weld County was honored as a Centennial Farm in 2010. Dewain and Nancy Shapley keep the history of the ranch alive, hosting family reunions and carefully curating the items that represent small pieces of the larger story of the ranch. The Stoneham area is big, hard country. Near the Nebraska border, this corner of Weld County isn’t known for irrigated farming and pivot sprinklers crawling across lush fields. It is cow calf country where stocking rates are modest, the horizon is lined with giant wind turbines, and oilfield traffic and stock trailers account for much of the dust up and down the roads.
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Above: The sign at the Shapely Ranch is shown here at the farm near Stoneham, Colo. Although it has been dry the Shapely cows look slick and sassy out on the grass.
Dewain and Nancy Shapely stop for a photo by their Centennial Farm Sign.
For the Shapley family, it’s been home since 1910 when grandpa Edmond Shapley traveled by train from Illinois in a freight car loaded with machinery, household goods, two horses and two hogs. Velma Stanley, Edmond’s daughter, recalled stories of the time that is printed in the Liberty’s Prairie Cookbook, a fundraiser book printed in many rural communities and bearing the recipes and stories of the families who make up the history and flavor of the community. Above Stanley’s recollection, is her applesauce cake recipe. Stanley writes about the two-room soddy that became their home when she arrived with her mother, Alma, and siblings Erma and Lyle in 1911. The squat-roofed sod home was a change from the large, two-story home in Brimfield, Ill., that had been home previously. The Liberty School, built in 1913, became central to the family’s life as a school and a gathering place on Sundays. After Edmond’s death in 1930, Alma and their oldest son, Lyle, continued to run the ranch. Lyle eventually took over the ranch and ran it with his wife, Ethel, and their sons, Dewain and Leland. “When I was a kid, we had cattle and raised a lot of hogs and dairy cattle,” he said. “That’s how we kept groceries on the table.” 6
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The day the cream separator broke, Dewain said, is about the same day the family quit milking cows and raising hogs. The old machine now stands in the couple’s yard, bedecked with flowers and marking the end of an era. When they married in 1970, Dewain and Nancy began their married life on the ranch as a cow calf operation with a few hay fields producing winter feed. Nancy, who grew up south of nearby Brush, Colo., was the first surviving baby born to a mother with polio in the state. Her mother died in childbirth at the age of 23 leaving her family to raise Nancy and her two older siblings on the plains of Colorado. Growing up, Nancy was involved in 4-H and dreamed of marrying a cowboy. After marrying Dewain, a cowboy through and through, the couple worked the ranch and Nancy opened a beauty shop in town, Nancy’s Beauty Corral. After about 30 years in the business of beauty both at the shop and as a salon supply sales representative, Nancy is now home at Dewain’s side. “I’m happier now than I’ve ever been,” she said. “I’m doing what I always wanted. But you have to do what you have to do to make a living.” The ranch’s pastures were originally home to Hereford cattle, as
so many in the area were. Dewain eventually transitioned to a primarily Red Angus operation with the calves marketed locally through the auction barn. The size of the herd has fluctuated with the dry years and the challenge of transportation to state lease ground and keeping adequate working facilities in order. Keeping the ranch’s story alive is important to the couple and their home is filled with nods to the ranch’s history. Glass lanterns sit next to family photos, aerial photos of the ranch are displayed along with the turquoise stove from Dewain’s childhood home and a pie safe. The pie safe belonged to Dewain’s mother, Ethel, and Nancy refinished it, removing the paint from the inside of thousands of holes punched in the tin to reveal designs. Ethel Shapley, Dewain and Leland’s mother, was raised in Denver and was hired as a school teacher at Peace The soddy walls are crumbling but it is still standing.
Valley School, a one-room school. She later taught at Liberty School and Prairie School until her retirement from teaching primary grades. The well-loved teacher succumbed to breast cancer in 1978, Lyle passed away in 1992 after a lifetime on the ranch. One of the monuments to the ranch’s history is a cottonwood tree that towers over the creek east of the sod house. One of Edmond and Alma’s daughters discovered the tree, just a sapling, growing in the creek. As there were no other trees on the ranch, the family fenced it off to protect it and to allow it to grow. The tree is now a landmark and photos of it have adorned the Christmas cards Nancy has sent to family members. The soddy, too, still stands on the ranch though it has been propped up and the roof has since fallen in. Though the years haven’t been kind to the old house, the deep windowsills that once served as cozy seats remain and each year, Nancy hangs a Christmas wreath on the door. As is common on many operations, history is kept close at hand and near to the hearts of the family. Also common is the question of the ranch’s future. Without an up and coming generation to transfer management to, it’s uncertain who will eventually continue the ranch. Dewain and Nancy hope it will be someone who loves the ranch as much as they do. There is a small cemetery north of the ranch that overlooks the cottonwood tree, the creek, the cattle, and the legacy of the Shapley Ranch. The cemetery’s history is rich and somber as it memorializes many of the community members who make up the area’s story and reflects the harshness of the life through the tiny headstones marking the graves of infants and children. Dewain and Nancy both plan to be buried overlooking the ranch where Nancy can, as she said, “keep an eye on the place” and if anything is going wrong, “she can come down and straighten it out.” It’s been a remarkably dry year on the ranch and the amount of hay is down. Despite the challenges, the cows look slick and sassy out on grass. Nancy’s large garden is growing and her batches of chokecherry and sand cherry jellies are canned and ready to be enjoyed during the winter. The Shapley family continues to be an important part of the community where cattle are still king.
One of the monuments to the ranch’s history is this cottonwood tree that towers over the creek east of the sod house.
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T
he next time you savor honey in your food or drink, consider this: the average honeybee lives for only 6-8 weeks during a summer season and during her brief lifespan produces on average just 1/12 to one half of a teaspoon of honey. To put that in perspective, it takes in the neighborhood of 10,000 bees visiting close to 2 million flowers and flying 55,000 miles to produce just one pound of honey. Beyond the sheer scale of honey production, the importance of the honeybee to our food supply and our health is indisputable. And, our little bee buddies, and by association all of us, are at a critical junction today relative to the world food production.
A little history KĀRE, a New Zealand Beekeeping Association, notes that bees have been producing honey for at least 150 million years. A cave painting found in Spain and estimated to be 15,000 years old depicts a human figure taking honey from a hive. Sealed honey vats were discovered in King Tut’s tomb and offer further homage to the value of honey as an object to take into the next world.
Making honey Honey is created when bees, moving among blooming plants, mix the plant nectar (a sweet substance secreted by flowers) they pick up 8
Art + Ag 2017
on their bodies with their own bee enzymes. The bees deposit the collected nectar into their hive’s honeycomb and then fan it with their wings. The evaporated nectar becomes honey! Beeswax, which forms the honeycomb structure, is another valuable byproduct of the bees “honey factory”. In terms of volume, for every 60 pounds of honey produced one pound of beeswax is made.
Making money Pollination is big business. From an economic perspective, the estimated value of foods produced with the help of pollinators is between $235 billion to $577 billion in the U.S. annually.
Busy as a bee The worker honeybees only live for about 6-8 weeks in summer and they NEVER sleep. In that short lifetime, they fly the equivalent of 1.5 times the earth’s circumference. Between flying between flowers and fanning the nectar, their wings get quite the workout – so much so that worn-out wings is the most common reason for their death.
Health and Wellness An apple a day is a well-known dietary benefit, but honey contains vitamins and antioxidants, is fat free, cholesterol free, sodium free and contains a powerful antioxidant called “pinocembrin” which is
only found in honey and in ‘propolis’ (a mix of beeswax and other secretions used to adhere hives together). Honey also attracts and absorbs moisture, which makes it a remarkable salve for minor burns and prevents scarring. As recently as World War I, a mix of honey and cod liver oils was used to dress battlefield wounds. In recent times, improved athletic performance and brain functioning have also been tied to consumption of honey in lieu of processed sugars Of the food we eat, one in three mouthfuls has been produced directly or indirectly thanks to the pollination from honeybees and includes such crops as cucumbers, almonds, carrot seed, melons, apricots, cherries, pears, apples, prunes, plums, seed alfalfa, cantaloupe, seed onions, avocados, kiwi, blueberries, cranberries, to name a few. While there are 20,000 species of bees, honeybees make up 80% of those pollinators and are the only species that produce enough sur-
Chewy Honey Oatmeal Cookies
plus honey to nourish themselves and a surplus for consumption by other critters and humans. Honeybees are the only insects that produce a substance that humans eat. Amazingly, honey is the ONLY food that does not spoil. Ever. Remember the honey in King Tut’s tomb? The sealed vats found there
Makes 24 cookies
Directions
Ingredients
In medium bowl, beat butter with sugar until thoroughly blended. Blend in honey. Blend in egg and vanilla, mixing until smooth. In separate bowl, mix together oats, flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda; blend into honey mixture. Blend in raisins or chips. Drop dough by rounded Tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. Bake at 350°F for 12 to 14 minutes until cookies are golden brown. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool 2 to 3 minutes before removing from baking sheet. Cool completely then store in an airtight container.
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine softened • 1/2 cup granulated sugar • 1/2 cup honey • 1 large egg • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract • 1-1/2 cups quick cooking rolled oats • 1 cup whole wheat flour • 1/4 teaspoon salt • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda • 1 cup raisins, chocolate or butterscotch chips
were STILL edible, even after being buried for over 2,000 years. THAT is vintage honey! The reason honey won’t spoil is that its sugar content is too high and because it is naturally anti-microbial, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. And, this is why it carries important medicinal and healing powers.
Tip High altitude adjustment: Increase oats to 2 cups and decrease whole wheat flour to 3/4 cup.
Recipe and image courtesy of www.honey.com
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Western Honey Bee
Apis mellifera - "Honey carrying bee"
Average Length: 12 to 16 mm Average Weight: .1 gram Average Lifespan: 122 to 152 days
Antennae
A bee's antennae is used to smell, measure flight speed, and help exchange food with other bees.
Sight
Bees have two larger compound eyes and three smaller eyes that detect light intensity.
Attraction
A bee's hair has an electrostatic charge that attracts pollen.
Pollen
Tiny brushes on the front legs gather pollen and move it to the back legs where it collects in pollen baskets.
Nectar
Bees have an internal pouch where nectar is stored until being regurgitated.
Source: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu 10
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Flight
A bee has two sets of wings to help it maneuver in flight. The wings beat about 200 times per second.
Ouch!
The stinger has a sharp barb that holds it in place. In order to get away, the bee must tear away its own abdomen, killing itself in the process.
Power Pollinators While many crops are partially dependant on honey bee pollination to survive, other crops such as the almond cannot survive without it. A USDA study estimates that nearly one third of our diet consists of food that relies on bee pollination to some extent.
Agricultural Impact Here are only some of the crops that rely on bee pollination to survive.
Almonds - 100%
Avocados - 90%
Apples - 90%
Broccoli - 90%
Asparagus - 90%
Blueberries - 90%
Cherries, Cucumbers, Celery - 80%
Plums, Watermelon - 60% Source: American Beekeeping Federation
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Art + Ag 2017
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The Art of Ag W
hen the City Council formed the Greeley Creative District in January 2012, the primary goal was to catalogue and illuminate the concentration of ‘creative industries’ within the community. The District offered a boundary, an area enveloping the Downtown and University neighborhoods, where the concentration of businesses, events, activities and ‘creatives’ is greatest. All the better to market creative engagement opportunities to the community and region. The State of Colorado’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade, thanks to special legislation, offered communities 12
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the chance to be officially designated as Creative Districts as part of the Colorado Creatives Industry program. Greeley wasted no time in submitting its application and was among the first 12 communities to be welcomed into that inaugural program, competing with 44 communities and 25 counties for that coveted designation. To date, there are only 18 Colorado communities that carry that status, including Greeley. Since then, the GCD has formed its own non-profit board with 17 community members; been recognized with several awards for its achievements and innovation; supports, tracks, and promotes creative
community engagement across a wide field of arts and innovation; and hosts several of its own special events. Events have ranged from workshops and networking for artists to community-wide experiences, including a successful attempt at a Guinness World Record in 2015, which created the world’s longest continuous chalk art drawing at 3.55 miles, involving 3,560 community participants who created 2,600 drawings using 76,000 sticks of chalk. Another event, the Annual AgriCulture Fest and Feast, focuses on the Art of Agriculture. “Agriculture is our DNA heritage,” notes Becky Safarik, President of the Greeley
griculture ECONOMIC NOTE The Greeley Creative District tracks participation at ~ 80 annual events in the District recording 640,591 in attendance and sales tax of $2,328,718 in 2016.
Creative District Board. “We want to Farmers’ Market adding exhibits, produced locally. The dinner event engage the community in an event demonstrations, entertainment, tast- features locally produced brews that celebrates those roots, educates and spirits, musical entertainment, ings and hands-on experiences for the process of exhibits, and a getting food silent auction all from field to in a comfortable, The GCD invites ideas, volunteers, artists and other creatives to plate, and share friendly, and engage and experience the community in a variety of activities. the world of agriinformal setting. For more information about the Greeley Creative District and to cultural creativThe dinner event view its many undertakings go to: ity, from culinary is also one of the www.greeleycreativedistrict.org and arts to innovaGCD’s anchor www.discovergreeleycreativedistrict.com tion in farming fundraisers. The and ranching, event, which to the crafts and can accommovisitors to the event. In the evening, date approximately 350, has sold creations distinctive to this part of the Feast gets underway with a plat- out each year -- evidence to the our culture.” ed dinner prepared by local chefs Now in its 4th year, the AgriCulGCD that the Art of AgriCulture is who donate their talents to create ture Fest is a day long experience special, engaging and an essential that centers around the Greeley enticing meal courses using foods component of our local way of life. Art + Ag 2017
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I
t turns out there’s a pretty good chance that the best part of your pizza came from a company with a major operation right here in Greeley. That’s because the world’s largest producer of delicious, melty, mozzarella cheese is located right here in town – in a cutting-edge facility where 430 people turn 100 semi-truck loads of milk into over 500,000 pounds of mozzarella every single day. Just nine years ago Leprino Foods bought the abandoned Great Western Sugar factory in Greeley, west
of Highway 85 at 13th Street, one of several sugar beet plants scattered throughout northeastern Colorado. In partnership with the City and Urban Renewal Authority, the move enabled Greeley to overcome the environmental challenges inherent to 100 years of sugar-beet processing — challenges that are too often barriers to successful economic redevelopment. Today, Leprino is well under way constructing its third phase of the cheese and whey product facility, which will add another 120 jobs to the local economy.
And because the entire production supply chain is localized, the city’s partnership with Leprino Foods will continue to provide economic benefits for decades to come: an estimated $325 million for the city, $4.8 billion for the county and $10.1 billion statewide over the next 20 years according to Greeley’s assistant city manager Becky Safarik. Meanwhile, thanks in part to Leprino Foods, Weld County led the entire nation in job growth for two consecutive years.
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Corporate Responsibility Fresh water in the West, including Colorado, is a particularly critical natural resource issue. Along the Front Range, Greeley is known as a leader in water conservation – making Leprino Foods a perfect match for Greeley. According to Leprino’s most recent Corporate Responsibility Report, the company’s Greeley cheese and whey plant employs a state-ofthe-art wastewater treatment facility that, in addition to ensuring the highest standards of water quality, returns nearly all of the water used to the Cache la Poudre River. Four watchwords in Leprino’s corporate profile are Quality, Service, Competitive Price and Ethics. Leprino’s ability to put those ethos into action is evident – the company has never had a product recall.
Brownfield Transformed into State-of-the-Art Plant The first sugar beet processing factory in Colorado was built in 1899; by the
mid-1930s 22 of them were in operation – more than any other state. Only one remains in operation today. Working with city officials, Leprino Foods chose to build their Greeley plant on a brownfield redevelopment area that formerly housed one of those abandoned sugar factories. It meant dealing with more than just abandoned buildings: over 700,000 cubic yards of waste lime had piled up over the plant’s 100 years of operation. The nearly 100-acre site was reclaimed. Today, it’s the site of one of the most technologically advanced cheese and whey plants in the world and an eco-friendly corporate neighbor for Greeley and Northern Colorado.
Not Just Cheese The Greeley Leprino plant is among its largest facilities and, in addition to cheese, the plant will produce a variety of innovative new protein products as part of its new 3rd phase – products that are popular in health and fitness applications. Leprino uses every aspect of the raw milk possible. The company is an innovator
of process and product, holding over 50 patents. They continue to evolve and seek excellence in their work and products.
Agriculture – An Economic Powerhouse Leprino Foods relies on local dairy farmers to deliver a steady supply of milk. So the company built its latest mozzarella and whey plant in Greeley in part because Northern Colorado, one of the top agricultural regions in the country, has a long history of dairy farming. In addition to employment within the plant itself – which will soon reach 550 – their partnerships with area farmers create indirect economic benefits: new dairies and expansion of existing farms, dairy support jobs, and new business development in the areas of agricultural products and services. The company’s Phase 3 plant expansion, with an initial investment of $190 million, adding to the $600 million already invested in the plant, will add over 200,000 square feet of working space to the existing facility.
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The demand for
T
More conventional farmers in Weld County are adding organic crops to the mix because demand is hot
he Hungenberg farm started with seven acres of land in 1907. That land is more than 4,000 acres of cropland, and the farm is now known for two main products: cabbage and carrots. This past year was the first time Hungenberg Produce in Greeley grew organic carrots. Of about 4,000 acres the company farms on, 62 acres of that were for organic carrots. Organic crops are a gamble. They're more expensive to raise, and farmers can't use methods normally used to protect crops, such as pesticides. Even so, the addition of an organic crop wasn't something those at Hungenberg Produce really questioned last year. "With the market trends, it's not going away," said Jordan Hungenberg, co-owner of Hungenberg Produce. "People buy organic a lot, so we decided we were behind the 8-ball and decided to try it." The Hungenbergs are just part of a group of conventional farmers in Weld County who are adding
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organic crops to their mix. That's because the demand for organic produce is something that looks like it's sticking around. Rather than ignore the trend, more conventional farmers, including more in Weld County, are taking the same gamble.
From Trend to Mainstream In the 1990s it was hard to find organic products in places other than natural food stores or farmers' markets. Now most grocery stores, and all the big chains, sell organic produce. Naturally (no pun intended), producers began to recognize the demand. Even so, it's only been the last couple of years that farms and ranches in Colorado have switched more land over to organics. In 1997, according to a report from the USDA's Economic Research Service,
Colorado only had 3,716 acres of organic produce. There were 114,750 acres in 2014, and in 2015 there were 151,571 acres. That's about a 32 percent increase in acreage in only a year. Weld-specific data on organic acres wasn't available. In 2015, Colorado became the No. 9 highest-grossing state for organic sales, selling $155 million worth of organic products. The demand is obviously there. "The trend of organic foods isn't really a trend anymore," Hungenberg said. Part of that comes from an increased want in the story behind the food and where it comes from, according to Marilyn Bay Drake, executive director of Colorado Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association. That's why, despite prices being higher on average, consumers still purchase organic products.
Co-owner of Hungenberg Produce, Jordan Hungenberg, said the farm will plant three times the amount of organic carrots in the 2017 season.
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Bob Kreps and Terry Wiedeman, Owners Belen Vergara sorts through the carrots to ensure they are ready to package Aug. 19 at at Hungenberg Produce, 31466 Weld CR. 39 1/2, in Greeley. Art + Ag 2017
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In a study released in 2014 that looked at the price comparisons of organic and conventional vegetables in San Francisco and Atlanta, the average price for a 25-pound sack of loose carrots grown conventionally was $9.60 in 2013. If those carrots were grown organically, the average price was $33.56.
CONVENTIONAL VS. ORGANIC Conventional farming, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, includes the use of pesticides and genetically modified foods. Most farmers use conventional methods of growing crops. This means farmers will use pesticides, synthetic fertilizers and other methods to grow more food on larger plots of land.
The sales from organic produce increased 13 percent from 2014 to 2015. In the U.S., $6.2 billion worth of organic foods were sold.
On the organic side, seeds and fertilizers are not synthetic or modified. Pesticides are all natural. This also means there is a need for additional labor to get rid of weeds and pests by hand. While organic foods must be GMO-free, conventional farmers have the ability to grow non-modified seeds.
Between 30 and 39.9 percent of Colorado organic sales were directly to the consumer, and between 70 and 79.9 percent of the sales were within 100 miles of the farm. That shows the demand isn't just for organic products but locally grown products as well. For Hungenberg, their vegetables
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Art + Ag 2017
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RISK AND REWARD With farming there is always a risk. There are a number of factors that will mean the difference between a good and bad crop, and with organic that's especially true. Hungenberg Produce had 62 acres planted, and the farmers knew to expect about a 25 percent loss just because that's the name of the game in organic foods. It's harder to grow organic foods as more natural pesticides usually don't work as well in pest control. Part of the risk farmers take comes from the additional cost of labor needed to work the fields. This year during peak growing and harvest season, there were about 200 workers. Normally that number is about 150-180. And the plan is to add about 50 more workers with the expanding organic acreage. But there's a catch. Finding enough
people to work the fields isn't always an easy task, Hungenberg said. But for organic the extra manpower is especially necessary since it's more labor intensive. Last year wasn't a good one for the Hungenbergs' organic crop. The crop ended up losing about 65 percent, according to Hungenberg. A mid-summer hailstorm hurt a lot of their crops, including the organic carrots. Yet they still made a profit. "All in all, it was a success. We made a little bit of money on the deal, not as much as we hoped, but after you pay everybody to weed and ‌ just everything that goes into it we were still flush and that was a good thing," Hungenberg said And next year, they hope, will be better. Hungenberg said they will plant triple the amount of organic carrots than last year. Hungenberg now has the largest operation of organic carrots in Colorado — most of them in the West are grown in California. This gives the Hungenbergs a large advantage. In 2015, according to the USDA's National
Agricultural Statistics Service, only three acres of organic carrots were harvested between six farms.
CONTINUING FORWARD The Hungenbergs aren't the only farmers who grow organic products, and weren't the first to add organic to a conventional farm. And seeing what was once thought to simply be a trend is turning into a necessity to stay competitive. The Colorado Department of Agriculture is seeing so many producers trying to become certified that it's suggested producers get private certifiers to get that organic approval. "If you can grow it in Colorado, guaranteed someone is growing it organically," said Amy Stafford, organic program manager for CDA. And that's what the Hungenbergs are doing. "It was an easy choice," Hungenberg said.
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100-year-old barn gets a face lift
W
George Maxey stands outside of his 100-year-old barn Feb. 3 at Maxey Farms, in Greeley, Colo. The barn is being renivated for its 100th birthday.
hat do you get a 100-year-old for a birthday present?
George Maxey, a Greeley farmer, had an idea. What about a face lift? The recipient isn't a who in this case, but a what. The milk barn on his property hit the centennial mark this year, and Maxey decided $46,000 for renovations would be the perfect present. Maxey's decision came after a hailstorm last year ruined the old roof. Last week, workers removed the old, wooden shingles and replaced them with green steel panels. The roof is only part of what Maxey wants done to the barn, but it's by 20
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far the biggest change in its history. When the barn was first built in 1917, it was modern for its time, and as times and the dairy industry changed, so did the barn. Maxey's relationship with the barn came along in 1950s. He grew up in Illinois, where his dad also was a dairy farmer. Maxey knew he wanted to stay in the industry, but he wanted to own his own dairy — not work for someone else. "I decided if I was going to milk cows for the rest of my life, I wanted to get more than just a milk check," he said. Maxey discovered the barn when he was at Fort Warren training base
in Cheyenne in the '50s. His dad heard about one Carl Henry — the man who had the barn built. Maxey started to spend his weekends at the barn working for Henry. When Maxey was ready to leave the Air Force, he knew he wanted to work at the farm. Henry's wife made that possible: None of the Henry kids wanted to take over the farm, so she offered it to him. The Henry kids took out a second mortgage, and Maxey took out one of his own. "It took me a long 33 years to pay it off," Maxey said while chuckling. Since Maxey took over more than 60 years ago, he made the dairy his
Saul Gutièrrez cuts the through the metal in preparations for the new barn roof Friday at Maxey Farms, in Greeley.
own. He continued to raise Holstein cows, as Henry did, and found ways to maximize the production of the barn. Henry switched from hand milking to using a machine in the 1940s, meaning he could milk up to 24 cows at a time instead of one. Maxey found a way to optimize that through rotation, doubling the amount of cows he could milk. That's when one of the first big changes happened to the barn. Because he was able to double the work, he needed room for a 900-gallon tank. Maxey needed to tear down two silos to make room. But it wasn't all work and no play in the barn. In the 1980s and 1990s, Maxey regularly hosted people from his church for square dancing in the barn. And even with all the time and work put into the barn, he still learns more about the history. One of the shingles torn off the roof, in dark faded black lettering, indicates they were made in British Columbia, Canada. The shingles have lasted 100 years, and Maxey hopes the green steel panels will do the same, if not more. "I don't know if anyone in British Columbia can sell me shingles," he said.
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Art + Ag 2017
21
W
hen Judy Firestien talks about the history of her family's farm, it doesn't sound rehearsed, because she knows it well.
Bracewell farm turns
This year is the centennial anniversary of the Von Trotha-Firestien Historic Farm at Bracewell, and Firestien celebrated with an open farm. It wasn't an open house, as Firestien and her mom, Ruth, still live in the homes. But they wanted to share the farm with anyone who came to visit. The farm isn't as large as it used to be. Firestien's cousin Mark still farms corn and hay on 50 acres of land. At its peak, the farm had about 200 acres. But the farm remains one of the few properties left in the town most people only know about if they're from the area. Firestien's mailing address is in Greeley and the phone number is from Windsor. The property is on the National Register of Historic Places list, which includes the likes of Independence Hall and the Statue of Liberty. As is the case with many places on the list, Firestien decided to apply for the listing when a possible road expansion would have cut her home in half. "The historical society was interested because everything is pretty much where it started," Firestien said. That prevented the road from running through the property.
Although the farm is 100 years old this year, Firestien can't apply for the Centennial Farm designation from Colorado. Part of the requirement is a family must own the farm for 100 years. The Firestien family didn't officially own the farm until 1966. "We have a few more years to go," Firestien joked.
From Von Trotha To Firestien Bode and Claude Von Trotha were brothers who settled on the land in 1916. They weren't the original owners, but the operation under their control used improved irrigation practices and grew sugar beets, a big cash crop at the time. "I don't think there was a farmer who didn't raise them then," Ruth said. Firestien's great-grandparents, Peter and Sophia Firestien, worked for the Von Trotha brothers. In fact, Firestien's house is now Judy's.
The Von Trotha brothers didn't have someone to pass the farm along to in their family, so they offered it to the Firestiens.
Years later, when Ruth married Peter and Sophia's grandson, Wilbert "Chuck," they asked the Von Trothas about a place for them to live on the farm. The idea of building a new home was obvious, but the Von Trothas were resourceful and decided to move a house that wasn't being used just up the street in their field. "It hadn't been used except for a hired man's house," Ruth said. "The house had been sitting empty for quite a while. They moved it up here and redid it." Ruth still lives in the house. Even Judy's house, while original, wasn't built with new material. Remaining brick from a few old silos were used. Even though the Von Trotha brothers didn't have someone to pass the farm on to, their lineage didn't stop with Bode and Claude. Not too long ago, Judy said, someone with Texas plates drove into the property just to look around. It happened to be a relative of the original owners.
Judy Firestien, left, and Ruth Firestien stand along side the barn on their historic farm in Bracewell. They plan to have an open farm celebration in honor of the farm's 100 year anniversary. 22
Art + Ag 2017
Awards line the wall behind Janet Konkel as she stands in her office at the Island Grove Exhibition Building in Greeley. Konkel was named 2016 fair manager of the year by the Rocky Mountain Association of Fairs, which includes fairs in 14 states and two Canadian provinces.
Manager Janet Konkel puts her all into Weld County Fair and wins prestigious award for doing it
T
here is a bulletin board in Janet Konkel's office with a plain white piece of paper that reads, in all caps, "JANET'S FAIR NUMBER."
As the Weld County Fair coordinator, a job she's had since 2011, Konkel is the one to call during the fair, if you can track her down. There's a lot to manage, but she does it with plenty of help. All that work paid off as she was named the 2016 Fair Manager of the Year by the Rocky Mountain Association of Fairs, a group made up of 14 states and two Canadian provinces.
busy all the time, not just during the fair. The committee already is meeting about next year's fair. Since it's fair No. 100 for Weld, it's kind of a big deal. But first priority is still this year's fair. One thing that sets the Weld County Fair apart from many others is there is no carnival. There are two main reasons for that. First, the fair starts less than a month after the Greeley Stampede ends. The other comes down to the purpose of the fair: 4-H. "We are unique in that," Konkel said. "We are here for the kids."
"I didn't even know I'd been nominated," she said.
She said it surprises a lot of other fair managers.
It was a big honor for her, all the same. She contends the award speaks to the reputation and quality of the Weld County Fair. As long as it's about the fair, Konkel doesn't shy away from boasting, saying it's easily "one of the top fairs in the western U.S." She knew that before she worked there, though, as her daughters, Erin, Sara and Beth, participated in it.
But when you look at the reputation of the Weld County Fair, the recognition it and those like Konkel have received, the result seems to speak for itself.
"I'm a 4-Her for life," Konkel said with a smile. Konkel participated in 4-H while growing up in Prescott, Ariz. In 1978, she and her husband, Mike, moved to Greeley to open a Baskin Robbins ice cream store. She owned the two shops that used to be in town. This year's fair still is 101 days away, but planning started 254 days ago. The fair is a year-round job; she's
Right now, Konkel said, her main focus is getting this year's fair book together and ready. The book includes the names of all the exhibitors who will show at this year's fair, along with a few stories about people who are part of the Weld County Fair family. It's roughly the size of a college textbook. Plus, there's a lot to live up to, as the Weld County Fair has had an award-winning fair book — yes, they give out awards for that, too. But that's just the main task for this month, and the closer July 22 gets, the more there is to do. Art + Ag 2017
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