Living Legacy
Divide Creek Farm takes next step in four-season organic farming movement
By Shannon Dick • Photographs by Robbie George

Surely no one would blame Clara Coleman if she assumed organic farming would be the natural path her life would take. Clara’s father, after all, is organic farm pioneer Eliot Coleman, founder of the famed Four Season Farm in Harborside, Maine, and author of The New Organic Grower, The Four Season Harvest and The Winter Harvest Handbook.

But her path wasn’t that simple. Although she always worked with her father and at other farms throughout the world, Clara didn’t grow up being groomed to become a farmer, and her father never pressured her to enter the “family business.”

“I’d always loved food, and was very particular about food,” she says. “I would always buy from and support small farms. I always had small gardens and I loved doing it, I just never thought I’d do it commercially. Sometimes the pressure of having a legacy behind you is intimidating … they’re big shoes to fill. I was the only one holding myself back.”

Clara moved from Maine to Aspen in 1997. Four years later, she met her partner, Robbie George, and, in 2004, had their first son, Bode. That summer, tragically, both of Robbie’s parents died. As a result, Robbie and Clara became owners of his parent’s retirement home in Silt. What they were left with was not just a house and garage on 70 acres, but the infrastructure for a thriving farm and the beginning of a dream.

There, they decided to open Divide Creek Farm, a small organic farm and livestock operation, focusing on four-season production. In just six years, the couple’s hard work is obvious: The farm has grown to 200 acres, and they’ve added four greenhouses, three of which are Rolling Thunder moveable greenhouses designed by Eliot Coleman himself, and manufactured by Rimol Greenhouses. These aid Clara in year-round production from her gardens.

Divide Creek, who’s motto is “real farming, real food,” is incredibly dynamic. During the summer months they grow a variety of fruits, vegetables and sunflowers. One can also see bees from Wild Bear Honey buzzing around stalks of non-GMO sweet corn and rows of unique and colorful swirls of heirloom beans, such as Dragon’s Tongue and Tongue of Fire. In fall and winter, they continue to grow ‘candy carrots’ and cold-hardy greens such as mache, baby spinach, baby arugula, and salad mixes.

“Food should be something enjoyable, and I’m creating ‘real food’ here,” says Clara.

The couple, with the help of a handful of interns, also raises lamb and cattle, as well as ducks for eggs and “bug patrol.” The resident chickens are fed greens year-round, and the three horses are used for manure and keeping the grass mowed.

With seven solar panels providing energy for the farm, Robbie and Clara make sure that they are living as responsibly as they can, and that nothing goes to waste—including their space, which is maximized by narrow pathways in the greenhouses and gardens to allow more growing room.

Focusing on relationship marketing and direct consumer sales, Divide Creek Farm keeps their business close to home. They sell their products at the Basalt Sunday Market, Glenwood’s Tuesday Market, the Willits Winter Market, as well as directly to restaurants on occasion.

At the Basalt Sunday Market, they are known for the “Greenstream,” a refurbished 1967 Caravel Airstream trailer retrofitted as a walk-in cooler—the first like it in the country.

“It’s all Robbie’s idea,” says Clara. “Robbie is the visionary and I’m the detail person. That’s where our strengths are.” The “Greenstream” uses an air conditioning unit powered by a solar panel on top of the vehicle. Using cold plate technology, a fan circulates the cool air and drops the temperature to 40° or lower without using an energy-thirsty compressor. It’s self-sufficient, ecofriendly and uses less energy when transporting the farm’s treasures from point A to point B.

It has become a talking point for many at the farmers’ markets and has given Clara an opportunity to speak to her customers directly about the importance of small, organic farms and eating locally grown produce.

“It helps people realize their priorities if food becomes a main concern and people begin to think about what they are eating and where they are getting it from.” The problem, Clara says, “is that big agricultural companies have the ability to create and control prices, which people inevitably compare to local organic farms. The food may be cheaper, but it’s a false sense because the consequences of these growing practices will have long-term effects. Food is something that is so essential to our lives, and we should reprioritize it as such.”

Robbie and Clara are living examples of reprioritizing food, and the result is a rewarding and enriching lifestyle for their family (which is now four strong). While organic farming on a small scale may not be the most lucrative business when it comes to finances, Clara and Robbie find wealth in loving what they do.

“It’s about the lifestyle, not the money,” says Robbie. “You get to know the customers and it builds a community,” says Clara.  (Amiee White Beazley contributed to this story.)

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Divide Creek Farm
970.876.5834
www.dividecreekfarm.com