High-Country Farming
Growing and feeding a community at 7,200 feetThe Alpine Farm
All about the Farm at Home Ranch
The Farm at Home Ranch is a high alpine endeavor with a mission to sustainably and organically feed the North Routt community and its visitors at the altitude of 7,200 feet. A beautiful complex of stunning gardens, alpine greenhouses, and orchards, the farm lovingly illustrates how a high-country farm in Colorado can flourish with ingenuity, hard work and the vision of its energetic and inspired owners and farm team.
If you’d like a taste of the bounty – during the growing and harvest season of late spring through fall – you can purchase fresh produce from the Farm Stand at the Clark Store from 4 to 6 pm on Wednesdays from June through September, as well as at the Steamboat Farmer’s Market on Saturdays starting in June where you will find seasonal fruits and vegetables, eggs and beef, and botanical products. For best selection, come early; produce this fresh and delicious at this altitude is a precious and rare commodity.
If you’d like to purchase a share of the bounty from our Community Supported Agriculture program, please follow this link to our CSA page.
reCurrent and future plans ~
What’s happening and what’s to come
The Home Ranch Farm is currently expanding operations to provide more produce for the Yampa Valley. Growing food in a high-country climate is a challenging and fun experiment, and we enjoy the adventure of exploring new methods of growing delicious, local produce with our dynamic seasons. Our community has been incredibly supportive of our new venture into selling produce at the Clark Farm Stand, and at the Steamboat Farmers Market. It is humbling and inspiring to see the community excitement for eating food that is grown locally.
To meet the rising demand for local food, we have added an eco-design greenhouse on the Ranch that is heated and cooled by a climate battery. This facilitates growing annual crops in all four seasons, while adding the capacity to grow tropical and Mediterranean plants, such as citrus and figs. The new facility also has expanded space for seed germination and produce processing to allow production activities to continue throughout the winter months. With two high tunnels and the new greenhouse, we hope to provide tasty and nutritious food to our community year-round. We are also offering monthly community workshops which enable the public to visit the greenhouse and farm to see what we are up to on-site. Follow us on social media to hear about the next workshop, or keep an eye out for a newsletter!