Food Security

Recently I attended the Southwest Food & Farmland Forum in Lewis, CO (just outside Cortez) where the topic of securing our Food, Farmland and the future of both was discussed. The people who attended were small time farmers and ranchers from the Western Slope for the most part who take part in the regions farmers markets and are looking to connect with new markets. As a "Value Added Manufacture" I sometimes feel like the odd one in the room, but I pointed out that "Branding" has a lot to do with connecting to your customer. Palisade has the peach, James Ranch a broad collection of quality goods each speaking differently yet conveying the strength in the brand each time you interact with it.

For me 3 key points came to me after the meeting.

    1 - Find the suppliers and the consumers. Montezuma, CO has Agriculture and San Miguel, CO does not, yet San Miguel has a lot of people who would prefer to eat local made food.
    2 - Work on distribution, this would include refrigeration and dedicated schedules and routes.
    3 - Work on a strong brand, Individually for sure & maybe collectively (Independent Food Producer) something that stands apart from the global producers.

There has been significant interest and growth in the business since last year which has lead to reaching markets in Palisade, Mancos, Alamosa & Buena Vista on a consistent basis and also having product showcased in places like Silverthore where Scott Mercer attended an event last weekend for people that cater to the hotel industry in the area. Also, nothing feels better than the display looking half full after one day of shopping.

It also looks like we will be making samples for the Colorado Certified Potato Growers Association for all of there upcoming tradeshows. We will be putting together a mix of salted Mountain Rose and Purple Majesty chips for 3 different events amounting to about a 1,000 pieces. More important will be the connections to the people who are part of the association. I did find out that "Chip Peddler" chips are the only chips made from potatoes grown in the San Luis Valley, most of there potatoes are grown as seed potatoes and shipped to other regions of the country to be grown by other farmers before going to the chipping house.

In other news, the "Chip Peddler" delivery bike has been painted the company color, thanks to the people at Mesa Color in Durango, who took care of sandblasting the frame and powder coating, for being one of the sponsors on the project. 

In other news.

The Halloween ride at Phil's World ended with a "Time Trail" race. Everyone had to ride the same bike in costume, here Meredith Mapel takes off from the starting gate - her husband, Jimmy Kight took home the fastest time even after laying it down in one of the turns.

At the Motocross track in Aztec, NM there are now some new "Freestyle Bicycle Jumps" that have been set up, at the moment there are a few jumps to hit but if all goes well they will have different sets of them that will lead down the wash.