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On a current summer season day, about three dozen native residents gathered for the second-annual community lunch at Highwater Farm in Silt.
The 5-acre farm, which sits alongside the Colorado River, was began by Sara Tymczyszyn in partnership with the Town of Silt and the Aspen Valley Land Trust in 2020.
The farm’s annual community lunch is hosted by highschool college students within the farm’s eight-week summer season youth program, which launched final 12 months.
This 12 months, the seven college students in this system helped put together the community meal with greens they grew on the farm. They additionally led farm excursions and gave speeches about how this system has impacted their lives.
Eleanor Bennett
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Aspen Public Radio
It was a sizzling morning on the day of the community lunch, and the scholars arrived early to get a head begin on the every day farmwork.
One group was weeding whereas the others have been shoveling filth into luggage that will likely be used as weights to maintain down a big tarp over lately harvested garlic beds.
Sora Hess, who goes to Glenwood High School, took a break from his shoveling to clarify that the method permits the garlic beds to relaxation in order that they are often planted once more subsequent 12 months.
“So, basically, what it does is it keeps the weeds from regrowing and spreading a lot and also helps put nutrients back in the soil,” he stated.
Eleanor Bennett
/
Aspen Public Radio
An enormous a part of why Hess needed to work on the farm this summer season was to be outdoors.
“I also want money because that’s obviously always a reason to get a job,” he stated.
It’s the second 12 months that Highwater Farm has supplied the paid internship program, and college students can earn up to $3,000 over the course of eight weeks.
In addition to rising and promoting native produce, the scholars additionally study concerning the agricultural historical past of the realm, discover matters comparable to meals insecurity and local weather change, achieve sensible expertise comparable to public talking, and take part in group actions, together with tenting and mountain climbing.
Eleanor Bennett
/
Aspen Public Radio
On this specific day, the extracurricular exercise is to assist put together the community lunch.
Local cooks Tiffany Pineda-Scarlett and Joey Scarlett greeted the scholars within the farm’s open-air kitchen.
The couple runs an area catering enterprise referred to as The Farmer & The Chef, they usually volunteered to assist educate the scholars how to cook dinner a meal utilizing the greens they grew on the farm this summer season.
“We’re making carne guisada and sauteed squash with peas and onions and garlic and steamed rice and a nice big salad,” Pineda-Scarlett stated. “And we’re gonna make a vinaigrette soon, which will be fun. We’ll teach you guys how to do that.”
Eleanor Bennett
/
Aspen Public Radio
Pineda-Scarlett, who grew up in Miami, stated instructing the scholars how to put together a meal reminds her of her personal expertise studying to cook dinner.
“When I was probably seven or eight, probably big enough to hold a knife or a spoon, my grandma on my mom’s side would come spend summer vacations with us from Nicaragua,” she stated. “She loved to cook and she would have me like, you know, pick the tips off of green beans and peel potatoes and slowly taught me her ways.”
Pineda-Scarlett stated she hopes to carry that very same pleasure to the scholars at the farm.
The cooks began by giving an illustration on how to chop bell peppers and zucchini squash.
“You’re making these long strokes. So do this motion for me for a second,” Pineda-Scarlett stated. “And the movement isn’t coming for your wrist. It’s coming from your shoulder. So try that.”
When the demonstration was completed, the scholars have been every assigned a cooking station.
Eleanor Bennett
/
Aspen Public Radio
Sora Hess volunteered to assist chop the fennel, and about midway by, he took a break to attempt a bit.
“It just feels better to eat something you’ve grown, you know?” he stated. “You know what effort was put into it and kind of realize that you helped make this.”
On the opposite facet of the kitchen, chef Joey Scarlett taught Coal Ridge High School college students Aileen Ramirez and Julian Jasso how to emulsify oil and vinegar to create a easy French dressing for the salad.
Once the oil and vinegar have been sufficiently blended collectively, Scarlett walked the scholars by the remainder of the recipe.
“We’re looking for that sweetness, the acidity, and savory,” he stated. “We have the acidity from your mustard, your vinegar, and the sweetness from your honey, and a little bit of the richness from your olive oil.”
Scarlett defined that an vital a part of being a chef is to style what you make alongside the best way.
“So if you want to stick your hands out like that, make a fist, and give it a taste,” he stated. “How does it taste? Pretty good, huh? Super simple.”
Eleanor Bennett
/
Aspen Public Radio
After the French dressing was completed, Ramirez and Jasso helped chef Tiffany Pineda-Scarlett put together the steamed rice.
“So when I cook rice, I think it’s really important to put a lot of intention into it,” she stated. “I do think at the end of the day, your food tastes better when you put that love and intention into it.”
The first step was to rinse and pressure the rice and take away the surplus starch, which Pineda-Scarlett confirmed the scholars how to do by hand.
“This is how my mom always made it, she never used a colander. She always just used her hands,” she stated. “So we’ll just go over to the grass and we’re just gonna tilt the water out and let it fall. And then we’ll catch any little bit of rice with our hands.”
At about noon, guests started arriving for the community lunch and the students took turns giving farm tours.
Ramirez dressed up in a corn suit for the occasion.
She volunteered to lead the first tour with her friend Yesenia Serna, who also goes to Coal Ridge High in Silt.
“Welcome to our farm,” Ramirez stated. “These right here on our left are some potatoes, and then we have corn right here and then we have some beans.”
Across the sphere, Asher Charlesworth led one other tour of the rooster coop.
Eleanor Bennett
/
Aspen Public Radio
Charlesworth goes to Liberty Classical Academy in New Castle and grew up elevating chickens on his household’s farm in Silt.
“We’ll put hay in here,” he stated, pointing to the rooster coop. “And then they’ll poop and then we’ll take it out and spread it all over the grass and then remove it.”
Charlesworth’s mother, Tara, got here for the lunch and was not shocked that her son was proper at dwelling on the farm.
“We actually live on a little tiny farm where we raise our own chickens and ducks and turkeys and cows and vegetables and fruit in Silt,” she stated.
Eleanor Bennett
/
Aspen Public Radio
When it was time for lunch, Rifle High School pupil Wyatt Brandt received out his guitar and strummed a couple of songs as friends took their seats at a number of lengthy tables within the shade.
Highwater Farm Director Sara Tymczyszyn kicked off the lunch by thanking the scholars and workers for his or her exhausting work this summer season.
“It takes a lot to build a farm, and everyone that is here today is a part of that momentum,” she stated. “This is our third season on the farm, and I am very, very excited about the progress our youth program has made.”
Eleanor Bennett
/
Aspen Public Radio
After introductions from Tymczyszyn, the farm’s youth program lead, Ava Gilbert, shared her expertise working with the scholars this summer season.
“It’s just been really special to see them bond and create their own community over the season and to be able to work with them every day and help teach them the world of agriculture,” Gilbert stated. “It has been amazing to find out how much it amplifies my own appreciation for the work.”
Gilbert then invited Julian Jasso and several other different college students up to give their speeches.
Eleanor Bennett
/
Aspen Public Radio
In the weeks main up to the community lunch, the scholars attended public-speaking workshops and practiced what they have been going to say, however Jasso advised the gang he was nonetheless nervous.
“I hate this, but let’s get into it. Today’s topic for me is about friendship and how Highwater Farm kind of introduced me to being able to make new friends with anyone,” he stated. “I’m not really from here, and I didn’t really have much confidence coming into this.”
Jasso moved to the Colorado River valley from Los Angeles when he was 5, and he stated it is friendships comparable to those he made on the farm this summer season that make him really feel at dwelling in a brand new place.
“They kind of just forced us to talk to each other and said, ‘You do this, you do that, you know, talk to each other, make friends, play games,’ and it worked,” he stated. “It did change me who I am today. It just shows me that you can be friends with anyone no matter who they are — you just have to get to know ’em, really.”
After Jasso’s speech, a couple of extra college students shared what they discovered on the farm. Lunch was then served.
Eleanor Bennett
/
Aspen Public Radio
Rifle High School instructor Lori Mentink and her mother, Phyllis Walker, have been sitting at an extended desk.
Walker stated seeing the potatoes rising in the course of the farm tour earlier within the day reminded her of her childhood rising up on a farm.
“I grew up in the San Luis Valley, and we always started school early in August,” she stated. “We went to school for about three weeks. Then we got off and the whole K-12 all went to work in the potato fields for potato harvest.”
Walker and Mentink are glad to see that children are nonetheless studying about sustainable agriculture regardless of the shrinking variety of small, household farms throughout the nation.
Eleanor Bennett
/
Aspen Public Radio
Silt resident Tara Charlesworth agreed with Walker and Mentink.
She stated her son Asher appreciated this system a lot final summer season that he requested to do it once more this 12 months.
“It’s been such a great program for him, team building, and learning and growing,” she stated. “It’s a really rich and beautiful place for him to work and to be involved with.”
She hopes extra native children will get to have the identical expertise that her son had.
This 12 months’s youth program wrapped up Aug. 5.
Highwater Farm will likely be posting the appliance for subsequent summer season’s youth program in January.
Eleanor Bennett
/
Aspen Public Radio
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