Difference between revisions of "Jacob Springs Farm"

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[[Naming Jacob Springs Farm|The name "Jacob Springs Farm"]] was chosen to recognize the Jacobs family who had long farmed at this intersection, to recognize farm's location at Jacob's Corner, the springs of water on the property  - including the one at Jacob's corner and to recognize the Biblical story of Jacob's Spring in the book of John chapter 4.
 
[[Naming Jacob Springs Farm|The name "Jacob Springs Farm"]] was chosen to recognize the Jacobs family who had long farmed at this intersection, to recognize farm's location at Jacob's Corner, the springs of water on the property  - including the one at Jacob's corner and to recognize the Biblical story of Jacob's Spring in the book of John chapter 4.
  
The farm quickly grew into  [[Andre Houssney|Andre]] primary activity. We are a Christian community and welcome all people, whatever their belief system.
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The farm quickly grew into  [[Andre Houssney|Andre's]] primary activity. We are a Christian community and welcome all people, whatever their belief system.
  
  

Revision as of 09:54, 30 November 2019

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Jacob Springs is a diversified beyond organic farm, located near Boulder, Colorado on the southeast corner of Arapahoe road and 75th street just minutes from Boulder on the jump bus line. We specialize in grass-fed proteins. We have eggs, pork, beef, lamb and chicken, as well as grass-based milk from 9 lovely cows; fruit and vegetables in season, apples, beets, garlic, leeks, greens, comb honey from our bees and plenty more

We are passionate advocates of Regenerative Grazing and we are actively researching and developing techniques and technology for subsistence farmers worldwide. In close cooperation with Zambeezi, we created a co-op with nearly 1,200 small-scale farmers in Zambia, Africa to improve their productivity and sustainability. We are currently ten people and two dogs, Luna, a Chiwini and Hazel an English Shepherd. We enjoy sharing meals together a few times a week. Recently our farm has become aware of a serious issue with the City of Boulder OSMP Bidding Process

Farm programs

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As a diversified, "everything farm" , Jacob Springs organizes it's production into various farm programs;

Currently the major farm programs for customers are the Jacob Springs Farm Meat CSA, the Raw Milk Shares, Honey, amazing pastured pork and specialty vegetable crops as available, as well as our self-serve Organic layer feed for chickens and ducks Call or email us for more information. farmteam (at) Jacobsprings.com

A full list of current and past programs is found here:

Events at Jacob Springs

2019 Summer Calendar

History

Jacob Springs Farm was founded by André Houssney in the spring of 2010 with the purchase of the Condon/Debaker property close to Boulder. Prior to the purchase, the farm, located at Jacob's Corner, had been named "Cottonwood Farm" after a row of giant cottonwood trees which had been planted along Arapahoe Road (originally called Valley Road) in the 1860's. Since the cottonwoods were now gone, having been cut down in 2005 when Arapahoe Road was widened, and since the Condon Family had chosen to continue using the name "Cottonwood Farm" on land they lease from the Jacobs family to the West of 75th street.

The name "Jacob Springs Farm" was chosen to recognize the Jacobs family who had long farmed at this intersection, to recognize farm's location at Jacob's Corner, the springs of water on the property - including the one at Jacob's corner and to recognize the Biblical story of Jacob's Spring in the book of John chapter 4.

The farm quickly grew into Andre's primary activity. We are a Christian community and welcome all people, whatever their belief system.


  • Sheep and ducks were purchased in 2010 and work began in vegetable production and planting perennials,
  • Chickens and geese were added in 2011
  • Hogs and beef cattle were added in 2012
  • The first dairy cattle were purchased in 2013
  • In 2014 the farm was managing nearly 100 acres
  • In 2015 the farm began accepting WWOOFers
  • As of 2019 the farm has trained over 100 wwoofers and interns

Daily Schedule

The farm schedule begins each day Monday through Saturday at dawn (see Jacob Springs dawn start times calendar) with a 15-20 minute meeting prior to chores. Volunteers, wwoofers, and farm team members are expected to attend. Chores follow the meeting. Workers are invited to join in a (typically) wonderful breakfast following chores. Over breakfast, we typically engage in an informal discussion topic. After breakfast, special projects continue until 11 or noon.

see also

Philosophy

Farming God's Way

Farming God's way, to us, means that we take nature as the best model for our ecosystem design.

Agriculture is the primary way humans interact with the ecosystem. As such, it is key to many of the global problems we face. We are currently challenged with problems of the poor quality of food, poor profitability for small-scale farmers, the need to increase production for a growing population, problems with pollution and waste, declining biodiversity and climate change.

We believe that the solutions for the problems in agriculture are fundamentally ecological and not technological. Technology can help! Innovative solutions, such as those developed in our farm maker-space initiative Agronimo can assist us in applying ecological solutions to local and global problems, and science informs and enables us to better understand and vet solutions to these problems. There is much, however, that we still don't know - gleaming aquaponic warehouses and synthetic meat growing in petri dishes are not viable solutions, indeed they are further steps in the wrong, reductionist and simplistic directions that we have been heading as a society. We, instead, look to solutions from nature, supported by technology. Natural systems are productive, complex, high-tech and balanced. As we observe the patterns in nature and seek to emulate them, we are taking a shortcut in the right direction, we believe that studying nature enables us to begin learning to think the thoughts of the creator. This is what we mean by farming God's way. This principle prompts us to seek out solutions in farming principles such as Permaculture, Holistic Range Management, and many others.

We have a complex definition for success but our shorthand version for ecological success is simple:

  1. Observe an increase in biodiversity over time, in soil microbes, in livestock genetic diversity, in plant life and in wildlife.
  2. Observe an increase in soil fertility over time, including an increase of soil organic matter (soil carbon) which means a decrease in atmospheric carbon.

Other goals are:

  • to maximize biomass production and carbon uptake
  • to maximize carbon sequestration
  • to minimize use of energy and materials, especially non-renewable forms
  • to increase water retention capability of landscapes; in soils, biomass and in surface features.

Values

We exist to love and serve God by:

  • Loving and caring for our human inheritance, God's creation
  • Loving and caring for others; customers, fellow workers, local and global community though compassion and good food
  • Living joyfully, honestly and well, to make a living and care for ourselves

Goals

  • Education of young farmers through WWOOF and internships
  • Demonstration of a model of profitability in regenerative family farming
  • Production of high quality products that are healthy and nutrient dense
  • Ecological restoration of our property as well as adjacent and leased land
  • Achievement of a high level of animal well-being through reproducible animal husbandry practices
  • Refinement of our target market through CSA, direct sales, and other means
  • People care including health and safety, work satisfaction, spiritual well-being, team dynamics and morale
  • Demonstration of the Kingdom of God through Christian community, Ethics and service

Labor

  • Dull work is not just for dull people. Many of the worlds best ideas came to people working dull jobs, lots of our labor is boring, it's true, but this frees our minds to contemplate deeper things for many more hours a week than the typical worker within an information economy. We strive to take pleasure in the routine and boring aspects of farming, just as in the exciting and stimulating ones.
  • Labor and rest - We believe that hard work is good. Work is a necessity, not only for survival but for people to reach their highest potential. At the same time we believe that rest is essential for humans to thrive (main article:Sabbath). The fourth commandment of the law of Moses, as recorded in the Bible reads "Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath." In farming, there is always more work to be done, it can therefore be easy for work to consume all your time. Although this may seem to be productive, there comes a point where constant work degrades the effectiveness of the worker and the discipline of rest must be observed to keep the worker sharp. More commonly perhaps, people are inclined to be unproductive, excessive rest or recreation is dulling to the senses and reduces the productive output of a life. We acknowledge the ancient wisdom of "Six days you shall labor" and "Remember the sabbath"

Pricing

The Jacob Springs price list is a reference for what things should cost in our market. Note that the list is not intended to be a list of what we sell or have in stock, is subject to change without notice and it does not constitute an offer but it is for reference only.

Infrastructure

See main article: Infrastructure

Administrative Stuff

  1. Jacob Springs Farm:Seasonality
  2. JacobSpringsFarm:Weekly agenda
  3. JacobSpringsFarm: to do lists
  4. JacobSpringsFarm:breeding records
  5. JacobSpringsFarm:weather observations
  6. JacobSpringsFarm:Kolb bid
  7. JacobSpringsFarm:Food Inventories
  8. JacobSpringsFarm:Goals
  9. Andre log
  10. JacobSpringsFarm:Calendars
  11. Funny Quotes
  12. JacobSpringsFarm:Discussion Topics
  13. JacobSpringsFarm:Value added log
  14. JacobSpringsFarm:Maintenance Record