I was in Hotchkiss, south of Grand Junction, on assignment this summer,
planning a harvest-centered fall trip. The idea was that “eating locally” is
good for the earth, good for the producer, and good for the consumer. And
it’s a darn good excuse for a leisurely weekend in the rural countryside. My
job: find farm-fresh food, and figure out what to do with a car full of it back
home—all while having a weekend away.

Two almost-21-year-olds (my daughter, Vivian, and her beloved, Barrett
Sather) came along for the ride. With them, fun has a way of happening in
its own fashion. Thus, I found myself enjoying a wonderful little cidery, a
couple of wineries, and a pick-your-own vineyard; we barely had time to investigate the food. Not that I’m complaining; so what if my “eating semi-locally” story took a detour? That’s part of the fun.

The Hotchkiss region is well known for its mesa-top apple and peach orchards.
These are indeed wonderful, but so are the plums, pears, and apricots. Farmers
offer lots of preservation-worthy vegetables, too: zucchinis, tomatoes, eggplants, pumpkins, cabbages, corn and much more. And then there are the small producers of value-added products (ciders, sauces, jams, fruit leathers,
and much more), and the meat producers, and the wineries.

The region offers so much, a little advance planning is in order. I suggest you do that planning at Hardin’s Natural Foods, a mile west of downtown Hotchkiss on Hwy. 92. (Hotchkiss is in the center of Delta County, where Paonia on the east and Cedaredge on the northwest vie for top billing among agriculturalists.) Hardin’s carries local produce and products, including some beyondfabulous, locally produced, “Provence” marinated goat cheese. The real treasure here is the owner, Scott Fairbank. He knows all the local producers, and in 10 minutes, he or his wife Lisa can give you a rundown on the local who’s who. Be sure to pick up a copy there of the “Valley Organic Growers Association 2009 Directory;” it lists five dozen growers you might want to call or visit.

Next stop: the Hotchkiss Farmers Market, on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. That’s where you can meet many of the local “whos” all at once. More important, though, are the “wheres” of the area. I made my list, checked it twice,
and headed off to Abundant Life Organic Farms, a quarter-mile from Hardin’s.
Jeff and Kaylee Armstrong have been in the area just a few years, growing every
possible vegetable and cutting flower. When we visited, their three young
children were tending the chickens; they were polite and pleasant, used to feeling
secure on the farm – just the kind of children that makes one believe the world
will turn out alright in the end.

The Armstrongs have a roadside market on Hwy 92 where you can fill your
car with everything from squash, tomatoes and eggplant to cilantro and basil,
plus sunflowers for the dinner table, on your way back to the Front Range.
I then visited Ela Family Farms/Silver Spruce Orchards, another stone’s
throw away. This family has been in the fruit business for more than 100 years.
Over the years the family business has changed as the market has changed,
says owner Steve Ela. At the moment, the market calls for a) organic and
sustainable production and b) a real connection to customers. So, the family
is happy to have visitors come by and admire their “33,000 trees give or take
two or three,” and learn about the new water-efficient drip irrigation system.
The Elas are extending the growing season by selling dried apples, apple butter,
and various other apple products. When I stepped into the storehouse, filled
with last year’s dried apples, the heady fragrance was so wonderful, I wanted to
dive in.

Next, I visited the only “pick-yourown” vineyard I’ve ever heard of, located
just outside Cedaredge. Owners Jan Kennedy and Don Ahern have set up an area for BYO picnics, so plan to enjoy a day of splendid views, good companionship, and a taste of agricultural labor. At the end of the day, you may get a personal invitation to join Jan and Don on the deck overlooking the creek for a glass of their own wines. The operation is small, so call them first at 970-856-2384, to make sure they’re open.

It’s also very basic. First, you’ll choose your grapes: either the Marechal Foch
for the most spectacularly red wine you’ll ever see, or Gewurztraminer or Riesling if you prefer whites. Then take them to the Ferarri-brand (no connection
to the car maker) crusher-stemmer, and watch the grapes become pulp. The
grapes are then pressed, and you’ll head home with a container of fresh juice to
make your own small batches of wine. A hundred pounds of grapes will net you
five gallons of wine.

Next stop: Blossomwood Cidery (blossomwoodcidery.com) in Cedaredge
where hard cider and perry (the same, but made from pears) go from tree to the
bottle. If you think you’re in for a sweet treat, please re-think. The products,
especially the perry, are delightfully dry.

Blossomwood is homey, and the owners, Shawn and Janese Carney, are
chatty, just as all good brewers should be. They’re recreating a cider orchard
the old fashioned way: with heirloom trees that produce the requisite tartness.
The apples and pears are picked, washed, milled and pressed, and then
fermented either according to French or English traditions before bottling—
all in a former cinder-block foundry. The orchards are right next door, and
caring for them are “heirloom pigs”– from breeds that are all but extinct –
who somehow know that it is their job to clean up weeds. Thus, a “byproduct”
of the operation is pork, slaughtered nearby and sold frozen, also available at
the cidery.

And that’s only one intriguing meat option in the area. The local favorite is
tender buffalo from High Wire Ranch (highwireranch.com). High Wire also
offers 100-percent grass-fed, hormone- and nitrate-free elk, and both
are easily available at local stores throughout Delta County.

For beef, call Hotchkiss’ Princess Beef (princessbeef.com). Owners Cynthia
and Ira Houseweart run just 30 or 40 head of cattle. With enough notice, they can take potential customers for a drive to meet this year’s harvest on the hoof. However, these creatures were all spoken for by August, so a visit this fall would be an opportunity to reserve next year’s freezer-full of meats, slaughtered
and packaged on site.

Your trunk may be getting pretty full around this point, especially if you were
tempted by any of the many wineries along the byways. But make sure you
save room for a copy of Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods (Clarkson Potter, 2009), written by food writer and Delta County resident Eugenia Bone. A transplanted New Yorker, she knows how to put up a season’s produce in high (possibly even intimidating) style.

Or, do what Westerners have been doing for at least three generations:
check with the cooperative extension service in your county for food preservation guidance. You can find these experts (or “agents,” in ag lingo) plus
many recipes from the test kitchens of Colorado State University, www.ext.colostate.edu. Many counties offer food preservation classes in the fall, and as of last year they had record-setting numbers of participants.

If you think “food preservation” is daunting, it’s good to know that it can be as easy as tossing whole peaches or tomatoes in the freezer, as is. Drying foods, too, is quite straightforward. And canning jams, jellies, pickles, and basically all acidic or sweet produce is no harder than making soup. The only difference is with soup, you can adjust the recipe on the fly; with canning, the exact proportions are important. If you’re a kitchen freewheeler, you might want to leave canning of salsas and piccalillis for someone else.

As for lodging, you’ll find two unique establishments in Hotchkiss. The first, Leroux Creek Inn (lerouxcreekinn.com), offers cool, quiet, beautiful rooms in a true adobe home. The real draw here is the Frenchman, Yvon Gros, who owns and operates the place—and the adjacent winery. If you happen to arrive for a harvest weekend, you may find yourself in the vineyard or in the winery, lending a hand.

Or, try the bare-bones accommodations on the Mesa Winds Farm (mesawindsfarm.com), a stone’s throw from Leroux. Don’t think quaint; don’t think elegant; don’t think historic. Instead, go with the knowledge that Mesa Winds is an experiment in sustainable agriculture, and that you are there as a guest/apprentice. Everyone has the chance to do as much or as little work alongside owners Max Eisele and Wink Davis as they desire. Whatever’s going on at the farm is available for you to enjoy—and the cost of lodging is in keeping with the simplicity of the rooms.

Depending on whom you’re with and where you stop to visit, good conversation
is likely to be the greatest bounty of a harvest weekend. That was true for us; we entertained each other for 200 miles on I-70 by inventing a plan for a cidery right here on the front range. First step: I’m going to make a small batch this fall, the kind that can fit in a three-gallon pot.

Wendy Underhill, a writer, parent and community do-gooder, has set a goal for 2009: “Have more fun.” Traveling the byways of Colorado is one of the big ways she’s fulfilling that goal.