Day 5: White Buffalo

We last left you in Boulder Colorado at the Masala Coop. Since then we traveled to the beautiful town Paonia (Paeonia as it was originally called). This town's major crop had been fruit, the trains we've seen in the area were used to carry fruit and humans, until the 50's when a major drought occurred. The drought transformed the town into a major coal mining area; the trains now are used for coal and coal alone. After seeing the large mines, we soon discovered the mines are all owned by the Koch Brothers.

Also in Paonia is a wonderful 40 year old organic farm called White Buffalo. This is where we were able to meet Wayne, a very passionate founder of this farm who played a large roll in the huge organic movement in the 70's. He was able to tell us lots about food systems and why he believes so deeply in organics. Much of our conversation with him revolved around the major importance of food for us humans. We were also able to delve into the economics behind our current food system and learned that they are able to sell and trade fruit from the farm for most all of their needs. Here, the farmers can truly feel the changes in the weather, the difference in the brightness of the sun, and make use of the Mayan 13 month system and Hopi predictions.

Thank you so much to Wayne and all the White Buffalo members for allowing us to visit and for sharing so much great information! We hope to see you again soon!

Wind gusts of something like 50 mph soon blew us from Paonia all the way to New Mexico. On the beautiful drive, Soph and Nate were able to get out the longboard and hit some sweet hills. Some really cool landmarks we were able to see so far are the old Argo Gold Mine, Creede (a silver mining town), coal mining in multiple places and the Rio Grande! Off to Earthships in Taos, NM! See you soon!

Koch(a)Coal(a)

Flowers grow where you let them

The view towards the orchard

Tips and tricks

A typical day's events at White Buffalo

Wayne, founder of White Buffalo Organic Farm