Grains and Beans--Some Success

The good news: I have 25 pounds each of Colorado-grown organic pinto and anasazi beans, and quinoa, and a whopping 50 pounds of Colorado-grown organic millet. All at a reasonable price. Time to figure out some millet recipes!

The bad news: None of it was grown within 100 miles. Yes, some grains and beans are grown within 100 miles, but they are not organic. The San Luis Valley is the source for most of the bounty I found this week.

Upshot: I am a realist, as well as an idealist. It will take some time to nurture an economic climate in northeastern Colorado that encourages local growers to grow organic grains and beans for us. Meanwhile, I am settling for Colorado-grown. I also like short food chains; I was able to find two Denver wholesalers that sell in (small) bulk quantities to individuals, and source their products directly from the farmers involved. Not so bad. Here is the story.

I had to go to Denver last Wednesday for other business, so I took the opportunity to visit Growers Organic. They are a distributor of Colorado-grown organic produce, grains, flours, and beans, and probably some other stuff too. Website: www.growersorganic.com.

I had the address as 3755 Wazee, which is just off Washington Street after it turns into 38th. I zigzagged back and forth a few times, trying to find it, and finally called them at 303 299-9500 for help. Here's how to find it. It's near the SE corner of Brighton Boulevard and 38th, where you turn into a little driveway-looking road by the giant Giambrocco produce warehouse. This leads you around the building, where you finally see the sign for Wazee street. Go to the Will-Call entrance. Growers Organic is upstairs (the only upstairs there is). There were three friendly and busy women in the office when I was there; the phone was ringing constantly. I bought 25 pounds Colorado-grown organic pintos for $27.50, and 25 pounds Colorado-grown organic quinoa for $49.50.

I've really been hoping to find quinoa, the "Colorado substitute for rice", as our rice stock dwindles to nothing. They said they have plenty. They asked if I was interested in potatoes, which I have a good store of. Dummy me, I should have asked about them so I could pass the information on. But I didn't. You can call them to see what they have. For Denver/Boulder people it's a short trip. For Loveland/Fort Collins people, it wouldn't pay to drive to Denver for five pounds of potatoes, but if you could get a load of stuff, or were already in the city, it would make sense.

They referred me on to Golden Organics, their supplier for many staple items, so off I drove to Arvada. Golden Organics is located at 4941 Allison St., suite 2, in Arvada. You find them by turning west on 52nd avenue from Wadsworth (just NORTH [this used to say south--thanks Susan] of the I-70 intersection). Drive west to Allison, then turn south. There are two blocks of offices; theirs is in the back. Very nice people. I talked to Denise and David. Their phone number 303 456-5616. Their email is goorganic@aol.com.

They are wholesale dealers of organic grains, beans, flours, nuts, etc. David told me they try to get Colorado-grown whenever they can, and buy directly from farmers. But many times they can't.

As David told me, they always want to source their products as close as possible, but they also need to have a steady source of supply for their customers. For example: A local organic food manufacturer needs corn, now, so Golden Organics find it where they can (Kansas, in this case). They keep careful track of the sources for all their products, so I could buy known-Colorado products from them.

David told me that most of the northeast Colorado growers just haven't gotten into organic growing yet; there is not a big price margin between organic grains/beans and non-organic. There are a lot of organic growers in the San Luis valley. The summer weather is cooler there too, and more conducive to some crops such as quinoa, a high altitude grain. In fact, the quinoa and pintos I bought at Growers Organic actually came from Golden Organic.

I bought a 25 pound bag of Colorado organic anasazi beans for $34.00, and a 50 pound bag of Colorado organic millet (they didn't have a 25 pound bag) for a tiny $23.50 (that's 46 cents a pound).
They had whole wheat and flour, and carry Wheat Land Farms flour. They also had unbleached white Colorado organic flour, but I passed on that, and oats.

They are working with local people on setting up a couple of food coops, one in Louisville. If anyone buys 300 pounds of their bulk goods, they will deliver it by truck in northern Colorado. It spurred my ideas of having a Loveland Local food cooperative. Contact me if you're interested....

I asked about sunflower seeds. Unfortunately they had a hard time sourcing organic sunflower seeds in the U.S. Their present stock comes from China! I told Ursula at Cresset Farm about this; she said that a neighbor of theirs tried growing sunflower seeds this year, and the birds got every one. Our climate is great for growing sunflower seeds, but there are significant logistical problems standing in the way. (I'm going to try sunflowers in my yard this year. With just a few, I can tie bags over the ripening heads to keep the birds off.)

Anyway, I now have 125 pounds of Colorado organic staples, for less than $150, and discovered two strong sources for local foods. I also discovered far we are from a 100-mile diverse organic supply of grains and beans. "Make the road by walking" (see early post); we need to supply the interest and demand, to make it feasible for our local farmers to grow the crops.