Fruit lovers, rejoice!
Two local purveyors and growers of some of Colorado’s finest fruit are back in business now that summer is officially here.
Matt Hauser of MLS Fruit sells his succulent cherries – red and gold, conventional and organic – at the southern corner of Durango High School on Main Avenue. Early peaches have just started to trickle in from his Palisade-based farm but should be going strong by next week.
Meanwhile, he offers piquant scallions and garlic, crunchy cucumbers, savory summer squash and zucchini and that salad favorite, perfect green beans. If you were hoping for his tasty little apricots, you missed out. The late spring frosts killed off most of his crop and the small bit that survived is long gone. The stand is open every day from about 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Gott Bros’ Orchards is up and running in Durango again, opening two new locations after closing their store on Highway 3. You can find their Grand Junction cherries either next to Walmart at 1220 Carbon Junction Road or on the way out of town at 3478 Main Ave. next to Botanical Concepts.
The Gotts grow apples on their Oxford farm but will be bringing in peaches by the end of the week and have a few early vegetables to offer now. In a month, Laura Gott says they’ll have squash, beans, tomatoes, plums and melons. They’re open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday.
Summer gets sweeter every day.
Special deliveries
Imagine – fresh, local farm produce available more than one day a week.
A new Montezuma County farm cooperative is working toward providing residents an opportunity to buy locally grown vegetables at more than just the farmers market. But for now, Southwest Farm Fresh, a producer-owned distribution co-op, is happy to deliver the first summer vegetables from farms in Mancos, Cortez, Dolores and beyond to restaurants and health-food stores in the area.
Local farmers formed the co-op to allow them to spend more time producing food and less time managing and delivering the product. It gives shops and restaurants more access to locally grown food because the co-op makes more deliveries than an individual farm could.
The members of Southwest Farm Fresh hope to tackle the lack of fresh produce in some low-income areas by making it more accessible to restaurants and markets.
“We’re starting to address the larger scale food issues in the Southwest,” said Dustin Stein of Stubborn Farm and Burk’s Beef. “We’d like to be able to open it up to individual customers. We want to, but we need to get our feet under us a bit.”
For information, email southwestfarmfresh@gmail.com. Two managers are on hand to answer inquiries.
Pamela Hasterok
