Friday, January 22, 2021
CapitalPress.com 9
Home-delivered organic produce
By DIANNA TROYER
For the Capital Press
Courtesy of Kristin’s Farm Stand
Kristin Varela-Schild expanded
her family business to south-
eastern Idaho, providing home
delivery of fresh vegetables
and hormone-free meat.
KRISTIN
VARELA-SCHILD
Kristin Varela-Schild never
planned to become an organic
greenhouse farmer in southeastern
Idaho. Last year, however, investors
convinced her to expand her family
business, Kristin’s Farm Stand, to a
490-acre farm south of Malta.
“Investors who owned geother-
mal property there found us because
we’re skilled at running greenhouses
and raising livestock for consumers
who crave organic produce and hor-
mone-free meat delivered to their
doorsteps,” Varela-Schild said.
Eight employees tend to toma-
toes, cucumbers, peppers, green
beans, lettuce, spinach, kale, aru-
gula, eggplant, microgreens, eggs,
cattle and pork.
The farm stand differs from other
Occupation: Founder of Kristin’s
Farm Stand
Education: Bachelor’s of science
degree in biology/zoology with a
Spanish minor from Colorado State
University, 1997. Also completed
master gardener certification.
Family: Husband and three
daughters, ages 16 to 20.
Motto: Food is Medicine
Online: More information about
the farm’s weekly food delivery can
be found at www.kristins-boise.
com or kristins-saltlake.com.
food-delivery services, she said,
because consumers shop for food as
if they were at a grocery store.
“We don’t offer a subscription
service,” Varela-Schild said. “All of
our products are sold individually.
You can cherry pick exactly what
you want, in the quantities you want,
including meat by the individual cut.
We like to make it easy on people
without the fear of a commitment.
There’s no minimum to order, either.”
She said the motto “Food is Med-
icine” motivates her.
“I can’t claim the motto as my
own,” she said, “but our family has
lived this and seen its truth with our
very own eyes.”
She established the farm stand
after their daughter became criti-
cally ill. In 2016, her daughter lost
32 pounds in three months and
was diagnosed with severe celiac
disease.
“She was intensely intoler-
ant of gluten and certain preserva-
tives and chemicals in food, so we
started raising our own food,” Vare-
la-Schild said. “The only change we
made was eating the food we grew,
and she regained her health and
weight. It made such an impact on
me, seeing the connection between
what food you eat and your health.”
Their friends and neighbors
began asking to buy their home-
grown food.
“Our vegetables are flavorful
and nutrient dense because they’re
grown as soil-based vine crops and
are delivered shortly after they’re
picked,” Varela-Schild said.
Due to high demand for the veg-
etables, she began the farm stand
near their home at Brighton, Colo.,
in 2018 as a customized fresh food
service with home deliveries.
This story was first published
Oct. 9, 2020.
Ag engineer battles ‘legacy of erosion’
University of Idaho
University of Idaho ag-
ricultural engineer and
associate professor Erin
Brooks looks for patterns
in water and soil quality
using satellite imagery
and crop-yield monitors.
“more resistant to disaster,”
Brooks said.
Farmers are also consid-
ering more fall-seeded crops,
such as winter peas, to reduce
erosion risks.
Brooks grew up in North
Bend, Wash., but his parents’
families both farmed in East-
fertilizer coming back into
their crop.”
Many farmers are will-
ing to accept losses in their
cash crop for cover crops if
it will help restore soil health
and get more nutrients from
organic sources, he said.
Brooks worked with Gen-
esee, Idaho, farmer Eric
Odberg on site-specific, cli-
mate-friendly farming as part
of the Regional Approaches
to Climate Change research
project, or REACCH.
This story was first pub-
lished Sept. 4, 2020.
ERIN BROOKS
Title: Associate professor, agricultural engineer at University of
Idaho
Age: 49
Hometown: North Bend, Wash.
Current location: Moscow, Idaho.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering,
Washington State University; master’s degree in agricultural
and biological engineering, University of Minnesota; research
at Cornell University; Ph.D. in agricultural and bioengineering,
University of Idaho
Family: Wife Andrea; children Matilda, 20; Caleb, 18; Emmett,
15; Cody, 10
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Heavy rain keeps Erin
Brooks up at night.
The University of Idaho
associate professor and agri-
cultural engineer monitors
extreme weather that can
flood cropland and increase
erosion.
If climate change model
predictions of more intense
rain prove true, Brooks said,
some farmers could see more
erosion, even those who have
reduced tillage.
Brooks looks for water
quality patterns using satel-
lite imagery and crop-yield
monitors. He wants to man-
age landscapes with a “leg-
acy of erosion” to allow
farmers to maximize profit-
ability, minimize the loss of
soil and improve long-term
sustainability.
No-till practices and more
organic matter from the use
of cover cropping are ways
farmers can make their fields
ern Washington, where he
would visit every summer.
As a college student,
Brooks decided to pur-
sue agricultural engineer-
ing, wanting to help main-
tain agriculture’s economic
vitality and improve the
environment.
Brooks recently received
a one-year, $20,000 inter-
nal university research grant
to explore better manage-
ment of water and farm sus-
tainability. His research team
will examine soils that were
degraded by water stress
such as erosion.
They will use soil-mois-
ture and crop sensors on
center irrigation pivots and
examine various crops’
responses.
“I think we’re in a new
era where a lot of farmers
are looking at regenerative
ag,” he said. “They’re tired
of applying more and more
fertilizers every year because
their soils are degraded and
at best getting 50% of that
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Capital Press