Kyle Monroe, a fourth-generation farmer with Monroe Organic Farms, LLC., shared a quick tour of the Monroe family farms Friday afternoon Aug. 9, 2019, in Kersey.
Among the sights – orange and yellow watermelon, black beauty tomatoes, Greeley Wonder cantaloupe and garlic that has been grown, harvested and reseeded for more than 50 years by the dedicated Monroe family of farmers.
The Greeley Wonder grows on a patch of farmland the family has owned since 1939 near Kersey. The same patch where Kyle’s grandfather Gerald Monroe grew the melons. Revived locally when Monroe found seed from 1969 in an old, dust-covered bucket, the melon, developed in the 1880’s, is too soft to transport far but gets rave reviews from farmer’s market aficionados.
Seeds from Monroe’s crop this year will be deposited into the Norwegian Svalbard Global Seed Vault as well as the USDA Seed Bank in Fort Collins and will be available through the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa.
You can find Monroe Organic Farms products this year at farmer’s markets in Longmont, Boulder and Cheyenne, Wyoming. You can also get directly involved in their Community Supported Agriculture program which started in 1993. With the CSA, community members “join the farm” as non-working or working members.
Members receive a percentage of produce depending on the membership package selected by each and several convenient distribution centers are located throughout the Denver metro area and Front Range communities in Colorado. Find more information at https://monroefarm.com.
