Indulging in the sun and painted with dirt at Off Beet Farm in Boulder County, co-owners Kyle Stewart and Emmy Bender share their experiences in creating and running a queer-centered farm.
Bender and Stewart met while working at Kilt Farm and brought both of their years of experience together to found Off Beet Farm in 2022. With the cheeky mission of being the “gayest little farm in Boulder County, serving sass and veggies for the Colorado queers, straights, and everyone in between,” the duo combines sustainable farming and queerness to inform their practices.
Stewart says, “… It is our identity; it’s how we show up in the world. And I think bringing that representation to the farmers markets in rural spaces and agricultural spaces is really important. And there’s no separating those things … and I think I also think just inherently as queer people, potentially, we have more awareness of what it means to make a space welcoming to all people. And not be exploitative, when it comes to farming.”
While both had connections to farming in their early years, neither had plans to go into farming as a career. Bender’s family were farmers and had livestock farms that raised sheep and cattle. Growing up in southwest Virginia, she spent a good amount of time helping her father on his farm. But she says, “… It was not a space where it felt like a viable future for me as a woman and a queer woman.” Deciding to to study ecology in college, her focus became set on food systems and environmental issues. After taking a job in a nonprofit in Boston and doing work around food justice and food education on urban farms, she “… really fell in love with vegetable farming through that, and growing food for people.”
Stewart entered the world of farming in high school. He started working at a local farm down the street from his house, mostly because he “needed a job and could bike the small distance.” While the job offered him more insight on where his food came from, he did not consider farming a career until later in college. After learning more about food systems and the impact agriculture has on the environment and climate change, his interest in farming grew and he began working in farms once again.
Certifiably naturally grown, Off Beet Farms prioritizes upholding sustainable farming practices. They do not use any chemicals or pesticides that hurt the soil or organisms, any large machinery or tractors, and utilize no-till or low-till practices to protect the microbiology of the environment. Stewart says the goal is “… just trying to make sure that the land that we steward is a space for the diverse ecology that already exists in this space. And then we’re preserving that.”
Adding to that, he says, “Because it’s just the two of us on two acres, we’re really keeping an eye on everything that’s going on on the farm. And we grow a really wide array of vegetables on that two acres—We grow over 50 different varieties of vegetables. And the reason that’s a lot more sustainable than growing hundreds of acres of just one crop is that if a pest comes along and eats all of our arugula, for instance, then it’s disappointing, but we have so many other crops to kind of bunker that out.”
Given the small scale of the farm, Bender says, “It’s really just the two of us, and we are able to be very flexible and creative with how we deal with things like pests, or really anything on the farm … We’d started planting things like dill or scallions around brassicas to help keep pests away.”
Prioritizing and celebrating sustainable farming practices, queer identities, and community, Off Beet Farm offers folks from many walks of life an alternative to the large-scale farming that results in damaging our planet and our gut health.
Stewart says, “We’re really trying to build a farm and a business and just literally a physical space where people can be themselves and not feel you used for their labor … but I think the both of us in the past have had experiences where working on farms is not, like, something that makes your heart feel whole, or you feel like you can show up fully to work, because of various reasons, including your identity. I think it feels really important that the space that we create is not like that.”
To enjoy the naturally grown produce from Off Beet Farms, you can join their Community Supported Agriculture or find them at the Boulder County and Longmont farmers market weekly. For more information, you can go to their website and Instagram.
Featured images courtesy of Off Beet Farms.
