The Mancos Valley in Webber Canyon is home to several farms with extensive gardens. It seems to be a good place to plant food crops and have a beautiful garden!
Kellie Pettyjohn, of The Wily Carrot, is also located on Road G and she shares the love of growing things and being outdoors with other farmers in the area.
“It's really nice to be close to others that do the same thing,” Pettyjohn said. “We can share ideas and talk to each other when we have a problem or something we need help with.”
She has her farm, two-thirds of an acre surrounded by a deer fence, on land that is owned by another farmer, Miles Gallagher. She has been there two years now, and eventually hopes to locate to a place of her own. But until then, this spot works just fine, she said.
Her farm is a Certified Naturally Grown (CNG) farm, which is a non-profit organization that is a “grassroots alternative to certified organic,” she said. It is just for small farms that use natural methods for their growing. Others in the Mancos area that are CNG farms include Confluence Farm and Seven Meadows Farm.
Pettyjohn grows mostly greens, such as spinach, arugula, kale and a salad mix, which has seven varieties of lettuce in it. But she also grows some peas, radishes, beets, potatoes, onions and carrots, along with some herbs, such as cilantro, basil and garlic. She is raising over 300 tomato plants in her greenhouse as well.
She's also trying to grow some broccolini, a crop that is similar to broccoli but with smaller florets. It's a cross between broccoli and Chinese broccoli.
Where did she come up with the name “Wily Carrot”? “I don't know … I just like the word 'wily' and it just seemed to go with 'carrot,'” she said.
As part of her CNG certification, she uses fish and seaweed emulsion, a natural fertilizer. Like other farmers in the area, she uses an insect cloth over most of her crops to keep the bugs off.
“Watering and weeding are the two main things it seems like I do!” she said.
She sells her food mostly to retail places, such as restaurants and grocery stores. She is already making sure that P&D and Zuma have her product, and plans to set up at the Durango Farmers Market.
Pettyjohn has lived in many different parts of the United States and has most recently come from Virginia. But she likes the weather here in Southwest Colorado just fine.
“I really love to visit other farms and see what they do,” she said.