Farm: Sunny Corner Organics of Southeast Colorado
Farmer: James (Jim) Hablutzel
Location: Lamar, CO
Jim is a beautiful champion of reimagining his local food system beyond the current paradigm. His wife is a schoolteacher, and concerned by the lack of access to real food the kids in his school district were receiving, he said “I could either retire or do this,” ushering his hands towards his commercial-sized greenhouses and hydroponic operations.
Jim has been a lifelong grower and farmer. Currently, he is growing strawberries, lettuce, potatoes, peppers, and Swiss chard, with hopes to expand into more cash crops as market access opens up. He is a member of the Cohort for the “Regional Food Systems Partnership” grant, where, alongside Nourish Colorado, we will journey with him and 8-9 other agricultural producers for the next 2.5 years in crop production planning, farm food safety, and integrating his production into stable and consistent institutional markets (i.e. schools & hospitals) in southeast Colorado.
