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• Peyton produce a labor of love

With fall’s arrival, produce farmers like Yosef Camire are in the final stretch of an intense and seemingly relentless growing season.

Photo by Candace KrebsCustomers of Ahavah Farm in Peyton are invited to 'pay as you can' for an array of fresh heirloom produce grown using sustainable farming practices. The farm sells its produce at the Colorado Farm and Art Market, which closes for the season on Oct. 10.
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• By Candace Krebs
  Contributing Writer

  
  Posted Oct. 9, 2015 at 6:45 AM 
  
  

  With fall’s arrival, produce farmers like Yosef Camire are in the final stretch of an intense and seemingly relentless growing season.

  Camire was one of the fresh faces at this year’s Colorado Farm and Art Market in Colorado Springs, which closes for the season on Oct. 10.

  A former Denver resident, he and his wife, Hava, escaped the city with their four young children and moved to a dilapidated 40-acre property near Peyton that they have since restored to life.

  “The house didn’t even have a kitchen. We renovated it all,” he said in between greeting customers at his farmers market stand recently.

  From a mere half-acre of land, their Ahavah Farm (the term is Hebrew for love) produces a bounty of fresh produce including several varieties of greens, heirloom tomatoes, purple and white turnips, bright carrots and sugar snap peas, along with farm fresh eggs.

  Camire represents the latest generation of back-to-the-landers who are drawn to the rural lifestyle in large part because it is ideal for raising kids. Camire’s son Asher, for example, was in charge of selling duck eggs at the market, collected from a flock he tends himself.

  “It’s always been a dream of ours to live sustainably, to live off our land and to grow pure food,” Camire said.

  They raise produce that comes strictly from heirloom varieties and is grown in a manner Camire calls “beyond organic.” They use two hoop houses to help extend the growing season.

  “We do sustainable farming, which means we do everything we can to reduce water consumption and resource use,” he said. “We’re actually carbon negative. We compost. We use our own fertilizer. We also don’t use any tractors.”

  Camire practices no-till because it minimizes soil disruption and leaves the soil structure intact.

  “We use deep mulch methods,” he explained. “In the winter, we’ll cover everything with a thick, thick layer of mulch. What that does is the mulch will break down and create a humus, which goes into the soil. It also keeps it nice and moist and keeps the worms very healthy and happy.”

  “In spring, we’ll rake back the mulch and soften up the top part of the soil, and then we’ll seed or plant,” he added.

  Camire refuses to use commercial pesticides or herbicides. “Healthy plants emit defensive mechanisms,” he said. “We take care of the soil, that’s it. I hoe by hand. I weed. I just love my plants.”

  “I read my plants,” he added. “I know that sounds really weird, and my wife laughs at me for saying that. But I go out and look at them and read what they need every day.”

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