Wild Oats
Interview by Catherine Lutz
Originally published in Edible Aspen, Winter 2020-2021
In September, Cooper Means harvested a field of oats at his Shining Mountain Farms, which sits on Pitkin County Open Space land that he farms under its agricultural lease program. He used a 1945 combine, part of the Farm Collaborative’s equipment library, to reap the grain and separate its seeds from its husks. Up until a few decades ago, this process happened on farms and ranches up and down the valley all the time. Means, who is also agriculture director of the Farm Collaborative, explains the significance of his grain trial today.
Q: How did you get the idea to plant oats? And why oats?
A: My goal is heritage bread, and bread wheat is far more expensive to seed than oats. I’ve been working this field for four years to get it ready for grain, and the oats are the first crop I’ve harvested. It’s all a progression to plant the bread wheat. Oats were a low-cost way to cut my teeth on the project. T hey’re easy to grow, readily available, and fast-growing to shade out the weeds. They’re also helpful in establishing a no-till system. I want to do grains because it’s a large missing piece of the local food economy. Consumers can find local meat and veggies, but have no options for locally produced grain. Researching the Aspen Times archives when conceiving this project, I found some encouraging content. Grain production in this valley used to be done on a fairly large scale. And with all the interest and education now around local food, I think it can be economically viable.
Q: Why did you use an antique combine?
A: In the 1930s and ’40s farming became totally mechanized and centralized. Large-scale operations became the only grain growers and production of small combines stopped. There was nothing of the size I was looking for. But a number of old combines have been kept in good shape and working order. Through internet research I found an equipment seller in Michigan who salvages parts and puts together working machines. The other really cool thing about the one I chose is the wide range of crops it can harvest, from the tiniest alfalfa seed to a giant fava bean.
Q: What is the significance of your grain trial?
A: The significance is that I believe a lot of land in this valley isn’t being fully utilized and could easily be. A lot of people grow hay for an agricultural tax break but not for the product itself. I believe we can achieve this same goal for the landowner while producing food for the valley— and hopefully improving soil through multi-year management programs. We are so fortunate to have this opportunity through Pitkin County’s agricultural lease program—that did a lot to make this a possibility.
Q: How did you feel when you successfully finished the harvest?
A: For years, I’ve been harvesting grain by hand. It’s extremely labor intensive—cutting it with a scythe, bundling it into shocks, threshing, and winnowing. Two years ago, I was able to do 60–80 pounds and it took me 100 hours of work. So, running a combine and watching hundreds of pounds of grain pour out of the hopper felt like magic to me. It was this incredible thing, because I had put so much effort into this project that I’ve been dreaming about for 10-plus years. And it felt like, “OK, there is an abundance here. There is a significant quantity of food.”
Q: When can people expect locally raised oats in their breakfast bowls?
A: I harvested 9,000 pounds of oats and have one more step in the process to get it to a product ready for consumers. I’m hoping to get equipment to do that this winter, and shooting for spring to have oats for people to eat.
Q: When did you realize you wanted to be a farmer?
A: The moment that triggered my love for agriculture happened at Sustainable Settings, when they were operating on the Aspen Community School campus in Woody Creek. I was 10 or 11 years old, and that’s where I would spend my recess. Years later, when Sustainable Settings moved to its new site on Highway 133, I did a mentor apprenticeship there. I distinctly remember this point when Brook [LeVan, co-founder and executive director] had me eat a Brussels sprout right off the stalk. It brought me to this connection: that we were building soil, getting it ready for next year, and at the same time we had this bounty of food. The whole experience made me realize that this is the essential thing I could do with my life: produce food to sustain myself and others.
Q: From planting to harvesting, what moments stood out as highlights or lessons learned?
A: One lesson I’m always learning is that, in farming, things will always go wrong. Things will break, and if you take it as a bad thing and get frustrated you won’t be farming for very long. If I embrace things that go wrong, I can be happy and pleased with my process. With the combine, I really expected things to go wrong. And it broke in one way or another 10 to 12 times. But the beauty of that machine is it’s all very logical and accessible—just gears and belts and things like that, not like a modern combine—so there was nothing I wasn’t able to fix in 45 minutes.
