How this remote farm and restaurant flourishes at the edge of the wilderness

How this remote farm and restaurant flourishes at the edge of the wilderness

Imagine living in Boulder, Utah, population 250.

It has been designated as the most remote town in the continental United States, a lone outpost at the edge of an immense expanse of colorful rock formations, wind-carved stone sculptures and slot canyons that make up the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. And here, at an elevation of 6,200 feet, Blaker’s Acres was created in 2005. It is a farm of extreme challenges where wind and spring frost can destroy an incipient vegetable crop and wipe out overnight – as occurred several years ago — the possibility of even one apple developing from trees that had yielded reliably and abundantly for years. It is here too that a soil which is “essentially ancient sand with a thick Teflon-like crust” has been redeemed thanks to untold loads of chicken, goat, and llama manure as well as unstinting applications of compost.

Blaker’s Acres is a testimony to the grit of Blake Spalding who, together with business partner Jennifer Castle and Lavinia Spalding, authored “This Immeasurable Place: Food and Farming from the Edge of the Wilderness” (HBG Press, 2017). It is a book where recipes suddenly pop up between the chronicles of Blaker’s Acres and the history of the adjacent Hell’s Backbone Grill, highlighted by sketches of the many personalities behind the success of both farm and restaurant. Still, it is almost unimaginable how the collection of exotic recipes detailed in the book – from Cilantro-Pecan Pesto to Springtime Carrot with Chive Oil Soup to Jalapeno Jelly — could come from farm-to-table ingredients extracted from such a naturally unnurturing environment. In addition, some dishes include elements native to the area such as the pinon pine nuts in Pumpkin-Pinon Enchiladas and the tumbleweed shoots that are plucked and incorporated into Green Chile and Tumbleweed Scones.

As if overcoming the challenges of climate and soil were not enough, the farm abides by a stringent code of ethics that, to the best of my knowledge, may be unprecedented: no killing of pests by human agency is allowed. Yes, biological control of one animal by another is inevitable and even encouraged as the hundred and fifty chickens clucking about do an excellent job of controlling insect pests. And brush is left at the edges of the farm as an invitation to gopher snakes to hunt down gophers and other troublesome rodents. But no pesticides, including organic ones, are allowed on the farm or in the restaurant or residences on site.

Having read of the farm’s challenges with field mice and gophers, I suggested to Blake that she consider installation of owl nesting boxes since a pair of barn owls will consume more than 2,000 field mice and other rodents in a year. You do not have to actually import the owls as they appear on their own, as if magically materializing out of the sky, once the nesting boxes are in place.

Blake assured me that the key to keeping pests away from plants is the quality of the soil, which depends a great deal on microbial soil life, especially mycorrhizal fungi that enhance mineral absorption by roots. Crop rotation is also important. “For instance, if one year we’ve planted heavy feeders such as corn, squash, or potatoes in a certain bed, the next year we’ll let that soil rest with added nutrients, or we’ll plant light feeders such as peas or beans.”

Many of the dishes at Hell’s Backbone Grill are flavored or garnished with sage. “You’ll taste it in our breakfast potatoes, chicken pot pie, desert sage flatbread, grinding salt, chicken stock, Thanksgiving stuffing, as a crispy garnish in the Pumpkin-Apple Soup with Sizzled Sage and in our Sage Farmer Hot Toddy.” Make sure you use common garden sage (Salvia officinalis) since “the sagebrush you encounter on the trail isn’t generally used for cooking.” Regarding herbs in any of the book’s recipes, “If you have access to fresh herbs, apply them in the given amount. If cooking with dried herbs, reduce to about half.”

While sage is used to enhance the flavor of a broad spectrum of dishes, pickling in one-quart mason jars is the means of preserving a wide variety of farm-grown produce including “green beans, asparagus, garlic scapes, zucchini, green tomatoes, radishes, jalapenos, beets, prickly pear, and cherries, to name a few.” The authors explain their obsession with pickling is driven mostly by economics “because when you have a farm, the only way to make it pay for itself is by saving what you’ve harvested to use later.” Three pickling recipes are included in the book.

Blake recalls her first horticultural encounter with the earth as a child in a New Hampshire farm school. It led to a lifetime passion for growing her own food. “We were each given our own small, manageable plot and a bucket of seed packs to choose from and it was weirdly thrilling because I had complete ownership. The teachers said, ‘This is yours, what you put into it is what will come out of it.’ It was a formative lesson, and it’s the perfect metaphor for life. Here’s a patch of dirt; what do you want to grow? Here’s your life; what do you want to cultivate? I was deeply affected by it, and since then I’ve always had a garden.”

Perhaps someone reading this has a rare spirit of adventure and would even be inspired to seek employment on the Blaker’s Acres farm. You should only know that if you were lucky enough to be hired to work there, you would first need to work in the restaurant’s kitchen. You will have to humble yourself, so to speak, to prove you are willing to do whatever the team requires, even as you look forward impatiently to your agrarian labors of love — from which the delicacies being cooked all around you will be derived.

Sometimes travelers wander in and offer to help out around the farm. Help is often needed but no one is expected to work for free. “We offer a ‘weed and feed’ – four hours of pulling Russian thistle (tumbleweed) or pitting cherries or peeling apples –- in exchange for a meal.”

Nina Brownell was one of those who came to the farm as a volunteer and now is member of the permanent farm crew. Insight into the deep satisfaction of growing food for others is encapsulated in her uplifting words: “The process of putting seeds in the ground, watching the plant grow, and feeding it to people – knowing where that food came from, having seen it the whole way from seed to belly – feels like the heart of everything, and the most good you can do at your very base as a person. To me it seems like the most authentic way to live in this world.”

There was a time, not too long ago really, when growing food for yourself and your family, at least, and probably for neighbors, too, was as common as using a computer is today. You can’t help but wonder if we are missing out by not prioritizing growing food – with its physical and spiritual benefits — among our many pursuits. Perhaps the increased time we are now spending at home will create a priority shift in that direction.

You can find “The Immeasurable Place” at hellsbackbonegrill.com/shop, at Amazon.com, and in selected bookstores.

Tip of the Week: The authors touch upon research which has shown that a bacterium commonly found in the soil has antidepressant qualities. It appears that science backs up the happy feeling you experience after digging in the dirt. Mycobacterium vaccae is the organism in question and it is thought to stimulate production of serotonin, the body’s natural anti-depressant neurotransmitter. When digging in the dirt, M. vaccae may enter the body through inhalation, through a tiny cut in your finger, or even through topical contact. M. vaccae has also been used therapeutically in the treatment of bladder, prostate, and skin cancers. Finally, M. vaccae is thought to have anti-inflammatory properties that boost your immune system. So if you see your toddler eating dirt, I would not necessarily discourage this activity since it might be an immunologically beneficial practice.

Please send comments, questions, and photos to Joshua@perfectplants.com.

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