Kendall and Debbie McAlister at the Pagosa Farmers Market.
By Rose Chavez | Food System/Food Equity Coalition
Healthy Archuleta, a local nonprofit in Archuleta County also known as the FSFE — Food Coalition, continues to celebrate the local food heroes that make up the food system in Archuleta County and the surrounding southwest region.
These individuals uniquely contribute to the community’s vision for a sustainable, health-promoting and equitable local food system so that everyone has access to affordable nutritious foods.
The effort to capture the profiles of these integral community members was initiated as part of the Archuleta Food System Summit that took place April 9.
Today, we would like to feature Debbie and Kendall McAllister:
What is it that you grow/produce? “We have a hoop house that we grow tomatoes in and other vegetables and herbs; we also have an orchard of heirloom apples, plums and pears. We also grow field groups on our property.”
How did you get started doing this? “We have been avid gardeners all our lives. We started planting fruit trees in the mid ‘90s before even building our home.”
What is your passion around what you are doing? “We enjoy working the land and producing quality organically grown produce.”
What are some of your challenges? “Keeping everything watered. Also, late frost is a worry every year for the orchard and whether we will have fruit. Hot dry summers.”
What are some of your accomplishments? “The variety of tomatoes we grow using organic practices are delicious.”
For more information, please contact us at fsfearchuleta@gmail.org or (401) 371-3227. To donate to support the work of Healthy Archuleta, please visit our website, https://www.foodcoalition4archuleta.org/donate.html.
