Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food
With so many different food labels out there, its hard to know what
to believe. The best way to know what you are eating is to know the people who produced it, the farmers and ranchers, so we
invite you to come and visit us and see how your food is grown and raised. Also, those on our mailing list will receive
messages from the farmers and ranchers, updates on what's in season, information about volunteering, classes, and special
events on the farm as well lots of delicious recipes.
Meet Josh!
Josh is second in
command. Without his work-mule ethics, Heritage Belle Farms would not be where it is today Josh is a 40-acre
property owner who has so graciously allowed Heritage Belle Farms to move in and call home. Josh was born in Colorado
Springs in 1986. His family moved out to the Falcon area, and from a young age he was exposed to the joys of tractors,
horse, chickens and the general small farm lifestyle. He graduated from Falcon high school and is working towards his
goal of getting his certification as a welder. By trade, Josh is a fulltime crane operator and Class A CDL driver for
a local commercial roofing company; but he is also very talented welding, operating equipment, woodworking and is a great
handyman. Josh has recently been exposed to the teachings of Holistic Management and is excited to start practicing
it on his own property and in his day-to-day life. Josh is usually the guy that is making all the noise outback as he
constructs pens and fences, builds chicken tractors and does just about anything that needs to get done around the property.
Meet Katie Belle!
Katie was born in 1985 in Colorado
Springs, CO. Her family lived just northeast of the downtown area, but their property had an enormous yard. For
as long as she can remember, Katie's family has always found great enjoyment landscaping the yards with rock gardens and
vegetable gardens. In 1996, Katie's family moved to Timnath, a tiny little town outside of Fort Collins. It was at this
residence that Katie found great enjoyment in raising chickens, a horse (which she still has) and growing vegetables to show
at the county fair. While in high school, Katie was awarded an internship with the United States Department of Agriculture.
It was through this internship that Katie was first introduced with the possibilities of having an agricultural career and
what inspired her to apply and get accepted into every agricultural college and university along the Rocky Mountains (from
Montana all the way down to Arizona, New Mexico and Texas). But for all different kinds of reasons she declined all of the
schools that she had been accepted into and settled with Colorado College. CC was familiar because her grandparents
were professors there and several members of her family on her mother's side had also attended CC. During her freshman
year, Katie took a sustainable agriculture class that took her on a 2 week field trip to a ranch in the San Louis Valley that
was practicing sustainable agriculture by using Holistic Ranch or Range Management practices. Katie actually got credit
to ride horses, herd cattle and learn how to doctor animals. It was an amazing experience that motivated her to design
and create her own major, Sustainable Agriculture in the Western United States." In her senior year, she elected to write
an optional thesis about the history of sustainable agriculture and used her family as examples of how their practices in
agriculture had changed over the last two centuries. After graduation, Katie got an internship at Venetucci farm where
she worked for a year and a half gaining valuable experience and knowledge regarding farming and ranching operations.
It was while she was working at Venetucci farm that she became reintroduced to Holistic Management and was given a scholarship
to go back to school to become a certified teacher in Holistic Management. During this time, Katie was also convinced
by many people that she should be managing her own farm, so that is exactly what she has done. At the young age of 24,
Katie started her own farm and is now Holistic Management International's youngest certified educator in Holistic Management.
She is also working on her committed interest in educating and getting youth excited about grass-raised agriculture by working
as the Education Director for Chico Basin Ranch, and 87,000 acre working cattle ranch. She has quite a plate full, but seems
to always be looking for more.
