Brief by Central Staff
Drought – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Even places that usually have plenty of water are hurting this year. One of them is Green Earth Farm near Saguache, where owner Tom McCracken said he’s already had to abandon his peas, oats, and barley.
When we talked to him on June 9, he said his ditch had been turned off for 10 days. He couldn’t remember his exact water priority date, “but it’s an old one,” and his is the seventh-oldest of the 130 on a ditch that gets its water from Saguache Creek. “The top six on the ditch are getting only 40% of their water.”
McCracken grows many different crops — like 120 acres of alfalfa in a normal year — but he may be best known for his seven acres of organic vegetables, sold both locally and to Front Range farmers’ markets.
“If it’s leafy and green, and can handle our short season, then we probably grow it,” he said. That includes six varieties of lettuce, kale and collards, along with onions and zucchini.
As of June 9, McCracken said there would be enough water “to irrigate the vegetables once more. After that, well, who knows?”
(Tom and Lillian McCracken, and their Green Earth farm, were featured in an article in the October, 1994, edition of Colorado Central; it’s on the web at http://www.coloradocentralmagazine.com/archive/cc1994/00080094.htm)