Our Locations

About

The Colorado Farm and Art Market is a cooperative farmers market that is owned and operated by the participating member vendors, including farmers, artisans, and licensed processed food vendors.

Mission Statement

The Colorado Farm and Art Market is devoted to nurturing relationships between consumers and local producers of farm products, value-added food items, and fine crafts and art through the operation of cooperative urban markets. The organization also seeks to grow community across urban and rural boundaries and promote and sustain local and regional economies.

Guiding Principles

The following principles guide both Colorado Farm and Art Markets.

  • Regional food production systems are essential to the health of the economy.
  • Artistic expression is important to the identity and health of the community.
  • Small local business is important to the security and stability of the regional economy.
  • Food security, food safety, food identity preservation, and nutrition are important.
  • Consumers have a right to participate directly in the local food supply chain.
  • Consumers have a right to accurate and honest information about how their food is produced.
  • Collaboration and cooperation help manage competition and reduce duplication.
  • Environmental stewardship and community reinvestment are major priorities.

Board of Directors

Susan Gordon, Venetucci Farm – President
Susan Gordon has been an influential part of the Southern Colorado food scene for many years. Before coming to Venetucci Farm, where she currently lives and works with her husband Patrick Hamilton and their two daughters, Sarah and Clare, Susan ran the Learning Ground Farm in Canon City and helped to start the Colorado Farm and Art Market in 2004. She believes that ‘soil in good heart’ is at the root
of healthy plants, healthy food, healthy people and a healthy planet, she and Patrick employ farming practices that restore and enhance the health of the soil.

Doug Wiley, Larga Vista Ranch – Vice President
Doug is a fourth generation Colorado farmer, who was born and raised on a dairy farm near Boone, Colorado. In 1983, he earned a degree in Agronomy from Colorado State University. He has farmed organically for over 20 years and currently produces grass-finished beef, pastured pork, and organic produce. Doug along with his wife, Kim, are transitioning their farm this year to Biodynamic Agriculture practices and use the Holistic Management methods to graze and run their farm. Their long-term goal is to build support for local and grass-based agriculture.

Secretary: Emily Nelson, Colorado Farm
and Art Market Community Member
Emily came to Colorado in 2009 from Arizona but still claims California as home. She has a background in business, is an avid gardener and is proud of her 4-H & farm girl roots. She helped start the Rockrimmon Elementary Community Garden and loves teaching folks where real food comes from. She enjoys volunteering and dreams of having a home on the range of her own. Her favorite local food is Jerusalem Artichokes.

Treasurer: Ryan Bertollini, B&B Homegrown
Ryan Bertollini and his wife Mechelle are Michigan natives that relocated to the sunny skies of Colorado Springs in 1996.
Combining their business talents and agricultural passions into a family owned business, the Bertollinis and friends introduced B & B Homegrown Urban Farming. Specializing in organically grown heirloom vegetables & unique cooking products, B & B represents a renaissance in the lost art of farming.Board

Member: Nichole Fetterhoff, Nikki Stitch!
After living in Colorado Springs for 10 years, Nichole believes that this is the best part of the earth to raise a family and prosper. She loves growing vegetables and herbs, her knit and crochet business, as well as her love for color, life, and being green. Nichole can be found at the Colorado Farm and Art Market, where she is constantly inspired by those around her. Nichole indulges in as many crafts and hobbies as she can afford, but her one true love is yarn, as natural as you can get it! She hopes to one day be a proud owner of a fiber producing farm.

Board Member: Mechelle Bertollini, B&B Homegrown
Ever since Mechelle was a little girl growing up, she was passionate about food, especially fruits & vegetables. She has held numerous positions in the restaurant business, and has also written published restaurant reviews. Currently she plays Roller derby for the Rocky Mountain Riot, serves tables part-time at Margarita at Pinecreek and digs in the garden with her husband Ryan. Starting B & B Homegrown in 2010, she is excited to start her second season with CFAM and to learn new recipes from customers that buy her heirloom vegetables.

Board Member: Kathya Ethington, Colorado Farm
and Art Market Community Member
Kat Ethington is a freelance photographer and writer originally from the East Coast. Kat’s love for good food and a market-driven accessible approach to eating have always been her passions. She enjoys meeting the farmers, ranchers, producers, and food artisans that bring their wonderful products to market. Kat currently lives in NW Colorado Springs with her husband and cat.

Board Member: Jeff Adkins, Colorado Farm
and Art Market Community Member
Jeff Adkins is a consumer board member for Colorado Farm and Art Market, who brings an eclectic mess of talents and interests to the team. Midwest born and raised, Jeff grew up working in food, farm, industrial, and big AG environments. He and his wife moved to Colorado in 2007 and they added to their family in 2010, a beautiful baby named Charlotte. Jeff’s a passionate sales and marketing guru, artist, musician, and a food and beer fanatic. Jeff’s family, like many others, are staunch supporters of local farms and businesses and shop CFAM at nearly every market.

Market Manager: Amy Siebert
Amy is a local food junkie who is fortunate enough to work directly with and for the best local food producers. This is her second season as Colorado Farm and Art Market market manager, where she brings her enthusiasm for food and art, customer service prowess, and two rambunctious sons to the markets each week. You can find her at the info booth on market days, and between markets, she can be found in the garden, the kitchen, or working on one of her many crafting hobbies!

A Brief History

The market was formed in 2004 by a group of small family farmers in the Arkansas Valley Watershed who employ sustainable farming practices. These farmers wanted to create a venue where they could sell local, sustainably grown product, develop direct relationships with their customers, and over which they could have some control. All other markets in the Springs were (and still are) sole proprietorships. These farmers had a goal of creating a farmers market that promoted local agriculture while building and nurturing relationships between consumers and local producers.

The market started on Wednesday evenings at America the Beautiful Park in conjunction with the “Gettin’ Down in Downtown” summer concert series. Since its inception, Colorado Farm and Art Market has been committed to a downtown location, believing that the downtown area should remain a vibrant economic and social center of the community, and that people who live and work there should be able to shop for fresh, locally grown food within walking and biking distance. In 2006, CFAM expanded to the Briargate area, first at the shopping complex near Salsa Bravo, and moving the the Margarita at Pine Creek in 2008. The site at the Margarita at PineCreek remains a festive destination for Saturday shoppers, and Colorado Farm and Art Market will continue to grow that market.

The Colorado Farm and Art Market is excited to move our Wednesday markets to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center starting in the 2011 season. We’ll be able to maintain a downtown presence while cultivating a relationship with a prestigious community icon whose emphasis on quality art and art education mirrors our emphasis on high quality food, art, and local food education.

Volunteer Opportunities

Do you love Colorado Farm and Art Market and would like to become more than a regular market patron? We have several volunteer positions available to you, including:

Flier and Poster Distributor: We’re trying hard to get the work out! Materials need to be distributed at schools, churches, stores, and other community hubs in neighborhoods across the city.

Info Booth Attendant: You’re coming to the market anyway, so stay a few hours to greet market patrons, hand out Colorado Farm and Art Market literature, assist with Market Bucks transactions, and sell Colorado Farm and Art Market merchandise!

Education Coordinator: Help us educate kids about food–where it comes from, its seasonal nature, what to do with it, and realizing that quality local food is good for us and the environment too! We’ll be hosting mini food seminars for kids on several market dates this year, so if you’d like to help, come join us. We’re also looking for parents to distribute this info the the local school districts, so if you have connections in the schools, let’s put them to work!