MORALES FARMS ON THE MENU
LOCAL PRODUCE FOR LOCAL CHEFS
By Janet Day / Photos Courtesy of Morales Farms

Peas blooming at Morales Farms in Granby.

Morales Farms in Granby begins and ends with spinach. It’s the first seed planted in the spring and the last crop harvested in the fall. Deep green bunches of thick succulent leaves sell rapidly at farmer’s markets or local grocery stores and appear in a variety of local restaurant dishes. Between planting that first and last spinach harvest each year, Carol and Joe Morales grow about 50 types of produce ranging from simple green leaf lettuce to exotic-sounding brocolini and historic-sounding gooseberries.

More than six decades after Joe’s father started farming near Granby to supply large buyers in Denver with lettuce and carrots, Morales Farms now focuses on growing specialty produce for Grand County restaurant chefs who prize the intense flavor and freshness of using locally grown ingredients.

“It’s amazing how each restaurant finds a different way to serve our produce and the public enjoys the culinary variety each chef has to offer,” says Carol.

Signature Salads
Over ten years ago JC of Caroline’s Cuisine and Deno of Deno’s Mt. Bistro suggested that Morales sell their produce to local restaurants. Chef Debbie of Deno’s Mt. Bistro has been using Morales produce ever since and remarks, “If it was any fresher, it would still be in the ground.”

Morales spinach is used exclusively in the house Spinach Salad prepared by Chef Carey of the Backstreet Steakhouse, as well as Morales’ full choice of vegetables in her catering business. Chef JC of Caroline’s Cuisine uses it for their house specialty, Wilted Spinach Salad, and new this year is an Arugula House Salad (a culinary experience).

Seven Trails Grille created their menu around Morales produce, and it changes with the seasons. Their specialty vegetable is the broccoli rabe (a spicy cross between broccoli and rapini from Italy). Chef Gary at Bistro 28, Chef Al from Tabernash Tavern and Albertos, Chef Ken of Devil’s Thumb Ranch, Chef Enrique at Sagebrush, and Deno at Brickhouse 40 all create their menus around the seasonal harvest.

Industry Changes
Northern Colorado mountain counties used to be full of farms stretching from Granby west toward Steamboat Springs and into Eagle County. Morales Farms is the only one left. “They used to grow so much in this area,” Joe says. “Our produce went out in rail cars, shipped from coast to coast. This was the lettuce capital of the United States.”

Lettuce Capital of the USA: More than 60 years ago, Joe Morales’ father started farming near Granby to supply large buyers in Denver with lettuce and carrots. Morales Farms now focuses on growing specialty produce for Grand County restaurant chefs who prize the intense flavor and freshness of using locally grown ingredients.

Remnants of that history can be found in Joe’s photo collection, including rows of carrots stretching toward the horizon in fields near Parshall. A family photo of lettuce being crated has been reproduced in large format for display in the Lodge at Sunspot food court at Winter Park Resort.

In the 1980s, Joe and his wife Carol increased the farm to 400 acres. “We couldn’t grow enough to meet the demand,” he said. That changed in the 1990s when the development of warm-climate seeds brought competition from areas that previously could not grow lettuce in the summer and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) brought competition from Mexico.

“We adjusted,” Carol says. “We just sold to fewer people, and became more creative,” by growing a greater variety of vegetables, and educating customers about the value of eating locally grown produce. They also offer free high-altitude vegetable gardening classes. Morales was a major founding force behind the Grand Community Gardens, now with three locations: Granby, Hot Sulphur and Kremmling.

From Denver to Local Delivery
Instead of taking truckloads of produce to the major warehouses in Denver, the Morales started making direct sales to local restaurants, retail outlets of Grand County and I-70 corridor Farmer’s Markets. “Our niche is now here with the restaurants and I hope it continues,” Carol said. “We provide our restaurants with smaller quantities, more often. It’s an opportunity for restaurants to maintain their freshness and flavor standards.”

Planting small amounts of specialty crops is labor intensive, requiring 14-hour workdays seven months a year, but Carol and Joe still laugh and burst with energy when talking about their farming. “There’s value in eating fresh produce – better flavor, better nutrition and it supports local agriculture,” Carol says.

“We’re not creating or doing anything new, we’re just going back in time where people were buying directly from their local producer. That is the way it used to be. We are happy to see the return of this lifestyle.”

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