Farm Feature: Friar Farms

Amidst our busy (ok, hectic) schedule as a start-up business, one thing we look forward to each week is the feeling of rootedness, connection and nourishment that we find as soon as we set foot on the lush, productive land of Friar Farms in Boulder. 

We partner with Scott and Sam Anderson and their team each week to source locally grown, organic fruits and vegetables that are folded into our pies. (You can also pick up a whole pie at their farmstand, located at 6405 S Boulder Rd.)

As a community-focused business, we really value the opportunity to help support fellow entrepreneurs and businesses, and to celebrate our region's agricultural traditions, by using local ingredients as much as possible in our pies. Having a consistent relationship with Friar Farms only sweetens the deal. 

Colorado's agricultural spans centuries, with traditions amongst the Pueblo Indian community and hispanic New Mexican transplants cultivating bounty from the earth. The earliest white explorers saw Colorado as barren and of limited potential, but with the mining craze, frontiersmen were forced to find value and productivity in the land.

The more recent history and culture of agriculture in the state owes its roots to that very lack of obvious opportunity: because farming required so much infrastructure to bring water up from the limited sources, farmers had to work together with their neighbors, their community, and the state to irrigate and regulate. Colorado's first agricultural society formed in 1863, and through the early 20th century, prospectors and farmers continued to migrate from the East coast. But by the 1930s, with the slow of migration and a number of discouraging, damaging droughts, energy and momentum around agricultural waned. 

A select lineage of hardy souls has continued the tradition of farming in Colorado, and we couldn't be more grateful to have the opportunity to work with people like Sam and Scott to help connect farmers to forks and support our community in the process. 

Home is Where the Pie is

For us at The Long I Pie, a sense of home is what shapes our mission as a business. With that feeling of grounding in mind, it might seem a little counter-intuitive that our shop is one on wheels. We’re mobile. But then, that’s precisely the point. No matter what our experience, each and every one of us lives a life that’s inevitably ever-changing, moving our hearts and bodies in different directions, always. All of us, we’re searching for a sense of community and connection, of centering and stability, not in spite of but in concert with change.

And to celebrate and serve others through those shifts, what better way to equip ourselves than with a home that moves? A home base for us, and a space that can be a home for our youth staff, our team, our customers and our friends. Whether you’re seeking a heart-to-heart with one of our team members, some quality solo-time with your favorite pie flavor, or a twinkle-eyed date with a new love interest, we hope that our little shop on wheels can be a place and space where you can return to your roots, to what’s true for you.

This past weekend, we officially launched into the next phase of business, wherein Stella, our Airstream, is ready to roll the streets and mountain roads of Colorado to bring you pie and a little slice of home. And to mark the occasion, we worked with Denver designer Daniel Evan Garza to create a limited edition T-shirt featuring a motto that captures what, and why, we do what we do.

And since Dan and his business, A Small Print Shop, have been such cornerstones of the creative small business community in Denver, helping entrepreneurs to visually explore and share their identities -- their home base as creators -- we thought we’d take the opportunity to ask Dan a few questions about his sense of home.

What’s a space (physically or mentally) where you feel at home?

You know, strangely, the places I've lived throughout the years have never felt like "home" in the romantic way people use that word. I think I'm sometimes a bit too utility-minded to attach deep sentimentality to places. Instead, I have often found that "home” feeling appears in the people I'm around; I am very blessed to be a part of such a giving and active community.

I remember a few times where some of my roommates and I were all working on our separate artwork and bantering and whatnot, and I looked up and smiled this "I can't say it now because it will ruin it, but this is home" kind of smile, and kept working. Those kind of moments are rare, but they are definitely help me feel at home.

How do you find a sense of grounding when maybe that first or second option isn’t available to you?

It’s funny, I’m actually SUPER bad in crowds or any place I can’t hear the person talking to me clearly. It sounds super neurotic (and maybe it is) but sometimes i have to like, plug my ears, and then hum to get “back to normal.” It looks super weird and people don’t generally like it. Anyway that is maybe something I didn’t have to tell you or anyone, rather.

A more acceptable answer might be that I really love totems (that is, small reminders of big things, wonderful memories, ambitious goals, etc). I carry a few around and have a few on my desk. If i’m not “home” sometime i just have to hold one of those small reminders to get back on track. For instance, I have a little ninja, a hand-painted gnome, a donkey, and a small triceratops on my desk right now. 

What’s your favorite flavor of pie?

Oh this one is easy. That peach, blackberry, jalapeño pie y'all make is maybe my favorite thing to eat in general.

P.S. from The Long I team: We just have to say that Dan gives arguably the best hugs in Denver.

Our Kickstarter is half way to our end date!

Thank you SO much for your support in the first half of our Kickstarter project!  It means SO much and is really appreciated.  Please keep sharing the Kickstarter with your friends, family, and kind strangers. Here's a short link to share ---http://bit.ly/TheLongIPieShop .  

Currently, the project is 21% funded.  We'd love to push that to 75% by January 1, 2014.  Our Kickstarter ends on January 9, 2014 at 8 p.m. MST and we need to be at or above $20,000 to get any of the money we've raised with our Kickstarter campaign.  If we don't get there, it WILL NOT stop us from moving forward, but it will slow us down a lot.  Our heart in this business is to be able to not only give our community some amazing pie, but to support youth at risk of incarceration, homelessness, and exploitation to have a first chance at employment which will give them a good foot to step into their future.  We can't do that if we don't have a mobile pie shop up and running.  The faster we can get our mobile pie shop up and running, then the faster we get to begin the youth employment piece of our business.

Again, thanks for your support!  Please consider passing this Kickstarter onto the people in your life.  We'd appreciate it!   There are some AMAZING rewards attached to the backer levels.  MAKE SURE TO CHECK THEM OUT!