On today's KVNF Farm Friday, we take you to Elevation Herbal Tea just outside of Hotchkiss, Colorado. KVNF Senior Reporter Lisa Young joined owner Shannon Ullmann, in the fields during the Mountain Harvest Festival farm tours.
"We started the business in 2018 and it's sort of just started as an herbal tea farm, but then very quickly grew into like an agritourism business as much as an herbal tea business. So, this year and last year we opened up for U-pick. We get lots of guests from all over," said Ullmann, adding, " People, I guess, have started to really be aware of us from a u-pick perspective for our berries. We're kind of famous for strawberries."
The small farm is located about a mile from downtown Hotchkiss on Hansen Mesa where visitors have a majestic view of the West Elk Mountains in the distance. The elevation of the farm is similar to that of Denver's...maybe at bit higher even. And best of all it sits in a wonderful micro-climate that makes the North Fork Valley unique. Beyond the high altitude and sunshine, Ullmann noted that the property has 'good' water.
"What really makes us good is that we we purchase this property with some really solid water rights. So even our neighbors just up the hill from us, maybe their water rights are shutting down in August pretty regularly, our water is very strong. And so it goes through the end of the irrigation season. So through October and it wouldn't it wouldn't work if we were not able to have viable water throughout the whole growing season," said the organic farmer.
The farm is laid out like something you'd see in a slick home and garden magazine. Three half acre plots are well defined with drip lines for irrigation, low fencing and weed barrier to keep things tidy. Between the plots, there's a well manicured carpet of green grass beneath your feet.
"Each section was undertaken one year apart. So when I launched the business, I just had one section. I felt like that would be enough to get me through one year, and then I would see what the quantities were like for what I needed," said Ullmann.
Over the years, adjustments where made and new plots were established to increases some ingredients.
"The third year, by the time I got to my third half acre section, that was clear that I needed more things like more lavender, more chamomile, less peppermint, things like that. So those kinds of adjustments happened over the course of me just in the first three years, sort of getting a feel for what ratios would be like, what the demands were like in terms of the different blends and the popularity of those and things like that."
Ullmann provided us with an audio visual, " We're standing next to two rows of raspberries and people are out here picking and eating and enjoying them as I work my way down the field, things like tarragon and chamomile and lavender, we have some pretty unique ingredients like hibiscus and anise and also stevia. We grow that plant as an ingredient for our teas, which is also pretty unique."
Ullmann said she tries to pick plants that overwinter well in Colorado so she doesn't have to replant every year, however, plants such as pineapple, sage and anise and stevia do not overwinter and have to replant them every year.
"But they were worth it for me," Ullmann said, " because I think those are those are ingredients that draw people in and are really unique."
Elevation tea is unique with its special blend of herbs and fruits, something Ullmann wanted to incorporate in her herbal tea. She said her simple ingredients make the tea more 'approachable by people that are not necessarily sophisticated tea drinkers.'
"And that means not just adults, but also, frankly, children. I have children of my own, and I even considered really, truly just directing my marketing to parents and children because I wanted to be able to offer things that were healthy, like a healthy beverage option for children," Ullmann said.
She looked at different brands, and specifically brands that were carrying fruit, and was surprised to see that a lot of those brands, the fruit was just a flavoring and not really an official ingredient.
"I was kind of like, I think that we could do better than that. So I started looking at ways to process fruit so that I could get it into the teas. And the way that seemed to really rise to the surface is to freeze dry the fruit. So once it's freeze dried, then you can turn it into a powder and it blends well with all of the other ingredients," she said, adding, "the beautiful thing about that is if you think about a dehydrator when you dehydrate apples, you can smell the apples in the air because the air is passing over that product. And that that you smell in the air is no longer in the product."
Once the fruit is freeze dryer in a vacuum chamber, it's then sealed. The flavor stays in the in the ingredient, in the fruit, which makes the tea actually tastes like a strawberry or a raspberry. The taste is a hit with children and adults and best of all, the ingredients are simple.
" Just being able to approach both children (and adults) and have them have a tea beverage that was not scary to them. Like, 'what in the world is echinacea?' You know, or something like that, but they know what a strawberry is."
It's clear that Ullmann is passionate about helping families shift their eating habits and more specifically their drinking habits to her beautifully blended herb and fruit teas.
" Again, everybody knows what a strawberry is. Most people have heard of lavender. And when you're combining things like that, it's not such a scary thing. So that's why the fruit and (we also) try to go for ingredients that people were kind of familiar with."
