Meet Katie Slota | Public Health Promoter and Farmer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Katie Slota and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Katie, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Starting our own business had a lot of appeal to us back in 2009 as we had both floundered at finding our place in the workforce. Nic was trying to be an engineer but couldn’t find meaning in the work (or rather couldn’t sit still at a desk for longer than 30 minutes at a time) and I was struggling with seeing immediate results from my degree in Environmental Health. Nic had worked on farms for several years all over the country including South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Alaska while I had worked the local farmers markets and felt that growing organic food was a really important piece to fixing a major environmental health issue. When we met, it turned out we had the same problems with our jobs and the same passion for doing things a little bit different than the status quo. That’s when we decided to really give this farming thing a try.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

Native Hill Farm is a four season diversified, non-certified organic vegetable farm located in North Fort Collins, CO. We are a triple bottom line business which means we try to find a good balance between people, profit, and the planet. These are our guiding principles and we use them to make all our decisions on the farm. If it doesn’t fit in the overlap between these three things, it doesn’t belong on our farm.

We started the farm in the summer of 2009 and boy was it a rough year. We had a devastating hail storm in June that almost killed the farm before it got off the ground, but we were stubborn and held on with our new found knowledge of what growing food in Northern Colorado can be like. The first few years were hard as heck. We were working for nothing as we tried to grow the farm from 3/4 of an acre to where it is now at about 30 acres total. We had a lot of growing pains as neither one of us had a degree in business. We just had to learn as we went along and it’s a good thing we are both stubborn. It has taken a lot of sacrifices to make this farm what it is, including being dirt poor for a while, missing out on fun summer trips and family get-togethers, but we feel like we are finally starting to find that work life balance everyone is always talking about.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

Well, clearly the farm is one place we would take them. Friday night is a great time to visit the farm as we have The Pizza Project come out and make farm fresh pizza for folks as they have picnics on the lawn, pick flowers in the U-pick flower field and watch the sunset over the foothills.

Next I would take them to do some paddle boarding on Horsetooth Reservoir in order to cool off on one of our hot summer days. After that, I would probably take them to a couple breweries in town. Some of my favorite patios include Stodgy and Odells. Oh and they have great beer too!

Thursday nights in the summer Bohemian Nights presents free concerts downtown so we would definitely rent some bikes and ride down there for a fun evening of free music. If we were in the mood for more music, we might check out the concert series on the lawn at New Belgium Brewery and if my best friend was into beer we might take their tour as well.

If it was still nice and hot, we might purchase some inexpensive innertubes and tube the Poudre River ending at the kayak park. Perhaps by then we will have worked up an appetite and would pick up some sliders at the Colorado Room. We’d probably end the week with brunch at The Little on Mountain where their chilaquiles would knock anyone’s socks off.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many people who have helped to make this farm a reality, it would be hard to give a shout out to them all. I suppose firstly would be the Fort Collins Community and our first customers who really took a chance on us. Whenever we need something, it seems like someone in the community (or a whole group of people), comes out and supports the farm using whatever special skill sets they have. Secondly would be all our amazingly dedicated staff. I’m not sure how we got so lucky, but the folks that come and work for us on the farm are superhumans, working tirelessly every day in some very difficult conditions including the heat, rain, snow, and even smoke. We wouldn’t be here without them. Also, our working members who come back year after year and who really create the fun community that we all enjoy on the farm. Next is personal shout out to our neighbor Bill Friedhoff who fixes and fabricates equipment for us, Tom Murtha of Blooming Glen Farm who has been a farm mentor to us for all our 14 seasons, and Poudre Valley Community Farms, an organization that has helped us gain access to a long term land lease that was desperately needed to keep the farm moving in an upward trajectory. Finally, our families have really sacrificed a lot to help us keep this thing alive. They have helped us in the field, in the office, and especially with childcare as our job demands so much of us during the summer months.

Website: Nativehillfarm.com

Instagram: @nativehillfarm

Image Credits
Zoe Finn and Emily Daly