Meet Terri Murphy and Claire Alfus | Co-founders, Hestia Field Farm

Hi Terri and Claire, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
At Hestia Field Farm, our focus is on building a self-sustaining ecosystem. This ecosystem stores carbon while providing food and healing to the land, creating a space to breathe within an urban landscape. We raise and sell grass-fed beef and lamb, as well as fiber free from any synthetic herbicides, pesticides, and antibiotics. We upcycle products from other food streams (organic grocery stores, local breweries, woodchips from tree services), turning other peoples’ cast-offs into nutrient dense food. We feed the bees, the soil, the animals, the wildlife, ourselves, the community – we feed everything. We also feed the spirit, bringing cosmic forces into the soil and back out into the plants using biodynamic preparations and planetary cycles. By caring for our farm as a living being, by listening to what the farm needs more or less of, we are witnessing the restoration of natural cycles and the ability of nature to feed itself.

What should our readers know about your business?
We’re proud that we’re still here and that we’ve persevered through two years of endless learning curves and challenges. There has been the overwhelming cost of building an infrastructure and the ongoing humility that it takes when partnering with nature. What keeps us moving forward, paradoxically, is the practice of looking back to honor how much has changed. Where there were barren pastures, we saw fields growing multiple varieties of grasses, vetch, daikon radish, alfalfa, clover, and many other plants that were at times two feet tall. The stretch of land between our fencing and the road that was typically a place to collect trash now holds juniper trees, black-eyed Susans, daffodils, iris, marigolds, blue beards, lamb’s ear, echinacea and anise hyssop, providing shelter and food for wildlife and bees. We’ve gone from a small collection of organic, lawn-mowing sheep to a jacketed flock growing soft, clean, quality wool and providing grass-fed, humanely raised lamb. When we’re able to pause and take in all that has happened, we can then cultivate more momentum to keep moving forward.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
A visit to Hestia Field Farm would start with a dark roast coffee on the front porch. Heading out for the day, anyone who’s young (or young at heart) needs to climb the hive at Paco Sanchez Park. We’d then head to South Broadway for some fresh French pastries at Trompeau Bakery before ducking in and out of antique shops, hoping for a good find. We’d swing through the GyroZ drive thru for lunch (because who doesn’t love a good gyro?!) on our way to the Botanic Gardens, which seems to be astoundingly beautiful and peaceful in every season. After soaking up the magic and energy from the gardens, we’d visit a few independently owned shops like Full Moon Books and RitualCravt to browse metaphysical goods and get a tarot reading. Looking to stir up some spirits, a trip to Riverside Cemetery (Denver’s oldest operating cemetery) is a must while there’s still daylight. We’d end our day at the Spice Room, a great place to land for dairy-free and gluten-free Indian food.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
One repeating lesson we’ve learned at Hestia Field Farm is that we don’t do any of this alone. People from all parts of our circle have made this possible: our friends, Jessie, Angie, and Shayla who cheerlead and champion us on a regular basis, our families, who’ve financially invested in our farm and supported our growth into new ventures, other local farmers including Greg from Patchwork Farms, Phil and Noelle from Common Name Farm, and Sarah from Sister Sheep, non-local farmers including Stuart from Perennial Roots Farm in Virginia and Connie from English Blue Ribbon Farm in Illinois, our partners Jacob of Natural Grocers and Bobby of Evergreen Brewery, and neighbors and members of the community who have volunteered their time, wisdom, and energy. This list is already large and experience tells us it will grow with the farm.

Website: www.hestiafieldfarm.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hestiafield

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hestiafield