Transforming Grass into Greens at Yellow Fellow Farm

Luke Downey’s interest in farming started at a young age, with a game predownloaded on the family computer. The game, John Deere: Drive Green—which at the end of the day Luke says was just an advertisement for the company—involved the player doing fairly monotonous tasks like driving a tractor up and down a field.

While to some this may seem boring, to Luke it inspired a desire for a simple, quiet life all possible through a career in farming. After investigating how he might get into the industry, Luke discovered that he did not want to be involved in modern conventional agriculture. He was more interested in stewarding land, something that a more regenerative form of farming allowed.

Luckily, Luke’s father had a big backyard and already had a decent size garden, which Luke took over around 2017. Learning from Youtube as he went, he slowly began to grow the space of the garden until 2020, when they decided to completely convert the backyard into Yellow Fellow Farm. Farming comes with constant learning, especially when you are a first generation farmer like Luke. After getting the farm up and running, Luke wanted more farming and business guidance, which led him to work on a hay farm, as well as with longtime Boulder and Longmont Farmers Market vendor Aspen Moon Farm. Getting that hands-on experience in tandem with plenty of independent research is what has set Yellow Fellow Farm up for success.

Now, Luke grows on about a half an acre of land, which is made up of his father’s backyard and some additional land he has leased from community members. He grows microgreens inside his childhood bedroom, which is still painted his signature bright yellow. He says that the name Yellow Fellow Farm was inspired by his late mothers blog. She used code names for the family members when writing about them online, and Luke was always referred to as Yellow Fellow. This moniker has served as a special way to carry on her legacy.

Luke brings the usual products to market, fresh vegetables like kale, radishes, beets (his personal favorite), and more. He also brings more unique products, like dehydrated vegetable powders. As a result of figuring out the supply and demand of running a new farming business, a few years ago he ended up with more vegetables than he was able to sell. In the hopes of preserving the deliciousness, he decided to make them into powder. He says the most popular powder is zucchini, it is sweet, flavorful and acts as the perfect thickener to soups and sauces. People also love the tomato powder which can basically be sprinkled on anything – Luke suggests avocado toast. 

He also brings plant starts to market, which he cultivates in the small greenhouse he built during the pandemic. He says that most of the house plants have been adopted from folks who couldn’t keep their plants alive, or no longer wanted to take care of them. All of the vegetable starts he cultivates himself in the greenhouse. 

But, above all, his recurring customers return each week to get their hands on microgreens. This was the perfect starting place for Luke to get into farming – it doesn’t take much space or resources to grow nutrient dense, delicious microgreens.

While Luke plans to continue growing microgreens, what he really feels passionate about is cultivating the land. The restoration that is possible through proper stewardship of the land visibly excites Luke. He is excited about the way that heavy mulching allows the soil on his farm to retain water, the way that simple panes of glass can be used to direct sunlight and kill off weeds, and the possibility of running his entire operation off of solar energy one day. These are not just concepts either, he says that the land he is farming on now uses 80% less water than it did as a grass lawn, all while restoring soil microbes and producing delicious food.

Luke is just at the beginning of his farming journey. He dreams of one day purchasing land, owning many animals, and maybe even growing fish and using that water to fertilize the soil on his farm. You can invest in this journey through shopping from Yellow Fellow Farm at the Longmont Farmers Market every Saturday and watch as Luke’s John Deere: Drive Green dreams continue to become a reality.