The name “5 Fridges Farm,” although nicely alliterative, seems a mighty unusual name for a farm. On the other hand, when one stops to consider all that goes on at a working farm, it starts to make sense.
A farm that regularly produces lots of eggs and milk certainly needs a reliable method of refrigeration, particularly if the farm is a small one in the early 20th century. Willamina and Henry Fehr farmed such a plot in what is now southwest Wheat Ridge from 1912 to1936. Henry built a farmhouse (still used as the primary residence today) in 1922, according to Jefferson County records. They mostly gardened and ran a truck farm, including Pascal celery, a popular crop with area farmers.
Ernestine Williams, who purchased the farm in the 1930s from Fehr, the last man to ever own it, did several things to assure her new farm’s future. Ernestine was married but purchased the farm in her own name, a rare move for the 1930s. She and husband Walter called the place the Red Wing Ranch and raised cattle, hogs, chickens and goats. The chickens and goats forced them to install several refrigerators in the farm house. They provided milk, eggs and meat to area residents for 50 years. At one time Williams had 2000 chickens!
Toward the end of her life, Ernestine permanently saved the farm from future development with a conservation easement in 1991, which guaranteed the land would remain agricultural and natural and never be used for urban development. Then, upon her death she gave the 13 acres to two neighbor women; one was Louise Turner, one of the founders of the City of Wheat Ridge. Turner continued the tradition of farming, specializing in dairy goats, into her later years.
Current owner Amanda Weaver bought the property in 2010, two years before Turner died in 2012. Now an agricultural geographer and professor at CU-Denver, Weaver was able to apprentice with Turner. As the new owner in 2011 Weaver renovated the little farmhouse, “removing refrigerators from every room in the 800-square foot home,” thus, the name 5 Fridges Farm.
With the property now surrounded by houses, apartments, condos and a school, Weaver has continued urban farming and now manages dairy and weed grazing goats, chickens, turkeys and bee hives. She also maintains a garden, using her farm to continually test the market, all the while teaching college courses full-time.
She says she uses the farm as a research lab and classroom, bringing students onsite, not to teach them how to farm, how to be conscious consumers locally and globally. She aims to grow an awareness in them of how “planting” so many houses instead of crops drives food prices up. “Farmers only get ten cents on the dollar,” Weaver says. “The other 90 cents goes to food processing.” Going local for growing, buying and eating is the answer.
Weaver and her 5 Fridges Farm have just been awarded “Centennial Farm” status, an honor bestowed on farms in business for 100 years. She will receive her honor at the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo next month.
Five Fridges Farm harkens back to a phrase Ernestine Williams used to describe her home: She called it “Heaven on Earth”. Weaver fully intends to keep that dream alive.
