The Roots of the Farm

Our 13-acre Lakewood farm has a fascinating history.  The land was first purchased by Henry Swan in 1923.  Henry was a prominent Denver banker and railroad executive, but as the son of famous ranching family (his father was principal of the Swan Land & Cattle Company, one of the largest cattle operations in Wyoming history - their wagon that they came west in is pictured above) he yearned for a more agricultural setting.  Back then, Lakewood was quite a voyage from Denver and considered "out in the country."  He purchased his homestead near Ward Reservoir, close to where Denver socialite Molly Brown kept her summer home, and where oilman and Vail founder Vernon Taylor was building his magnificent estate.  Swan built a beautiful home for his wife and children.  During World War II, food scarcity was a real concern.  Swan began a significant farming operation on the land, built a large root cellar to can and store food for his family, and began running sheep and pigs on the property.  

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When Henry passed away in 1971, his property was split roughly in half for his two children.  While his daughter eventually sold her half, his son Henry Swan II continued to live on the property until his death in 1996.  Henry Swan II was a famous cardiac surgeon - first in his class at Harvard Medical School, a war surgeon who saved countless lives, and one of the pioneers of open heart surgery (the bathtub he used to put patients into a hypothermic state to allow for open heart surgery is in the Smithsonian).  And yet, he continued the agricultural tradition at "the Farm" as his family continued to call it.  He and his wonderful wife Geri maintained a huge and abundant garden, and even patented a unique white squash (we have located some of these seeds and hope to start growing them again soon!).

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We acquired half of the property in 2022, and our family lived next to Geri until her passing in 2023.  We were then very fortunate to be able to purchase the other half of the property, and "reunite" the historic Swan property back into a single holding.  While much of the agricultural history of the land has languished, we continue to find old farm implements, sheep troughs, and relics of its farming roots scattered about.  We look forward to returning the Farm to its former glory - making the land productive, a source of food security, a place for good honest hard work for us and our kids, and a place for fresh local food for our Lakewood neighbors.

We believe that this land, one of the few larger agricultural properties remaining in Lakewood, should be productive and should contribute to the Lakewood community.  Locally grown food tastes better, is less expensive, and is better for the environment.  Having locally available food and agricultural products also helps bring the community together.

Our efforts to restore our property to its agricultural roots will be a long voyage.  We've started by planting fruit trees, with the goal of having an orchard of at least 50 trees.  Our property is already home to what is likely the most dense stand of mature trees in Lakewood, and we'd like to ensure that in twenty years there are even more.  Our focus will be on unique and heirloom varieties, many of which have gone out of style because they don't transport well across long distances - something that would not be an issue for local sale.

We also plan to develop a "buy one, save one" Christmas tree farm.  Growing up, my family always cut our own Christmas trees.  Even though the area we used needed to be thinned, I always felt bad about finding that one perfect tree only to chop it down (I told myself the trees were happy to be beautiful Christmas trees, but I'm not positive on that!).  Instead of your Christmas tree selection removing a tree from the world, what if it added one?  At our farm, when you buy a Christmas tree from us, you will get to choose the one you want, and also tag one to live on.  The price of buying a tree thus not only gets you a wonderful, local Christmas tree, it also ensures a mature tree will live to become a mature tree, cleaning our air and cooling our city.

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As we are able to devote more of our time to the farm (and while we tend to our trees as they grow), we hope to add many other agricultural uses and products.  We are working to renew the heirloom rose garden to be able to offer cut flowers.  We will be adding lavender plants, which attract the pollinators we will need for our orchard and have a myriad of uses.   We hope to convert more and more of the property to farming.  And, at least one of us hopes to eventually have grass fed Dexter cows roaming the property.

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While it will take time, effort, and investment before we are ready to invite you to help harvest, we could not be more excited to embark on this project!