Guidestone Colorado. Beginning Farmers - Start and Build a New Farm Business. Beginning/New Farmers. Boulder County Business Report | Today's News | Farmer joins regional growing network. LONGMONT - With his first tomato harvest, Jon Hulme and his Boulder Fresh farm is now part of a Circle Fresh Farms network that sells produce to Whole Foods Markets along the Front Range. Hulme retrofitted an existing greenhouse at his former tree nursery, Rocky Mountain Pines at 5555 Ute Highway in Longmont, with financial help from Denver-based Circle Fresh Farms, according to Rich Naha, a Circle Fresh Farms cofounder. The Denver investment firm Raindrop Partners, of which Naha is a member, has an equity stake of 32 percent in Circle Fresh Farms, with at least one of the other farmers in the network also having a stake, Naha said.
Based on contracts with Whole Foods and In Season Local Market in Denver, farmers in the network are expected to generate a profit of $186,000 per one-acre farm per year growing tomatoes and lettuce, Naha said. "We're empowering local farmers, not just looking for $9-an-hour employees," Naha said. Guidestone.