244-ACRE RANCH FOR SALE
Contact: Brook LeVan 970-618-8599
brook@sustainablesettings.org
for a private showing or visit CrystalRiverGem.org

We came to The Roaring Fork Valley in 1997 with the goals of finding a place and healing it. We set out to explore the relationship of soil health to our health. In the last two decades we have pioneered and combined many stewardship practices and discovered how we can heal the land and ourselves. This research changed our thinking to be more aligned with Nature’s economy, encouraging shifts in our dialog with the life we co-create with in our agrarian exchanges. We discovered that Nature was not only our measure but our guide as well. Sustainable Settings has accomplished our original vision of healing a place. 

Sustainable Settings Timeline:

• From our founding in 1997 at Woody Creek at Compass, The Aspen Community School, we founded the organization. Otherwise known as Sustainable Settings 1.0!

• In 2003, we moved to Carbondale and acquired the Thompson Creek Ranch for the organization’s land-based operation. Version 2.0

•It is now time to move to version 3.0 to the organizations next level of research and demonstration. It is our hope that the next stewards recognize the uphill effort we have put forth to heal this place and know that they are inheriting peak health and vitality in the soil. 

The value proposition in the acquisition of this ranch is not measured or assessed in the typical dollar per acre exchange. This ranch is NOT valuable as a parcel that one could speculatively buy to subdivide into more sprawling subdivisions for profit. This land is protected in perpetuity and so are the surrounding ranches in this scenic section of the Crystal River Valley. This place becomes more precious each year as more crucial agricultural land is sullied into housing and commercial development. This place will remain as you see it today forever in an agricultural open space. The value proposition here then is a profound hope to continue the preservation and regeneration of living soil the bedrock of our health and well-being for generations to come.

Our successes in soil rejuvenation research here have developed over the last two decades through our combined Biodynamic, Organic, Management Intensive Grazing, Permaculture, no-till, crop rotation, etc. We now have 7 years of USDA/NRCS third party scientific laboratory data (Haney, PLFA and S5 testing regimes) that test the life in the soil instead of the analysis of dead chemical components that typify conventional soil testing. That coupled with plenty of testimony from chefs and customers about our extraordinary nutrient dense flavor profiles. The combined data demonstrates that our collective stewardship practices, detailed ahead, have co-created the arena for optimum regeneration of soil life and health throughout the agrarian systems.  

The impressive uptick in soil life and overall fertility due to this group’s Biodynamic stewardship drives greater yields in nutrient-rich grass-fed butter fat in their A-2 dairy products, proven increases in the overall health of their livestock. Our heritage meats, heirloom vegetables, A2-A2 raw dairy and botanical herb products are “untouchable, possessing a genuine terroir” according to Chef Barclay Dodge of BOSQ restaurant in Aspen. Sustainable Settings’ products are a celebrated source of abundant life force. Building this vigor in immunity in the Soil Food Web provides the optimum fuel for our resilience. 

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For more information or a tour you may contact Brook LeVan, Director via 970-618-8599 or email: brook@sustainablesettings.org

What has been most exciting for me at Sustainable Settings is the integration of different elements, and the combination of ideas and tangible production in terms of food, energy, shelter, and education. Being here has given me an opportunity to be a part of the struggles and successes of an organization grappling daily with some extremely difficult environmental questions. Without all the answers, and without denying the realities of growing planetary destabilization, I’m thankful that here we find a way to laugh as we work on solutions. ~ Retta Bruegger, Intern 2007