For its ninth consecutive year, Growing Partners of Southwest Colorado’s Homegrown Food Retreat is gearing up to discuss the needs and concerns of Southwest Colorado’s local food world. This year’s retreat will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 8 at the ELHI Community Center in Ignacio.

Attendees will be treated with coffee, lunch, a tour of the community center and a variety of discussions and panels covering pressing topics in the food industry today.

Chef M. Karlos Baca, whose credits include executive chef for Dunton Hot Springs, is the founder of Taste of Native Cuisine, an indigenous chef cooperative, and will act as keynote speaker of this year’s retreat. Also trained in Japanese and French cooking, Baca founded Taste of Native Cuisine with a mission to practice pre-colonial methods of cooking and acquiring foods and to restore Native American food traditions. Baca’s talk, “Full Circle: An Indigenous Foods Tale” will discuss the loss of tradition brought about by events such as the displacement of tribes and government rationing, food warfare and modern indigenous cuisine.

Baca will not be presenting alone. He will be joined by three other presenters. Fort Lewis College alumnus and Old Fort caretaker Brandon Francis will be on hand to discuss soil quality and the healing of the Animas River following the Gold King Mine spill. Beth LaShell, coordinator of the Old Fort at Hesperus and former agriculture and biology instructor, will elucidate the Cottage Food Act, which allows individuals to sell food produced in their homes without licensing or inspection. Olga González of LiveWell Durango will give an overview of community organization and discuss food justice and its importance as a social justice movement.

Also featured will be a panel of prominent regional gardeners discussing the ins and outs of running a successful community garden.

Retreat goers also have the option to spend the morning in a hands-on rain barrel workshop. Colorado’s ban on rain barrel water collection ended in 2016, and residents can now collect up to two barrels with a combined capacity of 110 gallons. Dan Pushard of Santa Fe will teach participants how to construct barrels for this purpose. Retreat attendees should note this workshop has a different registration fee, and following the workshop attendees will join the rest of the retreat for lunch and the Keynote.

Contact Kacey Mallow at kcmallow@gmail.com.

If you go

Growing Partners of Southwest Colorado’s 2017 Homegrown Food Retreat will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 8 at the ELHI Community Center at 115 Ute Drive in Ignacio.

There is a suggested donation of $20. Coffee and lunch will be provided.

Register before March 31 at http://www.growingpartners.org/2017-food-retreat-registration.html or contact Program Manager Gretchen Groenke at (509) 830-4380.