For Glover, the restaurant is an accumulation of her farming and cooking passions.

“This is an extremely challenging situation,” Meiman said. “There aren’t simple solutions. There aren’t easy solutions. We’ve exhausted all of those.”

Grocery bills have already increased as farmers face tighter water budgets, Shields said. And they’ll climb higher if additional cuts plague the industry.

Agriculture consumes the vast majority of Colorado River water across the basin, so policy makers see the industry as an obvious target for conservation efforts.

Water managers from the states, irrigation districts, Native tribes and others are discussing proposals for steep 2023 cuts, which must be submitted to the Bureau of Reclamation next month. The reductions are expected to fall most heavily on agriculture, which uses about three-quarters of Colorado water, and on the lower basin states.

Pico plus ovens are coming for you America 🇺🇸

Swanson encourages other distillers to get as involved as they can in the agricultural side of the process. Some, like him, might be able to grow their own grain, a tradition that dates back hundreds of years. Others might not have that opportunity, but he would encourage them to buy local grains and speak with the farmers about which variety they use and why. By developing the agricultural side of distilling, the end user experience gets better and better.

Before evidencing a closely-linked culinary ideology, Czarnecki made a strong impression on Goodlaxson in the form of a thoughtfully-prepared “bribe.” “She came in and interviewed and brought a bunch of really good baked goods,” laughed Goodlaxson. Coming from a science background, Czarnecki began baking after becoming disillusioned with a career in oil and gas. After an apprenticeship at Babettes Artisan Bread in 2018, she was hired in 2019 for Frasca’s bread program, where she worked under head pastry chef Alberto Hernandez.

Her locally-oriented philosophy and on-site milling have rightfully received a cosign from Dry Storage bread baker Daniel Gray, with miller Colton Steiner actually helping to set the millstones in Fox and Raven’s kitchen. While the bakery clearly provides an outlet for Czarnecki’s natural talent, much of her approach is still informed by her more technical background. “My recipe book looks like a lab notebook,” she smiled.

Though “regenerative agriculture” may be a popular buzz phrase in climate circles, the practices behind it are anything but new. For decades, a small contingent of farmers have taken steps, like reducing or not tilling a field after harvest, to prevent soil erosion; planting cover crops during the fall; rotating different crops each year to avoid depleting the soil of key nutrients; and controlled grazing of fields by cattle and other livestock.

Bread will be ready for pick up from my back deck on Thursdays

Across the southwestern United States, agriculture essential to feed the nation requires 80% of water supplies that rapidly are shrinking as temperatures rise. Farmers and ranchers around southwestern Colorado this summer are struggling — selling off cattle, cutting back on planting. Many lack options for adapting like the Utes’ mill that maximizes revenue from whatever can be grown. Some have taken second jobs in retail stores and serving tourists.