Tradition continues on the Shine family farm

For 90 years the Shine family has owned the land off of CR 150 and Highway 291 just past the new hospital in Salida. Frank Shine, an immigrant from Austria and his wife Frances raised six children there. In 1936 they deeded the 25 acres to their son John Shine, Sr. and his wife Doris, who at age 90, still lives on the land.

A few years back, Colorado Farm To Table, a local non-profit organization, lost the use of land at the Vandaveer Ranch and was also looking to expand its mission of providing fresh produce at no cost to food banks and charities throughout Colorado. At the same time, Doris and son Rich Shine were also facing challenges with their farm land. A series of tenants who grazed cattle had left and there was no one else to work the land. Was there a way to keep their farm productive and in good hands?

In early 2005, Doris and Rich were introduced by a neighbor, Mike Goodwin, to Tony Madone, Project Manager for Colorado Farm To Table. After several meetings, a unique agreement was reached: the Shines would donate the use of their land to Colorado Farm To Table to use for raising food for those who need it most. For four seasons now the farm has been lush with a variety of vegetables all carefully tended and harvested by local volunteers. This summer, the land is graced with tall rows of corn and many kinds of squash.

A recent interview with Doris and Rich Shine coincided with the visit of over a dozen children and staff from the Presbyterian Church in Denver, Chaffee County 4-H and Chaffee County Montessori School. Tony Madone explained: “we wanted to give the children an opportunity to tour the farm, see our vintage equipment in action, meet Doris and Rich and learn that together we can fight hunger by keeping this land productive as it has been for generations.”

Rich Shine added “I have been involved in a helping profession for years (speech and language pathology), working with children who stutter and those who have articulation or phonology impairments. It’s great to see these young people out on our land learning about Salida’s farming heritage and how they can help lessen hunger in our State. Coming out here today brings back many memories of growing up on this farm and how far my journey has taken me.”

While the current economy is hard on today’s families, Salida farm life in the mid-30′s posed special challenges which are hard to imagine in this digital age. The original Shine home had just two rooms and no indoor plumbing. John Sr. was mechanically inclined. He worked for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and many years for the County Road and Bridge Department. When a grandmother who was blind with cataracts came to stay in 1941, more room was needed so a log cabin was built for Rich and his older brother John, Jr. (Sonny). Two rooms and a wash room were also added to the home. The boys carried water from the spring and even pulled a hand cultivator behind them out in the vegetable garden. Classes for grades one through eight were held in the two-room Smeltertown Elementary School.

Doris Shine remembers not having a car and pushing a buggy all the way to town, with the boys inside and a box on the back to tote the groceries home. As the kids grew, they learned to help with everything on the farm, tending to cattle and hogs and even raising rabbits that they sold to Vaughn’s Market on G Street for meat. The family smoked meats, made kielbasa and blood sausage and made soap from lye, letting not a scrap of their animals go to waste.

Over the years, the farm produced corn, potatoes, peas, radishes, string beans, carrots and a variety of crops from alfalfa and barley to wheat and oats. And there were always apples, rhubarb, peaches and many different vegetables canned and put up for the winter. A considerable bounty and sweet reward, but earned the hard way, with long days and nights, 365 days a year.

At age 15, Rich and Sonny planted, grew and harvested the entire wheat crop, receiving $300 apiece when the crop was sold at market. The boys each used half of their earnings to buy a 1937 Plymouth from their parents (fondly remembered as “The Bumblebee”, after being jazzed up with a black and yellow paint job and dual exhausts). Besides being busy with farm chores, Rich learned to play several musical instruments. “I learned the accordion by ear,” he said, “and entertained for pay with the ‘Melody Makers’, a local dance band.”

Rich admits to being too involved in the “rock-an-roll” of the 50′s and not applying himself “too much” in his early school days. He was graduated from Salida High School in 1955 and earned his first degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences at Colorado State College, now the University of Northern Colorado. Inspired by a pioneering professor, Verne Ahlberg, at UNC, Rich learned radically new ideas about how to help young children who stuttered – lessons that he would apply for the rest of his career. Many years and several degrees later, Dr. Shine is now retired as a Professor Emeritus from East Carolina University.

It’s a long ways from farm life in Salida to Greenville, NC where Rich and his wife Lynn raised their two children, Eric and Andrea and live today. “Looking back, what I remember is that our hard work paid off. I worked my way through college and owe a lot to teachers and coaches who believed in me. The lessons we learned on the farm about self-reliance and helping our friends and neighbors were important – both then and now. We’ve even been fortunate enough to travel to Europe; imagine my mom in Italy and Monaco – quite different from her childhood home in tiny Almena, Kansas.”

The Shine’s cheery home has been modernized over the years but still features a coal stoker in the living room for heating and a wood/electric stove in the kitchen. Doris Shine stacks the wood as Rich cuts it during his summer “vacation”. Doris still puts in a good morning of work around the house and grounds every day.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, another sort of teacher was wrapping up a hands-on explanation in the field. The visiting children heard about Salida’s micro climate and what makes the Shine farm unique. Tony Madone told the group “our planting, cultivating and fertilizing equipment is adapted specifically to this piece of land and our short growing season. Farms not 50 miles away in Canon City have very different needs… I hope that after today you all understand more about how our food gets to the table and all the good that these vegetables will do, helping feed people in need across Colorado.”

Judging from the challenging questions from these young children, they soaked up a lot about farming and how much hard work it takes to grow food. They were also impressed that Colorado Farm To Table gives it away for free, helping neighbors and strangers alike. And for the kids, the lessons learned from this visit will stay with them long after they return home.

Rich Shine said, “It’s an honor and a blessing for us to be able to help the work of Colorado Farm to Table by allowing them to farm our land. At the start, we had no idea how it would turn out, but Tony and the volunteers have made us very proud of our land and what it can do for others. These folks care so much about what they are doing – they track every ear of corn as if it were a personal gift.”

For the thousands of needy people who may never meet Doris and Rich, the generosity of the Shine family is a key ingredient in making the mission of Colorado Farm to Table possible, year after year. From all of us, thank you!

Editor’s note: This article was first published in The Mountain Mail in September, 2008.