RYAN ERICSON
Q: What’s your occupation? Explain your career, your accomplishments and professional highlights.
A: I own and operate a diversified vegetable, fruit and flower farm called Well Fed Farmstead in northwest Fort Collins. Our farm grows and cultivates nutrient-dense food and gorgeous cut flowers for our local community, all while following sustainable and regenerative methods of agriculture. I started the business by myself as a small microgreens operation in 2020 and have grown it in a few short years to now include four acres and seven employees. We’re in a half dozen restaurants, a couple grocery stores and two farmers markets. Our soil and our community are healthy and thriving, and so are we.
Q: Tell us about yourself, your history and how you came to be where you are now.
A: I am a husband, a father of two toddlers, a farmer, a lover of the outdoors, a musician and a self-proclaimed coffee enthusiast. I was raised in Minnesota and Wisconsin, both as a city kid and country boy. Before landing in Colorado in 2019, I made my way all over the nation to Indiana, North Carolina and California. Since I found Colorado, I haven’t looked back. My wife, Alexa, and I sank our roots in, had kids and started our dreams. Me as a dad and farmer, her as a mother and author.
Age: 28
Occupation: Owner and founder of Well Fed Farmstead
Q: Tell us something unique about you.
A: I played competitive ultimate frisbee for years as a high schooler and college kid, and I still aspire to throw the disc around from time to time.
Q: What do you consider your biggest accomplishment, either professionally or personally?
A: Crafting a life of love and purpose with my wife. We’ve been supportive of each other’s dreams from the get-go, and we don’t let each other settle. We can’t help but stand in awe of the life we have, with two beautiful children, a supportive community, a successful farm and a book on the way. It’s almost hard to believe.
Q: Where do you see yourself in five years? In 10 years?
A: Alexa and I hope to someday own land where we can sink our roots even deeper. I currently lease our two farm properties, which presents a multitude of challenges. I hope to find a piece of land that can provide a living for my family but also be the spot for our forever home. I truly believe the business will continue to grow and we’ll get there soon.
Q: What piece(s) of advice would you give to your younger self?
A: Listen. Seek out mentors and wise people that can not only speak to your career and interests but also lead loving, meaningful and peaceful lives. Ask them as many questions as you can, then watch what they do and emulate. Make it your own, but don’t be too focused on independence and innovation that you miss out on what it’s all about. It’s not all about money or profit. Look at the whole picture.
Q: How did you become a farmer? What inspired this way of life?
A: No one in my family has farmed for at least a couple generations, and I grew up mostly in the city. I was attending a public high school when a friend of mine left to go to a semester school (a boarding school for one semester that gives you a high school education with an emphasis in a particular field) called Conserve School in the north woods of Wisconsin. When she came back, she couldn’t stop talking about this “amazing, hippy, environmental school.” I enrolled, and the education was amazing. I fell deeply in love with the earth and wanted to spend my life taking care of it. After the semester was up, I finished high school, got a bachelor’s degree in sustainable development and worked on farms all over the nation. I travelled from Indiana to North Carolina, California and finally, Colorado.
Q: How do you and your wife support each other’s endeavors?
A: On our first date, Alexa told me that she wanted to be a mother. It didn’t frighten me. I wanted to be a father, too. I told her I wanted to be a farmer. It didn’t frighten her. We got married 11 months after our first date, and only 18 months after that, we had our first child. That time wasn’t easy. My farming career isn’t what you’d call lucrative. We spent the first four years of our marriage barely getting by, but that’s because neither of us let the other settle. Alexa wanted to be a full-time mother for our children, especially when they were young. Though it would’ve been easier to have her stay in her career (marketing) where she was making double what I was, we decided to let her pursue full-time motherhood. And instead of taking a more traditional office job to better pay our bills and save up, Alexa encouraged me to continue farming. In the midst of full-time “momming,” she has become a traditional midwife and has published her first book. We give each other the time and space to take risks (and maybe fail a little), but we get right back up and try again. Our dreams are slowly coming true.
