Cooks love summer, when the year’s best strawberries, tomatoes and sweet corn are finally rolling in. But Beki Javernick of Javernick Family Farms begs to differ. “Spring,” she says, without hesitation. “I really love when you do seeding in the greenhouse. You get that little layer of vibrant green sprouts at a time when nothing else is green.”

Seeding begins in February and the annual cycle of nurturing, watering, weeding and harvesting begins. For Beki, it’s a familiar routine. The granddaughter of a Colorado rancher/farmer, she remembers many an afternoon spent transplanting cabbages and helping out wherever needed after school. After moving away and getting an art degree, Beki returned to Canon City in 2004. She started the CSA the following year, planting everything from artichokes to zucchini on 13 acres that still belong to her grandparents. Javernick Family Farms remains a family operation, with mom and dad pitching in—and her toddler watching on.

While the farm isn’t certified organic (more about the certification process another time), they follow organic practices and are good stewards of the land, practicing crop rotation and the like. But give her a minute and Beki will eagerly tell you that local is just as important as organic. “It’s important to keep the chain as short as possible,” she stresses, something she does by buying carrot seed from a local farmer and using local compost, for example. For more information on her CSA, which runs from May to October, visit www.javernickfamilyfarms.com.