Hour 1 - 3

Hour 1-3 -- Ernest travels to Dufur, OR to visit the folks as Azure Farms/Azure Standard and does a live remote from the Headquarters there. Guests include David Stelzer (Founder and CEO), David Cross (Marketing Director), and Karen Slusher (Director of Customer Experience) 

CALL IN TO SHOW: 602-264-2800

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Feature Article  •  Global Edition Freedom's Phoenix Declare Your Independence APP now on Google Play  Donna Hancock    Listen to any recent show of "Declare Your Independence" at the click of a button!

 

 

June 28th, 2017

Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock

on LRN.FM / Monday - Friday

9 a.m. - Noon (EST)

Studio Line: 602-264-2800 

Hour 1

David Stelzer

Founder and CEO of Azure Farms/Azure Standard

David Stelzer is an organic food and healthy soil pioneer. His family have farmed in the Pacific northwest for over 100 years, and he is the founder and CEO of Azure Farm and Azure Standard, a leading producer and nationwide distributor of natural, organic, and non-GMO food.

David first started farming organically as a teenager in the 1970s, and his passion for providing nourishing, healthful foods grown in healthy soil without the use of harmful chemicals has continued to grow since then. He first started selling grain grown on the family farm at the age of 21 from the back of his old pickup truck across the Pacific northwest. In 1987, this successful adventure grew into Azure.

David and Azure Standard went on to create a unique delivery method of community Drops that evolved organically into an independent organic food distribution network which now covers 38 states – including Hawaii and Alaska – with over 4,000 community Drops in local communities. Azure has now delivered organic produce and food to well over 3 million people in families across the USA.

He continues to pioneer new methods of growing food and food production, including Azure Mill's Unifine grain milling capabilities.

David continues his focus on helping people find health and wellness by growing nutrient-rich foods in healthy soil on the thriving Azure Farm, which has never used harmful chemicals in its entire history.

David passionately believes in supporting small and family-owned farms, suppliers, and businesses. He always advocates for healthy and abundant living while aspiring to remain on the forward edge in providing truly healthful food to a world hungry for quality ingredients grown using fair and sustainable farming methods.

David Cross

Marketing Director for Azure Standard

David Cross is Marketing Director at Azure Standard where he brings 27 years of direct response marketing experience gained across the world.

He has worked in 23 countries and lived in six countries, settling in Oregon over 15 years ago. He has a small 6-acre homestead where he grows food and rears animals to feed his family. He hunts and fishes across Oregon.

David's diverse work experience includes head of Internet marketing for the world's largest financial newsletter publisher, Internet startup entrepreneur in Sweden, chef, QVC guest presenter, earthquake relief volunteer for the 1988 Armenian earthquake, head of PR for a charity in the United Kingdom, running an Ayurvedic health center, candidate in the 1992 British Parliamentary Election, and part owner of a veterinary clinic.

He is a father of six and serves as Chair of the Board at his daughter's charter school in Oregon City, Oregon.

David grew up in a working-class area of Northern England where his father rented a garden "allotment" for a dollar a month off a neighbor. The family grew a lot of their food there and it fostered David's very early passions for food and cooking.

Five years ago, David had a crazy idea to turn the 13,000-sq. ft. lawn at his family home into a vegetable garden. He grew 25 different types of vegetables and herbs fed his family, canned, pickled, and make chutneys and sauces. His children gave food baskets to their school auction, and donated food regularly to their local food bank.

See: https://www.flickr.com/photos/watertheroot/sets/72157635164558740/

David remains a keen chef and cooks for his family almost every day, and bakes bread about four times a week, one of the advantages of working from home with the ingredients available to him from his larder and Azure Standard.

Karen Slusher

Director of Customer Experience (BIO to be put up shortly)

Azure Standard Webpages:

Azure Standard:  www.azurestandard.com

Facebook:            www.facebook.com/azurestandard/

Azure Farm:

Vimeo Video:      https://vimeo.com/216920516

Media Contact:   David Cross, david.cross@azurestandard.com

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TO GET AN IDEA OF THE LAYOUT AND AREA WHERE AZURE FARM, AZURE MILL, AND AZURE DISTRIBUTION CENTER ARE LOCATED, HERE ARE SOME MAPS:

HERE ARE SOME PICTURES OF THE MILL @ AZURE FARM IN DUFUR, OREGON

The Mill at Azure Farm. There is roughly 2000 acres of land that is farmed around The Mill and Azure Farm HQ in Dufur, OR...

Apple Orchard....

Not quite ripe yet - should be ready at the end of the summer (when the seeds have space to rattle around inside the apple):

Watering system to the fruit trees:

PICTURES FROM THE COMPOSTING AREA THEY CALL THE 'WIND ROWS'

PICTURES FROM THEIR MAN-MADE DAM AT AZURE FARM...

PICTURES FROM HEADQUARTERS AT AZURE FARM...

PICTURES FROM AZURE DISTRIBUTION CENTER IN MORO, OR (where all the hype about noxious weeds was happening)...

In addition to the distribution center, there is about 2000 acres of farm land that is used to grow crops, mainly wheat (Non-GMO and Organic, of course)

PICTURE OF MT HOOD:

Hour 2

Hour 2 -- Ernest travels to Dufur, OR to visit the folks as Azure Farms/Azure Standard and does a live remote from the Headquarters there. Guests include David Stelzer (Founder and CEO), David Cross (Marketing Director), and Karen Slusher (Director of Customer Experience) 

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Hour 2

David Stelzer, David Cross, Karen Slusher at Azure Farm Cont'd

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Pictures from the show...

L to R: Ernest Hancock, David Stelzer, David Cross, Karen Slusher:

 

Hour 3

Hour 3 -- Ernest travels to Dufur, OR to visit the folks as Azure Farms/Azure Standard and does a live remote from the Headquarters there. Guests include David Stelzer (Founder and CEO), David Cross (Marketing Director), and Karen Slusher (Director of Customer Experience) 

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Hour 3

David Stelzer, David Cross, Karen Slusher at Azure Farm Cont'd