Grown at Home
By Jeff Becker Photography by J. Becker and R. Ardovino

It is still dark when the boxes and crates of vegetables are loaded into the back of the pickups. The engines grumble as farmers stack the dusty boxes full of summer squash, greenbeans, tomatoes, and carrots (toname only a few). They pause, wipe the sweat from their brow, then drive off into the sunrise. Soon, down in Las Cruces and Sunland park, picnic tables will unfold in the streets. Table cloths will be whipped open, box after box of these fresh vegetables will be spread across them, and just as the sun peaks over the horizon another day at the farmer’s market will begin.

These days, most of us shop at a supermarket. The food we buy comes wrapped, boxed, sealed and processed. Yet, while we all love our local grocers, few of us know exactly where this food comes from. This, however, is not the case at the farmer’s market. Tucked away in the corners and backyards of this vast green valley are a few farmers that are truly making a difference by providing us with an alternative— fresh, homegrown produce. These small growers are producing a wide range of products to support this niche market— and the results are simply delicious. Each weekend they wake early, gather their harvest, drive it into our towns and put forth the fruits of their labor for our culinary pleasure. From wine to berries, the true diversity of our regional farms is represented in a select number of individuals that make New Mexico and Texas proud by giving us this opportunity to buy superior produce.

When I decided to figure out who these people were and where all this produce was being grown, everyone directed me to the Watsons. Their family farm between San Miguel and Vado rests smack in the middle of the vibrant agricultural area of the Mesilla Valley. It was a hot New Mexico summer when I climbed into a big farm truck with Nancy Watson and pulled away. It was at that point that I was surprised. What I expected was a backyard garden of squash, tomatoes, maybe an apple tree or two. What I got was 35-40 acres of true American farmland pushing up anything that will grow. Asparagus, beets, carrots, turnips, peas, garlic, onions, okra, corn, ten varieties of chile, squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, eggplant, blackeyed peas, collared greens, peaches, and grapes are some of what the Watsons bring up every year. They do all this without the use of pesticides.

Their story is not unlike those of most of the vendors at our local farmer’s market. The Watson farm has been passed down through the generations. They always kept a vegetable garden and one summer, with a bumper crop of beans, they turned to the farmer’s market to get rid of them. The sense of community that they found at the markets, the friends they made, and the support they earned has brought them back year after year. Customers have watched Nancy Watson’s girls grow up and every Wednesday and Saturday they are out there, with their truck full of veggies. “It’s not a career,” Nancy Watson explains, “It’s a lifestyle.”

The Watsons, and farmers like them, make our farmer’s markets possible. According to the New Mexico Farmer’s Marketing Association, one will find people producing peas, greens, radishes, cherries, apricots, fresh herbs, asparagus, and beets in the spring. Sweet corn, tomatoes, squash, green chile, beans, peaches, plums, melons, watermelons, cucumbers, raspberries, sweet onions, garlic, and potatoes are available in the summer, while the falls provides apples, pears, pumpkins, winter squashes, red chile, posole, cider, and sweet potatoes. All markets are unique, and ours features a large range of freshly baked breads and pies, goats' milk cheeses and yogurts, jams, jellies, honey, pecans, pistachios, dried fruits, salsas, relishes, native landscaping plants and vegetable starts for your home and garden, fresh-cut flowers and bouquets, herbal soaps, lotions, and tinctures in addition to the produce tables. In short, if you want it, and it’s in season, you will find it at the farmer’s market.

While this sounds great, local farming and farmer’s markets now face the greatest challenge in the long tradition of American agriculture—extinction. The problem is families like the Watsons are becoming rare. The last few generations of farming have witnessed a whirlwind of changes in the culture and economy that supported it for so long. Statistics show that since 1920, 67% of American farms have shut down. In 1870, half of our country was directly employed in agriculture. Now, it’s less than 1% of our population. It is not rare for me to come across adults that had to sell off their family farms once their parents died. They throw up their hands and shrug, sadly.

Sarah Grant of the New Mexico Farmer’s Marketing Association says that while there is a farmer’s market in almost every town of volume in this state, the problem is finding farmers to supply them. With over 40 markets in the state, there are 1,000 small scale operations that serve them. The risk of farmer’s markets and the farmers that support them disappearing is very real. It’s quite simple, as Robert Ardovino of the Sunland Park Farmer’s Market says, these markets are either going to “make local agriculture work and we’re going to support them, or we’re not and it is going to dry up.” With fewer and fewer people turning to farming to make their living (or even as their hobby) and the population of backyard gardeners getting older, the question remains—who will grow?

For the time being, we still have a chance to keep this age old tradition alive. And why shouldn’t we? Buying locally grown/made products supports our local economy. Produce doesn’t have to travel from Mexico and other far off places to get here—this saves gas. Farmers pick crops when they are ripe and sell them directly to consumers, which improves quality. This money, in turn, isn’t shipped to another state (or country), but stays right here in our community. Further,these growers know where pineapples come from (not here), when tomatoes ripen, what the difference is between a squash and a zucchini. If you ever want to be a capable cook this knowledge is vital.

What too many Americans forget is that how they spend their money represents a level of influence not readily available in their daily lives. By shopping at a farmer’s market, your money is helping to preserve our farms, our farmers, and a way of life that without our help will continue to disappear. One of the most important things you can do this weekend is buy some fresh homegrown tomatoes. The list of good reasons to support local farming is long, but, eat a homegrown tomato. Go ahead and bite into it. Let the juice dribble down your chin. Taste that? That’s the best reason of them all right there.

Info:  
Las Cruces Farmers & Craft Market
Location: Downtown Mall
Schedule: Saturdays & Wednesdays,
8 am - 12:30 pm
Market Season:Year round.
Please note: This is mostly a crafts market.
Contact: Olivia Hennessey, 541-2288.
Email: fcmarket@las-cruces.org

Sunland Park Farmers' Market
Location: Ardovino's Desert Crossing,
Ardovino Drive
Schedule: Saturdays, 7:30 am - 12 pm
Market Season: May 27th - September 2nd
Contact: Robert Ardovino, 589-0653.
Email:adcinnm@aol.com

Be sure you find a market that meets the guidelines set by the NM Farmer’s
Marketing association that requires all produce to be grown by local farmers.
Find the accredited market nearest you (ie: Alamogordo, Chaparral, Capitan,
Silver City, Tularosa) by logging on to www.farmersmarketsnm.org or calling (505) 983-4010