Archives for September 2015

Oh I love this time of year. For most of us, we like to think that the summer time is when the real abundance of fresh foods are around. But I have to tell you that is just not the case. The sweet spot for fresh produce and meats is the fall.

Why? Because the fall is like the little love child if summer and spring got together and had a baby. I know it is hard to imagine two seasons mating and having a baby, but stay with me here. The weather is still warm enough for yummy summer veggies, but it has cooled just enough to get greens and roots back in the mix that we haven’t seen since May.

So the diversity and quality of the produce this time of year is second to none if you ask me. Additionally, we will be processing animals that have spent the entire summer dining on sweet grasses and greens. So this time of year really has something for everyone to celebrate and enjoy.

Some notes on new partnerships. We have added a baby greens grower, Jayleaf, to the mix. They are a great family-owned Organic grower from California. I have not seen a grower with better quality and diversity than Jayleaf. We are happy to have them on board with us and will offer our members (you) a consistent supply of greens throughout the year. This will fill a much needed void in our offering.

With their help, I want to launch a new part of the Harvest Boxes, the Green of the Week. This will be a rotating green ranging from salad mixes to baby chard and kales to help introduce different greens that you may have not seen or tried. We will start with baby spinach this week, which I know is nothing super exotic but just a solid way to kick off the new partnership. So look for more baby green options in the Harvest Boxes moving forward.

Green chile notes. The chile will continue to produce for a little while longer, but again, stock up now if you want some in your freezer. Once the fresh roasted is gone, we will not have it until next August or September. Although I do have to say that our green chile sauces will help get me through the winter too.

Grass-fed beef. I have received many emails, texts, and sticky notes about people wanting grass-fed beef. The idea is pretty simple folks, cows are meant to be raised on grass, so why not let the cows live how they were meant to live? Seems fair enough. The issue that I have run into personally and know that others have too, is that when we think of grass-fed beef, we think of chewing on the soles of our shoes. Tough as nails.

I saw this misperception as a challenge. How do we change folks’ minds about this grass-fed myth? Simple, find the ranchers who are raising the best animals in the best ways. And I am happy to say that we have found 2 partner ranchers who I know will change the way you think of grass-fed beef. And while you are enjoying the beef, you will be eating more Omega-3s, less saturated fats, and supporting ranches that are the antithesis to the feed lot. Animals roaming free on pasture and grasses for their entire lives. No cutting corners ever.

Nancy Ranney heads the Ranney Ranch in Corona, New Mexico. The family has been running the ranch since the late 1960s. One of the most impressive things that I saw out there was the abundance and diversity of the grasses. Nancy told me that through their use of rotational grazing practices that species of grasses have returned that agricultural extension agents have not seen growing there.

It seems crazy but the managed ranch is actually healthier than the prairies around the ranch. Why? Because cows actually are really good at eating seeds and then walking around and spreading the seeds in their manure. So in and through their poop, the help sow the grasses that they will be eating in the future. Amazing. And this only can happen when you do not overgraze an area.

We will have full and partial animals for sale if you would like to stock up your freezer.Shoot me an email at  for more info or details. We will have these animals ready for you by mid-October.

Farmer Monte

So I sat there thinking about my job as I ate a German Chocolate Brownie that I had generously received as a sample from our baker, Jessica, who wants to add them to our offering. The brownie was amazing and we will be adding them to the web site soon, but I was not thinking about all the wonderful foods I get to eat. I kept thinking about all the incredible people I meet through the farm.

Our former General Manager, Tom, used to distill all the craziness that we deal with on a daily basis down to “It’s just people and products.” And this week his words were ringing true for me because before you even have products to feed people, you must first have the people. There is no artistry in the fields or in the ovens without the farmer or the baker. So to really get to know your food, you have to know the people behind it first.

I have known this for many moons I think, but for some reason, this week, this notion of the faces behind the food has truly shaped my week. And honestly it has changed the mission of the farm going forward. I’ll explain here.

I have to admit that I have been so steadfast in my belief in Organic farming that I have at times missed the food forest because of my focus on the Organic tree. I have realized that a healthy and sustainable food industry cannot be captured in one certified Organic label. The health of our food industry is shown in the faces and the stories of the producers and their families. It’s greater than one label.

The Organic question has come to the forefront recently as I have met a fellow chile grower from Las Cruces, a baker from ABQ, a grass-fed rancher from eastern NM, and a mixed vegetable and nut grower from the Phoenix area. Every one of us shares the passion for the land and keeping chemicals off the earth. Every one of us is trying to expand his/her operation to become more financially sustainable in this challenging economic landscape for small producers. The only real difference I saw as I took a step back from their operations is that we hold a certification and they do not. Have I been too myopic in looking for partners?

We all like to think that we make the right decisions all the time. Humility is definitely not human nature. As the sage philosopher Jack Handey once pointed out, “It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.” Now I don’t think I will cry for you, but I will admit that I have probably missed opportunities to strengthen our partnerships that we try to find and foster over the years.

We will continue to have our farm certified Organic. We have been certified since 2003 and don’t see the need to change that. It works for us and I really like the NM Dept. of Ag Organic folks. They have supported me and this farm since we broke ground. It is good to have that support.

So the expansion will be in who are partners are. I can no longer feel good about not helping a grower find a home for her/his food just because they do not have a certification. So I will be taking these situations on a case by case basis and making sure that they are chemical-free, are stewards of the land, and hold the same beliefs in the social justice aspect of agriculture that we do. If they are also certified Organic, great! But we will no longer exclude growers from the table just because they do not certify.

My last last thought on this stems from the necessity of certifications. If you are selling your goods as a (faceless) commodity then you need a third party to verify and certify a product. But when you are able to meet a producer, walk their operation and ask them questions, the need for third party certification seems redundant. Why have third party verification when we can have first person verification?

You have built your relationship with this farm (your farm) not on an Organic sticker that we slap on the fruit, but rather in trust. You trust that I will be there for your needs, just as I trust that you will be here to give support and loyalty to the farm. So in a very basic sense, I just ask that you trust me to grow and find the best food for you and your familia as we continue to grow our partnerships throughout the southwest. As always thank you for the support and please let me know if you have any questions.

Farmer Monte

Folks, I need to pause as we head into fall here and give you a little update on what’s around your farm. A few weeks ago I wrote about how the early monsoons and hail wreaked some havoc on our early season zucchini and spring lettuce crops. But there is some really amazing stuff going on that I would like to share so you know more about the farm/business/people you are supporting.

I honestly believe that this season and year will go down as the most transformative year that the farm has seen. This is our 13th season, we are in those awkward teenage years where you are trying to find your place in the world and wondering who in the world invented back hair? These are not easy years for our youth to go through and now I am realizing that they are not easy years for a business either.

We have been very fortunate in our youthful years to have asked for and received so much support from all of the communities we try and feed. We have found strong partners to help us keep pushing when at times it seems futile. Change happens slowly and so if you need to see Rome built in a day, the local food movement is not your place. This is a marathon of a mission and you don’t even get to put a cute “26.2” bumper sticker on your ride because there is no end to this marathon, there is just a spinach salad with fresh pear and goat cheese crumbles.

But the real crossroads for this year came in the form of a picture I saw. It was the front of a local food magazine and it showed 5 farmers in their mid-20s sitting on an old pick-up and all wearing ripped up jeans and shirts. It probably fit the idyllic picture of what people think the Organic farmers should look like, but it made me feel terrible. It made me think that the pendulum had swung so far from corporate agriculture, that now we can’t trust our food unless the farmer looks impoverished.

Where is the joy in that? Do we really want to go to a local food dinner and realize that no growers are at the table because they cannot afford it? That is not a local food industry that I want to be apart of, I’m sorry.

My local food vision has good food for everyone including the farmers who grow it. It has health coverage and dental coverage, and paid time off when you are sick or need to deal with family issues. This is the side of sustainable agriculture that people don’t talk about because it is not sexy. It is much easier to talk about small farms and keeping tractors off the soil, but then we end up perpetuating an agricultural industry that is not sustainable. We need to expand the discussion to include boring things like health care and making a living wage.

And that brings me back to your farm. All of those things that no one likes to talk about are at the foundation of this farm and business. Without our farmers and employees, we have nothing. The food we produce is tangential to the people that we surround ourselves with daily. Our mission is our team, and oh, by the way, we grow some amazing food for you and your family.

So this year has been about the little farm that could, going into its cocoon and transforming into the farm that has not only been here for you for 13 years, but will continue to be here for you (and your kids) into the future. Through this change, we have lost a lot of really amazing people. But our vision is about the future, not the past. So we finally have a team put together that is about a unified mission and everyone knows how important this small farm is to our communities that we feed.

At the beginning of this year, I challenged our team to remain laser focused on this shared vision and I promised them good things would come. Nine months later we are seeing the fruits of this focus. Our customer service to our members has never been better and your orders are being packed with an over 99% accuracy for the first time ever.

So I wanted to take this newsletter to thank all of our employees, but also let you know about the great minds and hands who work so hard to bring you the freshest, cleanest, and healthiest food around.

Cheers,
Farmer Monte