Phil and Nazca, with their little toddler Everett, were the first to welcome us to New Mexico (and rescue us from the false aquaponics farm in Arizona). We stayed with them for two weeks, eating delicious vegan food, building adobe structures out of the soil we walked on, and rambling over the hills behind the house after work. For more background, read my previous post Lost in a Search for Spring. They had more of a 'homestead lifestyle' rather than an actual 'farm operation' since they did not sell or market their produce, but it was still a valuable learning experience because they were experimenting with hugelkultur beds, water catchment, building adobe structures, growing mushroom cultures, vermiculture (cultivating worms!), and growing drought-resistant grains small scale for personal milling. They also had a lovely greenhouse attached to the front portion of their home, which helped with solar heating in the winter- and was conveniently located to grab a handful of greens or herbs for dinner. When our time in the tiny town of Ribera was up, we traveled west to explore Chaco Culture National Historic Park and Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument.
Front entryway greenhouse
Azul the family dog
Mixing adobe building material: equal parts native soil, straw, and water.
Filling the form with adobe mixture
Digging hugelkultur beds
Add logs which will eventually rot, adding organic material and retain moisture in the soil
Fill with half manure, and half native soil (filter out the rocks!) and water. Then you're done!
We climbed to the top of that peak in the distance!
Backcountry hike through an arroyo, Reilly is scouting the best way to the top
We made it!
National Parks
View of Tent Rocks
Persistent evergreen
Carved out dwelling in Tent Rocks
Great Kiva at Chaco Canyon
View overlooking Chaco Canyon
Bodhi Farms
"Red" Greenhouse; pea shoots in foreground, Reilly harvesting in background
Bodhi Farms in Sheridan, NM (close to our previous hosts in Ribera, NM) was the most productive farm we have visited so far. It was so refreshing to see living green plants and get our hands into the soil! They have 3 large functioning greenhouses, two of them with running hydroponics systems. They also have many outdoor rows, three goats, and ducks and chickens for eggs. They sell weekly year-round at the Santa Fe farmers market. For an example of what they sell at the market, one week we brought head lettuce, spinach, mustard greens, tatsoi, chard, arugula, kale, pea shoots, several types of herbs, and dozens of eggs (and this was in February!) We nearly sold out of all we had brought.
Reilly and I lived in an extra bedroom in the house, with our own bathroom (YES!). The "Isopod" (pictured below), built by our host Brian, is a detached cabin on the property and is occupied by his apprentice Molly. She was a WWOOFer this past summer, and is joining Brian and Roxane again for a full year to help with the farm. It was so wonderful to have another worker our age to spend time with. After work we could hang out together in the isopod and on the weekends go hiking, play frisbee, have picnics, and visit the local hot springs. She really made our time at Bodhi Farms the best it could be!
Our host Brian was an excellent teacher, and had a lot of innovative techniques employed across the farm. In addition to a hydroponics system we learned about the use of compost tea, coconut fiber as a growing medium, no-till practices, crop rotation/nitrogen fixation, and many other useful agricultural tidbits. For those of you who are interested, compost tea is what they use as their fertilizer in their hydroponics system. It is a liquid solution of several types of beneficial fungi, bacteria, and micro-nutrients which inoculate the plants and boost their growth. To see how Brian makes his compost tea, click on this link. Coconut fiber was used as growing medium for plants in the hydro, it's more sustainable than peat moss (renewable and a byproduct) and has increased water holding ability. Brian would also plant large dense mats of pea shoots periodically in his crop rows to fixate nitrogen, and I thought this was a great idea since it allows the farmer to still harvest a crop while giving the soil a rest.
We were expected to work around 6 hours a day, 5 days a week (we also volunteered to work an optional extra day to see the Santa Fe's Farmers Market!) and our tasks included feeding and watering the animals, collecting and washing eggs, weeding, planting seeds and transplants, harvesting, and other tasks as needed. My favorite tasks were planting a small orchard of native plum trees and black locust trees (which fixate nitrogen), feeding all our weeds to the chickens and watching them get super excited, and harvest days every Friday for the Saturday market. Harvest nights were always homemade pizza nights, usually with toppings we picked that day.
The food at Bodhi farms was always plentiful and tasty. We had a constant rotation of homemade desserts; double chocolate pie, chocolate and raspberry pie, lemon meringue pie, apple streusel, pear streusel, chocolate mint pie... not to mention cookies, and homemade ice cream. Yum! Brian also made homemade breads, homemade breakfast granola, all with a selection of homemade jams and local honey. I was in heaven. Oh, and the fresh vegetables were great, too!
We accomplished a lot during our time at Bodhi farms, and I could feel that our help was appreciated. Reilly and I learned new agricultural techniques, made new friends, climbed a mountain, and spent some beautiful days working under the warm New Mexican sun. We will miss Bodhi Farms!
Reilly and I lived in an extra bedroom in the house, with our own bathroom (YES!). The "Isopod" (pictured below), built by our host Brian, is a detached cabin on the property and is occupied by his apprentice Molly. She was a WWOOFer this past summer, and is joining Brian and Roxane again for a full year to help with the farm. It was so wonderful to have another worker our age to spend time with. After work we could hang out together in the isopod and on the weekends go hiking, play frisbee, have picnics, and visit the local hot springs. She really made our time at Bodhi Farms the best it could be!
Our host Brian was an excellent teacher, and had a lot of innovative techniques employed across the farm. In addition to a hydroponics system we learned about the use of compost tea, coconut fiber as a growing medium, no-till practices, crop rotation/nitrogen fixation, and many other useful agricultural tidbits. For those of you who are interested, compost tea is what they use as their fertilizer in their hydroponics system. It is a liquid solution of several types of beneficial fungi, bacteria, and micro-nutrients which inoculate the plants and boost their growth. To see how Brian makes his compost tea, click on this link. Coconut fiber was used as growing medium for plants in the hydro, it's more sustainable than peat moss (renewable and a byproduct) and has increased water holding ability. Brian would also plant large dense mats of pea shoots periodically in his crop rows to fixate nitrogen, and I thought this was a great idea since it allows the farmer to still harvest a crop while giving the soil a rest.
We were expected to work around 6 hours a day, 5 days a week (we also volunteered to work an optional extra day to see the Santa Fe's Farmers Market!) and our tasks included feeding and watering the animals, collecting and washing eggs, weeding, planting seeds and transplants, harvesting, and other tasks as needed. My favorite tasks were planting a small orchard of native plum trees and black locust trees (which fixate nitrogen), feeding all our weeds to the chickens and watching them get super excited, and harvest days every Friday for the Saturday market. Harvest nights were always homemade pizza nights, usually with toppings we picked that day.
The food at Bodhi farms was always plentiful and tasty. We had a constant rotation of homemade desserts; double chocolate pie, chocolate and raspberry pie, lemon meringue pie, apple streusel, pear streusel, chocolate mint pie... not to mention cookies, and homemade ice cream. Yum! Brian also made homemade breads, homemade breakfast granola, all with a selection of homemade jams and local honey. I was in heaven. Oh, and the fresh vegetables were great, too!
We accomplished a lot during our time at Bodhi farms, and I could feel that our help was appreciated. Reilly and I learned new agricultural techniques, made new friends, climbed a mountain, and spent some beautiful days working under the warm New Mexican sun. We will miss Bodhi Farms!
Reilly washing head lettuce
Outdoor row crops (mostly spinach and other cold-hardy greens)
Brian, our farm host, manning the washing station on harvest day
Molly and Roxane harvesting in the "Blue" greenhouse. Hydro system in center
Planting the hydro (Photocredit Molly)
Planting the hydro (Photocredit Molly)
All done!
Spreading peas for pea shoots in "White" greenhouse (Photocredit Molly)
Me spreading peas, inoculated with compost tea (Photocredit Molly)
Molly and I in the Las Vegas hot springs :)
Friday Night Harvest day pizza! (with fresh pea shoots)
Molly's Isopod
Hermit's Peak (10,000ft)
Reilly and Molly on the hike up
Reilly and I (Photocredit Molly)
Deep snow at the peak, don't fall through the crust!
View at the top (Photocredit Molly)
Reilly and I trying to call ravens to land on our arms (Photocredit Molly)
The Land of Enchantment
The earth will provide for those who know how to utilize its gifts. It is not uncommon to use the native soil here to build homes, the pinyon and juniper trees provide perfumed heat in the winter, water catchment cisterns collect rainfall, and trading with your neighbor can supply items you can't produce yourself. I loved the balance of independence and community.
Thank you, Land of Enchantment, for the magical month.
Next stop is The Lone Star State...
Until then,
Love to all
Haley
