After years of drought and worry about water, last year was a doozy.
All across northern New Mexico farmers were sharing stories of dry ditches and dying crops and caring for every drop they got, whenever they could get it.
Elders talked about droughts when they were kids and how it put their families off of farming for good.
Rivers across northern New Mexico were the lowest they’d been in years and acequias ran dry.
As luck would have it, and as the elders then predicted, the winter was a doozy, too, but this time in a good way.
A very good way.
It snowed and snowed and snowed, gifting us the most glorious moisture on the ground and an amazing snow-pack to feed our rivers, streams, and acequias. The abundance came in waves and has quenched our thirsty lands and hearts.
With the wet winter and a few good rains so far this spring, everything is waking up and promising an abundant spring and summer to come so I thought I’d share a glimpse into a few of the fruit-filled and sown seed happenings on the property:
Strawberry Patch
The first strawberries of the season have officially fallen into our mouths and they couldn’t be more glorious!
When we moved onto the property a little over a year ago, the strawberry patch was a sad sight. The ground was covered in weed cloth to keep down the weeds but had impeded the runners from doing their thing. The plants were sparse and weeds were coming up anyway so we tore it up, transplanted countless runners into the ground, weeded and watered and weeded, and harvested a few handfuls of berries.
This spring we top dressed the patch with goat manure and straw straight from the barn, weeded, and set the patch up on proper drip irrigation.
The plants have been so happy for the care and have come back in abundance! We scouted the whole bed yesterday and there are probably a million strawberries out there (give or take one or two) and so I’m dreaming about strawberries and cream and strawberry rhubarb pie and and and…
For now, though, we’re simply sharing the precious few that have ripened up (one for you, one for me, one for you) and zero are making their way beyond the patch.
Soon, though. Very soon.
Orchard Update
It looks as though the only fruit we’ve lost this spring in an earlier storm are the apricots, but this doesn’t surprise me. It’s a rare year that apricots can contain their enthusiasm for spring long enough to keep themselves safe from fruit killing frost.
Though I have heard there might be some to be had at the Farmers’ Market so I have my eyes peeled. Apricots are my favorite fruit so I’ll take as many as I can get my hands on.
On this property though, apricots aside, we’re looking at bountiful harvests of apples, peaches, plums, sweet and sour cherries, and pears to roll in throughout the summer and into early fall.
Last Year’s Apples
Speaking of last year’s apple abundance, we’ve seen the completion of an experiment come to fruition (pun intended)!
In the absence of a proper long=term cold storage solution and using the styrofoam lined box my birthday chair came in, Kim layered straw and apples, straw and apples at the end of last season to see how they’d fair in the shed over winter. Every once in a while we’d go check them and pull out a few, but they largely sat in the shed and waited for us to pay attention to them again.
Well, “again” came last weekend and maybe about a month too late, but the majority of the apples survived. Maybe a bit soft but just fine for making a few batches of stewed apples (in the crockpot with a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg as we speak) and a few trays full of dehydrated goodness (later this week).
Those that didn’t fare so well are treating the chickens and goats to a sweet spring snack. Everyone is happy.
Chile & Corn
In addition to the perennials, we’ve decided to go in with our landlord on a couple of larger crops; Sandia & Chimayo Chile (from saved and purchased seed) and Blue Corn (from saved seed from our 2017 crop).
I say larger because we’ve put more seeds into the soil this spring than we ever have before. We’ve set out enough seeds for ~700 chile plants and ~1,500 corn…so yes, more than we’ve ever planted or attempted to grow before. I won’t lie, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by the idea of caring for it all in between caring for the animals, each other, and our off-farm jobs but the seeds are in the soil so we’re committed.
Chile is set on drip off the well which will make watering easier while the blue corn is being flood irrigated. This is our first experience with flood irrigating produce and has definitely set us into our Learning Zone but we’re excited to learn the tricks of it all.
The corn is germinating happily, having been sown two weeks ago, while the chile was just set in a week ago and needs a bit warmer temps to begin to pop. I’ve been told by a well-respected chile grower to give it another week or so before I even start looking for sprouts.
In the meantime, surely a million weeds will fight their way to the sunshine 😉
And so it goes…
Missing from the above updates are the blackberries and raspberries which are filling out and looking happy but don’t have much to offer yet in terms of tiny fruit porn so I’ll just save their update for another day.
The ten-day forecast is calling for highs in the seventies and lows in the forties and fifties, so we may just be in the clear on all fronts. Our high desert weather has surprised us before, though, with snows as late as the end of May and, on occasion, even into June.
Fingers crossed that won’t be the case this year.
If it all goes well, we’ll be bringing some of the abundances to the Market as well as sharing it with friends and family and putting up as much of it as we can muster the time and energy for. It may just be a banner year.
And so it goes, another hope-filled season spent chasing weeds, popping warm-from-the-sun strawberries in our mouths and trying to avoid the first sunburn of the year while relishing the sun on our backs after the cold, snow-packed winter.
xoxo,
M
