This is our second annual acequia cleaning where we bring together students from Chrysalis Alternative School and students on a spring break adventure from the University of California, Santa Cruz. We cleaned a lateral of the Acequia Madre del Sur … Continued
Today we got some ‘Sembradores’ together to initiate the coming growing season by clearing the fields. We basically just cut all the dry weeds and raked them into a pile. We will save the dried up weeds as a carbon … Continued
Today I presented at the 18th Annual Water Conservation conference at the Marriott Pyramid in Albuquerque. I also presented at the 17th Annual conference last year so I was honored to be invited back. This is such a great opportunity … Continued
A weekend jaunt to Albuquerque and Santa Fe was complete with some pleasant surprises. First of all I was able to acquire one of these beautiful swan gourds from one of our seed librarians in Albuquerque. AIRE had provided these … Continued
There is growing interest in using biochar to improve soil moisture, organic matter, and crop yields. Biochar is basically reducing carbon from wood to a charcoal-like state and then using it to amend the soil. I first heard about biochar … Continued
Here we are weighing out 1/2 pound packages of our chicos. By the time of this posting, all the Native Yellow and Hopi White corn chicos are sold, except the ones we are keeping for ourselves. We still have some … Continued
Here we are breaking ground to put in some corner posts for a new chicken coop. We are going to attach the chicken house onto an existing shed on the right and make a sizeable yard for the chickens to … Continued
Today we arrived at school in anticipation of opening the horno to have a Thanksgiving feast. In opening the horno, we found our turkeys cooked to perfection and took them inside to prepare for serving. Other foods were made including … Continued
Today we engaged in a workshop to make pumpkin pies for our Thanksgiving feast. Though we did not grow wheat, we were able to obtain some regionally grown wheat and use our grinder to make it into flour. We had … Continued
Here students are taking the kernels of chicos off of the cob of corn, a process called ‘desgranando chicos.’ After this we will run the loose chicos in front of a fan to get rid of all the residual corn … Continued