Year 9 of NMAA’s Sembradores Farmer Training Program Kicks Off
On April 7th, we kicked off the 9th year of the Los Sembradores training program! It’s been an incredible start—diving into conversations about agriculture, traditional knowledge, medicinal practices, and ways of life that honor our history and care for our future.
So far, we’ve covered topics like fruit tree pruning, prepping and turning garden beds, and the importance of landrace seeds. This year we made an exciting change to our apprenticeship and added one day a week with farm Mentor Miguel Santistevan in Taos where we’ve started planting garbanzos and lentils. The energy is strong, the learning is deep, and the community is growing.
We’ll be spending the full season together, and we look forward to sharing more updates and insights from the land as we go.
Meet this year’s Sembradores:
🌿 Nicasio
I have moved around all my life, but I have finally settled here on my grandma’s property in Sapello, NM. I moved here after the Hermit’s Peak fire and have been working full time managing the land. Even before the fires, the property was suffering from lack of attention and disrepair. There used to be a big ranch/farm operation here, but only the hay remains. I went to art school and I didn’t grow up here on the ranch, so I’ve spent a lot of time learning (and struggling with) not only basic farm skills, but also land stewardship.
There’s been a loss of knowledge in my own family and I would like to preserve our Northern New Mexico traditions including farming with acequias, making remedios, and living off this land. I hope that I can grow and nurture my community so that we may continue to pass down our traditions and hold greater appreciation for life and our Earth. I am very passionate about sustainability and I want to learn more about how I can apply a permaculture mindset to all that I do here on the property.
🌽 David Silva
I was born and raised in Taos, NM and have always been drawn to traditional and cultural practices. As I have gotten older I have developed an interest to learn and become a steward of traditional and cultural practices. I have done this in small ways from heading a fiesta centered around Norteño art to interviewing local cultural stewards. Being a part of Los Sembradores is a continuation of my interest in the practices that shape our communities. I enjoy learning the history and reasons why we grow the crops that we do in this area. I am excited to work alongside the other Sembradores and to learn from Donne and Miguel. I will start a medicinal herb garden that I will make tinctures and salves from. I also look forward to doing dryland farming to grow crops that I grew up with. I am so thankful for this program.
🌾 Raul Velderrain
I was born and raised in the urban sprawl that is the San Gabriel Valley of California. I found my way to Taos along an escapade of hitch-hiking and hopping freight trains in the year of 2017, which began shortly after graduating high school. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted at the time, but I knew I wanted to see what lay beyond the city. I spent a few months at the Snow Mansion hostel and garden where I found a deep passion for gardening. Ever since then, I have had a garden almost every year, however small. Last year I grew corn, amaranth, beans, and squash for the first time! This year, I get to learn and garden with an acequia for the first time! It is deeply fulfilling to be more connected with the land in the ways that my ancestors were, and in ways that are healthy for our Mother Earth, ourselves and our future generations. Part of my interest in the Los Sembradores program is to learn traditional ways of agriculture and life in general, and to focus more of my life towards agriculture. Outside of Los Sembradores and my own personal garden space, I have a few hobbies; I like camping, hiking and foraging, bird watching, guiding raft trips down the rio, among other things.
🌵 Aidas Worthington
I currently reside in Talpa, New Mexico. My grandmother moved to New Mexico from the East Coast in the 1950s and my father was raised here, but I was raised in Alaska where he and my mother moved shortly after marriage. I studied landscaping and horticulture in Northern California before going on to receive an Associate’s Degree in Massage Therapy, then a Bachelor’s in Geology and Atmospheric Sciences, and most recently an Master’s in Anthropology and Archaeology. I enjoy writing and playing music, getting reasonably lost in nature, repairing anything mechanical, and creating functional and aesthetically pleasing designs of all sorts. My goal for this apprenticeship is to learn more about arid climate farming and behaviors of plants specifically adapted to these conditions. I love working with plants and am honored to have the opportunity to continue pursuing my lifelong love of agriculture and horticulture under the guidance of the skilled and learned teachers who lead the Sembradores program.
We’re all here with different stories, but we’re united by a shared purpose: to learn, to grow, and to preserve what matters.
Stay tuned—we’ll be sharing more reflections, photos, and insights throughout the season.
With love and soil,
Los Sembradores
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