By Aidas Worthington, Sembrador Apprentice
After a quarter of a year with our instructors, the Sembradores program has proven itself to be an illuminating experience. Not only has it been great training in agricultural practices, but it has also provided invaluable insights into traditional New Mexican culture. Two books which have been recommended by one of our instructors, Miguel Santistevan, and which I have now read, Historias y Memorias: Tales of Growing Up in Taos, NM, A Memoir by Juan Andres Vargas and Life in Los Sauces by Olivama Salazar de Valdez, have illustrated the humble, yet rich lives of inhabitants of the region surrounding the Rio Grande del Norte in the centuries preceding the present era. Insights into the ways in which animals such as poultry and sheep were integrated into farm life, before the words “permaculture” or “organic” had ever been imagined, are reminders into how modern people have become disconnected from the sensible ways which life can elegantly and cyclically support itself.
Working on multiple farms in our local area has provided us opportunities to experience different ecosystems and the ways in which these environments inform how lands can be most effectively utilized and inhabited. For example, some lands are drier than others and are optimized for growing drought tolerant crops such as garbanzo beans, lentils, millet, asparagus, and crab apples whereas moisture rich areas are more adapted to the cultivation of vegetables, berries, and stone fruit. In conjunction with the adoption of indigenous crops and trade with indigenous populations, it can be seen how a robust trade network in Nuevo Mexico, which incorporated differing regions and differing agricultural products, created an economy which had the capacity to sustain humble, yet significant populations in this arid and relatively unforgiving climate.
We have also learned the importance of using hand tools where the wielder remains close to the earth and to the plants themselves. For example, in the process of escardando, weeds are mounded up around crops to aerate the soil, shield soil from sunlight, provide moisture in the desiccating plant matter, and provide food for microorganisms. This has been a common practice for
us and has further illustrated why a good calvadore (hoe) is the most important tool for a small scale farmer. The constant effort of caring for plants on an individual scale has shown us how people survived all over the world by putting in consistent effort into growing their crops. Always there is an awareness of which plants are unwanted weeds and which plants may be beneficial and these plants are allowed to grow, even if they appeared as volunteers and were not intended to be grown. In my own farm several such plants have appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, as I have not seen them growing anywhere else nearby.
Beyond the important knowledge of cultivation and processing of agricultural plants and animals, we have also learned how to care for oneself and one’s community through the use of remedios which grow wild in these lands. This is certainly something which I will continue to develop throughout my lifetime as the utility of such plants which are widely available in their optimal habitat cannot easily be overstated. As someone who has struggled with respiratory issues, I have been working to develop my own remedio recipe which has, so far, given promising results. Further experimentation will doubtless provide improved recipes and means of plant preservation which will, hopefully, allow me to avoid the use of pharmaceutical products in the future. All of this is to say that the Sembradores program has been a life-altering experience and the lessons I have learned here will doubtless blossom into many years of life closer to this Earth and closer to the plants and animals which live alongside us.
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