On June 3rd, the NMAA Sembradores Team made their way to El Tros Farm to visit the amazing maestro, Carlos Arguello, and farmer Abby. We spent most of our time working on skinning a hoop house from putting up the side walls and putting the wiggle wire in. It was perfect timing for some of the Sembradores and one is overseeing putting a hoop house up very soon! Our other main task of the day was preparing some beds for seeding, some Sembradores got to try their hand at broadforking, and of course, to help clear the beds of weeds.
We took a short farm walk after we finished our morning tasks. Carlos touched on his NRCS EQIP project so now he can water his field more efficiently and use what water he does get from the acequia. He went into some background regarding his acequia the Acequia del Monte del Rio Chiquito, rotating his sheep through different fields, his successes and struggles in applying for grants, and a composting operation on site (shout out to Taos SCRAPS turning local food waste into compost!).
It was said again and again, that farming is all about building community. To have that time to be chatting with each other and working together towards a common goal gives us a sense of satisfaction that we could never have working alone. A big thank you to Carlos for so generously sharing his farm and life wisdom with the Sembradores Farmer Training Program!
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