Miguel Santistevan of Sol Feliz Farm has almost 30 years of experience working in acequia systems and Indigenous based permaculture design*. Here, he focuses on using simple tools that can be found in our natural environment to help with water conservation, that are rooted in Indigenous knowledge. Miguel highlights two strategies to mitigate drought and work within the context of climate change. He is constantly innovating and trialing different ways to farm, or as he says in the video ‘we haven’t done it all’.
The first strategy Miguel talks about is rooted in Indigenous dryland farming-rock piles. At Miguel’s farm, he decided to put his rock snake on non-irrigated land. These rock piles naturally capture the humidity in the air; as hot air flows through the rock pile and hits cooler air within the pile, the water in the air condenses and settles in the rock pile. As Miguel says, ‘under a rock, it’s always cool’. During the summer, we can capture this water in the air. During the winter, Miguel can use the low angle of the sun and shading of the rock snake to move snow to the shade. Drought-hardy plants like lentil and garbanzo are planted next to the rock piles to use the available water. There is also alfalfa growing up through the cracks of the rock snake, which is something he didn’t plant but migrated there. He is also trying to establish cota or Indian tea on the north facing side of the rock snake. Lastly, the rock snake is also art- ‘it’s land art and an artistic endeavour’.
Aerial shot of the rock snake
The second strategy in Miguel’s acequia garden is what he calls ‘desert hugelkultur’. Similar to how a traditional hugelkultur is made, Miguel dug a trench along the contour of his land; piled weeds, sheep’s wool, sunflower and corn stalks, chicken manure, compost leaves, and small branches from fruit trees together; and made berms. Every year he adds his weeds to the berms. The berms and swales going across his field capture moisture both in winter and summer. Similar to how the rock snake casts shade during the winter’s low sun and is positioned east to west, the hugelkultur also allows for snow to be shaded on the north side. Both the rock pile and hugelkultur try to keep all forms of water-snow, water, water vapor- on the farm. That’s how our ancestors did it; they made use of every drop and we continue to do the same.
*Indigenous Sustainable Communities Design course is hosted every summer in northern NM by the Traditional Native American Farmers Association with Clayton Brascoupe. Miguel was one of the first graduates to go through this course.
Learn more about Sol Feliz Farm and Miguel’s work at https://escuelasolfeliz.com/
More Learning and Implementation
If you are curious about instructions, check in with Miguel or look through the resources we have compiled. For more how-to instructions and in depth descriptions of hugelkultur, the Farmer’s Almanac has an excellent article here. To look at what a mid-summer rock garden looks like, Miguel has posted extensively on his blog about it. For more general erosion and watershed restoration guides, that mainly use both rocks and logs, Quivira Coalition has a Watershed Restoration Field Guide: Post-Fire Restoration Edition (but is still useful for a regular farmer or rancher!) and their full list of technical guides can be found here.
While Miguel did not discuss USDA funding, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) at NRCS does cover similar practices. In cropland, you can have contour buffer strips or grade stabilization structures for areas that are on a slope that need help on slowing water down. Check at your local NRCS office to see if these practices may be good for you or ask NMAA Farmer and Rancher coordinators for help at 505-995-9644.
Thanks and Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Miguel Santistevan for his invaluable knowledge and time!
Produced by the NMAA Food, Farm and Seeds Program.
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