How did we get here?

It wasn’t one thing that brought my farm full circle but a perfect storm of wonderful coincidences; shocking health revelations, the changing farming situation in the Imperial Valley, and wanting to do something that nourished my body and soul.  These things are bright shining stars in my mind. It’s been a wild two years: deciding not to spray my alfalfa because I was too broke to afford the chemicals, planting an agave plot to have something drought proof, finding out our food we were eating had little to no nutritional value,  and planting wheat varieties (that haven’t been planted commercially in over a century) into an existing alfalfa field because, why not. Then, in the middle of all that, my dad, best friend, mentor, and farm partner, passes away.  I was spinning like I had never been before.

All of the thoughts were going through my head. Can I really do this without him to guide me? Do I really want to relearn how to farm? Why don’t I just go back to conventional farming?  I’m sure I’ll talk about my dad often in here but that’s only a part of the story.  I’ll just say for now that he was the best.  I’m so lucky to have been so close to him for so many years, he truly was my best friend. The things that he taught me are still shaping the way this farm grows. Probably not in ways that he would have imagined but all for the good. So here we go. Love you dad.

The landscape of farming is constantly changing. Water, fertilizer, prices, and technology.  In my life, the changes were always happening with little input or control from the farmer. March 2024, I was budgeting for the upcoming alfalfa seed crop. The chemicals used to “protect” the crop are some of the most expensive that I use and there just wasn’t enough room in the budget for them.  I remembered a mentor of mine saying that one of the farmers in the area doesn’t spray some years and he does just fine.  At this point “just fine” sounded great.  No spray that year and low and behold “just fine”.  On a podcast, I heard that boron can help plants resist insects. My gears began turning and I started researching.  Lots of science goes into it but the short version is that boron helps transport sugars in the plant, the plant forms complex sugars in the leaves and bugs can’t eat them.  2025 MY YEAR OF BORON.  I put it out in every water and a few foliar applications.  Seed time came and I’m was confident that I didn’t need to spray.  The insect pressure never even got to the threshold.  I now put boron on all my crops, and I haven’t sprayed in over two years.

This opened my eyes to the possibilities of managing crop nutrition and health in a whole new way.  Working with plants and soil to help them do what they naturally do.  I now use fertilizer in a whole new way.  Giving the plant things that it can use to develop immunity and resistance. A huge benefit is now I’m growing the plant to have optimal health, not forcing it like a bodybuilder on steroids. I still use fertilizer but in smaller more precise applications. This has cut cost while still maintaining yields and quality. 

This thinking flowed into everything I do, on the farm and off the farm.  “Work with the world around you” has become my new motto.  So, when an opportunity to grow heritage wheat came up, my ‘why not’ mentality took over. I looked at all my ground for a section to plant twenty acres of wheat to grow without any fertilizer inputs.  I had just spread two and a half tons of composted manure in my alfalfa; it’s also one of the crops that makes its own nitrogen.  Why not plant it into a field of alfalfa and see what happens.  As it turns out the two crops do well together.  This method is going to take a few seasons of adjusting but for a first try I am happy with the results. The aesthetics of it are cool too, tall stalks of wheat peaking out of green alfalfa turning into golden heads in a sea of purple alfalfa blooms. Once we harvest, I’ll test the nutrients in the wheat and plan how to improve for next year.

Planning ahead is a constant in farming.  When the water situation along the Colorado river started to look dire, I decided to investigate drought tolerant crops.  I landed on agave, with some encouragement from my sister.  Three years ago, when I started the test plot, finding plants was difficult. It took three suppliers to get enough plants to put in less than an acre.  I now have a great relationship with a supplier and plan to put in 10 more acres this year.  Growing such a unique plant is a constant learning experience.  There are over 200 varieties and all of them have a personality of their own. Some are huge, growing over 10 feet tall and some stay under 3 feet. We planted 13 varieties on 7.5 acres and another 10 are being grown from seed.  I evaluate each variety for our weather, soil, and farming method.  I want to get down to 7-10 varieties that are the most compatible with our farm.  What the final product of the agave will be is yet to be determined. Most likely a spirit of some sort but the list of uses for them is constantly growing. With over 7 years of growing before they reach maturity, I have time to weigh the options. But like everything, the time to decide will be here before I know it.  Until then I will just enjoy growing a crop that has captured my heart. Whatever it is, agave are something special.

The whole farm is something special lately.  I have a new passion for building a healthy soil for plants to grow in, so those plants can become nutrient dense food that my family and yours can enjoy and thrive on. Now I can let my kids run in the fields without any worry that something that was sprayed is going to make them sick.  I walk through the fields picking wheat heads and eating the berries every day.  Fruit trees are growing next to the agave so I can snack on fruit throughout the year as a check the field.  My bills are going down, and my plants are getting healthier.  The outlook for the years to come has never been brighter.  I can’t wait to share this journey with my family and anyone that is interested in a healthier more localized food system.