The sun shines brilliant the golden autumn leaves of the Cottonwood tree. A storm hides the Sandia Mountains usually visible in the background.
Sunlight on cottonwood tree.
Though this photo doesn’t do the apricot tree justice (it’s a day or two before prime color), it has the most gorgeous fall color of all our fruit trees.
One of our fruit trees planted by the former owner of our place.
We took a break from sheet-mulching new garden beds and headed up to the Manzano Mountains to see Fall in action. We hiked about 2 hours on the 4th of July Campground Trail which led us along the edge of a canyon that provided wonderful acoustics for making echoes. (At 44, I still love doing this).
From left to right: Maggie, Tree and Tessie
Wow, Jen let me take her photo.
Looks like where we used to live in the Catskills, NY.
The Rio Grande Valley Farmers Guild seeks an artist to create its logo. Guidelines are available here. If you are a logo artist, we’d love to see your work. – Jen (Treasurer of RGVFG)
About the Rio Grande Valley Farmers Guild
A new cooperative of family farms located in New Mexico’s fertile Rio Grande Valley. Our members are farms concentrated in Albuquerque’s historically agricultural South Valley, extending as far south as Socorro and north to Bernalillo.
One of our first projects as a cooperative is the Cereal Grains Project, making local and naturally cultivated whole grains and flours available to local markets, restaurants and direct to the families of New Mexico.
Since moving to New Mexico, I’ve encountered so many friendly, welcoming people that my faith in humanity, if it was every in peril, is consistently restored. I received many a warm welcome from other New Mexico herbalists, one of whom is Monica Rude of Desert Woman Botanicals who interestingly enough also landed in New Mexico from upstate New York.
She runs an herb farm and herbal product business along the Gila River in southern New Mexico. She teaches a range of classes and offers many wonderful herbal products. Check out her website www.desertwoman.net If you’re in the Albuquerque area and want to try out her products and meet her in person, come to La Montanita Coop’s Earth Day festival on April 27th. – Jen
Monica Rude
Jen appears in a segment of New Mexico in Focus that covers the Rio Grande Valley Farmers Guild which is designed to give farmers in Albuquerque’s South Valley access to land, water, equipment, education and support. It will air tomorrow evening at 7pm on KNME, Albuquerque’s PBS station.
That’s our rooster Henry crowing at the opening and our goat Tosca mugging for the camera.
Fortunately for us, our new property came with access to the Chanate acequia which is part of the Rio Grande Valley’s centuries-old 300 mile network of irrigation ditches and canals.
For approximately $25 per year (payable to the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District), we can access water from this ditch on a weekly basis during the growing season.
Because we have a 30ft irrigation well to water our gardens (we really lucked out!! We also have a 300ft well for the house) we use the ditch water specifically for irrigating the various trees that form a natural screen along the perimeter of our property. These trees – Austrian Pines, Russian Olives, Autumn Olives to name a few – are planted along canals designed by the previous owner to receive water from the ditch.
With the help of my neighbor Terry, I’ve been learning how to navigate the gates and turnouts of the ditch. You need to be careful because the water can come fast and, if not managed properly, could jump the ditch and end up flooding someone’s house.
I have a lot of fun watering with the ditch (as do our dogs Maggie and Tessie) and am getting better at it. Last week I washed out one of the planks that I use as a walkway to cross where the water enters our property. I did better this week though. -Tree
Jen removes leaves blocking flow
Maggie plays crocodile
While I wait for Jen to complete an interesting post about all of the useful herbs and weeds she has discovered growing on our new property, I will tell you about an incredible sun hat that I have been wearing faithfully when outside in the New Mexico sun – Coolibar’s Savannah Wide Brim Hat.
I have no interest in or association with Coolibar.com. I discovered this company through a google search shortly after writing a post about using St John’s Wort oil to heal sunburn. (The visor obviously wasn’t working and I was dipping into our inventory far too frequently). With it’s almost 5 inch brim, the hat keeps the sun off my face and the back of my neck. And it’s lightweight and comfortable to wear. The only problem is that it reduces your field of vision so you need to be careful! The hat retails for $35.95, and for this fair-skinned goat herder/gardener, is worth it.
St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perfolatum) is one of my favorite plants. I love its buttery yellow flowers and the way they magically produce a deep red ruby juice when crushed. I love how it pops up in unexpected places like craggy, dry slopes where one would think nothing could grow. And when it is infused in olive oil it makes one of the prettiest oils we offer at sunstoneherbs.com.
I’ve used this oil in the past to relieve pain from shingles (in a former life I worked 50 – 60 stressful hours per week as an IT project manager for a financial services company in NYC), but recently, I’ve been dipping into our stock for a new purpose.
As readers of this blog may know, we recently moved our homestead from upstate New York to New Mexico where the sun is more intense than I had previously imagined. I’ve gotten very good at wearing an enormous visor to protect my face, but occasionally I’ll run out to hay the goats without it, and then after 15 minutes (often more) of playing with them, I’ll end up with a patchy mild sunburn or, sometimes, a blotchy wind burn. Not pretty, uncomfortable, and not good for my skin. Gently applying a little bit of St J’s oil, however, relieves the dryness and soothes the burn until the next time I forget to wear my hat. -Tree
Jen and I dropped by the 2008 New Mexico Xeriscape Expo yesterday to check out the exhibitors, visit our friends Bard and Zoe at the Soilutions booth and attend Brad Lancaster’s seminar on harvesting rainwater. We bought a copy of Brad’s book before moving to New Mexico and are in the process of designing both rainwater catchment and grey water systems for our new homestead in the South Valley.
Brad is an energetic and gifted speaker. His talk was exciting because it was filled with common-sense (and easy to implement) solutions to managing rainwater so that it creates and supports sustainable landscapes rather than ending up as stormwater runoff that is directed away from communities and the watershed.
When we lived in New York City, we used to drive up to the Catskills and camp and hike on a regular basis. Once we moved there, however, it was a different story. I think we did only one hike – the Diamond Notch Trail – during our almost 8 years living in Olivebridge. Maybe it was because we had so much property right outside our door. Between our woods and the 2 adjacent parcels, there were over 100 acres to roam. The dogs and I created a nice loop of trails that I hope the new owners are enjoying as much as we did.
We’re determined to get back to hiking now that we are in New Mexico. The Sandia Mountains, which seem to me like silent sentinels watching over the hubbub of the Albuquerque area, beckon. Jen bought a couple of maps and hiking guides that we plan to work our way through. Our inaugural hike was a short one, a quick trip to the old Juan Tabo Cabin and back, a distance of about 1 mile. Here are some photos. It’s obvious that Maggie and Tessie had a great time.
Juan Tabo Cabin is a historic landmark at the western foot of the Sandias. It was headquarters for a Civilian Conservation Corps camp that included a number of buildings back in the 1930’s.
Why is it that Jen is always behind the camera?
