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Longer days, plants sprouting new leaves, and birds chirping remind us that spring is just around the corner. It's the time of year when people are itching to get outside and start spring gardening. While early March is a good time to begin cleaning up your yard by removing tree limbs and branches, patching fences, and weeding, it is best to wait until after the last frost to do more extensive gardening and planting. Early spring is also a good time to check out your gardening inventory. Ensure you have proper tools, well-fitting gloves, and other equipment to improve your gardening biomechanics, such as kneeling pads, benches, lawn carts, and wagons. It is also a good time of year to start raised garden beds, which can be helpful to those who have trouble bending or stooping to low surfaces. Another consideration during early spring is our own body’s fitness and capabilities. If you do not regularly exercise, now is a great time to start improving your strength and mobility to reduce the strains the repetitive nature of gardening can cause. My favorite strength exercises to prescribe that are specific to gardening include bent-over and standing rows, farmer carries, suitcase carries, squats (or modifications to sit-to-stands from a chair if you can't squat), and plank varieties (including modifications using an elevated surface if you cannot do a full plank). It is also essential to ensure you have the appropriate range of motion to perform bending, reaching, and twisting tasks. Restricted mobility can cause us to compensate and alter mechanics, leading to pain, muscle strains, and other injuries. Below are some stretches to help improve your flexibility and increase your ease with yard work and gardening.
Regular yoga participation, whether in a live or virtual class, can also help improve flexibility and balance, optimizing conditioning for garden activities. Additionally, to learn more about proper gardening and farming mechanics, sign up for the Body Mechanics and Gardening Workshop hosted by Therese High at Freetown Farm on March 25, 2025. ** As always, these are just suggestions for stretches and exercises. Always consult a doctor before initiating an exercise program, and be sure to tailor the stretches to your individual needs.** AuthorKaryn Dulaney, PT, DPT, is a physical therapist who has practiced in outpatient orthopedics for almost 2 decades. She enjoys helping patients achieve their personal goals and maintain a healthy, active lifestyle. An avid outdoor enthusiast and competitor/participant in various adventure sports, she is passionate about helping others explore outdoor activities for the mental and physical health benefits that come with them. Karyn co-founded the Community Gear Closet, which lends outdoor gear so others can have opportunities for their own outdoor adventures. We are very proud of the impacts of our day-to-day work and of special achievements that warrant extra celebration, sometimes in the form of a press release. Here are our press releases through the years: CEI’s Nourishing Gardens Program Is Bringing Back the Lost Art of Growing Food in Howard County, Maryland - 2025 
CEI Dedicates Gray-Howell Community Engagement Center - 2023
CEI Becomes New Steward of Green Farmacy Garden - 2022
of exercise can also improve your mood, memory, attention, and ability to process information. It can also help with sleep, reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, and improve your quality of life. So, how much exercise do you need? The American Heart Association recommends that adults get the following amounts:
best to do a dynamic warm-up. Start with a slower pace or intensity for a few minutes and gradually progress the intensity. After exercise, perform a 5-minute cooldown. Always consult your doctor before starting an exercise routine. Older adults should be more careful with sudden, quick bursts of activity, such as shoveling snow, particularly if inactive and not used to physical exertion, as this increases the strain on the heart. Exercise in extreme temperatures, whether hot or cold, is also more strenuous for the heart. The best form of exercise for you personally is the type that you are most likely to do! Some tips to stay motivated and improve accountability for exercise are as follows:
Finally, make a goal this Feburary to learn more about heart health. Education and knowledge of health help to reduce the risks of long-term illnesses by enabling informed choices and the ability to create healthy habits. Know signs of heart problems with exercise, such as sudden onset of dizziness, chest pain, or excessive shortness of breath. Finally, consider taking a CPR course, as you never know when this could save someone's life. Have a great Valentine's Day, and stay heart-healthy! AuthorKaryn Dulaney, PT, DPT, is a physical therapist who has practiced in outpatient orthopedics for almost 2 decades. She enjoys helping patients achieve their personal goals and maintain a healthy, active lifestyle. An avid outdoor enthusiast and competitor/participant in various adventure sports, she is passionate about helping others explore outdoor activities for the mental and physical health benefits that come with them. Karyn co-founded the Community Gear Closet, which lends outdoor gear so others can have opportunities for their own outdoor adventures.
outfit others for adventures. To borrow gear, simply complete a Gear Request Form online. A team member will get back to you to find more specific details on what you are looking for and when it is needed. Generally, gear pick-up and returns are from our shed at the farm. We require a signed waiver that we provide, as well as a small deposit that is refunded when the gear is returned. We can have a team member meet you if there are specific questions about how to use the gear. We always recommend practicing with loaned gear ahead of time and contacting us immediately if there is any issue with it. As ambassadors of the outdoors, the co-creators of the gear closet, Jesse Tubb, Dan Frank, and myself, are also happy to try to answer questions you may have about outdoor activities. You may have seen us at various CFIN events, where we provided education on camping, orienteering, and how to dress for cold weather activities.
cross-country skiing are pretty reasonable and way less expensive than a day of downhill skiing! These parks also offer lodging in cabins accessible to the trail systems, though they tend to book up well in advance. You may be able to snag a cancellation for a weekend trip this season or consider booking in advance for next year!
way to try sleeping under the stars. We have several backpacks available if you want to try a few days on the trails. Typically, you do not need reservations for backpacking, but some parks require permits, so always research where you plan to backpack.
watercraft are allowed, and what permits are needed. While some people spend time on the water in the fall and spring, it is essential to know the formula for when extra/special gear is required to do this. The classic rule is the 120-degree rule. The Air temperature + Water Temperature should at least be 120 Fahrenheit before special gear such as wet/dry suits are needed. Finally, if your 2025 goals include organization and eliminating unused items, we also accept in-good-working-order gear for outdoor activities! AuthorKaryn Dulaney, PT, DPT, is a physical therapist who has practiced in outpatient orthopedics for almost 2 decades. She enjoys helping patients achieve their personal goals and maintain a healthy, active lifestyle. An avid outdoor enthusiast and competitor/participant in various adventure sports, she is passionate about helping others explore outdoor activities for the mental and physical health benefits that come with them. Karyn co-founded the Community Gear Closet, which lends outdoor gear so others can have opportunities for their own outdoor adventures.  Dear Farm Fam, It is winter in Maryland and while what this looks like has changed, it still means that it is time to tuck our garden beds in for the season so that they may rest and recharge for the coming growth in spring. For any bed that was not sown with crimson clover seeds as a cover crop we have been blanketing them with a decomposing leaf mulch; a once massive pile of brown crunchy leaves that has, over the course of a year and a half, condensed down into a dark black mulch filled with moisture, worms, and life-giving nutrients. How our patience has paid off! By covering our beds with this soil-feeding concoction of leaves we are generating new soils while protecting the old. You know how we get those heavy winter rain storms that used to be snow? Well, not only do they challenge our winter imagery of an idyllic expanse of snow capped mounded garden beds but they also impact the movement of soil on our property. When rain falls with such speed and intensity it travels quickly across our farm and carries our soils with it. Bye Bye hours of work planning crop succession plans, composting, and bed-mounding. Cover crops help to stabilize our soil in the winter with their supportive root systems but for beds that were not able to germinate in time before the frost, the leaf mulch can act as a secondary defense against extreme storms. While some of this mulch might get carried away from stormwater runoff it will preserve the soil already generated underneath them. And aside from protection from storms, the leaf mulch helps feed and protect the soil-dwelling organisms like bacteria, fungi, protozoa, mites, and nematodes that interact with everything planted in those beds. The USDA says that in healthy soils, “there are more soil microorganisms (microbes for short) in a teaspoonful of soil than there are people on the earth.” These are some of the friends we are keeping in mind when we use regenerative agricultural techniques to grow food for our community.
[insert buzzword like innovative, new, creative]. While I am grateful for the resources that we can procure from long-time supporters of our work through grants, sometimes (let’s be honest, often) I get frustrated with the grant-funded nonprofit system that pits organizations against one another for the same pool of resources creating an environment that promotes competition rather than collaboration. This is problematic because it ignores the intersectionality of important causes that nonprofits work towards. While the nonprofit structure feels like an alternative to our capitalist society that feeds off exploitation of working class individuals, it still is stuck in a capitalist system, and thus often relies on funding from wealthy corporations & individuals. This keeps our existence at the whim of these corporations & individuals and whether it suits their interests to fund our work; work that is putting regeneratively grown food on people’s plates, bringing infants, elders, and everyone in between into nature, and building community in a country infatuated with the false narrative of rugged individualism.
as unrestricted funds in the biz). This gives us the freedom to use those funds & labor towards already established projects allowing us to spend more time growing food to promote food sovereignty in our community, stewarding the land so that future generations are given the same gift of nature that we enjoy, and sharing what we learn with our community. And as a bonus, less time behind our computers writing grants. These contributions also establish a relationship based in reciprocity where we are able to better meet the needs, hopes, and dreams of individuals in our community rather than those assumed by people and organizations with more resources. Fundraising is not a perfect process either but there are paths to follow that ground the work in justice (see this link for info on an improved vision of fundraising as a movement). When we are in a system that tells us to put our needs above anyone else's, tells us that the dollar, and not one’s personhood, is the bottom line, and shows us that most people who hold power do not care if people are getting nutrient-rich, let alone culturally significant, food, I consider our work that centers the well being of our community radical work.
This letter was initially meant to be a short note about what I’m up to as the agroecology coordinator putting our gardens to rest & battling stormwater and not an argument for community building as resistance to systems of oppression but life is full of all sorts of unexpected twists and turns. To honor the initial inspiration of this letter I’ll leave you with an excerpt of wintery joy I experienced at Freetown Farm. In November we were lucky enough to get some snow that hit during one of our final morning harvests. As fat flakes of snow propelled by the frigid wind pelted my face I was reminded of the energy that winter can bring. I often am challenged by winter’s demand for a slowing of pace and the shorter days’ call to rest which made me forget the raw, electric energy that a blast of cold air petaled with snowflakes elicits. All of us in the garden were reminded of this simultaneously, as everyone took a moment from whatever leafy green they were harvesting to turn skywards and show their teeth to the gray clouds as smiles stretched across everyone’s faces. As I continued harvesting and processing, newly reinvigorated by this special experience, I cherished the painful pricks of cold in my fingertips, not knowing if I would have another snow this winter. While I am happy that I do not have to consistently spray bok choy with just-above-freezing-temp water, I was grateful for the reminder that winter is still very much a season of life, just one infused with its own unique flavor. Ever Growing, Simon CFIN has plans in the works to hold our annual 'Camping 101' Event on Saturday, May 31st! Come chat all things camping with us at Freetown Farm and enjoy dinner around the campfire before heading home. We are planning useful sessions like: putting up the tent, useful knots and how to use them, easy and more advanced camping meals, what should be in your camping first aid kit, and how to ensure a *fun* family camping trip for all! Registration is open! In August, we have plans for a weekend long camping trip at Greenbrier State Park, with families reserving their own camping spots. Come camp in community with other nature loving families! Families who are interested in learning more should email: [email protected]. Our seasonal Community Events bring together our seasonal Family Nature Club members with community members who have registered especially for the themed event.
In 2025 our Community Events include (registration link will be included when registration opens): *Sunday, January 5th - First Sunday Hike, Family Friendly outing- a visit to the Visitors Center followed by a short hike to experience the Serpentine ecosystem *Saturday, May 31st - Camping 101! Come learn tips and tricks for a successful family camping trip and enjoy a campfire dinner. Held at Freetown Farm; hands-on activities to prepare for a fun summer of family camping! *Sunday, September 7th - Announcing: Our Official Kick-off of our Watershed Literacy Program: Following the Raindrops!! Join us for an afternoon of watershed related activities *Friday, November 28th - Opt Outside with CFIN at our Green Friday Fun event; we'll take a hike and then enjoy a fire, snack potluck, and activities at a pavilion; Patapsco Valley State Park location. Our Seasonal Community Events are included in Family Nature Club Memberships! This program is intended for young children (ages 5 and under, primarily geared towards 2-5 years of age) and a caregiver. In 2025 we are offering two multi-season cohorts on both Fridays and Sundays. These will both be held every other week and can be combined to build a program of weekly gatherings. Our two main cohorts will be: Late Winter/Spring and Late Summer/Autumn; we will hold a short summer session as well which will be open for individual sign ups (the 4 week summer session is not included in the full year sign-up) All Seedlings gatherings will take place from 9:30-11:00AM; they will include facilitated exploration activities, creative free-play in nature, and community building through shared experiences, story, and song. All Event Leaders have a background in nature-based early childhood education. Events will take place at our Freetown Farm (8000 Harriet Tubman Lane, Columbia, MD) and Green Farmacy Garden (8210 Murphy Rd., Fulton, MD) locations. In order for the focus to be on our youngest community members, we ask that older siblings (6 and up) be otherwise occupied for the morning and not attend the sessions. Younger siblings are welcome (as are sign-ups by families with infants --children under the age of two--). Each Seedlings Cohort must have a minimum of 10 families signed up to run. Our Summer Sampler will be a 4 week block of Friday Seedlings, all gatherings held at Freetown Farm, 9:30AM-11:00AM; the Summer Sampler will be open for individual event or full session sign-up; dates: July 11, 18, 25 and August 1; registration begins May 15th! Registration links will be mailed to our mailing list, posted on social media (we're on Facebook and Instagram), and will be available through the registration link when live! Friday and Sunday sessions will be back for our Autumn Session: Friday dates in autumn: 09/05, 09/19, 10/03, 10/17, 10/31, 10/14 Sunday dates in autumn: 09/14, 09/28, 10/12, 10/26, 11/09, 11/23 Registration for autumn also begins May 15th and will run until full or one week before the autumn session begins, whichever comes first! CFIN's Family Nature Club will meet about two times per month. Our event activities are generally geared towards the interests and abilities of kiddos ages 5 -10 and their grownups; but, there's something for everyone in nature and at these gatherings the whole family is welcome! Event Leaders will make every effort to make sure that children of all ages are engaged.
Events take place either at CEI's properties --Freetown Farm and Green Farmacy Garden-- or in natural areas in (or nearby) Howard County, Maryland. Our 'on-property' Art and Farm Experiences combine arts based projects with seasonal interactions and exploration of our two unique farm properties. Our 'off-property' nature adventure outings emphasize teachable moments, creative exploration, free-play, and land stewardship activities. Event Details for our Summer/Autumn Session: Join us in community as we explore, learn, and play in nature! Together we'll watch our local environment go from lush, hot, and humid and wind down into late autumn. The rest of our 2025 will thematically be: exploring, learning, and playing in our watershed (a very broad theme indeed!) with a heavy focus on nature-based arts experiences! Families can choose to register for both sessions combined (best price per event - $12/family) or may register for either summer or autumn (still a great value at $15/family per event). Later, if space allows, we will open individual event registration ($20/family per event). Our Event Leaders plan activities best suited for kids ages 5-10 with their grownups; modifications to activities can easily be made to include older and younger siblings-- there's something for everyone in nature! Event plans are sent prior to each gathering with details of planned activities, stroller-friendliness of the outing, and anticipated mileage. We encourage families to attend as many of the 'semester' outings as they can to establish a familiar rhythm and build community; perfect attendance is certainly not a requirement for registration. Summer/Autumn Event Dates and Details (we'll try to keep it to a minimum, but some changes in event details/locations may be necessary! All events 2:00-4:00PM. ---------Our Summer Members will receive invitations to the following events------------- **families who register by June 11th will receive an invitation to our June 15th hike, stream health check-up, and water-event (no additional charge!)** Sunday, June 29th: Hike, stream health check-up, water-play (conditions permitting) Sunday, August 3rd: A playful tour of Freetown Farm, Art on the Farm Sunday, August 10th: A playful tour of Green Farmacy Garden, 'afternoon tea' featuring plant based goodies! Sunday, September 7th: Summer Community Event -- Watershed Extravaganza at Freetown Farm -- art, native plants, stormwater runoff tours, 'what's a watershed' interactive demonstrations and more! ---------Our Autumn Members will receive invitations to the following events------------- Sunday, September 21st: A visit to CFIN's Adopt-a-Spot! Check on our pollinator meadow, steam health checkup, invasive plant removal, trash pick up, and play! Sunday, October 5th: Out and about in the Watershed -- off-property adventure; details pending! Sunday, October 12th or 26th..maybe both!: Out and about in the Watershed -- off-property adventure/s; details pending! Sunday, October 19th: Art and Farm Experience at Freetown Farm; learn/review why Stormwater run-off is an issue at Freetown Farm, visit some of our Stormwater management projects and install some native plants. Create some amazing nature-based/upcycling art with Zaneta! Sunday, November 2nd: Second Stormwater management planting at Freetown Farm, deciding on our big end of year project, and party! **Member only event, festive! Potluck and fire circle (weather permitting)** Saturday, November 16th: Big project work begins -- what will it be? Members will be part of the decision-making process! All we know so far is it will be watershed related, arts based, and planned in community with you and your family!! Sunday, November 23rd: Big project work continues! Sunday, December 7th: Big project work continues! Explore the local landscape together with engaging outdoor events; fun for the whole family!--Registration will be available May 15th at 10:00AM!  With colder weather and shorter days, sometimes it can be easier to stay on the couch with a warm blanket instead of getting outside. While winter is a great time to remember to rest, relax, and recover, it's also essential to try to stay active and get regular exercise. The shortened days often make it challenging to get exercise outside during daylight. To increase your motivation (and safety!) to exercise, consider finding or creating a group or simply asking someone to exercise with you. If you plan on walking or running in the dark, wear a headlamp, reflective gear, and bright clothes. Check park hours and know which areas allow for activities between dusk and dawn. Winter is one of my favorite times to hike, but parks may have closures or muddy trails at certain times due to the trails' freeze-and-thaw process. Another way to get exercise during the winter is to use available space such as a carport, garage, or cul-de-sac to do a fitness or strength training routine. If you do not have your own equipment for this, check out the outdoor fitness centers Howard County Parks provides. Centennial Lake has an Age Friendly Fitness Lot with ten different pieces of exercise equipment that was built this year. Cedar Lane Park also has a small outdoor exercise equipment area. Meet up with a friend, make a circuit, and enjoy a workout together! If you exercise outside in colder weather, always do a light warm-up to increase blood flow to your muscles. Warming up can help prevent muscle strains and sprains, which occur more commonly when exercising in the cold. Wearing layers can help keep you warm and accommodate temperature increases as you generate heat from exercising. Generally, you should have three layers of clothing. Your base layer is the first of these. Its goal is to wick away moisture as you sweat. Avoid cotton for this layer as it absorbs moisture and stays wet. Instead, consider materials such as wool, polyester, or synthetic blends. Your next layer's job is to provide insulation to help you retain your body heat. Examples of this layer include a fleece zipped shirt, a midweight pullover, or a wool sweater. Finally, add an outer layer, such as a rain jacket, windbreaker, or soft-shelled jacket, to match the weather conditions. Top off our outfit with a hat as the body loses a fair amount of heat from the head. With exercise, blood flows more to our central core region than our extremities, so keep your hands warm with mittens or gloves, and your toes warm with a wool or synthetic blend sock. If the weather does not allow for outdoor activities, be creative in how you can still stay active. Get your steps in by walking at the mall. Remember that challenging housework counts as physical activity. You can also partake in group or virtual fitness classes to stay active. Increase your accountability for these by joining with a friend or gifting someone with an exercise experience this holiday season. Howard County also offers 50+ senior centers with fitness rooms that are much more affordable than most gyms for folks in that age bracket. Finally, consider trying a new sport, such as snowshoeing or cross-country skiing. While central Maryland doesn’t often get enough snow for these activities, a few hours' drive to Pennsylvania, Western Maryland, or Virginia can get you to areas with more snow. The Community Gear Closet at Freetown Farm has a few sets of snowshoes to lend to those wanting to try them. It also has a set of crampons to lend for mountain adventures in the snow. It is also a fun time of year to try orienteering and geo-catching. Have a happy, healthy, and active holiday season! AuthorKaryn Dulaney, PT, DPT, is a physical therapist who has practiced in outpatient orthopedics for almost 2 decades. She enjoys helping patients achieve their personal goals and maintain a healthy, active lifestyle. An avid outdoor enthusiast and competitor/participant in various adventure sports, she is passionate about helping others explore outdoor activities for the mental and physical health benefits that come with them. Karyn co-founded the Community Gear Closet, which lends outdoor gear so others can have opportunities for their own outdoor adventures. Events:
These strategies will give you the confidence and vitality to navigate the holiday season easily:
AuthorKaryn Dulaney, PT, DPT, is a physical therapist who has practiced in outpatient orthopedics for almost 2 decades. She enjoys helping patients achieve their personal goals and maintain a healthy, active lifestyle. An avid outdoor enthusiast and competitor/participant in various adventure sports, she is passionate about helping others explore outdoor activities for the mental and physical health benefits that come with them. Karyn co-founded the Community Gear Closet, which lends outdoor gear so others can have opportunities for their own outdoor adventures.
Dear Farm Fam, Simon coming atcha with another update from my time farming in New Mexico – Cerrillos addition. On September 30th I said goodbye to Loose Leaf Farm in Albuquerque and started my short journey Northwards to the small town of Los Cerrillos where my next farm, Chelenzo Farms, is located. Well, to be more precise the farm is located outside of Cerrillos; to get to the farm one must drive about 1.5 miles down a bumpy, eroded dirt road that makes the Baltimore potholes feel like driving over a pebble. Once arrived you’ll be in the high desert of New Mexico and met with spectacular views of rolling hills bespeckled with life such as juniper trees, chamisa, cholla, snakeweed, saltbush, prickly pear cactus, and much more. The ecosystem is quite different from the farm I was last at (Loose Leaf Farm) where you would find larger trees like cottonwoods and soil with a higher clay content. The operation of the farm, and thus my daily tasks, differ too. Chelenzo Farms has a herdshare which, much like a CSA, allows community members weekly access to goat milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream. Almost every morning I help with milking the goats – something I had never done before which took me a bit to get the hang of. Unfortunately it's not as easy as just squeezing the udder. It requires a consistent but rolling pressure throughout your hand which should be cinched high around the goat’s teat. We get about ½ gallon of milk per day but are currently only milking two of the goats due to some herd health concerns. The goats are mainly breeds that are well adjusted to the mountainous conditions like Nubian and La Mancha. These goats are known for being trusty milkers with higher butterfat content and also having a sweet temperament well suited for a family farm like the one I am on. The milk that isn’t immediately given to the herdshare will be used to make cheese (mainly chevre), yogurt, and ice cream. Making the cheese is surprisingly easy – you just have to get the milk up to 86 degrees F and then remove from the heat and add your chevre cheese culture –1 packet per gallon of milk. You then give it a stir, let it sit for about 8 hrs and then, using a cheesecloth and colander, remove the cheese from the whey overnight. The next morning, voila! you have chevre. We will usually season it with salt and herbs from the garden but it's really a blank canvas for your pallet; add some sundried tomatoes, roasted garlic, berry compote or sugar for a sweeter flair. Once the milking is taken care of, some time is spent with the rest of the herd and the other animals; two pigs and a flock of chickens. The chickens that are currently around are just egg layers for personal use – the chickens for eating were processed a couple of months before I arrived. The pigs arrived just a few days after myself and are being raised for consumption. They arrived as small piglets just a few weeks old but have been rapidly growing since – about a pound a day!
For a goat to be milked it has to be impregnated about once every two years which means your herd can grow rather quickly. This creates a bit of a challenge since goats eat a lot and need space to forage. Some choose to keep some of the kids and raise them to be milked while selling the others. Often when selling the goats they will be used for meat, especially if it is a wether (castrated male) since it does not provide the benefit of breeding. While I was here, two from the herd were killed and processed for meat and hide – a wether that would not sell and a two year old doe with CAE (Caprine arthritis encephalitis), a virus that made her arthritic and unable to be milked. I was not required to participate or even be present for the killing and processing, but I chose to be. This was an incredibly challenging and emotional task as I had grown a connection with the herd. Goats are very social, curious creatures and this herd really found their way into my heart where I found myself having a relationship with each goat. This made me want to see the relationship through with these two goats and I also wanted to learn humane and ethical ways to kill and process goats. As hard as it was, I was glad to be there to honor the goats’ lives. As an advocate for reestablishing a robust relationship to our food, I believe it is very important to know where one’s food is coming from, and for those who choose to eat meat to do their best to find providers that give the animal a good life and a quick and painless death. It is so important to appreciate the offering that another life has made for one’s nourishment regardless of whether that life is of flora or fauna. This farm also has a smaller garden space in comparison to my last farm but we are still able to produce enough food for ourselves and to sell at the local Cerrillos Farmers Market. They have a very laid back market with about eight vendors and there isn’t too much money to be made at market but it's been a great way to build relationships with the community. At these markets I’ve been able to learn about the community garden efforts in town and what tastes to cater to for the locals. This October we were able to bring many leafy greens, sugar pumpkins, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, radishes, turnips, and herbs. It has been fun to learn the trial and errors this farm has gone through to build up a more nutrient rich and living soil in the high desert. Most recently they have found success with a hugelkultur style bed in the rows they grow in.
Aside from the animals and veggies, Chelenzo Farms has also been working on some land restoration and have been planting a variety of desert shrubs, cholla, agave, and cactus. I’ve been able to lend a hand with caring for young agave and had a hand in planting hundreds of shrubs on a steep slope in an attempt to stabilize the soil and reduce erosion. They receive some pretty heavy rains in the summer that can have some pretty intense erosive power. I was present to an unseasonably strong storm during my stay and it was pretty intense to be so high up with a sky covered in a latticework of lightning right overhead. Due to the importance of water in such a dry ecosystem there is some great water capture work being done in the area. I was lucky enough to go to a showing of a docuseries in Santa Fe that captured the work of Bill Zeedyk who is doing some incredible work with low-tech, low-cost projects to “think like water” and restore ecosystems. I would definitely recommend looking into his work if you are interested in that sort of thing – there is definitely plenty of information that could be applied to how we approach stormwater solutions on the East Coast.
My time is now up as a wwoofer and I’ll be sad to be leaving the Southwest, but I am so appreciative for all it has given me during my time here and look forward to returning in the future. I’ll also be happy to return to Freetown Farm and see what everyone has been busy with during my time away! Next time you’re around make sure to say hi :) Ever Growing, Simon
Dear Farm Fam, You may or may not have noticed a lack of presence from your Agroecology Coordinator this past month and that would be due to the fact that I have not been at Freetown Farm since the day after our lovely Food by Freetown dinner. I began my journey to New Mexico that following Saturday for my ‘sabbatical’ where I will be working at two different regenerative ag farms, a month each, through the WWOOF program (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms)! After moving out of my Baltimore apartment and packing up my car I began my trek across the country with Peter, who some of you may remember as our previous agriculture coordinator in 2022-’23. We saw lush forests in North Carolina, gasped at sun tinged mountains in Tennessee, dipped in hot springs in Arkansas, and ate delicious latin food in Oklahoma City where I said goodbye to Peter and continued to the Black Kettle National Grasslands – or so I thought! I instead found myself raptured by covid and holed away in a hotel until I regained my energy (not in my original itinerary!).
During my time in isolation I was able to reflect more on what I saw during my travels and noted that every corner of this country has something to marvel at. I have done other partial or full cross-country roadtrips but I was able to take a largely new route on this drive. A few relevant highlights are;
When I finally made it to New Mexico (covid free) I made my way to Loose Leaf Farm in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque; my host farm for the month of September. Driving through what I learned is a historic agricultural reserve in the city, I was shocked at the breathtaking amount of small-scale (~0.5-40 acres) farming taking place in the neighborhood. Situated in the North Valley near the Rio Grande, Los Ranchos has been rooted in agriculture for years and the community is staving off the purchasing of farmland to be developed into houses and neighborhoods.
Contrary to the common East Coaster belief, New Mexico is not just barren desert. It is home to awe-inspiring mountains, like the Sandias, riparian wonderlands, such as Rio Grande Basin, and yes, desert and scrub lands that are teeming with life. There is a strong connection to the land in Los Ranchos - a common thread I have found in my exploration of New Mexico thus far. The farmers markets are flush with local produce from Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos and Esapnola and attended by many. There are restaurants that purchase a majority of their ingredients from local farmers. A food preservation lending library has been established through Bernalillo County Extension Office and UNM where you can borrow dehydrators, canning materials, and food processors (can we get on that HoCo?). And while not as popular as the East there are still many CSA’s to choose from. I am lucky enough to be here during the chile harvest when the iconic red and green New Mexican chiles are roasted at market, filling the air with a smell inextricably linked with autumn in New Mexico.
Alas, all it is not just chiles and rainbows in this bucolic dream of a neighborhood (although I have been shocked by the number of rainbows bursting over the mountain tops in my short time here). The extreme concentration of wealth and cost of land in this part of Albuquerque make access to long term farming a real challenge - an issue felt by many across the country. Mark and Sarah, the couple who founded Loose Leaf Farm, are well aware of this challenge as they currently lease the ~4 acres they have been working on since 2020. Farming using regenerative practices is a labor of love and requires a lot of time and energy to not only sustain healthy soils but also build new fertile soil. However, when you are investing in soil that you lease rather than own, it can feel like you are setting someone else up for success rather than your own livelihood. This is the case for many who farm in Los Ranchos where wealthy landowners lease their land for others to grow on, allowing those who own the property to cash in on the agricultural tax break. While it is wonderful to be able to take advantage of arable land, it can create challenges when thinking about the long term sustainability of one’s farming operation. And there are also those who still irrigate large green lawns rather than farming – a sight that sorely reminds me of the history of lawns as a status symbol.
During my month at Loose Leaf Farm, I have been trying to learn as much as I can from a farm that focuses primarily on fruit and vegetable production. Believe it or not, this part of Albuquerque is in growing zone 7b - the same as Freetown Farm. This means I have been surrounded by many familiar favorite veggies, although often of different varieties. Some of the familiar tasks I’ve done are saving young plants being choked out by weeds, protecting crops from pests with row cover, planting seeds for fall crops, and harvesting my heart out! Some new territory has been prepping for CSA pickup, mucking the goat pen (an annual task thanks to the deep bedding method), moving the chicken tractor, and harvesting apples for both humans and livestock.
While I’ll be sad to say goodbye to my Loose Leaf friends, I am looking forward to my October, which I’ll be spending with Chelenzo Farms. I hope to offer more insights into New Mexican agriculture in next month’s newsletter, but until then I hope that everyone has been enjoying the East Coast fall (I am sad to be missing October in Maryland – it's truly a magical time of year).
Ever Growing, Simon |
AuthorSThe Community Ecology Institute co-authors the material on this blog with the support of several team members. Categories
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