Salvador was born to farming. His father was a farmer all his life, and the urge was passed down to Salvador. "It's something I have inside", he says.
Salvador came to the United States twelve years ago from Guanajuato, Mexico and settled in the Espanola Valley. He soon made arrangements with two local landowners who both had patches of land lying fallow, and for the price of the water rights and the property taxes, he began farming a total of twenty-five acres. It's an arrangement that has been made by other farmers as well. The landowner gets to see the land put to a good, productive use, the land itself is enriched by the farmer, and the farmer gets the crops. (If you have a patch of land lying empty, gathering trash and weeds, consider lending it to a small farmer!)
On his two plots, Salvador grows chile, corn, cucumbers, squash - "all kinds of produce", he says. Visitors can see the wide variety every Thursday in his booth at the Los Alamos Farmers' Market. The variety shifts seasonally but the tables are always full. Salvador uses no chemicals and, like other New Mexico farmers, takes good care of the land. And the land takes care of him, supporting a network of family and friends.
Asked what he considered the best part of farming, Salvador started rattling off a long list of tasks, from planting to cultivating to harvest to selling and concluded by saying he loves "all parts of farming". But there's a down side, he says. He is dependent on the acequia system for his water and he says sometimes the mayordomo doesn't deliver water to his ditch when he should. All Salvador can do in cases like that is hand-water and wait.
Salvador sells everything he grows at Los Alamos and other markets in northern New Mexico. What he likes best about the Los Alamos market is "when it's a good market with a lot of people, and I sell everything". He says people in Los Alamos know exactly what they want. They trust his produce to be of high quality and produced with no chemicals. Salvador thanks the entire Los Alamos community for supporting the Farmers' Market.
You can reach Salvador at Espanola Valley Farm by calling (505) 927-8404.