Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Thankks Gloria, I didn't notice. Too bad - we talked with a guy from Seeds
West a while back. Seed companies in the southwest are almost nonexistent.
We do have a couple locally like Plants of the Southwest in Albuquerque, a
really fun place. Their building is rammed earth like their place in Santa
Fe. One thing esp helpful is they carry bags of locally adapted grass and
cover crop seed of all kinds by the pound. Their catalog is one of the more
unique http://plantsofthesouthwest.com/catalog.html . Besides suitable
vegetables they grow lots of southwest perennials and trees, and a broad
collection of chile peppers. 

One pepper they don't carry is the Chimayo chile which can only be found -
and sold - in Chimayo where it's been grown for generations (there was a
plaque on a church there, dated 1620). We saw it when we lived there a few
years ago and everybody seemed to have a chile plot in their front yard.The
Chimayo chile is one of the rarest strains of food plants, those that have
survived centuries without hybridizing. 

" Unlike the hybridized chile plants commonly cultivated in southern New
Mexico, Chimayo chiles are considered landraces, the scions of the first
chile seeds planted by the Spanish in the area. Small and crooked with a
skin as thin as the outer layer of an onion, Chimayo pods are known for
their subtly sweet flavor and mild-to-spicy heat ...  To a farmer anywhere
in New Mexico, faith in nature is the ultimate reason to farm. In the
northern village of Chimayo, 30 miles above Santa Fe, faith has as much to
do with the survival of the community itself as with sustaining local
farmers. The small Hispanic farming community is also one of the most
important religious sites in the New World. Countless thousands of pious
pilgrims are lured to the legendary Santuario de Chimayo each year, hoping
to find miracles in a handful of holy earth."
http://www.sfol.com/life/chronicles.html 

One of those places where faith in the land and sense of place is
everpresent.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 12/19/2006 at 10:51 PM Gloria Baikauskas wrote:

>Seeds West is no longer selling seeds, Paul.  They decided to stop
>because they are retiring.  They report on their site that the business is
>for sale, but in checking on it again a few moments ago, it hasn't been
>sold and reopened.  
>   
>  Gloria
>
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