From Nora:

“This year my project was different than years past. I had my own space instead of working alongside the other women in the Projecto. My young son helped me. He had a lot of fun and learned a lot. He was amazed to see the tiny seeds we planted become a variety of vegetables. He was so curious. “What is this going to be,” he would ask me when we planted a seed. We grew tomatoes, onions, chard, beets, yellow squash, cucumbers. chard, beets, calabacitas, pepinos, all so beautiful growing in rows out under the blue sky. It wasn’t easy but it was a great experience. This was the first time I had my own land to grow food. I grew up helping my family with the crops in Guatemala, and the three years before I was part of a group of six women growing crops at Buena Vida Farm, but this was the first time I was on my own. I had total responsibility. I felt proud of my tomatoes, chard and beets—happy to see the fruit of my labor. Not everything worked perfectly, My past experience was using drip irrigation. Here, I only had access to sprinkler irrigation. Everything got watered at the same time. I prefer drip irrigation. Also, hail destroyed my crops at various times. Each time, I thought it was over—my crops were gone. But I was patient and the plants came back. It would be much better to have the vegetables under shelter, like a high tunnel, but that takes a lot of money. I tried to shelter my crops with plastic, but the wind created problems with that. Four or five times I repaired it before I told myself it was not worth it. Insects were not much of a problem, except that grasshoppers loved my heirba mora, and rats ate some of my tomatoes. The hierba mora is popular with Guatemalans. I sold some of it to a small Latino foods grocery, and also to some of my neighbors. I tried to grow chipilin, which is also quite popular among Guatemalans, but I have pretty much decided the climate here is not humid enough—unless I could grow it in a high tunnel. I had to harvest every two days, but that wasn’t a problem, even though it was tiring, after my full day’s work cleaning houses. Actually, I found that when I returned to the farm, I could relax. I felt calm. I recalled the tranquil days of my childhood. I sold my vegetables in a few places this year. I sold some at an event in Loveland, I sold some to my housekeeping clients, and I sold some to the Larimer County food bank. I want to investigate selling my vegetables to the schools. I want to do this again next year. If land and water are available, I can provide the rest.”

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Chipilin