We will be starting seeds for Grandpa's Community Farm again this year, and we couldn't be more excited to be part of something so meaningful to our local community.
Tucked along the Chamizal acequia, just east of 4th Street in the Village of Los Ranchos, Grandpa's Community Farm has been doing steady, unglamorous work: growing vegetables and giving them away, season after season, to organizations serving people experiencing homelessness.
The farm belongs to Bob Martinez, a retired Santa Fe real estate developer who moved to Los Ranchos twelve years ago to be closer to his grandchildren. When he found himself with an unused acre of land, he made a choice, one shaped by values his own grandfather, Benito Vigil, had instilled in him long ago: work hard, be generous and pay attention to people who need help. Six years ago, those lessons took root in a very literal way. Martinez turned that acre into Grandpa's Community Farm, a space where neighbors could come together to grow food for those facing food insecurity.
Over the years, the farm has produced hundreds of pounds of vegetables annually, all of it donated. Because the produce goes directly to organizations making fresh meals for unhoused folks, the varieties grown are familiar ones, easily recognized by the volunteers preparing the meals and the people eating them.
This year, the Grandpa's Farm team requested:
- Sweet peppers
- Cherry tomatoes
- Slicing tomatoes
- Slicing cucumbers
- Cantaloupe melon
- Honeydew melon
We'll be seeding all of these throughout March and April, then delivering the starts to the Grandpa's Farm team in early May, just in time for the growing season.
Our commitment to regenerative organic farming and being good stewards of the land, culture, and community runs deep, so partnering with a neighbor who shares that same spirit feels exactly right. Growing food that nourishes people in need is one of the most direct expressions of what it means to care for a place and the people in it.
Photos by Josh Hailey