Well, at the Chimayó Youth Conservation Corps' produce stand at the Santa Fe Farmers Market, when you pick up that tomato, that sprig of basil, that handful of lettuce, you are holding the past and the future at the same time. And it is a beautiful — and delicious — thing.

"CYCC started as a grassroots movement to combat the drug issue in Chimayó," said Suellen Strale, the organization's founder and executive director. Strale, who has managed youth-services programs in Northern New Mexico for 30 years, enlisted the help of Chimayó residents to start the project in 2003.

Corps members, ages 14 to 25, attend a free 16-session environmental-education course before beginning paid work on one of the group's many projects.

Work began in 2003 with corps members designing and building the Coyote Trail system in the Cerrillos Hills Historic Park.

This led to such projects as acequia-building in Chimayó, reforestation of the land destroyed by the 2002 Borrego Fire, construction of the Santuario Trail behind El Santuario de Chimayó and reforestation of the Truchas Land Grant.

"We took on one environmental issue after another, piece by piece like a big Lego game," Strale said.

Beyond beans and chile

Food for Thought is CYCC's traditional agrarian initiative. Strale said that this rural economic-development enterprise incorporates corps members' familial and entrepreneurial experience.

"Many of these kids have been farming with their families for years. They contribute their family farming knowledge and their experience running family fruit and chile stands," she said.

Chimayó residents such as Florence Jaramillo, owner of Rancho de Chimayó Restaurant, and the well-known Ortega family of weavers, lent the corps the land to begin the project.

"We started in 2004 with five fields, all ditch-irrigated, and tried to grow everything you would find on a plate in a Northern New Mexican restaurant — chile, corn, calabacitas, heirloom tomatoes," Strale said.

"In 2006, we decided to go high-tech and try to make money," she said.

As CYCC looked to the future, Strale recognized that its success depended on retaining local, traditional farming techniques while exploring the brave new world of sustainable, organic agriculture. She wanted to create a sustainable farm with drip irrigation, cold frames and rotating crops of perennials and annuals, she said.

That's where Santa Cruz organic farmer Don Bustos came in.

"We told him what we were wanting to do and he said, 'Come and look at my farm,' "
Strale said. Bustos became part-time trainer and technical adviser for the project.

Bustos' farm is a sustainable, organic, vegan (no animal products or manure used as fertilizer) facility focused on a myriad of crops that grow well in the Northern New Mexico climate.

"We're concerned with nurturing the land, saving water rights, cutting down the cost of fuels by distributing locally, retaining diversity (of crops) and creating jobs," Bustos said.

"The organic farm needs to be sustainable environmentally and economically," said Bustos, a member of the Quaker organization, The American Friends Service Committee, whose work focuses on social-justice issues.

"Social justice equals economic justice," he said.

To that end, Food for Thought "has piggybacked onto Don's food for the schools program," Strale said. Bustos sells a portion of CYCC's harvest, along with his own, to the Santa Fe Public Schools for use in the school lunch program.

Strale plans to approach the Española School Board and other charter and smaller schools to propose contracts to provide the systems with Food for Thought's fresh, organic produce.

A year-round effort

Food for Thought's main farm is called Los Abuelos (The Grandparents). The 11/2 acre leased field contains perennials — such as raspberry and blackberry bushes and strawberry plants — as well as annuals such as heirloom Chimayó chile, corn, squash and tomatoes. The corps has built four cold-frame greenhouses with three more proposed by the end of the summer.

The cold frames are simple enclosures constructed of heavy woven PVC on metal frames, which offer protection from the elements and allow lettuce, spinach, chard, kale and root crops to be grown throughout the winter.

Rio Arriba County Extension in Alcalde helped corps members build the greenhouses. Extension staff also introduced them to the propagation of healing herbs (such as chamomile) as well as unusual culinary herbs such as purple basil.

Although some money is earned through produce sales, the CYCC is primarily funded through grants from New Mexico Children, Youth and Families, the Santa Fe and Rio Arriba Open Space foundations, the New Mexico Youth Conservation Corps and the McKune Foundation.

The main goal of the program is to empower Chimayó youth, said Strale. "We open them up to what they want to do with their life, and help them learn what skills they need to get where they want to go," she said.

From suspicion to encouragement

The CYCC employs anywhere from 80 to 100 corps members per year. Young adults like Jacob Martinez and Teresita Sandoval, who entered the program as trainees four years ago, are now in supervisory positions. Food for Thought is now completely managed by the kids themselves, said Strale.

"Four years ago there was a negative feeling (among Chimayó residents) about these kids," said Bustos. "They were marginalized, disrespected.

"The CYCC program has turned the whole image of the kids around. They are now considered good, productive, valued members within the community," he said.

"It's the biggest thing in town," said Sandoval. "Now there's a waiting list each summer of kids wanting to get in."

Sandoval, a speech-therapy major at New Mexico State University, works summers as Strale's administrative assistant. She also served as this reporter's articulate, outgoing tour guide and program spokeswoman.

"When I first started I was shy, totally in my shell. I kept to myself. Since then I've learned (public) speaking skills. I've learned computer and professional writing skills," she said.

Sandoval finds the camaraderie within the program particularly important to kids who may not necessarily be supported by their own families or peers.

"It's about relationship building, being close to one another, making new friendships," she said.

"It's about building family."

• • •

Food for Thought opened its booth at the Santa Fe Farmers Market last weekend, and will be selling its produce at the market on Saturdays for a few more weeks.

On Sept. 15 and 16, during the Española Art Tour, the group will skip Santa Fe and set up a table at the Bennie J. Chavez Community Center, where participants will be selling other services and products developed by the youth corps.

Much of the corps' lettuce crop will be going to the Santa Fe Public Schools, but Strale also is eager to contract with others for lettuce delivery.

The corps can deliver lettuce to restaurants within hours of harvesting, she says, and it will be growing the greens year round.

Chefs and restaurateurs can also request crops — such as spinach — that they would like the corps to grow for them year round.

"We have the greenhouses," Strale says, "so its just a matter of supplying the demand."

For more information, call 505-351-1456 or send an e-mail to cycc@newmexico.com.