The birth of Black Diamond Canyon Farm

In December I officially made the jump from gardner to urban farmer with the purchase of a city business license and the acquisition of a CRS tax-id number. Considering my affinity to a sense of place, I named it Black Diamond Canyon Farm. While I had pondered the move earlier, in a sense my hand was forced by the unwillingness of my bank to cash several hundred dollars worth of NM Farmers' market WIC and Senior Nutrition Program checks, that I had legitimately accepted during the latter part of the farmers' market season, unless I provided a CRS number for them to report it under. None the less, the $35 expense and slightly more complicated personal taxes were little burden considering the many benefits I've gained.

Turning a new leaf; the winter of 2010/2011

The excitement and new sense of purpose in planning this coming years' crops being the first of these benefits. Followed closely by making equipment and supply purchases tax-free, and in-time the benefit of having better branding and merchandizing potential should help alleviate my biggest growing hurdle of 2010-- what to do with all the food I grew when customers don't show up at the market and I'm too full to eat anymore and tired of canning it.

In the months since the final harvest of 2010, I've been more than busy both outside in the fields and inside planning. I'll cover all those activities on the new blog/website, www.blackdiamondcanyonfarm.com, but I'll run down a few of the bigger changes now:

• With the blessings of several of my neighbors I've more than tripled the square footage of my growing areas for the coming year.
• Submitted paperwork to become Organic 'Registered' by NMOCC.
• Planted 2500 garlic plants (12 varieties) and overwintered 1000+ various onion/leek transplants to experiment with cold tolerance.
• Purchased a really efficient mechanical seeder and professional grade salad spinner/chiller.
• Constructed 6' x 160' of protected low tunnels growing winter greens and carrots (on the recent nights plunging to -21 degrees, the unheated tunnels never dropped below 22 degrees above zero- totally within the tolerable temperature range for carrots and baby asian greens).