01/18/2024
We are always late–whatever it is, you can count on us being late for it. And so it is with our end-of-year wrap-up, which, honestly, surprised even us. We did all THAT in 2023?!
So, in no particular order, here are some highlights from our 2023:
We bought a small house and some land in Why–just enough to start our own garden in earnest, with room enough for our nomad friends, chickens, honeybees, and ultimately a lavender farm with a modest music/event space and tiny cabins. That’s the grand plan.
After we settled in, we built our winter garden just in time to start harvesting in 2024! We’ve been munching on arugula, radishes, spinach, and more. We’re hopeful to grow enough next season to sell at the Artisan’s Mercado AND share with our neighbors and community.
John started a new job, and continues to volunteer with the Ajo Samaritans, helping maintain their fleet of vehicles.
Ariella transitioned from managing the Art Under the Arches Art Gallery to focusing on our farm and other community-based efforts such as the Ajo Samaritans, Food Not Bombs, and a radical reading group. Be sure to catch Ariella’s worm composting workshop on Saturday 1/27 at the Mercado in partnership with Ajo Regional Food Partnership and Pima Co/Desert Senita Health Fair.
Here on the farm, we added a number of new products to our flagship line of creosote products, such as the Li-PPPP balm with prickly pear cactus and pomegranate seed oils plus peppermint (SOLD OUT), the Desert Outlaw beard oil (SOLD OUT), prickly pear cactus jelly and syrup (SOLD OUT), pomegranate-fig-pepper chutney (SOLD OUT) and premium seasoned firewood bundles (SOLD OUT). Don’t worry, we’re busy making more amazing Sonoran Desert products to replenish our stock and we’ll see you at the Mercado soon! Our next locally-sourced Sonoran edible will be an orange and grapefruit marmalade with barrel cactus fruit!
We got a new cat—Waylon ThunderPaws Jennings, who we were hoping would be a mighty farm cat who struck fear in the hearts of critters who dared venture into our garden, but turned out to be a very large pillow warmer.
We started… continued in the comments…
