Taos News recently did a piece about Santa Fe Farmers’ Market vendor Boxcar Farm. Here is an excerpt, but you can read the full piece here.
How did y’all get into doing seed garlic?
Kristen Davenport Katz: The farmers market is a somewhat volatile place. Some years are better than others, and some markets are better than others. We’d been looking to put at least part of our income into something that you can contract out in advance. And I’ve always been a seed saver — I’ve been a member of Seed Savers Exchange since I was in my 20s. We just naturally gravitated toward that.
Seeds of Change is one of the only all-organic seed companies in the country. They were started in Santa Fe. Richard Bernard worked for them … 10 years ago. He went to Baker Creek and then came to us to ask if we were interested doing seed.
Avrum Katz: And Farm Direct we know from the organic farming conference held in Albuquerque every year. This year, we are doing onion, a kind of zucchini and the local landrace Maxima winter squash for Farm Direct.
What’s a “landrace” variety?
KDK: It’s been grown by the local people for a long time, and it suits the local needs.
What garlic varieties are you growing, and how did you pick them?
KDK: We currently grow maybe 30 to 40 varieties, but we’ve grown hundreds of types of garlics over the years. Pretty much, we grow what we know grows best. And the local types. We have a lot of local garlic we found growing different places — Chamisal Wild, Peñasco Blue, Kay’s Backyard, Santa Fe Rocambole. So we’re trying to focus on things that are unique.
