Spring Open House shows the possibilities of sustainable desert farming
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) - The Amigos Farm hosted their Spring Open House Saturday to show their locally grown, organic produce and how they do it before taking it next door for the chefs at Mustard Seed Cafe.
It included showing their microgreen growing process, beehive presentations, and the garden's brand new addition of chickens meant to help with egg production.
Amigos Garden partners with the Mustard Seed Cafe, where the greens and produce are sent, who also provided food for the open house as part of the initiative of community involvement from the cafe which includes providing free lunch every week Wednesday through Friday.
"The beautiful thing about the the Amigos garden is we cultivate community and we create togetherness," said Social Media and Marketing Director Carla Briggs. "Today we are learning about microgreens and how to grow them, we have the beehives giving a presentation, Master Gardeners doing outreach, it's a great program."
One interactive feature of the open house was a chicken naming ceremony for each of the 15 fowls that have been raised by the garden since being hatchlings, receiving names like Marshmellow, Paprika, Mulan, Marigold, and Regina.
Returning attendee, Flavy Segovia, and her daughter were able to name one of the chickens 'Paprika' at Saturday's event. Segovia shared with ABC-7 why she enjoys coming to the garden.
"We love coming, enjoying nature, seeing the plants and chickens, and just having a great community," Segovia said. "It's important because it's volunteer based so it supports and appreciates what the community is offering. But also, you're out in nature seeing God's creation and how things grow."
Segovia says she has been bringing her daughter since she was little. Segovia also mentioned that her family will be getting more involved as her husband, Sergio, is planning to start volunteering at the cafe soon.
Segovia told ABC-7 she really admires the farm to table system the Mustard Seed Cafe has.
"It's amazing, you know, we promote healthy eating," Segovia said. "Enjoying the food you get from the garden, it's fresh, it's natural, there's no chemicals. It's the best."
Another focus of the open house was to show the capabilities of farming in the desert, shown by the greenhouse with it's own recyclable Aquaponic growing system.
According to Garden and Mustard Seed Cafe employee Leigh Vipond, the process utilizes a fish tank where fish waste fertilizes plants, the plants then filter the water. The filtered water is then pumped into the green house which flows back into the fish tank as clean water, where the cycle starts again.
Briggs said events like this show people the possibilities of farming in the desert, and just how accessible and easy it can be.
"It's about showing people you can grow just about anything in the desert," Briggs said. "Showing eating healthy isn't boring, and it can be very accessible. Something like microgreens can be grown as easily as two weeks and can be grown anywhere."
To find out more about the Amigos Garden and the Mustard Seed Cafe, you can visit their Instagram page or their website here.
