Seed The Future Market Tours are Happening Every Tuesday Morning
Tour the Santa Fe Farmers Market Like an Insider!

Join a Tour Host and Guide on a Tuesday morning stroll through the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market. See the wide variety of what’s growing locally, and talk with farmers’ about their crops and experiences. 

Over coffee and breakfast sweets at 9:30 in the Market Pavilion, learn how the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute supports local small-scale farmers through impactful programs, and assists neighbors by providing reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

Each tour will be limited to ten guests, so register early at Eventbrite.
The free tours will end on Tuesday, November 23, 2021.
The “Good Humor Lady” of the
Santa Fe Farmers’ Market:
A Profile of Coral Clark
Growing up on the small island of Harbor View, Connecticut (population 112) Coral Clark learned the qualities of self-sufficiency, inventiveness, and community-mindedness. These characteristics combined to make her the successful weaver, knitter, and farmer that she is today, as well as a beloved member of the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market.

Reading Farmer Boy, the second book in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s treasured “Little House” series, had a huge impact on young Coral. It taught her that “the beauty of working with anything from the earth is that you can become self-sufficient.” Growing up, her family produced 85% of what they needed to live. Coral has been on her five-acre farm in Ribera, New Mexico for over 30 years, growing flowers, milking her cows, and weaving and knitting. This season at the market, she sold 79 flats of petunias alone, while marketing her yarn and handwoven garments to customers spanning from Hawaii to the Florida Panhandle. She is proud to say that she put four kids through college and built her house out of the money spun.

Coral’s mother taught her to knit and crochet at the age of three. Her brother learned how to knit the nets for his boat, and is an expert wood-worker. She says that “all of my kids know how to spin and work a loom.” Anyone visiting her booth is taken by the beauty of the colors of her yarn. Coral feels that she was always “good with color. All my blends and colors have stories. The greens reflect the trees on the island where I grew up, the browns capture the seaweed that I swam in, the sunset colors remind me of a dust storm of nine years ago, and the purples were inspired by the richly hued lavender seeds in the center of my market neighbor Anna Mae Salazar’s incredible sunflowers from her Flor del Rio Farm: they had chartreuse petals with purple interior seeds. Santa Fe’s most popular color is turquoise, but more blacks and neutrals go home to New York.”

Her wool --- primarily a combination of alpaca, mohair, and wool --- is all sourced from the fifteen Northern New Mexico Counties. The alpaca comes from a mill and women’s collective in Moro and the mohair comes from McIntosh, south of Moriarty. Lately she has been exploring working with rabbit and hemp. A practicing Buddhist, she believes in “putting seeds of intention out into the community.” She recognizes that we’re all inter-connected: getting her wool from the women’s collective generates revenue for the women in Mora. “Paying the neighborhood kids to come over and weed teaches them the value of working with their hands.”

Coral has been a member of the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market for 23 years. She served on the Board of Directors at the time of the development of the building. “All of my kids grew up in the market – everyone kept an eye on them. With the expansion of the market, there have been changes over the years. We’re watching the end of a cycle – many of us are over 65 now. We’re happy to see the younger farmers coming in. This is natural, nothing is permanent – things change, like the seasons.”

So why is she dubbed the “Good Humor Lady?” She explains, “I have milk cows, so on Saturday mornings I bring homemade ice cream to give away to the farmers.” A dollop of ice cream sets a sweet tone to start the day and encourages the family feeling that Coral Clark has fostered throughout her more than two decades at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market. 

Meet Coral, at her Coral’s Wool booth #4, on Saturday Mornings at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market, 1607 Paseo de Peralta, year-round 8am-1pm.
The Institute Takes It on the Road with its
Harvest Brunch
On Sunday, September 26th, the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute hosted its first in-person fundraising event in two years. Forty guests traveled by Santa Fe Valet to the KitFox site in the Galisteo Basin. Arriving on site, guests listened to guitarist Roberto Capocchi while toasting with Gruet’s award-winning Brut NV

Surrounded by extraordinary vistas, Dig & Serve caterers served a delicious farm-to-table brunch with produce sourced from the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market in the Railyard the day before. Farmers Susan Higgins (Sungreen Living Foods, LLC) and Pilar Abadia (Anna Maria’s Farm) offered heartfelt words about two Institute programs: the Microloan Program and Double Up Food Bucks.

Introduced by Board Chair Michael Knight, and led by Interim Executive Director Andrea Maril, guests generously responded to the paddle raise with $20,000 in contributions. That coupled with the underwriting from Corporate Sponsors: Descartes Labs, Enterprise Bank & Trust, Guadalupe Credit Union, Hutton Broadcasting, New Mexico Bank & Trust, Thornburg Investment Management, Elsner Law & Policy LLC, and Payne’s Nurseries made the return from the pandemic a rousing success. Thank you to all who participated and supported the Harvest Brunch and the Santa Fe Farmers' Market Institute’s mission.

Photo captions (clockwise from upper left): Board Member Kaitlyn Kimzey and Patron Sallie Bingham Enjoy a Conversation about Women in Ranching; Institute Board Member Mary Dixon of Green Tractor Farms Congratulates Pilar Abadia after her remarks; Interim Executive Director Andrea Fisher Maril Encourages the Guests to Support Institute Programming; Board Chair Michael Knight Assists Sungreen Living Foods Farmer Susan Higgins; Board Member Kathy Holian’s Guests Toast with Gruet Brut NV; Todd Meyers, Development Chair Lisa Kantor, and Caroline Cavalie Enjoy Brunch; Michael McGeary and Finance Committee Member David Loeb Participate in the Paddle Raiser.
Help reduce methane emissions every day
Reunity Resources Program Director Juliana Ciano leads a Home Grown New Mexico sponsored tour of their composting project.
Photo Credit: Pam Walker
Reunity Resources Individual Compost Bucket delivered to your door weekly.
Photo Credit: Pam Walker
Our governor and other elected officials and the state Environmental Improvement Board are working to strengthen rules that would reduce methane emissions at oil and gas production sites in New Mexico.
Governmental policy and regulatory reforms are long overdue. So is individual action independent of governmental reform: We should not put food scraps into the garbage. Food scraps in landfills contribute significantly to methane emissions.

Instead of trashing food scraps, let’s compost them. A great option in Santa Fe is Reunity Resources doorstep program. You fill a bucket weekly or bi-weekly, and Reunity picks it up, replacing it with an empty one. The cost for this is less than most people spend on coffee each month. And for no charge, Reunity also accepts food scraps at the farm, with bins always accessible. All food scraps feed its commercial composting operation, which feeds the soil, which feeds us.

Contributed by Pam Walker, Vice Chair of Institute's Board of Directors
Green Thumbs at Green Tractor
Green Tractor Farm Guests Hear about the Crops
Photo-Seth Roffman, Green Fire Times
Green Tractor Farm Guests Visit a Greenhouse
Photo Seth Roffman, Green Fire Times
On September 22nd, Slow Food Santa Fe and Homegrown New Mexico sponsored a tour of Green Tractor Farm in La Cienega. Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute Board Member Mary and her husband Tom Dixon started farming the land as a team in 1981, and began selling at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market in 2001. Green Tractor Farm received the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute’s “Farmer All Star” award in 2013 and garnered second place as the Best Vendor at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market in the 2019 Santa Fe Reporter’s “Best of Santa Fe Competition.”

Tom grew up on the property when it was dedicated to alfalfa farming. In the early 1980s, Mary and Tom planted a vineyard and enlarged the farm to what it is today. In 2014, the farm was passed on to the 3rd generation: daughter Rachel and son-in-law Ned. They do the vegetable farming, while Mary and Tom continue with the never-ending vineyard work.

Mary was delighted to welcome 30 guests to the farm and to share her love for their 3 acres with visitors. Matthew led the tour through the lush vegetable rows and green house, and Arella’s abundant flower gardens were spectacular. Mary said, “I am filled with pride, when I can speak about the history of the farm, and our team can share why we do what we do, and how we do it. Everyone is always so appreciative and they ask such great questions related to what they are seeing and experiencing. It’s a joy!” 
About the Institute
The Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute was founded in 2002 to raise funds for an affordable space where farmers could sell their goods year round. After the Farmers’ Market Pavilion opened in 2008, the Institute expanded its mission to include developing economic resources for farmers and growing access to healthy, locally grown food for northern New Mexicans.
 
We deeply appreciate your support for our efforts to connect families with local food, to provide economic services to our farmers, as well as an affordable space where farmers can sell their goods year round. Want to get to know the Institute better? We’d love to take you on a tour of the market and talk to you about the programs we provide. Just email janice@farmersmarketinstitute.org to get more information or to set up an appointment.
How You Can Help
MISSION STATEMENT
The Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute’s mission is to advocate for farmers, ranchers and other land-based producers; provide equitable access to fresh, local food; own and operate a year-round venue for the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market; and manage programs to help sustain a profitable, locally-based agricultural community.
THANK YOU TO OUR CORPORATE SPONSORS!
 These lead sponsors help ensure the sustainability of the northern New Mexico food system as well as nurture the agricultural community and the customers that make the Santa Fe Farmers' Market so successful.
Support the businesses that support your community!