Meet Your Local FarmHer – Yvonne Diaz of De Colores Farms & Foods

Michelle E. Carreon, Food Justice Storyteller

Meet Yvonne Diaz, local FarmHer and founder of De Colores Farms and Foods! Born and raised in El Paso, TX, Yvonne has been in collaboration with La Semilla for years. In addition to being a partner farmer, she is also a member of our food safety training program and was instrumental in developing our Farm Fresh program and working with local schools. De Colores was also one of the mentor farmer sites for our inaugural farmer fellowship.

Originally thinking of herself as a “city girl,” Yvonne has been farming for about 10 years. But her history in agriculture goes back farther. She started studying Animal Science in 2003 and felt a very strong connection to the land and water since she was a kid visiting family in Durango, Mexico. De Colores Farms and Foods was started in 2018 and was named in memory of her grandmother. She shared a story of her brother spontaneously singing the song on a road trip to Durango and how her grandmother was so touched that she requested they sing it when she passed away. Yvonne recalled warmly how the family honored this wish at her funeral.

Yvonne exemplifies compassion for the land, animals, and for others. She speaks highly of the many folks that have influenced her farming practices and have become family over the years. She’s worked closely with Dr. Antonio Lara from NMSU since serving as his graduate assistant while she pursued her Master’s degree. Yvonne has also shared about the impact of working with Anthony Youth Farm and collaborating with other local farmers over the years. The Border Farm Workers Center in El Paso has also been a huge inspiration for her farm and her commitment to demonstrating that agricultural jobs should be respected as dignified work. In addition to working towards fair and just wages, she is also interested in learning more about cooperative ownership in farming.

Using agroecological farming practices, Yvonne sees “sustainable” farming as also being adaptive and regenerative, which includes a circular system without too much external input and regenerative in terms of profit and paying employees a living wage.  Her relationship with the land is reflective of relationships with others over the years–through meeting people, farming on different plots of land, and becoming familiar with the terrain by working deep in it. Emphasizing that no land is totally “ours” to own, Yvonne has shared how she is still deepening her mutual relationship with the land she tends as a local farmer.

Farming year round, De Colores grows an assortment of crops throughout the year, including a variety of corn, chiles, peppers, squash, and Sonora wheat. Yvonne would like to expand her operations to grow more flowers and herbs for medicinal purposes and pomadas, as well as expand to have more dried products and products that have multiple uses. She’d like to incorporate animals more in the future, like chickens and sheep, to have a more holistic system.

As an integral collaborator, supporter, and close friend of La Semilla, Yvonne demonstrates to us a model of leadership and commitment to farming and our desert ecosystem. She’s trying to find that “sweet spot” in balancing family, farming, sports (running and cycling, specifically), and her own creative interests, like thrifting and fashion. She encourages others to embrace all aspects of our personalities and challenge narrow ideas of what a farmer should look like. She says boldly, “We shouldn’t put farmers into a box.”

In speaking about our community and what we can learn from each other, Yvonne strongly recommends that others learn more about the food system beyond highlighting farmers. There are many unseen dimensions, and by learning more about how it impacts our health, environment, and various areas of society, we can cultivate a more just local food system.

You can follow De Colores Farms and Foods on Facebook and Instagram and will often find their produce in our weekly Farm Fresh farm boxes!