Blog

As I walk to meet Haylee for the first time, I see her in the field at La Semilla Community Farm, hanging pieces of paper from two clotheslines along with other staff members. I know she’s preparing an activity for the staff meeting, and I can’t wait to see it. I say hi from a far and I can sense in her gleeful response the kindness that I’ve now come to cherish whenever we see each other. As I come close, I finally make them out: two timelines showing the history of food systems, one for the United States, and another one for the El Paso del Norte Region.

I’m at Centro San Vicente, where La Semilla’s Community Education team facilitates classes for patients referred by the clinic that are managing diabetes. Here, they’ve attended gardening and cooking classes, seemingly returning to being students in a classroom in anticipation.

Brooke Ratje’s recipe for Elote a la Cruceña – a dish inspired by the casseroles she was raised on as a child – wowed judges at this year’s Cultivo Colectivo, the Paso del Norte Edible Education Conference, which took place on Saturday, March 29th.
The recipe incorporated nixtamalized corn, a requisite for the competition that embraces local culture and indigenous food practices, and was accompanied by a side of asparagus salsa fresca.

New Mexico is one of eight states to recently pass Universal School Meal legislation that ensures all children will be provided with school meals free of charge. New Mexico’s legislation is unique in that it also seeks to improve the quality of school meals, including requirements to increase scratch cooking, local sourcing, cultural relevance, and student and family input in shaping menus and recipes.

Foquieria splendens is a plant that has earned their name. Whether it is flowering, leafed out, or a bare, thorny tower, ocotillo is a truly splendid sight.

Throughout her life, Kasi Munoz has always created a path for herself that was rooted in a deep connection with nature and an unwavering commitment to community. As a member of the Spring 2023 cohort of the Chihuahuan Desert Cultural Fellowship, Kasi shared her extensive experience in landscape architecture and garden design, as well her approach to community-based education.

La obra de Rocío Favela explora el Río Bravo —como metáfora, como sitio de leyendas, como ser agredido por políticas divisorias e industrias extractivas. Explora matices de la vida fronteriza, aportando una voz y perspectiva importante de la región Paso del Norte.

Como muchos otros habitantes de esta región, Roberto Méndez es migrante. Llega a nuestra región con una curiosidad y bondad palpable, con ojo de biólogo y corazón solidario notando la “tierra lastimada”

Eva Gabriella Flynn grew up with the expansive U.S.-Mexico border as a backdrop–a backdrop that is interwoven throughout her art to this day. As a member of the 2023 Chihuahuan Desert Cultural Fellowship cohort, she brings her experiences crossing and critiquing borders and a deepened connection with the Chihuahuan Desert ecoregion.

Ana Lu Caro es una chef comunitaria originaria de Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México, con sede en Berino, Nuevo México.
Durante su participación en la Beca Cultural del Desierto Chihuahuense, Ana Lu fue jefa de cocina de la Iglesia Metodista Unida El Calvario, un santuario histórico que sirve como refugio temporal para refugiados de múltiples países y culturas, en Las Cruces, Nuevo México.

A member of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, Patricia Riggs is a writer, poet, consultant, and community-based educator. She writes short stories and poetry about her experiences as an Indigenous woman. Through her cultural practice, she focuses on the native viewpoints of history and colonization, the struggles to retain community and culture, and the successes of maintaining identity and traditions.

Crys Ganatra is a textile and visual artist currently based in El Paso, TX and one of the members of the second cohort of La Semilla’s Chihuahuan Desert Cultural Fellowship. Not wanting to limit herself to a particular place, she is an artist deeply committed to community and creating a sense of “home” wherever she goes.

We cannot separate food from land, history, family stories, and cultural expression. As a land-based organization deeply rooted in our community, our cultural practice is closely tied to our region’s history and diverse ecosystem and the countless human and non-human relationships we have forged over the years.

This month marked the 2-year anniversary of the pandemic lockdown in the Paso del Norte region. Among other things at that time, we had been getting ready to host two community listening sessions to learn how people access food, grow food, and share food traditions with their families.

At La Semilla Food Center, we view the act of storytelling as a vehicle for change that works to shift power, uplift inherently healthy food traditions and practices, and increase connection to the Chihuahuan Desert ecosystem.

As the Spring 2022 Raíces series is approaching the end of its 6-week program, the cohort will be graduating soon and learning some final lessons to carry forward.

We are taking a moment to highlight one of the youth participants, Lajward Zahra.

Cultural practice is embedded throughout all dimensions of our work at La Semilla. The interconnectedness of all six of our programs is visible in both cross-collaboration and a commitment to cultivating a just and sustainable food system on all levels.

What does culture mean to you, and how does your cultural practice shape our community?
Throughout our 11+ years as an organization firmly rooted in our community, our cultural practice at La Semilla Food Center has been influenced and inspired by both our region’s history and the countless human and non-human relationships we have nurtured over time.

For more than 10 years, La Semilla’s farm team, led by Co-founder and Director Cristina Dominguez, has been steadily building from the ground up.

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

Meet Andras Godina and Tessa Bianchet, farmers at Fossil Face Farms in Northeast El Paso! Andras and Tessa have been managing and building Fossil Face since 2019.

Meet Ximena Zamacona, local FarmHer and founder of Full Circle Mushrooms! Primarily raised in Querétaro, Mexico, Ximena has always had an interest in nature.

One week out from the release of our Farm Bill zine, we reflect on the purpose and potential impact of this collaboration as we move forward in our work on the ground.

On behalf of everyone at La Semilla, we invite you to join us in congratulating Co-Executive Director Krysten Aguilar on her transition to an exciting new opportunity in the food systems world. 

Al Woody is a Diné artist living and working in El Paso, Texas, in part of the river valley we currently know as the Paso del Norte Region, which also includes southern Doña Ana County, New Mexico, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Originally from Lukachukai, AZ, Al has lived in various states, including Colorado. Through his company, Healing Ways Artistry, Al offers people aesthetic beauty, stories, and—perhaps unexpectedly—heart-to-heart counsel.

On Highway 28 south of Las Cruces, a farmer faces a thousand-dollar fine for allowing wild greens on his front yard. “I eat them; they’re great in salads,” he says. He’s not alone. Despite the ubiquity of lawn culture in North America, there have throughout history been people who resist the concept.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “pesticides” include products developed to kill anything considered a pest — insects, worms, plants, fungi, and rodents. It’s worth examining how much risk to the planet and our health we are willing to pose for the elimination of a plant or bug.

Have you ever considered who defines a weed, or how plants get demoted into that category? It seems any plant that survives human “progress” is called a weed, but a little digging reveals a more alarming origin.

Established in 1852, the City of Las Cruces is a relatively new member of the Chihuahuan desert, the largest desert in North America and the most biologically diverse desert in the Western Hemisphere. Here, we introduce you to just a handful of the many resilient, drought-tolerant plants that give our region its unique character.