NMSU alumni use grant to expand sustainable farming.
“The project is called the MESA Project and it’s funded through a $250,000 grant through ArtPlace America,” said DeSimio.
Taylor Hood Farms is a partner in the MESA Project, which will eventually include other farms in Doña Ana County.
Eventually, WiseSurguy came up with the idea of “protecting the environment through the culinary arts,” she said.
The project has four parts, DeSimio said, one being the community meals.
Part two is an experimental farm, Pata Viva, DeSimio said.
“Pata Viva Farm is the experimental farm part of our grant where we’re going to be implementing all of the different techniques that we’ll be talking about in each one of ours meals in order to get these processes off of the research farms, get them onto working farms,” WiseSurguy said.
Pata Viva’s farming techniques, which focus on reducing water use, topsoil loss and soil salinization, are still in the design phase so the first community meal will take place on July 15 at Taylor Hood Farms, a partner farm that has independently implemented sustainable farming methods through a partnership with professors in NMSU’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.
Pata Viva Farm and Taylor Hood Farms will be working closely together to expand sustainable agricultural in Dona Ana County, and Taylor Hood Farms will likely be among the first additional sites for any viable techniques that Pata Viva identifies through the MESA Project.
The greenhouses at Pata Viva and Taylor Hood Farms were designed by Carlos Estrada-Vega, a Las Cruces artist, with help from Bryce Richard.