DEAR FRIENDS—
I have managed the Espanola Farmers Market for 23 years, starting in the summer of 2000. This year there's new manager team of Emily Koontz and Corina Logghe. They have already introduced themselves to you on this blog. But first I want to share some memories.
In the winter of 1995, I moved to Abiquiu from a loft next to the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn with my partner and fellow artist, Roger Mignon. We had spent five summers working with others to build our house on a mesa here. I grew up in East Texas. My grandparents on both sides of our family were farmers, and we always kept large gardens. The rural communities here in New Mexico felt familiar to me.
In 2000, I answered an ad in the Rio Grande Sun for a "low pay community job." I was the only applicant, and I got the job. The growers I met at the market were very similar in their values to my grandparents. That first market was on Don Diego Street behind the Espanola Plaza. I wanted to have a festive end to the season and organized the First Annual Biggest Vegetable & Best Poem Contest. The growers brought giant pumpkins and also odd vegetables. Poets read poems.
So we all posed behind the vegetables and straw bales while Roger took a photo. That began a yearly postcard photograph. By now, the market has produced 23 postcards and the cards have grown in dimension as the market grew.
More from Sabra Moore coming soon!
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