Who I am and what I do:  

• My name is Tracy L. Chapman (Farmer Tracy). 
• I am female.
• I will turn 60 years old in May 2025. 
• I started Sow Thankful Farm a little over 5 years ago. We have gone through many changes on the farm over the last 5 years. Originally, I thought I wanted to have a dairy goat farm and just grow our own veggies and raise our own laying hens. Then I discovered I'm terrible at selling baby goats which is essential if you have a dairy farm of any kind. So with great sadness I exited the goat side of farming. I did keep 3 Nigerian Dwarf Goats as fun, sweet pets & gentle manure makers.
  • Side note: for zoning, biosecurity and liability reasons, our farm is NOT open to the public -- that is why we do pop ups.
• I am the lead Farmer on our regenerative, no till micro farm/market garden/specialty nursery located in Edgewood, NM. We do not have a big tractor, we do not plow or till our soil. We only have a small riding mower that helps with a few chores like clearing snow from the driveway and pulling a cart when we need to move manure or clear garden debris.
  • My husband, Jeff, does a LOT to help me make all that we do on the farm happen. 
  • He is also in charge of our Microgreens and Winter to Spring Lettuce production.
  • We do not have employees and we don't want to have employees.
  • We do not utilize volunteers because we believe all labor should be compensated on farms that are selling their produce and products
  • We have no interest in becoming a big business or working beyond our limits.
  • We love our relatively simple, peaceful life on the farm and want to keep it that way as we age.
• Jeff and I both work a full time outside of the farm in order to pay the bills so we can have the farm because starting a farm and maintaining a farm is EXPENSIVE and risky on any scale unless the farm is part of commercial/industrial ag  (aka subsidized/corporate welfare) which we absolutely are not.

Why farming?

• I started growing my own food over 5 years ago because I really didn't trust the corporate food "system"; and, I wanted better quality than commercially organic foods with more diverse types of foods. The only way to do that was to begin growing my own.
• At first I thought I wanted to sell produce, but that's really not where my true passion lies; although we do sell some of our produce when we have an abundance beyond what I can preserve. It's definitely been a learning process since we moved to Edgewood, but I learned that I truly love plants, especially heirloom and specialty tomatoes. I discovered I'm pretty good at starting heirloom and specialty plants that you can't find in big box stores AND I insist on doing it without any synthetic chemicals. 
  
• I absolutely do enjoy making these plant starts available for sale to others in the community, as I am able and in the way I am able (period -- full stop -- I am not a machine). Jeff and I both understand we can not be all things to all people. We know not everyone is our customer because people want and value different things. We also know there are people in our community who also understand this and genuinely appreciate what we do and see that we are doing our best. We love our East Mountains Community.
• For me, there is no better, more honorable or more satisfying work than farming naturally: growing food, flowers, herbs, and caring for the soil and all the creatures by working with nature instead of trying to kill everything with synthetic chemicals, abusively controlling and extracting from it.
• Working WITH nature compassionately by pursuing understanding yields higher quality life on all counts.

For how long?
For as long as I am able. I hope to farm for many more years. There is nothing more magical in this world than observing life spring forth from a tiny seed which in time will produce food to eat, preserve, share and sell, AND potentially save the seed and repeat the process for years to come. A simple life, seeking peace.

Weather permitting, we will continue having plant sale pop-ups on Saturdays as we proceed into the growing season. If the wind is bad (say over 15mph sustained) or if it is storming (snow, rain, hail), we WILL NOT be popping up.

Around Mother's Day weekend we will begin making other plant starts available. I will provide more info on what will be available as we get closer.

Our times at each location may vary from week to week, so be sure to check here to verify each week's time/location.

ALSO, remember, it's NOT yet time to plant sensitive crops outside. The Old Farmers Almanac has May 21st listed as Edgewood's last frost date -- and even then, that is NOT a guarantee we won't get frost or even snow (it *HAS* happened!). Growing in the East Mountains has special challenges and weather is at the top of the list. As gardeners living with said challenges, we must prepare and plant accordingly -- and always be watching the weather with readiness cover and protect sensitive crops.

EDITED TO FOLLOW UP -- 🙏A HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CAME TO SEE US🙏 We love our East Mountains Community so much. Thank you for your support. We will have more plants, including: tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, herbs, flowers & more as we continue into the growing season. Watch our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SowThankfulFarm/ or here on our farm blog page at: https://sowthankful.com/farm-blog.html for announcements.
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Are YOU ready to plant tomatoes?
No, it's not quite time yet, UNLESS you have heat controlled/protected facilities. For the folks who do have said facilities, we're having another early tomato plant sale at 2 locations this coming Saturday, 4/26/25 (Weather Permitting):
-From 10am - 11am we will be at From The Ashes Comes Amoré LLC in Edgewood.
-From Noon - 1pm we will be at Polks Folly Farm Market in Cedar Crest.
Click flyer image for full details re times & locations.

We'll be at From The Ashes Comes Amoré on Saturday, 4/11/25 from 10am - 11am.
What PRODUCE we will be offering: 

1. Bags of our fresh, locally grown, synthetic chemical free lettuces
2. Bags of our fresh, locally grown, synthetic chemical free mixed young/baby greens (SpinChard + Kales)

What PLANTS we will be offering:

1. A few Early Tomato Plants (mostly slicing varieties) for folks who have protected and/or temperature controlled growing facilities.  NO--it's absolutely not safe to plant tomatoes outside in the East Mountains YET. It's APRIL and our last frost date won't come until about the middle of May (even then you will need to keep an eye on the weather and be prepared to cover if necessary).
2. A few Victoria Rhubarb Plants. Yes, you can plant Rhubarb now as long as you watch the weather. I recommend planting when the forecast shows at least 3 consecutive days that are not below freezing overnight. To be safest, for the first 5-7 days I recommend covering with a large bucket overnight until the roots get settled. Rhubarb is quite a hardy perennial and grows well in the East Mountains. It loves the sun, but here in the East Mountains it does better with a bit of protection from the western wind as well as a bit of afternoon shade. Here's a great video on rhubarb from planting to harvest: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eIugG-G3jM
   

Every Thursday morning we've been delivering our freshly harvested lettuce & microgreens to Polks Folly Market in Cedar Crest. We're trying something NEW this week and brought a couple bulk bags of Sunflower Microgreens. The bulk bag is perfect for folks who juice or just love lots of sunflower microgreens for salads and so much more throughout the week.
😎NO synthetic chemicals. Grown right here in the East Mountains.
😎Polks is located at 12128 N14 in Cedar Crest.
😎See last photo in the line-up for days and hours.