Hi! My name is Tracy Chapman and SowThankful Farm is my dream come to life.  People often assume that my husband, Jeff, is the primary farmer but that is not the case. Jeff works very hard alongside me, but I am the Lead Farmer at SowThankful Farm. While I've always loved gardening and growing things, I have never had any "farming" experience or formal education. Neither of us have. In fact, I'm pretty sure Jeff thought I was off my rocker (crazy) when I first suggested we farm without a tractor and without tilling the soil. He had no idea what a no-dig, regenerative farm was at that time. Don't worry, he caught up quickly and now he understands why we DO NOT disturb the soil and why we DO NOT use synthetic fertilizers or synthetic pesticides. You see, our beautiful goats and chickens produce amazing manures that help build our soil and the chickens assist in controlling the grasshoppers and other pests. We love our animals very much and treat them well.

Our farm is small. At just 2.5 acres, some would call it a micro farm. While it's definitely not paying all the bills yet (starting a farm is expensive, labor intensive, exhausting work), it's definitely not just a hobby. I choose the plants we grow and I start 99.9% of all our veggies, fruits & flowers from seed. For the 2021 growing season we sold plant starts at the Farmers Market in Cedar Crest--a legal limitation to selling plants without a license in the State of New Mexico. Late this Fall, we obtained our license from the State of New Mexico to sell plant starts wherever we'd like within the state for the 2022 growing season. We are looking forward to offering a wide variety of heirloom plants--veggies, fruits and flowers--that you won't find at the big box stores or commercial/retail nurseries.

Farming in the New Mexico high desert is extremely challenging and sometimes overwhelming; but that makes it even more rewarding when we have successes. And we've had more than a few. The failures  though many are simply lessons to grow from. Literally. As the Lead Farmer, I try to do something to grow every day. Whether it's starting new seeds, learning new propagation/cultivation techniques and methods, starting a new compost pile, or collecting seed from a successful crop, I push myself to learn something new every day.  At the end of each day, I'm grateful for all I've learned and for my husband, Jeff,  and his continued assistance and support. Quite simply, this is the best work I've ever done.

Our newest video was uploaded last night and Tracy is hard at work preparing video from our archives of earlier this year. 

It means so much to us when you watch our videos and especially when you like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. While it costs you nothing to subscribe to the channel, it absolutely supports us in our efforts to bring you entertainment and education about our farm. We can't open the farm itself to the public for many reasons, including: Time, liability and bio security concerns. But via YouTube we're able to share with you what we do and why we do it and provide a behind the scenes look at our life here on the farm.

We're open to receiving content requests!  Do you have a question about the farm, our animals or garden? Let us know here or right on our YouTube page and we will see what we can work out for you. While we can't guarantee an in depth video on every request, we'll do our best to entertain and educate.

Here are just a few of the pumpkins we yielded from yesterday's harvest. There are lots more out on the vines still growing.

All of these heirloom pumpkins are baking and cooking varieties. The orange pumpkins are New England Sugar Pie Pumpkins. The blue/grey Cindarella style pumpkins are Jarrahdale. The warty green ones are called Buen Gusto de Horno which is a Spanish winter squash variety that is simply outstanding for baking and cooking. Last year, Buen Gusto de Horno was my FAVE for pie making. This year I added Winter Luxury Pumpkins to our garden (not shown here). So, I will test them all again and we're super excited to see if Buen Gusto de Horno will remain the favorite or there will be a new darling. I started all these from seed that was purchased from Baker Creek (rareseeds.com -- we have no affiliation with the company, just sharing a good seed supply source).

If you're in the local area and looking to purchase some wonderful, locally grown culinary pumpkins or winter squash, we will be bringing a bunch (while available) to the Cedar Crest Farmers Market on Wednesday afternoons from 3pm - 6pm. The Market is located in Cedar Crest, NM; at the vacant lot north of the Triangle grocery store/plaza.

I love pumpkins and adore autumn: The cool mornings, the colors, the flavors, celebrating the harvests and savoring all of it. Yes, Autumn truly is my favorite season.

I'd love to read your thoughts and comments. Have you tried any of these pumpkins? Do you have a different favorite heirloom baking/cooking pumpkin variety?

Heirloom Jumbo Pink Banana Squash is a large, orangey-salmon-pink colored, oblong, banana-shaped winter squash. Fruit can weigh over 40 pounds. The variety we grow is over 100 years old.

How does it taste?
This variety is fine-flavored with sweet orange flesh that is superbly fine tasting and an excellent substitute for pumpkin in any recipe. Use it for roasting, soups, stews, pies, baking, making homemade baby food and more. Home made puree freezes beautifully for use later.

How do we roast, puree and process for use in making pies, breads, muffins, scones, baby food, etc.?
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper.

On a large cutting board, carefully cut the squash in half lengthwise starting on one side of the stem, cutting outward and away from the stem around the squash to the bottom center. NOTE: Do not try to cut thru the stem, you may damage your knife. Turn the squash over and repeat on the other side of the stem until your knife meets the original cut at the bottom center. Use both hands to grasp the bottom of each half of the squash and pull apart. The stem may still be attached to either side and should be fairly easy to snap off at this point.

Scoop out all the seeds and stringy guts until the inside walls of the flesh are smooth.

Depending on the size and shape of your squash as well as the size of your oven and baking sheets, you may need to cut each half of the squash into smaller, more manageable size pieces. For example, I had a 16 pound squash in a shape where the halves would not fit on my baking sheet(s), so I cut each side in half (making a total of 4 pieces) that I could arrange on 2 large baking sheets. You may need to cut in more or less pieces.

Sprinkle the pieces lightly with salt. Note: Salt is optional, so if you don't want it, don't like it or cant have it, don't use it.

Place the squash pieces flesh side down on parchment lined baking sheet(s) and place into the preheated oven. Depending on the size of your squash pieces, you'll want to roast the squash approximately an hour +/-. You can tell the squash is done when the skin appears a bit wrinkly and you can easily pierce the squash all the way through in several places with a knife.

Once the squash is done, allow it to cool. Once cooled, scoop the soft cooked flesh into your food processor or mixing bowl and puree until smooth.

You may now use the puree in any recipe calling for pumpkin puree. You may also measure the puree into freezer bags. The puree freezes beautifully and will keep for 3-6 months or more.

TIP: When freezing the puree, measure and store in the amounts you typically use in your recipes. For example, I use 2 cups of puree to make 1 pie OR 2 loaves of "squash spice" bread. So I typically put 2 cups or 4 cups of puree into each freezer bag. That way I'm using all the puree and not wasting any.