Thanks to some quality grant writing and hard fence work, Cibola County has a new community garden in Acoma Pueblo. Upon arrival at the modern pueblo style Haaku Museum, one notices a rustic ponderosa pine latilla fence enclosing about a thousand square feet area. Once inside this garden during this spring, I noticed a variety of plants.
The gardener and grantwriter is Walter Torres, who has grown a number of heirloom plants, with a particular focus on colorful native-american corn varieties such as Green Corn and Pueblo Red Corn. The corn is accompanied by Kale, Winter Squash, Swiss Chard, Watermelon, Cherokee Purple Tomatoes, and many peppers.
Walter, an artist and small business owner, wears many hats. One purpose of the garden is to expose students to art: a piece of sculpture, created by Walter, will be in the center of the garden. Walter also leads workshops in which the participants learn how to create their own sculptures. The students will also be able to sample the vegetables as they visit. Walter creates his pieces in the HK Studio. HK stands for Haubmni Kaacha, which means Winter Rain in Keresan.
The latillas are decorative, but primarily functional, as the six foot high fence is needed to keep elk from sampling the garden delicacies. Walter also has a family farm by McCarty’s Village, which benefits from being able to draw water from an acequia. His wife, Sharlyn, is involved in all of these endeavors, and they both look forward to the Ancestral Heritage Garden expanding the supply of local nutritious food.