Red Tractor Farm: corn maiden in a burlap bag Nissa Patterson
Dory Wegrzyn, Photo by Nerissa Muus
I am sitting on the bumper of my car, waiting for Dory Wegrzyn to tell me about the blue corn she is raising at Red Tractor Farm in the South Valley of Albuquerque. The late September afternoon sun rests low in the sky and a chalky breeze dries my mouth. It also dries the corn, whose sepia-colored stalks stand like proud maidens in 24 rows, each one a 100 feet long. The corn is nestled on a plot between two brown houses on a street four houses deep, between busy Sunset Boulevard and the bosque, that peaceful buffer of trees along the Rio Grande. The aging ristras on the neighbor’s front porch and a small troop of barking Chihuahuas remind me that
edible Santa Fe · Winter 2012
I’m in someone’s neighborhood—teachers, mechanics or business owners might live behind the adobe colored walls. As I wait, I listen to the gentle wind lullaby that the grand old cottonwood tree sings to the corn, and the tune the corn calls back. "I’m tired," says Dory. She'd driven directly from her work, as an urban planner developing affordable housing, to her farm. Even so, she hops from her Honda Accord, dances nimbly over the tubing of the watering system and gazes lovingly at the nearly withered stalks. "This all started in a burlap bag," she points to the corn. Sweeping her
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hand toward the haricot verts, italian costata squash, and poblano chiles, she continues “this gives me energy, life, even though it is a lot of hard work. I like to see the end product, how it builds, how it grows.” Red Tractor Farm is comprised of two plots of land. An original plot of eight thousand square feet behind Dory and her partner Nerissa Muus’ house, and an acre purchased a few years ago to expand the farm. This new plot, previously owned by the Olonas family, is just blocks away from her house and is where we meet. Dory continues her story, telling me how Red Tractor Farm came to be. It is a tale from dark to light, with corn leading the way.
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