Nico Estrada and Ethan Schiller

Employees of Chispas Farm

Albuquerque, NM

October 30, 2024

Despite the cold snap of the previous night, Chispas Farm radiated warmth. The feeling was due in part to our guides, Nico Estrada and Ethan Schiller, who met us at the gate. Our eyes were met with small fields of crops and cheerfully painted sheds, while our ears heard the various effusions of goats and chickens. We stood in a semi-circle in front of smiling Niko and Ethan, and commenced our tour of Chispas, a small farm in the middle of Albuquerque.

Chispas, meaning “sparks” in Spanish, is named after the land-owner, John Sparks. He bought the land in 2003, and began farming it with a hands-off approach, allowing the employees to shape the space to their needs. Nico and Ethan, two employees of the farm, are using the land to create a community gathering space– while still maintaining the financial aspects required of a commercial farm.

After our tour, we were put to work at three different stations. With Niko, we pulled up eggplant shrubs to ready the field for the first frost. Our group delighted in finding “baby” eggplants hidden under the leaves. With Sal, another employee of Chispas Farm, we picked buckwheat. It was delicate work; each individual seed had to be pulled off the top of the tiny stalks and dropped into a paper bag. We took a brief break to pet the goats, then moved on to the final station with Ethan, where we used scissors to cut the seed heads off amaranth.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon in a shady corner of the farm, reflecting on what we had learned. Thanks to the knowledge and warmth of Chispas Farm’s staff, we left with tangible knowledge of how a small farm in the middle of a city creates community.

by Carlie Johnson