AHEAD of the weekend Mauricio Tomas and his sons were working in their garden plots at the Rio Grande Farm Park getting ready for the Valley’s farmers markets. His sons, Brian and Fabricio, were pulling onions and beets while Mauricio tended to other chores on the three acres or so that the family maintains at the 38-acre farm park.
The Tomas family is among the local growers who have found the Rio Grande Farm Park a perfect place to grow food for their own families as well as feed the masses who show
up in Monte Vista, Antonito, Del Norte and Alamosa to buy from local growers through community farmers markets.
For the Valley it’s like having a fresh grocery store.
EARLIER
Walking through the rows of fresh produce, seeing farmers like Mauricio Tomas and Ramiro Garcia, another farmer who had baskets full of cucumbers, is to see how the Rio Grande Farm Park on the east end of Alamosa has become the perfect community garden.
Tomas, originally from Guatemala, said the fact the farm park is all organic growers – no chemicals can be used – makes the food coming out of the ground the healthiest it can be. He also likes how the farm park teaches his sons the value of hard work, getting your hands dirty in the soil, and tending to all the different vegetables growing.
The Alamosa Farmers’ Market runs every Saturday beginning at 8 a.m. through Oct. 9. The Rio Grande Farm Parks hosts a mercado every Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. through Sept. 28.
Ramiro Garcia harvests cucumbers.