Raul Rodriguez of S&J Farm in El Guique

I recently visited Raul Rodriguez at his S&J Farm in El Guique just north of Espanola. After crossing the Chama River, his farm is about four miles to the turn off into the valley where El Guique sits among the trees that line the river basin.

S&J Farm is nestled in a community filled with small backyard gardens and farms. Cornfields are everywhere you look, along with all the rock formations that line this side of the river.

Raul and his wife live in a house that sits at the edge of the local irrigation ditch, just a coin toss from his fields. There he grows everything from corn, chile, peppers, pinto beans, squash and cantaloupes – to name a few of his seasonal crops.

Raul  works both a full time job and farms full time to support his wife and baby girl Melaine who are regulars every Thursday in the Rodriguez booth at the Los Alamos Farmers Market.

Raul recently expressed to me his love of farming and hopes some day to become a full time farmer exclusively so he can spend more time with his family on his farm. During our visit, he told me about some of the ups and downs of farming such as weather and water. This year he tried a specialty crop of peppers, but they didn’t mature as fast as the other peppers . He will try again next season to prefect these peppers for next year’s market.

Stop by the S&J Farm booth at Thursday’s Farmers Market and meet Raul and his family.