It’s time to start planning, preparing soil, and actually planting. Like every February the warmth of the days has begun to return, and the nights have less and less deep frost (below 20 degrees). With some protection and choosing the right seeds, planting can begin.

We have been giving more and more tours at Avalon Organic Gardens. It’s often show and tell as well as answering many curious questions. Many know something, some very little; always there are big smiles. It is interesting to look back and reflect on how many have visited. It is also interesting to find out who actually started a garden. While most people don’t stay in touch, some do. It is uplifting when one can inspire another to begin gardening. And what an opportunity when children ask if they could come and learn! We now have two schools coming every week to help, learn, and yes, heal. Some children have been so far removed from the knowing, seeing, and experiencing how food is grown that it seems we have lost a whole generation.

And so here is the new idea: For this year I want to inspire you to transform or start a small part of your garden space and dedicate it solely to teach others how to garden. If there are not any yet interested children or teens in your neighborhood, maybe there are friends and neighbors who are but don’t have a space or tools and  just need help to get started.

I recommend two recently published books that can be used when working with school children (although they can be applicable to gardeners of all ages):

• Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea by Alice Waters
• How to Grow a School Garden: A Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers by Arden Buckin-Sporer and Rachel Pringle

The principle is simple. Find a space, make plans what you want to teach, and then let others know that you are willing to share your gardening experiences.

Here are some essentials you could teach:

• Compost building:  Have materials ready—for example: some straw, grass clippings, leaves, wood chips, kitchen scraps, and some older soil to mix in. Have one pile always going and add to it as your students come.
• Turning garden beds: Using a digging fork, you can apply some compost at the same time.
• Shaping a bed: Create perimeters and level the landscape.
• Bulb and seed planting:  Have seeds and bulbs ready; in the cooler months beets, turnips, radishes, lettuce and other greens work well. Maybe you would like to plant some flower bulbs according to the season.
• Transplanting from pots. Have some potted plants ready to transplant—sometimes having a little head start helps to see the progress.
• Traditional and conservative watering techniques.
• Weeding and mulching:  Always have a bed to weed and mulch (if you don’t have mulching material available, you could use well broken down compost to mulch with).
• Thinning: Thin direct planted seeds for the right spacing.
• Fruits of the labor: The joy of harvesting, washing and cooling the harvest down.
• Preparing a great meal together!

Another great way to teach is to visit other gardens to learn their methods. For a finale, make a tour of one of the bigger gardens and farms in your area. We give tours all year round, whether it is for one person or for very large groups. Please call (520) 603-9932 to arrange one. Also, visit us on the Internet (www.avalongardens.org) for more information on all of our educational programs and services like our all year round Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program (www.avalongardens.org/csa) and the Personality Integration Rehabilitation Program (PIRP) for challenged teens and adults (www.pirp.info).

Of course you can visit our weekly Saturday Farm Stand at the Tubac Plaza Main Stage from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. to see what’s growing throughout the year.

See you soon,

Tarenta (Change Agent)

My mother-in-law, Regina was 23 years old when she moved to the Agua Linda in 1968.  She had recently married my father-in-law, Arthur Loew Jr., almost 20 years her senior.  Arthur had purchased the farm (which we also call “the ranch”) in 1957.  At the time of the purchase, Agua Linda was a 1000-acre property belonging to Tucson’s own Ronstadt family.  Carlos Ronstadt, one of southern Arizona’s most prominent cattlemen and businessmen of the 1930’s and 40’s and uncle to singer, Linda Ronstadt, farmed cotton, alfalfa, corn, barley and beef cows on the ranch.  It was in the 1950’s, however, when the property had its first taste of Hollywood when the opening scene to Oklahoma was filmed in the cornfields of the farm.

Arthur, a movie producer, had spent much of his childhood in Southern Arizona and dreamed of living the simple life of a cowboy.  He attended a one-room schoolhouse in Oracle, and was the only student who had a horse to ride to school everyday.  At recess, he and his friends would take turns riding “Dunny” and the burros belonging to the other kids.  Arthur came from one of the biggest Hollywood dynasties in the movie business.  His maternal grandfather, Adolph Zukor, founded Paramount Pictures. His paternal grandfather, Marcus Loew, founded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) and Loew’s Theaters, and his father, Arthur Loew Sr., was a president of MGM.

It was respiratory problems that had brought Arthur to Arizona as a boy.  He joined the military when he was 17 and was part of the Army Air Corp Motion Picture Division.  After World War II, Arthur was a member of the USO, entertaining the troops in Korea. Eventually, Arthur wrote and produced a few movies including, Penelope, The Rack (the first leading role in Paul Newman’s career) and Arena, which was filmed in Tucson during the Fiesta De Los Vaqueros.  His Hollywood friends, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and the rest of the “Rat Pack”, however, perhaps best knew Arthur, for his comedic genius.  Arthur spent as much time as he could at the Agua Linda and moved here permanently with his new wife in 1968. In the years to follow, Arthur entertained many of his Hollywood friends at the ranch.  Today, the long hallway on the southern end of the hacienda is lined with black and white photos of some of these visitors – Natalie Wood, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins, Paul Newman, Robert Wagoner, Gene Kelly, James Dean and John Wayne – to name a few!

When Regina arrived, she brought with her a love of horses, (show jumpers, in particular) and a dislike of cactus.  She was a Boston girl, a Broadway dancer, in fact, and a model and actress.  Eventually she realized that there was only one way to bring the green of New England to Amado, Arizona and she began spreading horse manure, one wheelbarrow at a time around the grounds of the hacienda.

When I met Regina in 1989, she was still at it, working daily in her gardens, planting flowers and tending to the lush landscape she had nurtured to life.  Today, there are roses thriving along adobe walls and the fence surrounding the swimming pool.  Purple iris, originally introduced to the property by the Ronstadt family, have been painstakingly separated every year to multiply and bloom each spring.  Yellow daffodils, a cheerful February flower, grow along pathways and in every corner of the grounds. When fragrant honeysuckle and wisteria perfume the backyard, it is an occasion for a dinner al fresco near the blooms.  Delicate primroses and violets carpet the ground and lanky, old-fashioned hollyhocks have almost taken over the flowerbeds between the hacienda and the view of the Santa Rita Mountains.  In the summer, Regina seeds colorful zinnias in pots around the pool.  Volunteer pomegranate trees have sprouted and grown beneath the protection of giant cottonwoods, and Regina has added a few plum trees, a peach tree and grape vines to the landscape.  Mulberry trees provide a huge canopy of shade, and drop messy berries in the spring, attracting birds, (the scarlet tanager, most notably) to feast on fruit that we were unable to harvest and make into jelly.

The sprawling hacienda itself is like a museum showcasing stories of the past beginning with the very brick and mortar that shape the walls.   The hacienda was designed in the 1940’s by Josias Joesler – indisputably Tucson’s most recognized architect.  His buildings are typified by the use of burnt adobe brick, clay tile roofs, romantic archways, built-in niches and dramatic fireplaces. Though Arthur loved the rustic comfort of his Arizona home, he brought to the Agua Linda luxuries from the former estates of his grandfather’s like the Tiffany windows installed in the dining room and the master bath.  With the help of Regina’s best friend and my mother, both interior designers, Regina has improved the old hacienda, added a pool house and expanded the guesthouse where my family and I live.

Sometimes Stewart and I and Regina work so hard that we look past the beauty and only see more work that needs to be done.  Then someone visits and marvels with envy at the property and it’s surroundings and we look again with fresh eyes at what is, actually, our own piece of paradise.

Learn more about the farm at www.AguaLindaFarm.net

In the years before the United States entered World War I, the border country was involved with Mexico’s Revolution in which several factions supporting different leaders warred it out. There were numerous incidents in Naco, Nogales, and other more isolated locations. For several years residents lived in a state of fear.

By 1912 the U.S. Cavalry had been sent to the Mexican border to forestall trouble.  On March 15, 1913 there was a battle between Sonoran state and Federal forces in Nogales, Sonora.  In 1915 the Battle of Nogales occurred in which U.S. troops fought across the border with Mexican troops.  Soldiers were stationed on the streets of Nogales. As more incidents happened along the border, there began to be a demand for intervention by the United States, culminating in the expedition by General Pershing with the 10th Cavalry into Mexico in March 1916. On June 18, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson responded by calling out the National Guard. Thousands of troops were sent to the border. Troop B, Cavalry, of the 5th Connecticut National Guard was one of those units stationed at Camp Little in Nogales and sent from there to Arivaca.  We have an amazing record, both written and photographs, of their activities which includes the following from troop history and the Captain’s diary:

“On August 4, 1916, the General appeared on the hill . . . and ordered our troop to evacuate without delay, and take possession of an unknown hamlet amid the mountains to the westward, known as Arivaca.  He told Capt Davis the place was strategically important, and should be occupied by a squadron, but that he had every confidence in the ability of the troop to control the situation–equipped as they were with healthy horses and healthy men and able officers.  Up to that time no other outfit had been regarded efficient enough to fill an independent post and we were perhaps justly elated….Escorting Springfield Kelleys over paths called roads by courtesy, rivers without bridges, and along precipices which might cave in any minute, was a new experience, and I venture to say, will be no sooner forgotten than will the panorama westward towards Baboquivari be forgotten by those troopers who traveled by horse through the pass from Tubac.

“We spent almost nine weeks at Arivaca encamped within the confines of a barbed wire enclosure, flanked by adobe walled store–adobe church and adobe residences occupied by both men and chickens and cattle.  We guarded the old smugglers’ trail leading southward from Tucson to Saric.  We patrolled the mining and cattle country to the southward along the Border.  Montana, California Gulch, the Stone House (Casa Piedra), La Osa, Tres Bellotas, Sasabi, Buenos Ayres and Oro Blanca became familiar names and still recall familiar scenes.

“It would take too long to tell every episode of interest which transpired during our tour of duty on the Border.  But for the benefit of those of you who weren’t there let me sketch for you a few of the incidents of our life at Arivaca together with now and then a portrait of some of the men who worked with us.

“Bugles blown by Haynes and Taylor cut the chill morning air, as one finds it before sunrise. . . After reporting, everybody seeks the picket line with currycomb and brush.. . After grooming and feeding we all wash up and go to breakfast..   Passing down the line, each man gets three pieces of sow belly, bread or hardtack with raspberry jam, a cup of coffee and some oatmeal.

“After breakfast watering is in order. . . in a jiffy the whole troop is mounted bareback in column of twos and on the way to Arivaca Crick, which with full stream flows past the town and within two miles thereafter runs dry.

“Troop went out for a couple of hours ride to a nearby ranch, where they watched the branding of the cattle.  Saw quite a few picturesque cowboys.

“About 11:30 the morning labors are finished.  Everybody tries to take it easy–or rather everybody assumes a sleeping posture and spends the hour of recreation beating off the flies that hover over the camp thicker than locusts in Egypt.  We lunch on cold tea, spaghetti and blackberry jam, and after a suitable siesta, fatigue call sounds.  The “Top” reels off a list of things to be done that must have the taxed the ingenuity of someone higher up who does the thinking.  Men of artistic temperament… are turned loose on the whitewash brush with instructions to whiten and sterilize every fence post and adobe wall in sight.

“Sgt Westbrook is ordered to take his platoon out and start a new latrine because the last one we dug, measuring three feet wide, sixteen feet long and twelve feet deep, is half full, and digging in Arivaca is no cinch. . . as a result of the afternoon’s labor he will be able to report a full three inches of solid progress. (The first latrine was dug by means of dynamite)

August 24: Reveille at 5:15 and all cooked their own meals of bacon and potatoes.  Camp broken immediately and start made by 7:00. The ride took us over toward the Border and we rode right file for practically all day.  The scenery today was even greater than the day before, over the greatest of mountain trails.  We passed by about 18 abandoned mines, the help having gone over to Mexico to fight when the trouble broke out.  About 11:00 we came to  Mexican outpost and saw 6 or 8 good husky Mexicans with arms and horses the other side of a wire fence, all standing near an adobe house.

“Supper composed of beans, bread and blackberry jam is served at 5:30 and generally just as the sun has disappeared beyond the western mountain range clothing the majestic Baboquivari and, in fact, all of the surrounding country, in one of the richest sunsets you ever saw, the ceremony of guard mount takes place…

“In the evening an orchestra of three pieces, Mexican, entertained us for about an hour with songs and national airs.

“At ten o’clock every man, except the guard, even those who have avoided blackberry jam and beans by spending their day’s pay at Carmelita’s, has turned in for a night of rest, justly weary from either thirty miles of patrol duty, fatigue duty, guard duty or cook detail.

“In Pottsdam, Germany, it is said, one sees an unusually large number of very tall men.  These are the descendants of the women of the town and the tall guards of Frederick the Great, who were quartered for over fifty years in that city.  At Arivaca, I am proud to say, the conduct of the troopers was above reproach, and if we believe the letters we have received since our return, we have left in Pima County, Arizona, a favorable impression which will not soon be forgotten.

“On Tuesday morning, October 10th, Lieut. Thompson with troopers from the 2nd Cavalry arrived at Arivaca and relieved us. . . at 1 pm that afternoon began the march by way of Montana Peak and Bear Valley back to Nogales.  That moonlight ride of the mountains and through Bear Valley, still untouched by the hand of man, will not soon be forgotten by those who knew and loved that wilderness and grandeur.”

Troop B of the Connecticut National Guard returned home without firing a shot towards the South.  The Secretary of War thanked them and said that they had made possible a peaceful solution of a difficult and threatening problem.  So it was for just cause that we welcomed the current group of cavalrymen, now known as First Company, Governor’s Horse Guard, to Arivaca in January of 2011, 95 years after Troop B. They plan to return with a larger group in due time.

Reference:

The Origin and Fortunes of Troop B, Cavalry, Connecticut National Guard, 1917, edited by James L. Howard. Hartford, CT: The Case, Lockwood and Brainard Co, 1921.

In reflecting on our gardens, our first thoughts tend to focus on what didn’t work. While these thoughts do have their place, one could also approach last year’s memories by realizing our answered prayers, hopes, dreams, visions, and more.

So many blessings have occurred here at Avalon Organic Gardens that we wanted to thank God as well as all of you for your support of this local organic food movement. The children are especially thankful. There are other farms and gardens which have also benefitted from your support.

In each of the following answered prayers lies direction and inspiration in what you could do as well in your own gardens. Many of these techniques were introduced in this “In Season” column. Let me begin:

• Increase in fertility of the land. By not using chemicals, pesticides, and herbicides and by applying mulches and compost alive with micro-organisms (E.M.) the soil is responding beautifully. The texture is richer, and a gardener can feel it with their hand’s touch.
• Besides the living soil, more vibrant, stronger and healthier plants have also benefitted from denser plantings for erosion control; rotation of crops; creating rest and restore times for many areas; better irrigation techniques; variety and cycles of mulching; successful experimental windbreaks (sorghum/sudangrass); improved seed selection. The most important benefit from all of these improvements was an increased community spirit and enthusiasm in assisting every week with the most time-consuming needs. Some of you came all the way from Tucson to help; thank you all so much.
• Efficiency in soil preparation, planting, harvesting, storage and delivery of all vegetable was upstepped by the donation and purchase of certain equipment. Our most precious refrigerated truck and ice making machine enabled us to deliver our harvest fresh all the way to Tucson in 116 degree heat.
• Our CSA membership doubled in size this year, which means we are feeding 200 people all year round; abundance is given away to our neighbors and friends.
• More opportunities within the Personality Integration Rehabilitation Program were offered to many troubled and socially challenged teens and young adults through tax free donations made by you. Teaching gardening and animal husbandry feeds the next generation to come. Gardening opens a true healing connection with the Universe Mother Spirit.
• Somos la Semilla—“We are the Seed,” was formed this year. This network of grassroots groups, organizations, funders, farmers, and clinics in Arizona-Sonora borderlands work together to grow our future through healthy food systems. The group was born from the Healthy Food, Healthy Future Conference in Dragoon, Arizona, which was convened in February 2010 to discuss the future of a healthy, working local food system in Southeastern Arizona. Their website is www.somoslasemilla.org.
• We hosted an increased number of events, tours and workshops this year. The largest crowds came to the BeAware Festival in May, and to the First Annual Somos La Semilla Open House Organic Garden Tour in Santa Cruz Valley in September. The other six participating gardens and farms had similar success with their garden tours. Showing your gardens is a very rewarding experience.
• Our Tubac Farm Stand now operates year-round at the Tubac Plaza Main Stage on Saturdays from 11a.m. – 1 p.m. We celebrate and share stories with our customers who are now also friends.
• We extended our Community Supported DEO-Agriculture (CSA) and now serve all year round in Santa Cruz County and the Santa Cruz River Valley.
• After very well thought-out designs for soil preparation and rainwater catchment throughout this past year, our one-acre Food Forest Project will soon be planted intensively this coming year.
• An increased number of rainwater and grey water catchments provide most of the water needs for hundreds of native trees, bushes, herbs, flowers and fruit trees.
• By extending our growing seasons with two smaller non heated, shade cloth hoop houses, we have been able to start our seedlings and protect them from the severe heat and the hardest of frosts. With financial assistance from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) a larger hoop house is in the planning stage.
• Also with assistance from the NRCS, we are planning to convert six acres of flood irrigated pastures to drip-irrigated gardens. Besides saving water, drip irrigation will slow down the growth of some of the weeds and improve seedling and transplant growth by directionalizing the water better.
• The grasshoppers were few in comparison to the plague in 2009.
• I also wish to express my gratitude for being able to write for the Connection for another year. Thank you all for supporting their cause and important community building.

There are of course many more answered prayers not mentioned here—many personal as well. The highest gift to give and receive is the love of God, and without all of your support and friendship this sanctuary Avalon Organic Gardens, Farm and Ranch would not have been able to bless and touch so many customers, visitors and students. Come and visit, we give tours every week. Call (520) 603-9932; also visit our updated website at www.avalongardens.org.

Thank you again and have a blessed year, Tarenta Baldeschi (Change Agent)

Winter is also the best time to knock out some maintenance and clean-up projects around the farm.  Keeping things neat and tidy is not one of our strong suits and Stewart and I are both guilty of procrastination when it comes to clean-up.  It just always seems like there is something more important to do!  Having 63 acres allows for messes to sprawl and projects to be put off – sometimes for years – as there is always space to store things somewhere else or a different corral (without a broken fence) to put the sheep in.

Projects do eventually get done, though.  Last spring I single-handedly re-organized all seven of the old horse stalls at the barn, now used for storage and a machinery shop.  I worked for days and days sorting though oily tools that I could not identify as well as plumbing supplies, paint, rolls of soaker hoses, mountains of transplanting trays, shade cloth and various garden implements.  After emptying the stalls and making an even bigger mess outside of the structure, I swept up piles of bat guano and rats nests and put everything back, re-storing everything in a neat and orderly fashion, then faced the worst mess of all.  One of the stalls had not yet been cleaned after its former residents – a few pigs – had moved out.  The boorish tenants had long since been sold to someone better prepared for the frustrations of the pork business.  It had been months since the space had been occupied.  With a bandanna over my mouth and nose, I had to literally chisel away at the floor to remove the four -inch layer of manure and bedding that had adhered like concrete to the floor.  As thick dusk coated my hair and clothes and permeated the bandana, I tried to tell myself that I was working with fertilizer, not pig poop, but it took days for the pungent odor, not unlike a stinky armpit, to leave my nose.  I completed the grueling barn clean-up before the hot summer days set in and proudly walked away.  I think it took about a week for my dogs – hot on the trail of a squirrel – to destroy my work.  It must have been a frenzied scene as Rocco and Patches tore down shelves of paint, stacks wooden transplanting trays, and unravel yards of coiled drip tape and shade cloth in search of their victim.  Old tack boxes were opened and horse blankets and leg wraps were strewn all over the barnyard.  Bright colored paint oozed out of cans and dried in plastic-like puddles on the barn floor.  Heavy shelves laden with nails, bold and screws – all neatly sorted of course – were toppled onto the floor.  I cried when I saw the mess, but the barn is far enough away from the house and days were getting hot…

The upside to having so much space is that we rarely have to throw things away.  Old barn wood, tattered shade cloth and junk metal will eventually be reused for something.  When we do finally haul something off to the dump it is just like when you finally decide to get rid of that sweater in your closet – as soon as you donate it to Good-Will, it will be back in style and you will want it back.  So, as long as we have the space, we hoard all kinds of materials.

Last summer, Stewart and I had attempted to shade tomato plants “using materials we had on hand” to make a trellis with shade on top.  We started by pounding old fencing T-posts along the tomato row at ten foot intervals.  Then we strung hay-bailing twine between the posts six feet above the ground.  For the shade, we implemented rolls of reemay – a gauzy white fabric intended for insulating crops in the winter, and with clothes pins, draped the fabric over the twine.  It took a few days to set up and when we were finished we were very proud of ourselves.  We stood back, hands on our hips, nodding and smiling as the harsh mid-day sun failed to reach the plants.  We generously praised our own ingenuity and bragged to each other how the job got done with no dollars spent and even declared ourselves responsible stewards of the planet since we had “re-used” materials – one of the most important of the “three R’s” of the green living mantra: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  We even brought friends out to the garden that afternoon to see the neat, white fabric gently swaying in the breeze and continued to pat ourselves on the back.

The following day was the windiest day I can ever recall.  More likely, I was just more aware of the unforgiving gusts as I watched the gauzy reemay billow and strain and whip and tear and envisioned pieces of the white fabric spreading across the valley getting tangled in trees – littering someone else’s property.  So much for green living!  After the windiest day in Arizona history, we patched up our disaster and made the most of it. By October, the tomato patch looked appropriately haunted as ghostly wisps of white fabric danced in the breeze over tall tomato plants.  The reemay has long been cleaned up, but on the winter to-do list is removing the fence posts, clothespins and bailing twine.  We will reuse the fence posts again, but maybe the twine can be thrown away.  Maybe not.

Eufemianio Moyza was born in 1854 of Spanish and German descent. After his first wife died,  he married Angelita Mejia who was from Sonora. They had eight children: Petra, Magdalena, Lencho, Rafael, Manuel, Ramon, Ramoncito and Nacho.  The eldest daughter, Petra, married Ramon Badilla who was born on the Sopori.  He came to live with his wife’s family at the Moyza ranch where they built their own home.  Two of their children, Dolores Badilla Celaya and Lupe Badilla, told stories about growing up on the ranch in the 1930s:

“During the summer we always had a lot of people (relatives) come to the ranch and stay there for one or two months to help with the work.   My uncles and my dad would get horses that were not tame and have like a rodeo in an arroyo.  People would be around the edge watching and eating watermelons.

“My grandfather was known as a horseman.  He had two horses that I remember, one named Butterfly and one named Tommy.  Sometimes he would have to bring milk cows into the corral.  He would put his dog, Galafo, on one of the horses and say, “Go get the cow!” And off they would go, the dog on top of the horse.  But that horse would only do that when he was wearing his saddle.  Take it off and he’d keep going!

At the end of Moyza Ranch road there used to be a huge lake one or two miles long.  Twenty feet deep.  From there there would be a acequia or creek and water would come from there to another lake or water hole, close by the house.  From there they could open the gate to get water for farming.

“Our grandfather did a lot of farming.   They would plant milo maize in March and by the middle of June or July it had a lot of seeds on it and the cattle would eat that.  They had a two-story barn and they would store it and feed it to them in the winter.  They had several hundred head of beef cattle but they also had around forty milk cows. There was a big garden and all summer long there were the zucchini and corn and beans.  In the winter there would still be a lot of chile and tomatoes.  We would put watermelons in the haystack and at Christmas we’d still be eating watermelons.   My uncle Manuel was called “El Verdolero.”  The vegetable man.  He used to take a truckload of vegetables up to Ruby and sell them.  (They also took them to Tucson).

“We used to have apple trees, peach,  pears, apricots, a grape vine and figs.  I guess it was because my grandfather grew up in California.  Every year we’d go up to the Guijas in a wagon and get peaches and my grandmother would dry them or make empanadas or pies.

“My grandmother used to make pudding from the elderberry trees.  We used to call it atol de tapiro.  Tapiro is elderberry.  The pudding is made from the berries.  You soak them and clean them and put them through a cheesecloth and squeeze out all the juice.  You put in some water and bring it to a boil and it has all this foam on top.  They used to say that it would give you a stomach ache so you have to keep taking off the foam.  Then you put in cinnamon sticks and sugar and a little bit of flour to thicken it.  We still make it.  My cousin Socorro and I go to Tubac now to the berries. You can make a tea from the dried elderberry flowers to take for a cold or fever or stomach ache.

“My grandmother used to make pudding from the mesquite beans, the pechita.  At that time they had a molino (mill).  My grandmother had to soak the mesquite beans and grind them and put them through a strainer.  It has a very unique taste.  You can use cinnamon or vanilla or eggs to make a different flavor.    In October, right after the pumpkin harvest my mother and grandmother would make pumpkin candy.  Then all of of would go up to the hills and get a barrel cactus and they would make cactus candy out of it.  My brother would go out on horseback and drag home the largest one we could find and cut all the stickers off.  It was like a pineapple. They would cut all the shell off.  Inside there is a white meat.  They would put it in limewater first, and then cook it with a lot of sugar.   I remember it was so good.

“In May and June, right before the monsoon season, we would all go out to look for chuquita, the white sap from the mesquite tree, because after the rains started it would all be gone.  And we would get big jars of it.  We chewed it or we would make a tea with it.  We’d dissolve it and put sugar in it.   In the spring we would go hunting for covenas.  There is one with a yellow flower and one with a blue flower.  We would dig them up and eat the little bulb.  We had prickly pear at the ranch–nopalitos.  I like them raw.  I burn the stickers off and then cut them up and put them in a salad.  We used to go up in the hills and pick up bellotas.  There was a place somewhere in the Sardina where my grandfather used to pick chiltepines.

“We used to go to Arivaca visiting with the Romeros and the Lopezes and the Caviglias.  We’d play dodge ball in the middle of the street. On Election Day my mother (Petra) and uncles would go to Arivaca early and stay all day.  It was like a get-together when everyone came to town.  My mother didn’t get out that often so it was an opportunity to see friends.”

Life on the Moyza Ranch was busy and interesting, due to the industrious nature of Eufemianio and Angelita Moyza.  But after they passed away, in 1958, the family sold the ranch. Petra bought acreage in Tucson where Dolores and Lupe still live today. The homestead was divided up, sad to say, but the area is still being farmed and cattle still roam the hills. The Moyza story is now part of a new oral history project, “Capturing Arizona’s Stories,” through a grant to the Pima County Public Library made possible by the Arizona State Library and Archives. Representatives from Library interviewed Dolores for the story of her family’s homesteading operation. Few homesteaders were as successful as her great-grandparents.  In time, they accomplished their dreams and more.  Now their story will be part of Arizona’s memories.

The Apache formed a formidable wall against expansion to the north by the Spanish. For years much of Spanish activity was designed to protect missionaries, miners and settlers from Apache attacks through the establishment of presidios. However the small numbers of troops left the civilians at the mercy of the Apache. Fr. Segesser wrote in 1739: “The Apaches, a savage and untamed people, live in the high hills towards the north, and are the sworn enemies of the converted Pimas and Opatas. They busy themselves mainly with stealing, robbing and murdering. They lie in ambush in narrow passes, allow travelers to reach the middle of a pass, then attack them from above with a hail of arrows. They are very cunning and active and murder people in the most gruesome manner if they cannot carry them off alive. To check them the king of Spain ordered a fortress built on their border. Since they are very numerous and the soldiers are, on the other hand, few, the latter cannot offer resistance everywhere.” Peace was impossible. In the early part of the 1700s Arivaca was not mentioned as a site of Apache attacks, but near the end of the century Luis Maria Belderrain (son of the first Tubac presidio captain) wrote: “Sonoita was destroyed by the Apaches in 1768 and over half the population died within the walls of the burning church. This so frightened the people of the district that they abandoned Guevavi too and concentrated the population at Tumacacori and Calabazas.

In the same general area lay the Sopori ranch, the Arivaca ranch and the mining settlements at Agua Caliente and Arizona. These four settlements together boasted a total population of over 150 Spanish families around mid-century. Today they are all abandoned, once again due to Apache pressure.” (References available upon request)

After the Pima Revolt of 1751-52, resettlement was prevented until towards the end of the century when the Spanish implemented a new Indian policy. They used gifts of inferior firearms, food, and in particular, liquor, to corrupt the Apache and weaken them. This seemed to work until around the time of Mexican independence. The new state could not afford to keep up the gifts and the Apaches went back to their former lifestyle. With their old ways they developed a great hatred of the Mexicans.

Tomas and Ignacio Ortiz had been working on their land grant in Arivaca valley for some twelve years when Apaches drove them off in 1824(?), killing three employees and a child and burning the buildings. After that they could only work the ranch sporadically, when it was safe, and the families moved to Tubac and did not come back. Depredations increased in 1846 and 1847. The Commandant at Tucson reported in 1851 that Apaches had attacked some travelers in the vicinity of the Arivaca ranch, stealing three loads of effects and taking prisoners. In 1853 the Arivaca ranch house and corrals were burned. In 1854 the Gadsden Purchase brought the area into the U. S. Troops were sent into the new territory to protect the miners and settlers. They were not always successful, so settlement was thin until the Apaches were put on the reservation in the early 1870s. Then it was finally safe to move in. The towns of Arivaca and Oro Blanco developed to serve the mining camps in the hills round about.

Now both Mexican and American troops chased the small group, pushing it from here to there. The band split into two smaller groups. Roberts says, “Geronimo took six men and four women and slipped once more through the intensive border patrol, then raided north all the way to Ojo Caliente. Along the way, he killed his last white Americans, raising the pitch of terror among the settlers.” Some of those last unfortunate Americans were Charles Owen, Mrs. A.L. Peck and her 11 month old baby in the Santa Cruz valley near Calabasas, and Phil Shanahan, just over the hills to the west in Sycamore Canyon, twenty miles southeast of Arivaca, in late April of 1886.

In his own account Geronimo did not claim credit for this raid. It is possible that the leader of this raid was the younger, English-speaking Naiche, who was with Geronimo in these last weeks. It is unknown why Mr. Peck was spared but his wife and child were slaughtered.

Phil Shanahan left John “Yank” Bartlett’s ranch in Bear Valley at the entrance to Sycamore Canyon, and headed for his own home a few miles away. His ten-year-old son Phil was staying back with his friend Johnny Bartlett, Yank’s son. A few minutes later the boys heard shots, then a yell, and Phil staggered into the yard, saying he had been shot by Indians. Yank saw he was badly wounded and would need a doctor, so he told Johnny to run to Oro Blanco to fetch Dr. Noon and warn the folks there. He directed Little Phil to go home and warn his mother and two little sisters of the danger. Phil made it there successfully and they concealed themselves in the mountains until the following day.

Johnny set off on horseback for Oro Blanco but within a few miles he saw three men ahead of him dressed in black and acting as if they were drunk. He came back quickly, finding the Indians firing on the house. He reached the house safely, but his horse and another were shot. One horse followed them into the house and fell dead in the doorway. Yank himself received a wound of which he later recovered.

When night came, Yank sent Johnny off again, and his time he succeeded on foot, going barefoot for the first two miles to move more quietly. At the Smith house, south of Oro Blanco, he found E. W. Smith, whose home had been broken into and black clothes, gun and a bottle of brandy taken. Together they went on to Oro Blanco, arriving at 2 in the morning, where the settlers were raised and armed. Johnny was put to bed. Early the next morning he and the men, including Dr Noon and Yank’s partner Hank Hewitt, set off for Bear Valley. Arriving back at the ranch, they found Shanahan on his deathbed and Mrs. Shanahan and the children newly emerged from hiding. At the Shanahan ranch the Apaches had taken all their food and clothing, killed several head of horses and run off many others. Perhaps Mrs. Shanahan would have been killed had it not been for little Phil’s warning.

For their bravery, Johnny Bartlett and Phil Shanahan were rewarded with rifles and money. However, the settlers were still uneasy. Women in particular were nervous and fearful in the wake of Mrs. Peck’s death. All summer long, Ella Searle was having friends stay with her at Oro Blanco. From Crittenden, Herman Searle wrote to say that he didn’t think they would attack Oro Blanco, since there were too many people there. Someone else thought they saw Apaches looking in the windows of the Arivaca hotel. A worried summer followed the attacks. The Apaches could move so fast and so far that no one knew exactly where they were. Indeed, there were a number of other killings that were attributed to Apaches that haven’t made it into the history books. Newspapers reported that one Henry Boston was killed by Apaches near Arivaca in June of 1886. In that same month, Santos Salono was killed in Oro Blanco Canyon (California Gulch), reportedly by Apaches. So it was with considerable relief that the settlers heard the news in September, 1886, that Geronimo had surrendered for the last time.

Join us for: “Geronimo’s Surrender: the C. S. Fly Photographs.” The story will be told in a program by Jay Van Orden, former staffer at the Arizona Historical Society, to be held at the Arivaca Old Schoolhouse on Saturday, November 13, at 11 am. Refreshments will be served. This Road Scholar Speakers’ Bureau program is sponsored by the Caviglia-Arivaca Library and is made possible by the Arizona Humanities Council.

In this presentation, Van Orden reexamines both the historical accounts and the photographed records of the surrender talks, and discusses critical, and heretofore missing, information. Van Orden integrates the updated information to add new depth to the suspenseful days of negotiations. Augmented by information retrieved from both researched eyewitness accounts and consultations with descendants of the photographed Chiricahuas, his presentation adds new historical perspective to a riveting moment in history. The Fly photographs capture the meetings, military camp scenes, and stunning views of the Chiricahua people. “The only known photographs of American Indians as Enemy-in-the-Field” were also the last ones, and with the final surrender of the Chiricahuas six months later, 350 years of Indian-Anglo warfare in North America came to an end.

Gratitude is an inspirational tool for gardening. Ideas come and bring a renewed life-force to manifest some of our dreams and hopes. I encourage you to begin planning and implementing this month to make your garden a special and sacred place that instills a sense of peace in a very busy world.

Think of where you would like to sit in your garden and how to share this space with your family and/or friends, as well as visitors. Several natural benches and chairs under a tree give you a sense of belonging. When envisioning this place, how and what would you like to observe? Maybe a birdbath and feeder close by. Plant one or more fruit trees to become a main feature of your sanctuary.

How does the water flow when it rains? Let it accumulate in a natural berm as a rainwater catch basin where you plant another tree—ornamental or otherwise. Along the rim of that berm you can plant vines or creeping plants. All of the plants will absorb the water that soaks into the berm; this is considered a basic permaculture design imitating the natural flow.

Falling in love with your garden is very healing and when the creativeness pours out of you it will fill your heart. When you share this feeling with others it will bring you all closer and friendship begins or deepens every time. Working together with others is another wonderful way to bond in your garden. In this season there are leaves and debris to rake up. You can prune dead branches of your roses, other bushes, and trees.

Maybe the flow of your walking paths can be improved. Growing up in Europe I remember the many parks—some of them hundreds of years old—filled with planted vegetation that naturalized. A simple bench under a tree creates a space to contemplate and/or visit with others. Smells of the simplest herbs like oregano, thyme, rosemary and others can complement each area and enrich your life. Broadcast one or several types of clover seeds in an area. It will bring color and a carpet like beautification. Some areas can become permanent features that increase yearly with all the seasons.

Your vegetable gardens in this season can hold lots of greens in tight spaces. Even the root vegetables like carrots, beets, radishes, turnips can be planted and harvested successively through mid spring. Be creative, rather than growing in long rows, seed them close together in circles or other shapes. You can thin them as they grow until the biggest ones have the right spacing. (The thinned vegetables can be very sweet and tasty in salads.) Bulbs like garlic and onions can be planted in large mounds as well. There is nothing more amazing than when your greens glow in the morning dew when the morning sun is just beginning to touch the leaves.

So keep on planting these different vignettes where you think they should be, and where you can observe and enjoy the changes of the seasons. You might be surprised how many birds, insects, and wildlife will be showing up. And most importantly your life will be filled with love touching your spirit and soul. Love is real! (Also the title of a song by TaliasVan of Tora and the Bright and Morning Star Band on The God Child Came Christmas album).

Come visit Avalon Organic Gardens, Farm and Ranch—call (520) 603-9932. We’ll give you personalized tour answering questions and showing you some of the manifestations of a labor of love—which all gardens really should be. We have also many pictures on our new and updated website: www.avalongardens.org/pictures.

Have a wonderful season of creative discoveries, Tarenta Baldeschi (Change Agent)