SEPTEMBER 2015 SERVING THE MOUNTAIN EMPIRE COMMUNITIES OF CANELO, ELGIN, PATAGONIA AND SONOITA VOL. 5, ISSUE 8 By Ann Katzenbach There are no lawn ornaments in ordered—by a lot. When the crop came Summer Lewton's front yard. Most of it in, it overwhelmed them. They gave has been converted to fertile garden onions away and still there were hun- plots from which she grows and sells dreds more, so they decided to sell tomatoes, squash, melon, cucumbers, them. Once Summer got the hang of it, garlic, onions, eggplant, and peppers. she says it was easy. The onions In the back she cares for 40 Rhode Is- quickly disappeared and there was land Red chickens, and there are bee some money in the bank. hives as well, maintained by Summer's Since then the garden has grown husband, Sasha. and evolved into what it is today. Dirty Sasha works long hours in the pro- Girl Farmette has two wells that are duce industry in Nogales, but he's also doing fine with all the rain we’ve had. a partner in the business of farming. The Lewtons have invested in a biode- Summer does a lot of the labor, but gradable manufactured mulch that together they plan and figure out what helps keep the weeds down and they fruits and vegetables to grow, what have an irrigation system and a roto- seeds to buy, when to plant, how much tiller. In between harvests, they plant of each crop to plant, and how to save cover crops to put nitrogen back into on labor and water. Sasha grew up on the soil. With weeding, watering, tilling an organic farm in Missouri. Summer and fertilizing all made easier, it’s pos- has always loved to grow things—a sible to just keep ahead of the growth, trait that includes four children. From but no one has yet invented a machine her front yard garden, Summer sells to harvest tomatoes or squash, melons wholesale quantities to local stores and or onions. restaurants and has customers in No- Photo Ann Katzenbachby Harvesting is the hardest part of the gales (Villa's Market and Mercado business of farming. At the height of Farmer’s Market) as well as Aqua Vita the season, Summer is up most morn- in Tucson. Probably all of us ings by 5 a.m. and out in the garden have eaten something grown until it’s time to take her three school- at Dirty Girl Farmette, the age children to school. The registered name of this estab- rest of the day lishment on North Avenue. disappears with The big garden began just harvesting more two years ago when Sasha or- vegetables, collecting dered onion starts. He says he eggs, packaging, weigh- did all the calculations for the ing, counting, billing, and size of their family, but when delivering to her various cli- two huge boxes of onion starts ents, and being a mom for arrived, he realized he had over (continued on page 3) Patagonia Creative Arts pealing confluence of About Us Association, and Border- wildlife, terrain, and en- lands Restoration, and vironmental awareness. MISSION STATEMENT A Boost For will be used to The grant was pro- To publish a nonprofit commu- strengthen Patagonia’s posed by UA faculty nity newspaper which serves identity as an arts and member, Anne S. Kurtin, the Mountain Empire commu- nature destination. The and TAS Paton Center nities of Santa Cruz county— grant, which will be Coordinator, Keith Ash- including Canelo, Elgin, Pata- Patagonia’s used to enhance the ley. Kurtin and her col- gonia, and Sonoita—and which visitor experience at the league, Siri Trumble, will is open to all views, highlight- center, is expected to lead architecture stu- ing local issues and emphasiz- greatly increase tourism dents in the design of a ing the contributions of local Ecotourism and economic opportu- new viewing pavilion. talent. nities for the commu- Patagonia Creative Arts nity, while improving Association will create Patagonia's economy with the intention of creating WHO WE ARE the health of the ecosys- interpretive signage, will soon benefit from public spaces that promote We are a nonprofit organiza- tem, wildlife, land, and while Borderlands Res- an infusion of $100,000, people's health, happiness, tion, funded by paid advertis- people. toration will develop thanks to the Patons, and well being.” ing, donations and grants. PRT Santa Cruz County's media to promote and to Tucson Audubon Chosen along with 37 is a free monthly publication popularity as an ecot- awareness of their Earth (TAS), current curator of other applicants from 1,300 distributed to news stands and ourism destination is Care Youth Institute Paton Center for Hum- local merchants in The Moun- projected to bring in (BECY). mingbirds. TAS submit- tain Empire. Santa Cruz County's 21.2 million dollars, in- "It is an extraordi- ted a grant request to cluding 6.7 million dol- nary opportunity to Artplace, one of the popularity as an lars in salaries and bring together and fos- Managing Editors: largest national philan- ecotourism destina- wages, and Patagonia is ter cooperative relation- Ann Katzenbach thropies dedicated to tion is projected to a leading beneficiary. ships while demonstrat- Donna Reibslager creative place making . The Paton Center for ing how important bird- Business Manager: For those not familiar bring in 21.2 million Hummingbirds’ world ing and bird watching – with this current catch- Katie Ballard dollar annually, in- renown makes it an quite literally in the word, Wikipedia defines Advertising Manager: ideal tourist attraction. backyard – can be to a it as: “a multi-faceted cluding 6.7 million Janie Trafton Along with The Nature local economy. We are approach to the plan- Contributing dollars in salaries Conservancy, Patagonia excited by the possibili- ning, design and man- and wages…. Lake State Park, Native ties,” commented Karen Writers & Staff: agement of public Seed Search, Arizona Fogas, Executive Direc- Martha Chase spaces. Place making grant requests, the grant was Trail, and Borderland tor for Tucson Audubon Judy Clegg capitalizes on a local awarded to Tucson Audu- Restoration, Paton's Society. Lynn Davison community's assets, in- bon, the University of Ari- helps to define Patago- spiration, and potential, Cate Drown zona School of Architecture, nia as a unique and ap- Cassina Farley John Fielding Patra Kelly Martin Levowitz Spotty Cell Service? Molly McCormick Vince Pinto A lot of Verizon's customers in our area have no- Judith Whitcomb ticed that they have been getting poor or spotty cell ser- Distribution: vice reception recently. According to Raul Mavis, IT Director for the County, Ron Reibslager Verizon's service is coming from the Red Mountain communication site. Several years ago they invested PRT’s current issue can be nearly one million dollars to install utility power to the found at Patagonia Library, site, and a few years ago they upgraded the site to sup- Patagonia Community port 4G/LTE service. Center, Patagonia Market, and Mavis says that t he current degradation of service could at other locations in Patagonia be attributed to the recent construction of a new com- and Sonoita munications tower, which was erected close to the time that reports of diminished quality of service began. The Contact us at: tower is likely causing interference with their antennas. [email protected] He said that Verizon is working in partnership with (520) 394-0098 the tower owner/operator (GovNet). Once the tower PO Box 1073, Patagonia 85624 construction is completed, Verizon intends to install their antennas on the tower, thus improving the quality Ads : [email protected] of service. The work is expected to be completed in Online edition: about two months. www.patagonia If you would like to register your concern about cur- 2 regionaltimes.org rent cell service through Verizon, you can call them at Artwork by Lee Katzenbach 866.892.7957 Front Yard Farming, continued three-year-old Madi. By then school is unsung volunteer position that requires New over and the family comes back in focus. meetings, reading policy documents, and “Sometimes I can get the kids to come attending workshops. out and help me,” she says, “and they do Are there enough hours in the day for a lot of work around here, but they have Summer to be a farmer, mother, wife, and Mining Bill lots of other things that they think are school board member? Obviously the an- more important. So did I once.” swer is “yes.” She and Sasha are enlarging One of the other things that Summer the garden and there’s talk about leasing Introduced does think is important at this point in some land for Dirty Girl Farmette to ex- By PRT Staff her life, is having some knowledge and pand and keep on growing. say about what goes on in school. She is In Patagonia, you can find their pro- the newest member of the Patagonia Ele- duce at Red Mountain Foods, and they now mentary School Board of Governors, an have a website: www.dirtygirlfarmette.com. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), together with 16 co- sponsors, recently introduced the Hardrock Mining Reform and Reclamation Act of 2015, in an effort to address the nation’s backlog of abandoned mine cleanups and to ensure that NEWS BRIEFS taxpayers get a fair share from public lands mining. The number of hardrock abandoned A video camera has been installed at Paton Center for Hummingbirds. You can mine lands (AMLs) that will require cleanup is watch the hummers and other birds at tucsonaudubon.org/hummingbirdcam. 7,700 – 31,000. Federal estimates of the cost to clean up abandoned mines are as high Patagonia’s Municipal Court will hold a jury trial in Nogales on October 6.