Slow Food Santa Fe edition - September 2026

September 5, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In the 1800s and early 1900s, New Mexico had more than 80 grain mills. Today, only a couple remain. Tim Foss, a founding member and agroecology specialist with the Southwest Grain Collaborative, has spent nearly a decade trying to reverse that decline. On a recent episode of The Garden Journal, he explained that the revival of small-scale grain growing in the region is not a simple matter of planting seeds. It is a slow, infrastructure-heavy effort to rebuild an entire system — from combines and cleaning equipment to storage, milling, and reliable markets — while honoring the deep agricultural history of the place.

The Historical Context: Wheat Before the Wheat Belt

Foss’s project began in 2016 as the New Mexico Landrace Corn Project, sparked by a New York Times article about a company called Masienda that was sourcing traditional corn varieties from Mexico for high-end restaurants. Foss and his colleagues saw an opportunity: New Mexico had its own ancient corn-growing tradition, and farmers could potentially scale up to meet a similar demand. But as they worked with farmers, they quickly realized that growing the same crop year after year in the same fields would deplete the soil. To sustain production, they needed a crop rotation — and that meant introducing small grains.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:09) **Show Intro & Guest Welcome** - Hosts Nina Rosenberg and Lisa Johnson introduce the Slow Food Santa Fe edition and welcome Tim Foss from the Southwest Grain Collaborative.
2 (02:39) **Tim's Background: From Organic Veggies to Agroecology** - Tim shares his 30-year farming career, starting with organic market gardening in California and later earning a PhD in agroecology.
3 (05:18) **Historical Context: Wheat's Arrival in the Americas** - The hosts ask about New Mexico's role as the first location for wheat cultivation in North America, starting in 1599.
4 (09:36) **The Southwest Grain Collaborative: Origin Story** - Tim describes how the collaborative started as the New Mexico Landrace Corn Project in 2016, sparked by a New York Times article about a company sourcing traditional corn from Mexico.
5 (13:35) **From Corn to a Full Crop Rotation** - The project quickly expanded beyond corn when local bakers and restaurants asked for small grains and beans.
6 (16:56) **Post-Break: The Crop Rotation System in Detail** - After station announcements, Tim elaborates on how the rotation system evolved and how it replaced the dominant crop of alfalfa hay across New Mexico.
7 (19:56) **Who Buys the Grain? Customer Breakdown** - Tim lists the collaborative's diverse customer base, from small bakeries to larger institutions.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Slow Food Santa Fe's Lissa Johnson and Nina Rosenberg talk with Tim Vos, managing director and agroecology specialist, with the Southwest Grain Collaborative about their work with farmers across the region to select and develop diverse, drought-tolerant, regionally adapted, locally grown and certified organic cover, forage and food crop seed.