Silver City, NM: Southwest New Mexico farmers, ranchers and business owners banded together last week at the Grant County Extension Services office in Silver City to ensure local grown food takes a more prominent place on dinner plates. Over 35 regional food producers participated in the training, one of several service offerings provided by Cominda Buena, a three-year program of the National Center for Frontier Communities (NCFC).

NCFC Program Specialist, Ben Rasmussen said, "We want to increase access to markets so that farmers and ranchers maximize their sales, and everyone in the region can easily purchase fresh, healthy food." The program partners with farmers, ranchers, and backyard gardeners in Catron, Grant, Luna and Hidalgo Counties to connect with the region's potential $9.9 million produce market, estimated by the USDA.

David Mercer and Susan Dryer attended the Cominda Buena gathering. Their family runs Moonlight Farm and Forbidden Fruits Orchard, located in San Lorenzo. They came to learn about ways to select and diversify their crops to better align with the needs of regional restaurants and increase the possibility produce of sales.

Mercer said, "We are very interested in distribution and delivery networks so our crops reach new markets."

Beth Cox, from the L Bar Ranch in Hidalgo County, also hopes to expand the market and reach of her ranch. "Right now we contract about 10 heads of cattle a year, grass-fed out in pastures, most of those cattle go to Las Cruces, but we could do more if we had access to other markets."

Being located in isolated frontier areas can increase transportation costs for growers and limits the potential markets they can reach. Cominda Buena is creating with food producers a virtual food hub where local food producers can connect online with regional buyers. If one farmer doesn't have enough of a product to fill a specific order, other farmers or ranchers can sign on to meet the order and schedule a cooperative delivery.

Also, restaurants can sign on to the virtual food hub early in the season so farmers know what to plant to fill future orders with the financial surety of growing pre-sold crops. The virtual food hub also offers access to resources, including upcoming trainings in the region.

Page Latham travelled to the gathering from Deming, where she farms the Red Hot Green Chile Place. Latham grows a variety of organic produce, and specializes in the roasted green peppers for which New Mexico is famous. Latham also sales organic dry red chile powder, dip mixes and spiced salts.

Latham said, "I have more produce than I can sell, so I hope to reach new markets and widen my distribution, especially restaurants."

That over production of chile was music to Amy Gutierrez ears. As one of the produce buyers in attendance, Gutierrez hoped to connect with local growers to order ingredients for her salsa business, Family and Friends Salsa.

Gutierrez said, "My Grandma was from Deming, and she made the best salsa. I want to continue that family tradition. The flavors she captured are from the southwest, so I need to buy local produce to insure the salsa's unique flavor." Gutierrez creates and bottles her salsa at the Nuevos Comienzos Commercial Kitchen at the Volunteer Center of Grant County, one of the partners of Comida Buena project.

Grant County Extension Service is another partner on the project. 4-H and Agriculture Extension Agent, Jessica Swapp says her program will offer "education on how to get started in agriculture including trainings for growers on different aspects of the business like food safety and sanitation to assure the highest quality product reaches the buyer."

Rasmussen says, "Comida Buena is partnering with growers and buyers to build a local vibrant food-system. This is a new program and as far as we know the first time this approach has ever been implemented in a frontier region. It has great potential to be adapted to other small communities across the nation, which is what we hope to do in the future."

Comida Buena is funded by a Local Food Promotion Program grant from the United States Department of Agriculture

Comida Buena is currently registering local growers and purchasers interested in participating in the project. For more information, contact Rasmussen at (575) 597-0032, email brasmussen@swchi.org or visit the website at http://frontierus.org/.

LFPP Funding for Comida Buena was made possible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service through grant 16LFPPNM0002. Contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA.