The Embudo Valley Farm
The Farm
Embudo Valley Organics is an organic farm on the banks of the Rio Grande that specialized in “Happy Turkeys” and the highest quality of organic animal feed for 24 years.
Over the last quarter-century, the farm has become a local institution. They’ve built their loyal and avid customer base not just through their premium product, but also through their personal touch. You can still get superior organic feed for all of your poultry and goat needs at one of Embudo Valley Organics’ distributing partners across the state of New Mexico.
The Origins of the “Home of the Happy Turkey”
“My first year working on the farm was 1991. I moved on the farm in 1992 and started managing in 1995. We grew 32 varieties of heirloom beans and 6 kinds of heirloom corn. We had such an incredible grasshopper problem that they ate everything we tried to grow in 1993. I was so frustrated trying to fight grasshoppers organically and not having any success that I suggested in the winter of 93’ that we stop fighting the grasshoppers and raise turkeys to eat them. So in 1994, we raised 250 turkeys to eat grasshoppers and sold them for Thanksgiving in Taos at the original co-op in town, called Amigos Coop. And by 1999, we were raising almost 2,000 turkeys a year and selling all over the state. We were the very first certified organic turkey farm in the nation. We were forced to learn how to make our own organic feed ration for turkeys because there was no such thing commercially at the time. That, of course, led us to create our feed business which is thriving to this day”.
“It was and still is very important to us to create a sustainable business that helps the community and preserves the land, that creates products that help, that everyone wants, while never really competing with large corporations”
- John McMullin, Embudo Valley Organics General Manager, Embudo Valley Vineyards General Manager
A Rio Grande Match Made in Heaven
In 1997, the EVO farm planted a vineyard of Baco Noir along the Rio Grande, and in 1999, made their first batch of homegrown wine for the farm family and friends. It has been a yearly tradition ever since. When the hard decision was made to end the raising of turkeys, Embudo Valley Organics naturally turned its sights to wine. They reached out to 20+ year winemaker, Josh Johnson. With his history and reputation of making award-winning New Mexico wines, he aligned perfectly with EVO’s philosophy of providing the best products on the market with great integrity. Synchronistically, Josh Johnson was also searching for the perfect partner in his own quest to establish a new winery. Embudo Valley Vineyards was born!
