“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 COO, Embudo Valley Vineyards COO
