Rancho LLAM

Levi and Angelina have been vending at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market since the 1970s. Their farm is acequia-irrigated.

Rancho LLAM received the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute’s “Farmer All Star” award in 2009.

Levi and Angelina Valdez both grew up in Velarde. Angelina’s father had an orchard, and so did Levi’s, over by the church. So growing fruit is something they’ve always known, even though they both had busy careers – Levi in education for 34 years and Angelina with the State and at the Labs. Levi’s father, Manuel, and mother, Delidia, were some of the first vendors at the Market when it started at St. Anne’s Church back in the late 60s, but Levi started marketing fruit long before that when he was about nine years old. That was when he would walk to Don Daniel’s orchard, where his father was the caretaker, buy a bunch of cherries from him for 50 cents, walk back over to the highway, put the cherries in a bowl, stems down to make them look pretty, and hold them high over his head, screaming “cherries!” at the top of his lungs at passing cars. He’d make about a dollar on his 50 cent investment and Don Daniel told him that whenever he made a dollar to save a dime. That was good advice because eventually, after saving a lot of dimes and becoming the dean of continuing education at Northern NM Community College, Levi was able to buy the 17-acre orchard from Don Daniel. His father continued to work it and take the fruit to the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market.  “My mom used to say when I stopped by the Market to see how they were doing, ‘Aqui es el dueno!’ (here is the owner)” Levi said, getting choked up at the memory.

Back in the old days before there were any farmers’ markets, 18-wheelers from Texas would come to the Velarde Valley and take most of the fruit back to Texas. The truck drivers who would come back every year eventually got nicknames: El Diablo was one, or El Flaco, which means skinny. Everybody had their sources to sell to, and Levi and his father would load up their trucks and drive to their buyer, Mr. G., in Amarillo, Texas. Residents would also go on what was called La Frutiada, selling door to door or trading for food, all the way up to southern Colorado. Those days are gone now, as direct sales at road side stands, to the schools, restaurants and at local farmers markets have replaced the need for shipping fruit out of state in18-wheelers or selling door to door.

Levi’s parents continued to sell at the market well into the 1980s. Levi and Angelina would help, and as his dad declined, Levi started working more and more in the orchard. “It’s a lot of work, and I complain sometimes, but really I love it out here,” Levi said. “That’s why my fruit is so delicious, because it is grown with love!”  Levi has about 400 apple trees, over 300 peach trees, and some apricots, plums, cherries and pear trees. In addition to being busy growers, both Levi and Angelina served on the board of the Market, Angelina for three years and Levi for at least ten years and still going. “I just care about it and all the people who are there,” Levi said.  “And, I think it is great how much it’s grown,” says Levi.  “Back in the 80s was the first step when we moved to the railyard, but now it’s really something. You can see the economic development.”