Tucson, AZ: Sleeping Frog Farm

I arrived in Tucson on Saturday night, January 2nd, and pulled into the gate of Sleeping Frog Farm, where I was to work and stay for the next week. Teddy Bear Chula cacti mingle with mesquite trees, and hawks and doves fly.

Sleeping Frog proved to be an inviting place. The farmers, CJ and Adam, are both under 35, two of the 2.3% of farmers in the U.S. in their age group. I must give them props for running a farm, as many difficulties are faced particularly by young farmers. They hope to sign a 30-year lease on land in Cascabel along the San Pedro River and move out of the property they have been renting and farming on just outside of Tucson— but their much-needed move is dependent on funds that can be difficult to acquire.

The property that Sleeping Frog now calls home supports two fields totaling a half acre, two chicken coops with about 100 chickens total (recently, they lost several to a bobcat), and three goats. The farmers hope to raise their chicken population to 1000 on the new land in Cascabel, and their acreage under cultivation to 50.

Although CJ and Adam are the technical farm operators, many others contribute to running the farm on different levels. Debbie, Adam’s partner, lives on the property and is the main goat caretaker. She also works full-time with the food bank teaching children’s gardening classes. Her job’s income and goat milk sales help to support the farm. Initially, Debbie bought a goat to milk for her own use, but so many people wanted to purchase it, she decided to start production for the market. Although demand for her goat’s milk is much higher than she can produce, Debbie must find loopholes in order to legally sell the raw milk. Officially, the milk is sold “for animal consumption only,” although ask any of the customers, and I’m sure they will tell you that they are purchasing the milk for their own human use. This need of loopholes for a small farm to exist speaks to how outdated our agricultural policies have become, and the necessity for new policies and systems that support— rather than hinder— local, organic production of food goods.

The other main, unofficial farm operator is Mr. X, a Tucson local who came to Sleeping Frog seeking to work on the farm full-time in exchange for room and board. He has been on the farm for a year now (and now receives a small stipend), and all agree that his work is integral to the smooth workings of the farm’s various daily and weekly tasks. Mr. X’s presence on Sleeping Frog is part of a trend of people who, for varying lengths of time, seek to work on farms not for monetary compensation, but for the experience and learning that they can gain, and the pride in doing good work. I myself am seeking the same in my farm work, and I hope to use the knowledge gleaned to start my own farm or urban garden— or at least to learn more about the earth and those creatures and plants that exist upon it.