Heart of the Desert – Mesilla

For the first five years, George and Marianne and their three children, Gordon, Laura, and Jean worked the farm. After work, after school, and weekends, their days were filled with farming – all done by hand. The first expansion of the groves took place with the planting of 700 trees. This was done with the help of the local high school baseball team. Gordon was on the team and they were always looking for a fundraiser. Each subsequent expansion brought its own set of challenges. Being the only grove in New Mexico, there was no support industry in place for harvesting or processing. Necessity truly being the mother of invention, the Schweers had to develop their own processing operation, or truck the nuts out of state for processing. Fabricating equipment, buying used equipment, and trucking the nuts for salting and roasting, were all ongoing projects in the early years.