Heart of the Desert – Las Cruces

George, an Air Force officer stationed at Holloman AFB in 1969, had been raised in rural Nebraska. A longtime family goal was to return to the field of agriculture after military service. So, in the early 1970’s, after the family determined that they wanted to stay in the Tularosa Basin, the search for a crop that would grow in desert conditions began. While the Schweers were researching, they received a phone call from Harvey Widner, employed by a contractor at Holloman AFB, who had heard of the Schweers’ project via the “Holloman Wireless.” Harvey had also studied desert crops and had planted 400 seedling pistachio trees. When the contractor left Holloman in 1974, Harvey offered to sell his 400 two-year-old trees to the Schweers, and a family farm was born! Little did they know what was in store!