Escapes WEEKENDER
Ramona Button holds tepary beans, which were nearly extinct in the region until she found jars of seeds her father had saved. BELOW Some of the heirloom corn products available at Ramona Farms.
“He taught me how important it was to pass these products into the future,” Ramona says. “When he passed away, I found the white and brown tepary beans in a glass jar in an old trunk. I remembered my father saying, ‘Go back to your foods, because you’re going to need them. It’s vital to your health.’” Terry and Ramona married in 1972. “They had an ancient farming tradition when I first came here,” Terry says. “The Pima and Maricopa here diverted waters from the Gila and grew a complex variety of crops, with staple crops being tepary and 60-day corn, as well as wheat, which came from the Spanish. They also grew tobacco and cotton. But then the government came out with commodity food programs, and the water dried up.” These shifts impacted Indigenous farmers’ ability to produce heirloom crops.
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