The Mimbres Mercado is an indoor/outdoor, weekly Saturday market, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (winter hours) in Mimbres. It takes place in an old airplane hangar with its doors open facing south and the dirt runway, to capture the sun and show off the great view down the valley to distinctive Cook’s Peak, sacred to the ancient Mimbrenos, in the distance.
It seems the Mercado is hard to find. It is in the back of the Mimbres Marketplace property at 2743 on Highway 35, that is part of the Casas Adobes subdivision. The metal building in front was the sales office and the hangar in back was where the owner’s husband kept his plane.
The Casas Adobes development was started in the late 1970s to provide small airplane hangar space next to your home, for the parcels adjacent to the runway, so you could taxi home in your plane. The metal building was also known for forty years as the HMS Medical Clinic.
To get to the Mercado’s hangar, turn left at the long row of mailboxes on Laguna del Oso. Then head left towards the large tan building (the back of the hangar) with white vinyl signs and colorful flags on it. Parking is in front of you or to the side around the hangar, if walking is an issue.
Look for two green feather flags with Mercado written on them and two wooden sandwich board signs pointing the way. If you pass the R.V. Park on your left, you have gone too far. If you do find the Mercado with these new directions, let us know you read it in the Desert Exposure.
Mercado is the Spanish word for market. On the other side of the border, it is usually a weekly weekend market where everything is sold. Here in southwestern New Mexico, it is called a swap meet or flea market.
Farmer’s Market
The Mimbres Mercado is a cross between a swap meet and a farmers’ market.
Starting in mid-July it is now officially a farmers’ market, extending the agricultural season all year long. During the growing season, the Mimbres Valley Farmers’ Market also meets in the front part of the four-acre Mimbres Marketplace. The Mimbres Marketplace is a long-term project of the Mimbres Food & Agriculture Cooperative.
The Mimbres Food & Agriculture Co-operative’s mission is to promote local food production in this agricultural valley along the Mimbres River. It’s mission “is also to build community by providing markets and a gathering place for Mimbres Valley residents and visitors.”
The Mercado is eager to attract more farmers, backyard and greenhouse growers and is offering discounted outside vendor spaces for $5 to agricultural vendors. For $5, agricultural vendors can also rent half a six-foot community produce table to sell extra produce and value-added products such as jams and pastries year-round.
Agricultural vendors are also those that spin yarn from the fleece of the sheep they raise to weave hats and shawls and tapestries. Ranchers that offer processed and inspected meat products kept in a small freezer are also included.
Business Park
The Mimbres Co-op’s next project is to open a small business park on the property. The old metal building is being transformed into a New to You Thrift & Farm Store (local & New Mexico grown) with a commercial kitchen/catering facility. Look for December openings. Keep track of the co-op’s progress at “Mimbres Food” on Facebook with weekly Thursday evening Mercado Update about what will be available on Saturday.
To raise money for weatherproofing the Mercado’s hangar and putting in a permanent poured adobe floor over the dirt, the Mimbres Co-op has been taking donations of good used items on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for the ongoing thrift sale that takes place in part of the hangar during the Mercado. It also provides lots of things for sale in the New to You Thrift Store.
New To You
Due to the extremely generous donations from a mother with family of teenagers who came with three carloads of childhood toys to sell, a lot of toys were left and donated to the Mercado. Another local grandmother decided to clean out a storage shed housing her seven grandsons’ little boy clothing and beds. She washed, folded and sorted everything and donated it all to the co-op.
To celebrate the next generation while remembering our ancestors at the Mercado, the co-op held a giant toy sale for kids on Nov. 1. Everything was $1 or less. Children’s books and little boys’ clothing at 50 cents each were also a bargain. A very nice crib with mattress, that spent years in a storage shed, was purchased by a local couple of grandparents to help create an enticing place for their grandbaby visits.
Kids were delighted with free cupcakes decorated in orange swirls and hot chocolate. The Toy & Boy’s Clothes 50-Cent Sale continued until everything changed hands.
The Valley
The Mimbres Valley is long and narrow along its 35 miles, and unincorporated. Population is uncertain, anywhere from a thousand, according to the census, but there may be double that. People are spread apart and isolated.
Sixty-five percent of people are over 65 and this statistic is increasing. Almost two years ago, the only restaurant open daily for many years in the valley, was closed when its owner died, with the only gas station and its convenience store.
The valley population had especially hard times this year with the terrible drought and then the Trout and other fires raging this summer, so that many were forced to evacuate. Then there was flooding with damage to irrigation dams.
A Mimbres co-op member said that “establishing the weekly market year-round is building community. It is learning about people who celebrate different things than you do and developing mutual respect. It is also about leveraging our resources to help build that community and attracting small businesses to the area.”
Developing a community around thrift has been very beneficial for the Mercado which has held the on-going, very affordable, thrift sale since it opened. It also inspired the move into the thrift and farm store, open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, starting Dec. 6. Staffed by all volunteers initially, there will be part-time jobs making grab-and-go deli, baking and catering in the commercial kitchen.
Co-op member Elizabeth Cardenas of Mimbres, a mother involved in putting on the toy sale who also made the gorgeous and delicious cupcakes, said, “The Mercado is providing a service to the community. We are not only getting a place to shop for things at extremely discounted prices but also getting a place where we can donate things no longer used and keep it all out of the land fill. I was able to get rid of lots of my son’s old toys and stuff, and it is helping other families out.”
The Mercado has food. The Co-op’s lunch menu features one old favorite every week such as lasagna or chicken pot pie or Jambalaya and Gumbo and as it gets colder, red lentil soup with smoked turkey with cornbread or split pea soup with ham hocks, hot coffee, hot chocolate and muffins.
One of the Mercado’s most popular vendors, from nearby San Juan, is the Mimbrenas Nativas who offer red chile pork tamales as well as sometimes green chile chicken and occasionally vegetarian ones, stuffed galletas and aguas frescas (cold fruit drinks) along with handmade corn tortillas and empanadas made by a neighbor.
Other regular vendors include Mountain Man Don Deaett who sells an incredible collection of knives and holsters, leatherwork, survival vests and camping gear. His neighbor vendor Jan Miller makes great crocheted hats as well as fabric art such as placemats and quilts and sells her husband’s cards with reproductions of original paintings portraying Cook’s Peak in all weather and other local scenes.
Artist Vicki Pelham is at the Mercado every other week with her own paintings, cards and wool baskets and collectibles, clothing, housewares, jewelry and knives. Vendors sell tools and equipment no longer needed as well as furniture, craft and business supplies and antiques. Lake Roberts vendor, Paula Cook, makes miniatures and puppets and has an on-going raffle to raise money for a local veterans forest camp.
One of the joys as market manager is to hear the buzz of conversation and look around and see people chatting with each other while buying things, finding out more about each other. The mingling amongst people you know or are getting to know.
I also like seeing people bike or motorbike or walk to the Mercado. Walking paths through and around the four-acre marketplace is a Mimbres Co-op project for the new year.
Starting in early November, local certified teacher, Zayne Marston started twice a week Qigong classes, Tuesdays and Thursday from 2 to 3:15 on the level outdoor marketplace in front of the Mercado’s hangar.
Marston was able to discard knee-high metal braces and get out of chronic pain. He explained, “Through diligent practice, I was able to unlock obstructions to the energy pathways known as meridians. When Qi is blocked there is illness and disease. When Qi flows well, we are healthy.”
Living just across the street from the Mercado, Marston, is someone who walks or bikes to market each week. He believes in the co-op’s vision for the community and is donating half his class fees.
Information about the co-op and membership is available at the Mercado at the co-op’s booth along with a model of its plans for the entire property. Members receive a quarterly newsletter, news of volunteer opportunities, a yearly members’ meeting and feast and quarterly 10% discounts in the New to You Thrift & Farm Store.
Contact Valerie at vm.macnm@gmail.com and 520-678-8577 for more information about coming as a vendor to the Mercado and about the Mimbres Co-op and membership.
