After finishing my plant propagation internship in the spring of 2025, I was excited to get the opportunity to stay with DFI in a paid position as a summer farm hand. While much of the spring work took place in the greenhouse, preparing for the summer production, the last couple of months have been spent in the fields and hoop houses, getting to see all the preparatory work come to fruition. Farming in the desert is no easy task, and one I have been trying to manage since I was young, but during my time here, I’ve learned a lot that puts many of the struggles with desert farming that I’ve had to rest.
One of the top priorities at DFI is soil health, which will keep our farming practices sustainable and productive. We conduct rotations of cover crops and complete soil remediation by adding organic matter and necessary nutrients before and after each crop rotation, with reduced tilling. We are pitted against many increased soil challenges in the desert. Typically, there are low amounts of organic material due to decreased rates of decomposition, making additives essential to continued productivity. In addition, exposure to the elements here means decreased soil structure due to wind exposure, freeze-thaw cycles, and intense drying, which make the protection that hoop houses and cover crops provide especially necessary to maintaining our soil health.
In addition to all of the desert-smart practices I have learned that will help me make better-informed decisions for future cultivation, what I will remember most about my DFI summer is the duality of farming: the joy, mixed with inevitable failure. While getting to work with farm educator Todd Rissone, he once said, “You’re not a real farmer until you’ve failed”, a statement that brought me a lot of peace. It’s not always picking perfect fruits from a luscious garden. Oftentimes, it’s feeling blindsided by unforeseen struggles with pests, disease, or even worse- the unknown. But it does happen, and it’s all a part of what makes the work rewarding. Hearing this from such a successful farmer like Todd was comforting and encouraging, motivating me to work through the difficulties to better understand them. We did experience hardship this summer, with losses such as the roof of one of the hoop houses, which made soil maintenance more difficult, or the spider mite infestation in the cucumbers, which is an ongoing struggle for many desert farmers. We are in a constant state of striving to understand and remedy our practices to ameliorate the losses, and it’s something I’ve really grown to admire: the valiant efforts. Todd and the other mentors and advisors around the farm also taught me about the joy of farming. That it’s okay to take breaks on a hot day, just to stop for a minute to eat melon in the shade of the wash house, or the experience of building a bouquet with flowers you cut in the early morning hours. There is much that will stick with me from my time here with DFI.
The Desert Farming Initiative is grateful for the support of the Nevada Agricultural Foundation. Their contributions make paid student internships like Jessica’s possible.
