GALLUP, New Mexico — It’s an overcast, windy November day as Zachariah Ben stands tall over the small, folding table at a local flea market.
His tsiiyééł sits low on his neck and it’s clear that his dark brown hair is very long. Before him, on a black-and-white Pendleton blanket, sit two products — Bidii Baby Food and neeshjizzii — that share a common element, naadą́ą́, or corn. He’s already sold out of tádídíín, or corn pollen, this year, which sells fast during the summer and fall.
But tádídíín is not the only thing missing from the table. Over the summer, he offered a variety of melons grown at Ben Farms, owned and operated by his family, at different flea markets in the Four Corners area on Saturdays and Sundays.
In past years, Ben Farms grew only corn, but last growing season Ben decided to grow melons on the cornfield he manages. Farming puts food on the family’s table, gas in their vehicles and money for each of them to live. But he’s already concerned that it didn’t rain as much this year during the summer months, and that by late November it still hadn’t snowed...