New Mexico youth learn virtues of growing carrots

On a sunny fall morning, a dozen people kneel in the freshly turned earth of a carrot patch, chatting as they unearth the bright orange vegetables. Working as a team, they sort the carrots into bunches, tie them off with rubber bands, and toss them into buckets of water to keep them fresh.

These carrots are some of the last produce that will be harvested this year at Cerro Vista farm, an 18-acre farm in Taos County, in northern New Mexico. The area, sitting at over 7500 feet above sea level, has a short growing season of only around 90 days. But the team of farmers, which includes teenagers and young adults, makes the most of it. The youngest carrot harvester in the group is thirteen. The oldest – Daniel Carmona, the owner of Cerro Vista Farm – is 75 (and a half). The carrots were planted