No, we don't grow produce. Instead, we grow seedling plants for people to plant in their own gardens. We also have chickens and compost, and make ollas: clay irrigation pots.

We start all the tomatoes and peppers from seed - under lights - in a germination table in our admin office! Once ready to transplant, they go in one of 5 greenhouses. 3 are in the backyard of our Admin building, and 2 located on Charleston Street (about a half mile away).

All of our products are available for sale at our main office (seedlings only available mid-April through May). Local nurseries carry our seedlings seasonally as well: look for our product at Rehm’s, Plants of the Southwest, Jericho Nursery, and Jackalope. Our ollas are also used and sold at the Urban Homestead in Pasadena, California.

Ollas are clay irrigation pots. They are an indigenous irrigation technique, in which the olla is buried in the ground so water can seep slowly through the clay to the roots of plants.

We make them by hand, right on site, in our warehouse/workshop which is right between our Youth Program and Food Cooperative. They are poured with a New Mexico red slip clay, hand finished off and polished, and then fired. It is a labor of love!

Unfortunately we do not ship ollas to individual customers. For a short time, we did have an online store, but as a small non-profit, the shipping costs and logistics were simply too complicated and costly to maintain.

East Central Ministries is the umbrella organization, and Growing Awareness is one of our programs. Growing Awareness complements our other programs by financially supporting our ministry, creating and cultivating green spaces in our neighborhood, and helping us educate the community about environmental stewardship, and building relationships with the greater Albuquerque community.