The Truck Farm - Local Economic Development (and southwestern condiments) at its best

I was in Las Cruces, New Mexico this week for work with the downtown organization. If you wish you can read about that assignment and Las Cruces in the previous blog.

But among the coolest part of the work I do is the absolutely serendipity nature of the people I meet and the lessons I learn. And Jim and Cleda Hawman and their company The Truck Farm are great examples.

Jim's a farmer (at least that's how he bills himself) although for over twenty years he also worked for Sara Lee. Both Jim and Cleda are Las Cruces natives. In 1996 they began The Truck Farm in the fertile Mesilla Valley west of Las Cruces. Jim experimented with specialty crops finally deciding to specialize in berries. As production increased by 1998 it made sense to buy a local fruit and gift shop.

Well, as happens when entrepreneurs establish a differentiated market and meet customer demand, the business grew. By the end of 1999 The Truck Farm acquired two other small firms. The first was Tia Rita Products which produced chile-based products and gourmet spices and flavorings as well as packaged, easily prepared southwest dishes. Before the end of the year the Truck Farm bought the Desert Farms line of chile-based jellies, honey and other condiments.


But even though now their product range was substantial Jim continued to experiment. Here's what Cleda told me. "In 2000 we had a bumper crop of blackberries, there were tons of them. So I said to Jim, 'you've got to figure out something to do with all those berries!'" So Jim did. He experimented with mixing berries and chiles until he finally came up with Besito Caliente which means "A Hot Little Kiss". It's a syrup-like product that you can use for everything - flavoring margaritas, pouring on ice cream, spreading on pancakes, adding to cake batter, using as fruit dip, mixing with cream cheese...literally a hundred uses. They once entered Besito Caliente in a salsa contest as a joke but ended up as the winner. Another time they came in second - but there were 900 entrants. By last year Besito Caliente constituted over 40% of the sales of the Truck Farm. Well I brought half a suitcase of Truck Farm products home with me and have already dipped into the Jalapeno mustard and Cierra's Gourmet Mustard.

But I'm not in the food review business (although I found at least one source - the Hot Sauce Blog blog which raved about Tia Rita's products) and I'm not a shill for some small company in New Mexico. Rather what excited me about meeting Jim and Cleda and seeing their business was what a great economic development story it is.

Here is this small enterprise in relatively rural New Mexico that has built up a national, specialized market for their products. The majority of sales are wholesale to restaurants and gourmet food shops who use and/or resell their products. They do have a limited internet presence through the online market New Mexico's Own but Jim promises to have their own website in the not too distant future. And there is a small retail store attached to their production facility in Las Cruces.

They are selling their products nationally, thus bringing dollars into the local economy. But their purchases of both labor and materials are almost exclusively local - recirculating those dollars into the region's economy. That is effective economic development.

But here's what else impressed me. Every Wednesday and Saturday morning there is a farmers' market in downtown Las Cruces. Jim is always there with a range of his products. But he also uses that as an opportunity for first hand market research -- having people taste new products, compare different iterations, make recommendations and state preferences. Talking about getting input from your customers! And Jim takes it one step further. He says "I know how to grow things, and how to mix things as a product, but I don't know about naming the product after I've developed it." So what does he do? He asks his customers what he should call the product. The name Besito Caliente came from customer suggestions.

The small production facility (which Jim describes as very low tech) is viewable through windows from the retail section - you can literally see your product being prepared. If you ask nicely, Cleda will give you a couple of recipes for use of some of the products and suggestions on how to use others.

This is one great business...and even a better business model. The good news is that their son has now joined them at the Truck Farm.

So buy their products if you like spicy southwestern cuisine (and I definitely do). But more importantly learn from Jim and Cleda Hawman. They are what great small business and great economic development are all about.

Unintended Consequences of the Push for Density

I've always loved Seattle, particularly the grittiness of it. Although the grittiness seems to be disappearing apace. But Seattle has always been at the forefront of trying to address difficult urban issues. They don't always get it right, but unlike many cities, they don't shy away from trying to find solutions (or at least mitigations) to seemingly intractable urban problems.

That means that Seattle is often the laboratory of urban ideas, policies, and approaches. But at the moment I think there's a real need to try to balance a series of legitimate public policy priorities. The Mayor, Greg Nickles, is among the leaders in the US on environmental issues, having lead the US Council of Mayors initiative to commit to meeting the Kyoto Protocol in their cities. Certainly a commendable goal. And Mayor Nickles' primary vehicles to do that are density (writ large, no pun intended) and public transit.

But walking around Seattle neighborhoods, talking to neighborhood activists, developers, preservationists and city officials, here's my observation -- there are unintended consequences to this "density above all" approach that need to be addressed. In Seattle three other important public policy priorities seem to be being sacrificed at the altar of density -- affordable housing, historic preservation, and small business.

Example one. Here's a picture of a 1930s apartment house close to downtown. I don't know exactly, but I'd guess it contained 35 or 40 apartments. I'd also wager that the rents there were on the "affordable" side, relative to much of Seattle, and the proximity to employment centers and public transportation meant one could live there sans automobile. From a preservation perspective it's ok, but certainly not a building I'd go to the mat for on historic preservation grounds alone. But it is now vacant, awaiting demolition and replacement by a 25 story condo building. Density, certainly, but at the expense of both affordable housing and historic preservation. Without knowing the particulars, I'd wager my exorbitant day's pay that the units in the new building will be out of reach for 100% of the residents of the old building. And of course the residents of the new high rise will have cars whether they need them or not, so there will be a 305 car parking garage beneath new the building.

Of course the argument is often made in justification of demolition, "well, that's not what the 'market' wants anymore". Well, in case there's a doubt whether the "market" would live in a building like this? Not three blocks away is the virtual twin of this building with a "no vacancy" sign in front, while every new high rise residential building I saw in the neighborhood had "for rent" signs.

Example two. Earlier (April 30, 2008) I wrote about the differences between neighborhood business districts and shopping centers in neighborhoods, using Boise, Idaho as an example. Well, unlike Boise, Seattle is fortunate in having lots of great neighborhood business districts. These are commercial areas, almost entirely populated by locally owned, independent businesses, serving the convenience needs of the nearby residents. And most of the buildings housing these businesses are one and two story. Like the apartment building above, one might not make the case for saving these buildings solely on a historic preservation basis, but when it's combined with providing relatively affordable space for small business, the case for keeping them in place gets stronger.

But in the push for density, these low scale commercial buildings are decidedly at risk. Now Seattle seems to have pretty good urban design guidelines. Across the street from the building above is this building, that meets many of the tests of a good urban structure -- built to the sidewalk, retail on the ground level, relatively good materials, mixed use, and a good design. And it certainly advances the Mayor's density drive by being six stories rather than one or two. But I can guarantee that none of the locally owned businesses across the street could afford the rents in this new building. And if the modest buildings they now occupy are razed to make room for the next version of this building? They'll be lost to the Seattle economy as small businesses entirely.

Historic preservation in most of America has moved from being an end in itself -- save old buildings in order to save old buidlings -- to being a vehicle for larger, and perhaps even more important ends. These two Seattle examples are great illustrations -- historic buildings providing affordable housing, and affordable space for small business. And the myopic focus on "density" is putting that substantial contribution of historic preservation at risk.