The Walking Trail
The Pauma Tribal Walking Trail is 1.25 miles and forms the perimeter around all three sections of the farm (Vineyard, Olive Orchard and Garden) with a marvelous view of Palomar Mountain. It leads you through a living museum of native plants to the region, housed in the hedgerow. Highlighted here are medicinal plants and pollinator plants beneficial to our local ecosystem. The hedgerow also serves as a windbreak, protecting our food producing fields from erosion.
Pauma Tribal Farms is proud to be a Carbon Sink Demonstration Project committed: to drawing harmful, excess carbon from the atmosphere down into the soil where it feeds the: soil ecosystem. The “hedgerow is one - of five agricultural practices applied in order to-achieve carbon sequestration. To learn more, eat: take a walk on our trail!
Why Have a Vineyard?
Grapes will be grown and processed to make wine, locally, right here in Pauma. Producing our own wine and managing our own operations, marketing and distribution will drive sales for a sustainable income, contributing to economic independence. The Vineyard broke ground in 2020 and the first vines were planted in 2021. Learning more about Enology (the study of wine), our first practice harvest and experimental processing was in Fall 2022. As the wine matures, it is sampled in our classes where other winemakers taste and give us feedback.
What Varieties of Grapes Do We Grow?
The varieties of grapes grown by the Vineyard are: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Viognier, Camminare Noir, Errante Noir and Paseante Noir. We consider varieties that will remain resilient, especially with Pauma’s unique microclimate, experiencing extreme temperature highs and lows.
How is Growing Vines Climate-Smart?
Grape vines are perennial, needing only to be planted once, but yielding many harvests year after year. Planting perennials is beneficial for the environment because, unlike annuals (most vegetables) removed from the soil after each season, perennial roots have a chance to grow continuously.
Roots dig deeper into the soil, creating the conditions for effective carbon drawdown. Through photosynthesis, the soil ecosystem is enriched with excess carbon from the atmosphere.
Want to learn more about our farms?
Contact
anunes-brown@pauma-nsn.gov
Adilson Nunes-Brown, Agriculture Manager
Why Have a Garden?
With the Olive Orchard already established, and plans for the Vineyard being laid out, talks were already progressing to grow Pauma's food sovereignty. Starting the Garden was accelerated in 2020 as an emergency response to the pandemic. We were able to feed our own people when the grocery stores were falling short due to the disruption in the supply chain, and we still continue to feed our people. We hope that Garden will be a place to gather and build our community, to demonstrate how to grow food, and a place to grow future Native farmers!
Where Does Our Produce Go?
We grow seasonal vegetables and Pauma Tribal Members are our priority for receiving fresh produce! The Garden's produce is also distributed to Pauma's JOM Youth, to members from surrounding tribes (which can be purchased at an affordable price), and Casino Pauma’s restaurants. Our mini-farm of vegetable containers outside of the Casino Cafe allows. diners to witness the farm-to-table process on-site. It's amazing that this is happening at a local level, reducing the «carbon footprint with very minimal transportation and storage.
What is the Foundation for Growing Healthy Food? It starts with the SOIL, Building soil health matters. Before seeds. and. transplants go in, taking the time to work and amend the soil, crop rotation and crop diversity are crucial for a successful, healthy and abundant season!
Miiyu and Nomoki at Pauma Tribal Farms of the Pauma Band of Luiseiio Indians. Our no/ reduced-till, regenerative farm is made up of three sections - the Vineyard, the Garden, and the Olive Orchards. The departments complement
each other with a variety of climate-smart agricultural practices. We are currently on 60 acres and are continuing to expand with a combination of for-profit and nonprofit endeavors. We take pride in being Native owned and operated and are savoring our journey towards food and land sovereignty... that is what we call Pauma Magic!
Why Have an Olive Orchard?
Similar to the Vineyard, the Olive Orchard is another opportunity for the Pauma Tribe to market and profit from a locally grown product towards increased self-reliance. Ground preparation for the Olive Orchard started in 2016; the first olive tree was hidden into the soil in 2018. It was important to think intentionally about irrigation infrastructure, amending the soil and layout for the ample space olive trees would need at maturity. Since 2018, there have been olive plantings every year. About 1,000 more olive trees will be coming home to Pauma in 2023.
What Varieties of Olives Do We Grow?
Mission, Ascolana, Frantoio, Leccino, Pendolino, and Picual are the varieties found in our Olive Orchard. It takes 4-5 years to see olive fruit and we are excited to see our first harvest in 2023! Though it may be a small harvest, we cannot wait to practice the process of oil pressing and tasting until we come up with a product that will be characteristic of Pauma.
How is Growing Olives Climate-Smart?
Olives are drought tolerant, appropriate for our climate. You will see that each olive tree has a mulch “donut” - to help retain water, to help insulate roots in extreme cold and extreme heat, and to provide some weed suppression. Nutrients are released into the soil as the mulch breaks down. Furthermore, olive trees are perennial and will remain rooted here for generations to come, like the neighboring vines, for even more carbon sequestration!
Contact Us
Send us a message
contact
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Town Hall
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1010 Pauma Reservation Rd,
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Pauma Valley,CA 92061
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(760) 742-1289
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Police Department
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1010 Pauma Reservation Rd,
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Pauma Valley, CA 92061
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(760) 742-1289
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Town Library
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1010 Pauma Reservation Rd,
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Pauma Valley, CA 92061
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(760) 742-1289
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Fire Department
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1010 Pauma Reservation Rd,
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Pauma Valley, CA 92061
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(760) 742-1289