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The Dunhams began growing melons and pumpkins soon after their arrival; in the 1960s, the kids sold produce from a Red Flyer wagon next to the highway. Then, in the 1970s, the uranium industry collapsed, and farming became the family’s primary business. Today, Chris Dunham’s oldest son, Matthew, travels an hour from Moab on weekends to help during the summer. Gabriel, the younger son, currently studies mechanics in a trade school program, but he came home for Melon Days. Tossing and slicing melons in the park, he said he hopes to keep the family farm going. 

While Chris Dunham oversees the farm, much of the day-to-day work is done by foreman Abel Herrera, who has worked for the Dunhams since 1991. He coordinates the farmworkers and works with Chris to manage the planting, cultivating, harvesting and soil health. Chris, who shares his mother’s love of the soil, has been cutting back the farm’s use of pesticides and nonorganic fertilizers. The farm grows alfalfa and fall crops like squash and pumpkin, rotate cover crops in the winter to improve the soil and manage a herd of cattle. Herrera learned how to care for livestock while working on a ranch in Mexico as a kid. “I’ve been working on a ranch my whole life,” he said.