‘Holy corn’
Etsitty family passes farming knowledge to a new generation
Special to the Times | Donovan Quintero
Bertha Etsitty holds a hand-painted corn pollen sign at her family’s roadside stand along Mesa Farm Road near Shiprock, Saturday, Sept. 26. Packets of corn pollen and freshly harvested corn are displayed for sale.
SHIPROCK
Under a cottonwood in the low Saturday evening light, Bertha Etsitty leans over a mound of steamed corn and slides another ear into a white plastic bag marked “$10” and “Happy Fall” in orange marker. Then she adds one more.
“You gotta share with people,” she said, repeating what her parents and great grandparents told her about this season. “It depends on your heart. Think of other people. You gotta share.”
Behind her, family members haul more corn from a tarp-covered pickup. A hand-lettered board propped on the table reads “CORN POLLEN,” with small packets pinned beneath it for $20.
Etsitty and her husband, Allen Everett Etsitty, known to nearly everyone as Everett, have farmed on Mesa Farm Road for decades.
As the 113th Northern Navajo Fair opens this week, the Etsittys are where they are every fall, selling steamed corn, corn pollen and dried white corn from the roadside and carrying green corn and squash to the Yé’ii Bi Cheii grounds. They are also preparing to pass the farm to three grandsons.
To read the full article, please see the Oct. 1, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow