Edible Santa Fe Fall Issue - Food Security

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SANTA FE 庐路 ALBUQUERQUE 路 TAOS The Story

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Local Food, Season

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Food Security Issue 34 路 Fall

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014

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FALL 2014 - FOOD SECURITY DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

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30 LINING UP FOR LUNCH

GRIST FOR THE MILL

By Sarah Wentzel-Fisher

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CONTRIBUTORS

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AT THE CHEF'S TABLE

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BACK OF THE HOUSE

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L’Olivier Bears Fruit in the Desert, by Andrea Feucht From the Earth, by Nikki Lyn Pugh

I'M A LOCAL

By Katherine Mast

By Nissa Patterson

42 FOOD AND MEDICINE

By Sam Melada

COOKING FRESH

48 SUSTAINABLE AGING

LIQUID ASSETS TABLE HOPPING Local Hospitality, by Sarah Wentzel-Fisher

66

EAT LOCAL GUIDE

70

EDIBLE NOTABLES

72

LAST BITE Zucca al Forno, by Stephanie Cameron

O N T H E C OV E R

38 BRINGING HOME THE HARVEST

44 GROW. GLEAN. DISTRIBUTE.

Branching Out in Style, by Joshua Johnson

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34 HOW LOCAL FOOD MOVES

Cultivating Fresh, Healthy Young Appetites,

by Ashlie Hughes Eat Local for Cheap!, by Amy White

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By Kay Vinson

By Leah Roco

By Valerie Ashe

52 STREET FOOD IN BLOOM

By Gail Guengerich

56 FOOD SERVICE FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Zucca al Forno Photo by Stephanie Cameron.

For recipe see page 72.

By Sam Hedges

60 CONNECTING THE DOTS

By Sarah Wentzel-Fisher

WWW.EDIBLESANTAFE.COM

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grist for the mill PUBLISHERS

If I were to invite you to join me for lunch at a school, factory, nursing home, or hospital cafeteria, I am guessing most of you would politely decline. Rightfully, you would imagine segmented trays decorated with lukewarm, glistening food-like blobs in varying shades of brown, gray, and yellow. Lunch someplace, almost any other place, would be preferable.

Bite Size Media, LLC Stephanie and Walt Cameron

In addition to serving notoriously bad food, these institutions have several other things in common. They serve the most vulnerable members of our society: the working class, children, elderly, and the sick. The purpose of schools is to educate and mold productive citizens; of hospitals to cure the sick; of factories to provide jobs and services to maintain the economy. Our most vulnerable depend on these institutional services, including meals. By the same logic, for a healthy society, institutions should serve healthy and delicious food.

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Food security is a complex issue, and not one that can be covered comprehensively in a single issue of this magazine. The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as access at all times, “to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.” To address this topic, we could tell stories of our neighbors in need, of changing the way we farm, of changing habits in the kitchen and at the dinner table, but connecting these stories in an interesting, coherent, and meaningful way is hard. So rather than to try to cover it all, I decided to focus on an unlikely aspect of food security—the presence of local food in institutional settings.

In these pages, we look to institutions—schools, assisted living centers, hospitals, factories, resorts—integrating and prioritizing local food in the services they provide, as a reflection of our collective food security.

Fresh food requires a variety of tools and human expertise to prepare safely and well. Most institutions are profit driven, meaning any place where costs can be cut, they will be—especially food service. Against the grain, several institutions in New Mexico are finding ways to build local, healthy food into their food service. Some even go so far as to build gardens, keep bees, and raise livestock to get ingredients from as nearby as possible.

I believe institutional purchase of food is both correlated and parallel to that of the people they serve. When fresh, healthy, local food is produced at a scale that is affordable and desirable to large institutions, perhaps it will also be produced at a scale that makes it accessible to everyone.

Sarah Wentzel-Fisher, Editor

Stephanie and Walt Cameron, Publishers

P.S. During October, celebrate the Moveable Feast with us in Santa Fe and Taos. Eat out at local restaurants featuring menus of sixty percent or more locally sourced ingredients. Get dates, times, and menus at www.ediblesantafe.com/feast. We also challenge you to eat and drink as locally as possible during the month, and tell us your stories of success at www.ediblesantafe.com/ challenge. Finally, we invite you to the Local Food Festival and Field Day at the Hubbell House in Albuquerque on Sunday, October 25 for a day of great conversations, delicious local food, and our annual pie contest! www.ediblesantafe.com/eatlocal.

EDITOR Sarah Wentzel-Fisher Jodi L. Vevoda

COPY EDITORS Margaret Marti, Willy Carleton

DESIGN AND LAYOUT Stephanie Cameron

PHOTOGRAPHY Stephanie Cameron, Joshua Johnson, Juli Kois, Leah Roco

WEB AND SOCIAL MEDIA EDITORS Stephanie Cameron, Sarah Wentzel-Fisher

ONLINE CONTRIBUTORS Wendy Borger, Ashlie Hughes, Joseph Mora, Nissa Patterson, Amy White

VIDEO PRODUCER D. Walt Cameron

ADVERTISING D. Walt Cameron, Gina Riccobono, Jodi L. Vevoda

CONTACT US: 3301-R Coors Blvd NW #152 Albuquerque, NM 87120 info@ediblesantafe.com www.ediblesantafe.com Phone/Fax: 505-212-0791

SUBSCRIBE ∙ BUY AN AD ∙ LETTERS 505-212-0791 WWW.EDIBLESANTAFE.COM We welcome your letters. Write to us at the address above, or email us at INFO@EDIBLESANTAFE.COM Bite Size Media, LLC publishes edible Santa Fe six times a year.

We distribute throughout Central and Northern New Mexico and nationally by subscription. Subscriptions are $32 annually.

No part of this publication may be used without the written permission of the publisher. © 2014 All rights reserved.

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contributors VALERIE ASHE With her husband Jonathan, Valerie co-owns Thunderhead Farms in Bosque Farms, where she enjoys keeping bees and writing about food and wine.

ANDREA FEUCHT Once upon a time, Andrea Feucht woke up to the realization that she was obsessed with food. Her work appears locally and nationally, and her first book was published in October by Globe Pequot Press: "The Food Lovers' Guide to Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Taos." Find Andrea and her book at fb.me/foodloversnm.

GAIL GUENGERICH Gail Guengerich lives in Albuquerque and writes for the food page of the Weekly Alibi. She has a three-year-old daughter who is already pretty good at stirring. (Not so good at cracking eggs.)

Gail loves idiosyncratic creativity and believes the best thing about writing Euforkia is meeting her enthusiastic, community-minded, and food-crafty neighbors. spartanholiday.wordpress.com.

SAM HEDGES Sam Hedges is a recent transplant from the humid lowlands of Little Rock, Arkansas, and now works as an intern at Vida Verde Farm. As often as he eats, he likes to write about food and the countless ways it rewards him. His most recent set of interests concerns weeding and how it's either very meditative or the worst activity to engage in on this earth.

ASHLIE HUGHES Ashlie Hughes is a food, travel, and cocktail writer currently living in Santa Fe. When she’s not writing, she enjoys playing home bartender, making wine with her husband’s family, and daydreaming about traveling the world. You can view her website at www.ashliehughes.com.

JOSHUA JOHNSON Joshua Johnson practices landscape design and installation, specializing in environmental specificity and appropriateness. His love for gardens has inspired four years as a nurseryman at Plants of the Southwest in Albuquerque, a lot of landscape maintenance, and various design-build projects in environments as different as New Mexico and the Netherlands.

KATHERINE MAST Katherine Mast is a freelance science writer with a life-long love of all things growing. She has often kept earthworms as pets, collecting them as a child during spring garden planting, and employing them now in her compost bin in Santa Fe.

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edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014

SAMUEL MELADA Sam Melada is a full-time RN in the UNM Hospital Neurosciences Department and is pursuing a masters degree in linguistics at UNM. He is also a food and wine writer with a strong desire to make the history, language, and culture of wine and food more accessible and enjoyable to everyone.

NISSA PATTERSON Nissa Patterson is an urban gardener in Albuquerque. She usually has dirt between her toes, an expired seed pack sticking out of her back pocket, a terribly dorky sunhat on her head, and mounds of home grown veggies on the counter. On the toadstool stump at the back of her garden she writes stories about her garden adventures.

NIKKI LYN PUGH Nikki Lyn Pugh is an educator, writer and selfproclaimed farmers market junkie living in Taos. Besides edible Santa Fe, her articles have appeared in the Taos News, E magazine, Vision, and HoneyColony.com, among others. When she is not writing articles or volunteering in the community, she is working on a novel set for publication next year. Visit her at www.nikkilynpugh.com.

LEAH ROCO Leah Roco, passionate about issues concerning food security, community economic development, and local food systems, has worked on organic agriculture projects in New Mexico, New York, Thailand, and Myanmar. Currently, she is a graduate student and research assistant at UNM and sits on the board of directors for La Montañita Co-op.

KAY VINSON An unapologetic foodie, Kay Vinson loves to feast on locally grown foods, from greens to peaches to grass-fed beef and lamb. It is the joy of cooking, both in the kitchen and on the grill, that nourishes her soul.

AMY WHITE Amy White teaches science classes for teachers at CNM and owns her own business, Orilla Consulting LLC. She has developed programs such as RiverXchange and the Arroyo Classroom Program to teach kids about ecosystems and water resources. She also writes about urban foraging, gardening, and cooking on her blog, Veggie Obsession www.veggieobsession.com.

at the chef's table

Xavier Grenet Chocolate SoufflĂŠ Lobster Mushrooms with Prosciutto and Heirloom Tomatoes Grass-fed Beef Short Ribs

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edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014

L’Olivier Bears Fruit in the Desert

By Andrea Feucht Photos by Stephanie Cameron

Grenet demonstrates French experience and modern creativity in spades. At L'Olivier he relishes the freedom to choose any ingredient he wants, prepare them in any style he wants, and take the risk of whether or not the concept will resonate with diners.

Sudden loss can have the effect of nudging the survivors to move forward in their own lives, sometimes on ventures they’d been eager to start, but were in need of a gentle push and some opportune timing. In early 2013 Ristra’s owner, Eric LaMalle, died unexpectedly, setting off waves of grief and, ultimately, ripples of new beginnings. For Xavier Grenet, innovative French chef at Santa Fe’s Ristra for more than a decade, that venture was his own restaurant with his wife, Nathalie Bonnard-Grenet. Rather than purchasing Ristra outright, the former Tomme space caught the couple’s attention last fall. L’Olivier was born in a remarkably fast two months, opening in December of 2013.

Grenet’s pedigree is impressive, even in a restaurant-centric town like Santa Fe. The many years of creativity at Ristra were preceded by critical acclaim at San Francisco’s Barcelona, New York’s Les Célébrités, and two years at the helm of a Michelin three-starred kitchen in France owned by Joël Robuchon. If those names don’t light up your brain with a casino-like cacophony, just know that he is a big deal and this guy can cook with the best.

Grenet demonstrates French experience and modern creativity in spades. During his Ristra years, his interest in New Mexico gastronomy built a menu of French classics touched by desert ingredients, but some ideas didn’t make the cut. In the new place he can call his own shots. Grenet relishes the freedom to choose any ingredient he wants, prepare it in any style he wants, and take the risk of whether or not the concept will resonate with diners.

Ristra fans will only see one or two old favorites on the menu, kept around because Grenet has refined them to the point of perfection. His new dishes provide the foundation of the L’Olivier’s menu. One of Grenet’s favorites is the new lobster salad, a favorite of customers despite the ingredient-justified price tag. He’s also proud of his grass-fed beef short ribs, braised to within an inch of unctuousness in a rosemary-scented broth. Those two items have become nearly permanent on a menu that changes every few months to bring in new produce and new ideas for the season.

L’Olivier has been successful right out of the gate for a few reasons, only one of which is Grenet’s talent. Generally speaking, after a good restaurant experience, diners find it second nature to give kudos to the chef; after a phenomenal restaurant experience they realize that many more pieces must work in concert, from kitchen to the front door and everyone and everything in between. Many online reviews drip with words like friendly and engaging and delightful about Bonnard-Grenet and her staff at L’Olivier. The atmosphere is both put-together and unpretentious, just the way Santa Feans like it, with vegetal green accents and deep umber that kindles warmth inside everyone in the room. Bonnard-Grenet can justly take the credit for this French-Southwestern hug.

Less than a year since they opened, Grenet and Bonnard-Grenet think about what L’Olivier will become in the future. I asked Grenet if he’d be excited to present challenging or unusual dishes to trusting regulars, especially with this new freedom of ingredients.

Of course! His dream menu would certainly include the fishes John Dory or turbot (difficult to obtain here in the States), and foie gras with morels. On the latter, I assured him that Santa Fe is ready. He already serves foie gras on occasion, and who doesn’t love amazing mushrooms like morels?

When asked about upcoming seasonal changes, Grenet waxed poetic about a new pork supplier that will allow a hearty fall pork belly dish, perhaps incorporating some New Mexico apples or more of the Chimayo red chile he loves so much. Only a few dishes currently feature chile, however, and he’d like to expand that, but only a little bit. He could easily work up to over half the menu studded with chiles and suddenly he’s created a fusion restaurant.

His dishes remain solidly French, even when using local elk or avocados. Only places with a solid identity can comfortably test their own boundaries without falling into a mish-mash of forgettable food. A strong sense of identity is exactly what we all appreciate about a restaurant like L’Olivier.

229 Galisteo Street, Santa Fe, 505-989-1919 www.loliviersantafe.com Matt Yohalem, Il Piatto WWW.EDIBLESANTAFE.COM

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back of the house

From the Earth FARMHOUSE CAFÉ AND BAKERY

By Nikki Lyn Pugh Photo by Stephanie Cameron

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edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014

With Taos Mountain in the background, Micah Roseberry, owner of Farmhouse Café, introduces the restaurant’s garden to the small crowd gathered around her. “This garden is a symbol of our meal,” she begins, as a light rain descends on the brilliant leaves of blue corn and rows of dark green kale. “Here we can say thank you to the earth, to the rain, and to the land.”

The sixty or so individuals from around the country have come to a Farmhouse dinner as part of the three-day Humanitarian Design Seminar sponsored by the UNM-Taos Sustainability Institute. To Roseberry, the evening symbolizes what the Farmhouse stands for.

“The idea for the café actually started out as a preservation project for the two-hundred-acre Puerta del Sol ranch next door,” says Roseberry. She points southeast beyond the garden to a vast swath of pasture that stretches between Paseo del Pueblo Norte (Highway 64) and Taos Pueblo, explaining how this historic land along what is now called the view corridor was at one time the literal breadbasket of Taos. “All of this was one big homestead and dairy,” Roseberry continues. “The first trading post was here in the 1700s and later the Puerta del Sol Ranch supplied stores on Taos Plaza.”

When the ranch went up for sale, the possibility of commercial development along the view corridor loomed. Roseberry, who had a long-time connection with the area as founder of the Taos Country Day School, sprang into action. She raised awareness by organizing hayrides and a fall festival on the property. The Puerta del Sol was eventually purchased by a private foundation. With the threat of commercialization gone, Roseberry thought opening a café in the complex would build awareness—and could become a solution to what she saw as a real need for a viable distribution point for local farmers.

That was a little less than a year ago. To say that Roseberry has been busy since then would be an understatement. Today, the Farmhouse is a bustling mecca of curious tourists drawn in by the lush perennial flower garden that graces the café’s front entrance, locals who support the café’s mission, and Taos regulars who enjoy the Farmhouse’s super-fresh, home-style fare as part of their daily routine.

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“The food creates a conversation,” Roseberry explains. “About eighty percent of the people who come here are coming because it is farm-to-table and organic and they have read something about the mission of what we are doing.”

And what about that mission? Roseberry’s goal to support local farmers and create high-quality, delectable food seems to be paying off. Thus far, the Farmhouse Café has purchased 5,500 pounds of organic flour from the Costilla-based Sangre de Cristo Wheat Project, 2,000 gallons of organic oil from the La Montañita Co-op, 4,400 pounds of locally grown potatoes from organic farmers throughout the region, and 6,600 dozen organic eggs from locallyowned Happy Hen Farms, causing them to increase their flock to keep up with the demand. Walk past the wrap-around patio, where a languid lunch can inspire hours of good conversation, and through

Lunch • Dinner • Bar

Reservations 505.982.4353 653 Canyon Road compoundrestaurant.com

photo: Kitty Leaken

WWW.EDIBLESANTAFE.COM

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the quaint front doors of the café, and you will likely see three out of every four chairs filled in the Farmhouse dining room.

“The food here is just superior because the air is clean, the water is clean, the land is clean,” Roseberry states, explaining what makes Taosgrown food so unique. “We are at the top of the watershed and, because the season is short, the vegetables grow abundantly and vibrantly.”

Rasa

All of the Farmhouse’s ingredients are organic and non-GMO— everything from the fall-harvest calabasas grown by the Parr Field/ Enos Garcia Elemetary School Garden Project to the Painter Ranch bison burgers—are grown, raised, and harvested within miles of the café. Thus, menu items, which often come with gluten-free and vegan options, can vary somewhat from season to season and alternate with some year-round dishes. The local lamb; or Sangre de Cristo wild mushroom shepherd’s pie with gluten-free gravy; and the garden-fresh kale salad with feta, walnuts, and cranberries are local favorites. And let’s not forget dessert. The three-layer carrot cake with organic cream cheese frosting is on the top of the list.

Rasa is a modern juice bar and vegan café, offering organic plant based foods and cold pressed juices as well as innovative detox and cleansing programs that reflect the most current perspective from the Ayurveda, conscious eating and live food movements.

And then, of course, there’s quinoa, which is served as a delicate bed for the café’s Asian stir fry and as a breakfast cereal topped with seasonal fruits and nuts. This little round grain has also been the starting point for business-to-business collaboration, a necessary element, Roseberry says, for increasing local food capacity.

cold pressed juice super food smoothies vegan glutenfree desserts cookies & pies cultured vegan cheeses and yogurt raw breads and crackers plant based entreés soups and pizza ayurvedic consultations herbs and treatments cleanse and detox

After learning that only one other farmer grew quinoa in the US, Roseberry started growing the protein-rich grain two years ago at Cerro Vista Farm (which she co-owns) and at the Farmhouse garden in order to increase local seed. Since then, the quinoa project has led to conversations with Bob Gontram, owner of the local Five-Star Burger franchise, and Matt Thomas, owner of Matt’s Gluten Free Bakery in Taos, both of whom have expressed interest in buying quinoa locally.

815 Early Street

505 989 1288

www.rasajuice.com

Photo by Genevieve Russell at Story Portrait Media

“Quinoa production could actually be a cottage industry in Taos and a way to show that we can collaborate,” says Roseberry. “I’m trying to create a business model that really supports education and the community. Building local food capacity and security doesn’t start on food trucks that come from California or Mexico, nor does it come from the food-industrial complex. It starts here.”

For Roseberry, food is not just to eat. Each carrot, green bean, and slice of grass-fed beef can also be a focal point for building community. Besides sponsoring garden projects at Enos Garcia Elementary, the Farmhouse also partners with three area preschools, including the UNM‐Taos Kid’s Campus Center for Early Learning, on an organic breakfast and lunch program beginning this school year.

“I feel that if we can take this on as a community and show that it works, we can move on to feeding all our children this way,” Roseberry says.

1405 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte, Taos, 575-758-LOVE (5683) www.farmhousecafeandbakery.com WWW.EDIBLESANTAFE.COM

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Cultivating Fresh, Healthy Young Appetites WHOLE KIDS FOUNDATION

By Ashlie Hughes

Top left: Kids pulling carrots in Carlos Gilbert Elementary garden. Photo by Stephanie Cameron Top right: Cutting eggplants in the Escuela del Sol Montessori garden. Photo by Juli Kois

Whole Foods Market (WFM) has enjoyed extraordinary success and become a renowned brand because it offers high quality ingredients and products, provides nutrition education, and fosters community support and involvement. An equally exceptional, though lesser-known contribution of WFM, is the Whole Kids Foundation (WKF), a nonprofit founded in 2011. Through the foundation’s various programs—the School Garden Grant Program, The Lunch Box (an online resource for cafeteria staff), the Healthy Teachers Program, and its partnership with Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools—the foundation is committed to providing educational opportunities that will inspire children to become interested in and enthusiastic about nutrition.

Since its inception, WKF has served more than two million children in the US and Canada, including funding 3,381 school salad bars and 2,116 school gardens. This year the foundation is working on a pilot Honey Bee Grant project that plans to bring beehives to school gardens.

WKF utilizes various funding mechanisms, including fundraising at the cash register every September at WFM stores. During these events, one hundred percent of the funds raised go to the foundation’s programs. Jane Johnson, the communications program leader for the WKF says, “When you give two dollars at the register, you just bought a packet of seeds for a school…if you give fifty dollars, you bought a school wheelbarrow, when you give three dollars, you bought a school a pair of tongs for their salad bar.”

The School Garden Grant program was created in partnership with FoodCorps, a team of AmeriCorps leaders who work with children to foster a lifelong relationship with fresh, healthy foods. Through this program, WKF offers two thousand dollar grants to select schools to support new or existing edible gardens on school grounds.

WKF believes that a school garden can create a respect for food quality and inform children’s food choices for years to come. Lisa Prior,

the marketing and community relations specialist for WFM Rocky Mountain region, says that the grant program is important because it enables kids to develop an appreciation for what it takes to grow food and where it comes from. “And then, of course, there are the benefits of what gardening teaches…things about planting, teamwork, patience, perseverance,” Prior adds.

Since 2011, the garden grant program has helped over thirty-five schools throughout New Mexico, from Las Cruces to Taos.

Santa Fe’s Carlos Gilbert Elementary is one of several New Mexican schools to receive the grant in 2014. Lara Miller, the school’s garden coordinator, believes the garden has provided students a great hands-on learning environment and has generated community-wide involvement from parents and teachers. The school has also incorporated the garden in its science curriculum.

Though Escuela del Sol Montessori in Albuquerque has had a garden for several years, Juli Kois, the school’s garden guide, says that the money from the grant will go towards installing three large rainwater catchment containers. “Basically we’re here in the desert where there’s not a lot of water and it’s our most precious resource. So we’re just going to collect as much water as we can,” Kois explains.

The foundation makes the case that children who grow their own food are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables, a healthy lifestyle that will persist into adulthood. Studies by scholars at Tufts University and the National Farm to School Network have also shown that children who participate in school gardening exhibit improved school performance and behavior. A list of sources regarding the benefits of school gardens can be found on the WKF website. The 2015 School Garden Grant application process opens September 1 and runs through October 31, 2014. www.wholekidsfoundation.org

cooking fresh

Eat Local for Cheap!

By Amy White Photos by Stephanie Cameron

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Root Vegetable edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014Latkes

Many people are surprised to discover that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) coupons can be used at farmers markets, where kids have fun and the food is fresher than anything you can get at the grocery store.

Everyone wants the best nutrition for their families, but it is hard to think about buying local when you're trying to get food on the table with a tight budget. I'm here to show you that buying local doesn't have to be expensive.

The USDA no longer prescribes the food pyramid we grew up with.

Now it's shown as a plate, and at least half that plate should be vegetables. This is really important because besides being good for us, vegetables are cheaper than meat. My mother’s strategy to save money was to make mostly vegetarian meals, with just a tiny bit of meat for flavor. She'd buy whatever was cheapest, and create delicious and nutritious meals.

The recipes below are designed as formulas. You can substitute all kinds of different vegetables, based on what you find at the market. For each recipe I put in the price paid for base ingredients, and added $.50 to each for staples like oil, flour, and spices. Except for needing to make chicken stock and beans ahead of time, all of these recipes take between 15 and 30 minutes to prepare. All of these meals for four are cheaper than a meal for one at a fast food restaurant.

ROOT VEGETABLE LATKES Serves 4 These are so good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. They are like latkes, but more nutritious than just potatoes. At my local farmers market on the day I made this recipe, carrots were actually cheaper than potatoes. Use any combination of carrots, sweet potatoes, beets, rutabagas, parsnips, or potatoes. You could even go further and try it with peas, zucchini (grated, salted, and drained), or steamed cauliflower chopped small. Buying in bulk from larger farms like Schwebach or Wagner is an excellent way to get staples like potatoes and onions at a great price. It may be worth making a trip to their farm stores to stock up.

2 pounds carrots or other root vegetables, grated

(about 8 cups) $4.00 1/2 cup onion, grated $.50 1 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup flour 2 eggs $.70 1/4 cup oil 1 cup yogurt $1.00 Fresh herbs, finely chopped $.50

Music, food, discovery stations and fresh cider pressed on-site!

OCTOBER 11-12 10 - 2 p.m.

Total $7.20/ Cost per serving $1.80 Grate vegetables. Add eggs, flour, salt, and mix until well combined.

Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet over medium-high flame until hot. Use a 1/4 cup measuring scoop to drop mixture into pan, then mash with a spatula to form thin pancakes. Fry on both sides until brown, adding more oil as needed. Garnish with yogurt and fresh herbs.

Call 311 for more information or visit

www.abqbiopark.com 2601 Central Ave. NW, Albuquerque, NM WWW.EDIBLESANTAFE.COM

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CHICKEN AND BUTTERNUT SQUASH CHILI Serves 4 Great places to get local chicken are Keller's Farm Store in Albuquerque or the Real Butcher Shop in Santa Fe. Buying a whole chicken is often the most economic option, and learning how to cut it up yourself is as simple as watching a few YouTube videos. Sometimes, though, chicken thighs are even cheaper. You could also make this with another wonderfully cheap and flavorful cut, beef neck bones. Feel free to try it with different spices, like rosemary and thyme, for a whole different character. Any kind of winter squash or sweet potatoes would be interchangeable in this recipe.

1 pound chicken thighs, or pieces from whole chicken,

roughly chopped $3.50 2 pounds winter squash or sweet potatoes, cubed $4.00 1 large onion, diced $1.00

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edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014

2 cups pinto beans, cooked $1.00 1 jalape単o, finely diced $.25 1 teaspoon cumin, ground 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, ground 2 teaspoons coriander, ground 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground 1 quart chicken stock (see recipe below) $.25 Salt to taste Total $10.50/ Cost per serving $2.63 Peel and chop winter squash or sweet potatoes. Roughly chop meat, onion, and jalape単o. Bring stock to a boil in the microwave or another pot. Put all ingredients in a slow-cooker, and cook on low all day. Or, fry the meat in chicken fat or oil in a stock pot over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add all the rest of the ingredients and simmer about an hour on low heat until the squash is soft.

BREAKFAST POTATOES Serves 4 Potatoes are delicious, filling, and go with everything, so you can just throw in a little bit of meat (or not) and whatever vegetables you have on hand. This is a great way to get your vegetables at breakfast! You can add an egg if you like. I need both protein and carbohydrates to feel full all morning, so this is a standard at my house. I often use the greens from radishes, beets, or turnips. Greens are a highly nutritious “bonus food� that come along with many root vegetables, making this breakfast even more economical. This technique is so quick and easy that you can have breakfast potatoes anytime you want!

4 medium potatoes $1.00 3 tablespoons oil 1/4 pound sausage or other meat $1.50 1 small clove garlic, minced 1/2 bunch greens, chopped $1.50 1/2 pound other vegetables, diced $1.50 Total $6.00/ Cost per serving $1.50 Poke the potatoes a few times with a fork and microwave them on high for 5 minutes. Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium and fry the meat until just cooked. Smash the potatoes with your hands (and maybe an oven mitt). Crumble into the skillet and fry until nicely browned. Add garlic and vegetables. Cook until tender, then serve.

505-866-1936 | Los Lunas

Breakfast Potatoes WWW.EDIBLESANTAFE.COM

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CALABACITAS TACOS Serves 4 Calabacitas, that perfectly New Mexican combination of squash, corn, and chile, is a wonderfully versatile food. It's great in tacos with some sharp cheddar or goat cheese, but you could also make burritos, or layer it with tortillas to make a casserole. It's an excellent lunch to take to work. If you buy lots of corn while it's in season, you can cut the kernels off the cob, cook them briefly in boiling water, then freeze them and enjoy fresh-tasting corn all winter long.

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edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014

1 small onion, diced $.50 2 pounds zucchini or other summer squash, diced $4.00 2 tablespoons oil or chicken fat 1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels $1.00 1/2 cup green chile, chopped $.75 1 teaspoon salt 12 corn tortillas $2.00 4 ounces sharp cheddar, grated $1.75 Total $10.50/ Cost per serving $2.63 Coarsely chop onion and zucchini. Heat oil over medium flame and add onion; cook until soft. Add zucchini and cook until soft.

Add corn, green chile, and salt; cook until pieces are browned slightly. Warm tortillas directly on burner, fill with calabacitas, and top with cheese.

PICK-A-PART SALAD WITH HOMEMADE RANCH DRESSING Serves 4 My mother made this for dinner often when I was young. It never failed to delight me and my siblings. Basically, it is a big platter of raw or lightly steamed vegetables, and some form of protein such as hard-boiled eggs, leftover chicken, ham, or roast beef. She called it pick-a-part salad because we would eat it with our fingers and each person could just eat the vegetables he or she liked best. Use any combination of vegetables that are inexpensive, and maybe splurge on one or two favorites like peppers and tomatoes.

Making your own salad dressing is a great way to save money, especially with vinaigrettes—plus you'll know exactly what's in it. Use any kind of dressing your family likes, or even try something fancy like peanut sauce or romesco. We actually made our own ranch dressing using Uncle Dan's seasoning mix, but it's even better with fresh herbs and garlic. Crack Pot Herbs is my favorite place to buy all kinds of fresh herbs. They sell small portions for a dollar apiece. Growing your own herbs is worthwhile because it's really easy, and they add so much to any dish, but they can be expensive in stores.

Salad 3 large carrots, chopped for dipping $1.00 1/2 pound cherry tomatoes $1.50 1/2 pound green beans, steamed $1.50 1 large cucumber, chopped for dipping $1.00 2 green peppers, chopped for dipping $1.50 1/2 pound chicken, grilled or baked $1.75 Dressing 1 small clove garlic, minced 1/8 tablespoon salt 1/2 cup mayonnaise $.80 1/2 cup yogurt $.50 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped $.50 1 tablespoon chives, chopped $.50 Total $11.05/ Cost per serving $2.76 Slice everything into attractively-shaped pieces for dipping. Mix all dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Serve on a big platter.

Pick-a-part Salad

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20

Zucchini and Eggplant Pizza

edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014

ZUCCHINI AND EGGPLANT PIZZA Serves 4 Pizza is a great way to use vegetables. Anything thinly sliced will cook quickly.

You can also try out all different cheeses. La Monta単ita Co-op offers a wide selection of local cheeses, including mozzarella. I often just use olive oil and garlic as a base, but if you really love tomato sauce, ask farmers about bulk deals before the end of the season, and make enough to freeze. Making your own pizza dough is really simple and quick, but you can also pick up a ball of dough for a few dollars from several local pizza places like Farina. In fact, I'd venture to say that making this pizza actually takes less time than ordering delivery.

Dough 1 package active dry yeast $.50 1 teaspoon sugar 2/3 cup warm water 1 2/3 cups flour $.50 3/4 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons oil 2 tablespoons cornmeal for pan Pizza 1 pound Roma or other medium-sized tomatoes, grated to remove skins $3.00 1 clove garlic, minced 1 zucchini, shaved $.25 1 small, slender eggplant, shaved $1.00 6 ounces mozzarella, grated $1.00 1 tablespoon olive oil Fresh basil, finely chopped $.50 Salt and pepper Total $7.25/ Cost per serving $1.81 Preheat oven to maximum temperature; the hotter, the better.

Stir yeast and sugar into warm water in a large bowl and let stand about 10 minutes.

Add flour and salt, and knead for about 1 minute, until completely mixed. Add 2 teaspoons oil and knead 1 minute more, adding more flour if it is sticky. If you have time, let the dough rise for an hour as this allows it to develop more complex flavors. Roll dough on a floured surface, turning and rotating often, adding more flour as needed so it doesn't stick. If it is too springy and hard to roll, let it rest for a few minutes and try again. This recipe makes enough for one thick-or two thin-crust 14-inch pizzas. If you like thin crust pizza, cut the dough in half and freeze the other half for another day, or double topping ingredients and make two pies. Oil pan(s) lightly and sprinkle with cornmeal. Fold dough loosely in quarters, lay it on the pan, and unfold it again.

Cut tomatoes in half and grate on a box grater, discarding skins. Cook on medium heat in a wide skillet with garlic until thickened into a sauce. Season to taste with salt.

Shave zucchini and eggplant into thin slices with a vegetable peeler. Toss with olive oil, basil, salt, and pepper. Spread sauce on crust, sprinkle with cheese, and top with vegetables. Bake on a pizza pan or cookie sheet. Set the timer for 8 minutes, then check every 2 minutes until the edges are browned and the middle seems done.

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1 cup milk $.60 1/4 cup oil Preheat oven to 400° F. Mix cornmeal, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Mix egg, milk, oil, and corn in a medium bowl. Stir in dry ingredients, until just mixed. Pour batter into a greased round pan. Bake 20 – 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Beans and Greens 1 bunch greens, chopped (collard, turnip,

mustard, or kale) $3.00 1 small red onion, diced $.50 2 cups pinto beans, cooked $1.00 2 tablespoons vinegar 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, or red chile powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup water Meal Total: $7.95/ Cost per serving: $1.99 Combine all ingredients in a heavy stockpot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve beans in a bowl topped with a slice of buttered cornbread. If you’d like to dress up this down home meal, garnish with sour cream, fresh herbs, tomato slices, or chopped green chile.

CHICKEN STOCK Greens and Beans with Cornbread GREENS AND BEANS WITH CORNBREAD Serves 4 Greens and beans are a classic, inexpensive Southern dish, often livened up with a little vinegar, brown sugar, and chile. Buying local fresh beans makes a big difference. They cook faster and have a wonderfully creamy texture compared to store-bought beans, which are often quite old and don't cook properly. Schwebach and several other farms sell beans for about a dollar a pound.

Cornbread is the traditional accompaniment, which in combination with beans makes a complete protein. Local cornmeal from Santa Ana Pueblo is available through La Montañita Co-op. I love cornbread with a little fresh corn in it, though you could leave it out.

You could also use this same batter to make corn fritters, maybe adding more fresh corn and a little chopped bacon and/or jalapeño.

Cornbread 1 1/2 cup cornmeal $1.50 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels $1.00 1 egg $.35 22

edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014

Really good chicken stock is cheap and easy to make, and can be used to enhance the flavor of all kinds of dishes. You can make a lovely pureed soup out of just about any kind of vegetable using this stock, an onion, and some cream. Think butternut squash, roasted red pepper, cream of asparagus, corn chowder, or even a light zucchini soup.

This project takes a few hours, but much of it is hands-off time.

Chicken backs and necks are always cheap, and I like to roast them in the oven to give the stock a rich flavor. This stock's price per quart is a small fraction of what you'd pay for chicken stock in cans or cartons. As a bonus you will also have a nice quantity of chicken fat that can be used for cooking other things (like frying latkes or breakfast potatoes).

1 pound chicken backs or necks $1.00 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 gallon water Price per quart $.25 Preheat oven to 450° F. Spread chicken parts on a large baking tray, sprinkle with salt, and roast until well-browned, about 30 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to a stockpot, fill with water, and simmer 2 – 3 hours. Pour the chicken fat into a small container and refrigerate for another use. Strain the stock into containers and chill or freeze. If you freeze it, be sure to leave about an inch at the top of the container for expansion.

Luna Center District 505 Cerrillos, Downtown Santa Fe

505-983-0647 www.cassiesboutiquesantafe.com Fitness attire for women and men.

Many athletic brands!

Affordable and locally owned!

505-603-6807 olivegrovesfnm@yahoo.com Olive Grove carries gourmet & rare foods from around the world.

505-454-6007 www.oldwood.us Great Floors/Great Design/ Great Forestry

Talin Market World Food talinmarket.com Hand-made, just for you!

TALIN DUMPLING HOUSE 11 AM - 7 PM

liquid assets

Branching Out in Style A TASTING TOUR OF SOME LOCAL BREWERIES UNIQUE TO CENTRAL AND NORTHERN NEW MEXICO

By Joshua Johnson

Duel Brewery glassware, photo by Stephanie Cameron

New Mexico houses a diverse palette of plant species, including Humulus lupulus, commonly called “hop vine.” I foraged my first hops a few years ago in the Jemez Mountains. Slightly giddy, I presented the yield to my longtime favorite brewer, Brady McKeown of Il Vicino Brewery Canteen in Albuquerque. He crushed the fresh hops between his palms, rubbed them together until the friction generated sufficient heat to release the oils from the flower; he then cupped his hands to his face and inhaled. I followed suit. The pungent, skunky aroma was, according to him, reminiscent of a varietal of hop called Oklahoma. Fascinated with the prospect of crafting an ale with native hops, I entrusted them to the care of a talented local home brewer, Troy Stephens. A few weeks later the same aroma wafted up from a glass of Stephens’ first native pale ale, pungent, skunky, and…tasty.

Contributions to the collective of human understanding usually come about in small increments, rarely in a quantum leap. Seeing a hop through from vine to glass was, in a way, a personal quantum leap, demystifying the alchemy of aroma and taste in a quality beer; there was no going back. This summer Stephens and I set out together, intent on tasting the offerings of the ever-growing community of brewers in Central and Northern New Mexico. Specifically our aim was to discover beers that not only fit snuggly within Beer Judge Certification Program styles, but went the extra mile, so to speak—either by riffing 24

edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014

on that style, incorporating locally sourced ingredients, or bespeaking of regional identity.

An early stop on our trip, Second Street Brewery’s new location at the Santa Fe Railyard, yielded two exciting discoveries for the beer lover with sensitivity to gluten. They serve their unfiltered IPA and Kölsch styles as “gluten removed” beers, meaning the extant gluten content is lower than ten parts per million. Achieved by adding a high-specificity enzyme during sediment removal, gluten proteins break in the hydrogen-bonding region while other properties of the beer remain unaltered. The India pale ale (IPA) was my favorite, with an alcohol content of 6.5 percent by volume, amber coloring, and lively carbonation. The bitterness rating of sixty left plenty of headroom for caramel and toffee malt flavors to surface. The Kölsch, too, was quite flavorful with sparkling clarity, straw color, 4.6 percent alcohol by volume, and bitterness of seventeen; effervescent aromas of apple and white wine lingered.

Duel Brewery, located at 1228 Parkway Drive in Santa Fe near Cerillos Road, also riffs on existing styles, and sits squarely, with plenty of elbowroom, in its own niche. It is New Mexico’s only Belgian style brewery, but rather than churn out the classic dubbel, tripel, and quadruple ales most typical of Belgian breweries, elements of IPAs, brown ales, sours, porters, and other types are fused with trappist yeasts,

David Hevener, Canteen Brewery, photo by Joshua Johnson

producing beers to savor. After tasting the beer menu’s offerings, I decided to pair their artisanal cheese plate with a glass of Fantin double pale ale. Duel’s approach reminded me much of Dutch and Belgian bruin cafés. While spacious, the barroom is dimly lit, with much attention to detail: glassware too is paired with its appropriate beer.

A few miles northwest of Taos proper, en route to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, you will find Taos Mesa Brewing Company. A relative newcomer to the New Mexico brewing community, it is the realization of the owners’ longtime goal of establishing a brewery, music venue, and restaurant in a large Quonset hut. The brewery punctuates the stark, yet sublime, landscape of the Colorado Plateau and features one indoor performance space and two outdoor amphitheaters. The brewery featured ten beers in our tasting flight. Though we arrived a tad too early in the season to taste, the delicious Cross Eye Rye is forecast to feature locally sourced rye malt from Colorado Malting Company in Alamosa, Colorado, as well as a late addition of wet hops grown in Amalia, New Mexico. A compliment to your now-whetted palette, Taos Mesa also offers a wide range of appetizers, salads, and principal dishes in the nine-to sixteen-dollar range.

Tractor Brewing Company has a new brewery location at 1800 Fourth Street NW in Albuquerque. They have, as of this year, moved from Los Lunas, and up-scaled their brewing capacity by more than an order of magnitude. Recently, I stopped in for a tasting and was given a tour of the new facility by brewer Antal Maurer. I was thrilled to find three new west coast IPAs on tap—a response to growing demand for hop-forward beers in the local community. As to the question of

why the trend towards hoppier beers, Maurer replied, “New Mexican cuisine is full of bold flavors, it makes perfect sense that we would also want them in our beer.” Their Juniper IPA stood out to me as a quintessentially New Mexican example of how this pairing can go right— a fine balance between hop bitterness, malt aromas, and high-desert botanicals; of course, this is what Burquenos drink!

Coming full circle, I found myself back at my favorite haunt, Il Vicino Brewery Canteen (soon to be Canteen Brewery). Collecting my thoughts at an outside table, dog by my side, bartender David Hevener (or Heavy as he’s referred to by customers) made a line for my table with a salt, pepper, and red chile rimmed sample glass containing the Canteen’s Aztec Lager. “You’ve gotta try this,” he told me, “It’s called an Albuquerque Ashtray!” Our chuckles subsided and I gave it a go.

“Wow, kinda like chips and salsa in a glass!” I said. And it is, in a way, just that. Strip the salt, pepper, and chile, and you're left with a fullbodied lager that employs corn for twenty percent of its grain bill. This unique and tasty beverage has become so popular that it is regularly on tap at the Canteen Brewery at 2381 Aztec Road NE in Albuquerque.

Just ask for Heavy.

With 2014’s longest days now behind us, the sun’s rays stretch. This year’s hop harvest was a surprise find on the road approaching Fourth of July Canyon trail in the Manzano Mountains. Now, as I rub my palms together and try to divine what future pint glasses will hold, the words "floral" and "delicate" are on the tip of my tongue.

Turn to pg. 26 for listings from this article and more notable beer happenings in the state.

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landscape design-build

nature-culture activism

Pop-up Pantry Tuesdays + Thursdays 10-2

WHAT'S NEW WITH THE NEW MEXICO BEER SCENE

Second Street Brewery took first place for the 2nd Annual Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown in September.

NEW BREWERIES

2013 GREAT AMERICAN BEER FESTIVAL WINNERS

Bosque Brewing Albuquerque www.bosquebrewing.com Boxing Bear Albuquerque www.boxingbearbrewing.com

beradicle.com

1703 Lena Street Santa Fe

505.474.8000

Desert Water Brewing Artesia www.cwwineandbrewing.com Duel Brewing Santa Fe www.duelbrewing.com Kaktus Brewing Company Bernalillo www.kaktusbrewery.com Las Cazuelas Brewing Rio Rancho www.cazuelasmexicangrill.com Little Toad Creek Silver City www.littletoadcreek.com Lizard Tail Brewing Albuquerque www.lizardtailbrewing.com Pi Brewing Company Albuquerque www.facebook.com/pibrewing

Silver Marble Brewery Pilsner (German-Style Pilsner) Sierra Blanca Brewery Nut Brown (English-Style Brown Ale) Blue Corn Brewery End of the Trail Brown Ale (American-Style Brown Ale) Blue Corn Brewery Gold Medal Stout (Oatmeal Stout) Bronze La Cumbre Brewing Company Project Dank: Operation Pharoah’s Return (American-Style India Pale Ale) Marble Brewery Thunder from Dortmunder (Dortmunder or German-Style Oktoberfest)

2014 WORLD BEER CUP

Red Door Brewing Company Albuquerque www.reddoorbrewing.com

Gold Marble Brewery Pilsner (German-Style Pilsner)

The Stumbling Steer Albuquerque www.thestumblingsteer.com

Silver Il Vicino Brewery Canteen Panama Joe’s Coffee Stout (Coffee Beer)

Blue Heron Tap Room Española www.blueheronbrews.com Draft Station Tap Room Albuquerque and Santa Fe www.draft-station.com Fire & Hops Santa Fe fireandhopsgastropub.com Tractor Brewing Tap Room Wells Park in Albuquerque www.getplowed.com Marble Brewery Luna Center in Santa Fe www.marblebrewery.com

NOTABLES

edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014

Second Street Brewery Rod’s Steam Bitter (American-Style Amber Lager)

Ponderosa Brewing Company Albuqueruque www.ponderosabrewing.net

NEW TAP ROOMS

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Gold Il Vicino Brewery Canteen Panama Joe’s Coffee Stout (Coffee Beer)

Il Vicino Brewery Canteen has officially changed its name to Canteen Brewery. www.canteenbrewhouse.com

Bronze Las Cazuelas Brewing Beer for my Horses (Oatmeal Stout)

IN THIS STORY Il Vicino Brewery Canteen Albuquerque brewery.ilvicino.com Duel Brewing - Santa Fe www.duelbrewing.com Second Street Brewery Santa Fe www.secondstreetbrewery.com Taos Mesa Brewing - Taos www.taosmesabrewing.com Tractor Brewing Company Albuquerque www.getplowed.com

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Food, drink, ribbon cutting, and prizes!

Free to attend! Must RSVP by Oct 24 to attend. urity Food Sec · faLL ISSue 34

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BLUE FISH CLOTHING a fun and funky mix of designer women's clothing, accessories, and gifts ENVISION GALLERY fine contemporary art & sculpture gardens FARMHOUSE CAFÉ & BAKERY organic, local, farm-to-table MAGPIE wonderful things for your nest OVERLAND SHEEPSKIN CO fine sheepskin, leather, quality footwear & more SUSHI A LA HATTORI fine japanese cuisine WILDLANDANCE celebrating our ecology THE SALON beauty with love

3 miles North of Taos Plaza on Highway 64

Lining Up for Lunch BOCADILLOS

By Kay Vinson Photos by Stephanie Cameron

Marie Yniguez with her staff: Ryan, Karla, Chris, James, Amber, Miyuki, Jonathan, Andrew, and Josh.

"Cold, disgusting, and old." Sixth grader Mateo Nunez calls it like he sees it, confirming what we all know; school lunches have a dreadful reputation. But for Mateo, turning up his nose in disgust after a whiff of what’s for lunch is a memory from bygone days. The same goes for classmate, Mayali Martinez, who clearly recalls lunch during her elementary school years, when food came in packages and had not been warmed. According to her, what’s for lunch now is delicious.

Nunez and Martinez are students at Tierra Adentro, an Albuquerque charter school serving students grades six to twelve. Every day, under the direction of Marie Yniguez , chef and owner of Bocadillos, a bustling sandwich shop on Indian School near 12th Street, lunch is catered to this and several other schools. Yniguez says she makes the kids’ lunches with real food, the likes of greens, radishes, turnips, carrots, tomatoes, and squash, all locally grown on South Valley farms.

stopped bringing their lunches from home.” Those students who skipped lunch altogether, save a bag of chips, started eating meals. The next thing Trujillo and her teachers noticed was the students seemed happier, more focused on learning, had fewer headaches, and more stamina. “I had kids fainting in dance class before and I don’t have that anymore,” said Trujillo.

Native American Community Academy (NACA), another charter school in Albuquerque that contracts with Yniguez, has seen an uptick in the happy factor with students, according to meal coordinator Donna Geist. She says, since Bocadillos started serving lunch two years ago, teachers report more class participation and focus on learning.

Prior to contracting with Bocadillos four years ago, Tierra Adentro purchased school meals from a national food and beverage vending machine company, like so many other New Mexico schools. “The food they were serving was processed…had been frozen. It was not local by any means,” explained Veronica Trujillo, the school’s executive director.

And, the kids loved to hate it, she says with a smile.

In addition to NACA and Tierra Adentro, Bocadillos caters lunch and breakfast for three other charter schools, which translates to 1,250 fresh meals every week. With the vegetables and greens Bocadillos gets from local farmers, Yniguez transforms standard school meals, such as lasagna, casseroles, soup, and chicken stir-fry into pure, healthy deliciousness. She also serves tasty fruit and “mighty fine beans” according to eleven-year-old Sebastian Trujillo, whose lunches at Tierra Adentro are “way better than my last school, especially the beans and the fruit.”

“One of my goals was to serve the kids quality food—local and organic if possible.” The first thing Trujillo noticed when Bocadillos began catering was, “The lunch line got really long really fast. Kids

This particular day when edible Santa Fe was visiting his school, Sebastian hit the lunch jackpot: Texas chili made with sausage and fresh beans, a cornbread muffin, and an orange.

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edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014

Upcoming Special Dinners & Events Please join us for these very special events. Seating and spaces are limited. Please RSVP by emailing reserve@farmandtablenm.com

Italian Wine-Makers Dinner

Join us for a very special, intimate dinner featuring small production, family-owned wineries from across Italy. Six courses of seasonally focused, Italian-inspired dishes will be prepared by Chef Sean Sinclair and his team and paired with each wine. A representative will be present to share information about the featured wines.

October 21 | 6:00 | $150

Gratitude Dinner: Let’s Be Grateful!

Celebrate the season of gratitude as we gather around the table with family and friends for a delicious five-course feast paired with wine! Chef Sean and his team will be preparing a special farm-focused dinner sharing the seasonal bounty of our local farmers, ranchers, dairies, and food artisans!

November 25 | 6:00 | $65

8917 4th St NW

Albuquerque, NM 87114

505.503.7124 Farmandtablenm.com

Dinner: Wed-Sat open at 5pm Brunch: sat-sun 9am-2pm

See our website for a full list of events and special dinners.

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Marie Yniguez

“If we can’t buy it coming straight out of the ground in New Mexico, we are going to buy it from locally-owned grocers.” Yniguez gets her fresh fruit from The Fruit Basket, a mainstay in Albuquerque’s North Valley for the last thirty years. “There are not any banana trees in New Mexico. You know what I mean? You don’t find pineapples growing down the street.” The native New Mexican gestures with gusto in the direction of the nearest street, laughing out loud at the thought. “We buy local as much as we possibly can but there are limits.” Yniguez says her list of locally grown food is expanding this year to include pork, beef, and chicken, which she will acquire through La Montañita Co-op, in addition to milk from a Las Cruces dairy in southern New Mexico.

The thirty-eight-year-old single mother started seeking out locally grown food when she began her catering business almost six years ago. “This is where I live, where I grew up. This is where my family has grown up.” She considers farmers and local business owners her friends. “If I can help them, then they help me, and that’s what builds our community, brings people together. It keeps us in jobs, keeps us fed.

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edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014

Not just any school lunch.

“All the farmers are working so hard to grow us beautiful greens and beautiful radishes. It’s amazing. Why wouldn’t I cook with those ingredients?” Yniguez has been cooking all her life, first in her mother’s kitchen, where, along with her grandmother and aunties, she learned family recipes she still relies upon. Yniguez says from her vantage point the ongoing transition to local food in New Mexico is taking place on many different levels, whether schools, hospitals, or family kitchens. She described it as part revolution and part evolution. “At an early age, kids must learn about good, healthy food, learn it’s OK to eat it. Some of them will be so intrigued they will learn to grow it and they will learn to cook it.”

Yniguez is not only interested in revolutionizing kids' taste buds, but also those of adults. And there are signs of success. She recently expanded Bocadillo's seating and now offers a dinner menu, complete with local beers and wine, a complement to her sandwiches, generously and lovingly made with her signature slow-roasted meats.

One of the more favored sandwiches on the menu? The Duke City Reuben. Yum. 1609 Indian School NW, Albuquerque, 505-503-0403 www.bocadillosnm.com

A PERFECT PAIRING Nourish the body, flourish the soul.

salad centric bistro

Open for lunch and dinner in two locations • 709 Don Cubero Alley in Santa Fe • 1828 Central Ave SW in Albuquerque

Feed Your Holiday Cravings Find festive inspiration around every corner: from decadent gift baskets and unique condiments, to seasonal confections and sparkling wines.

You can shop at a grocery store, or you can shop at Kaune's.

511 Old Santa Fe Trail | 505-982-2629 | Follow Us on Facebook for Specials | Monday - Saturday 8:00am - 6:50pm

How Local Food Moves GETTING FOOD FROM THE FARM TO YOU

By Katherine Mast • Illustration by Stephanie Cameron

Food Hub

Connecting small and medium farms with local buyers.

34

Schools & Universites

edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014

Restaurants

Hospitals

Pantries & Shelters

A food hub pulls together food from local and regional farms to fill large orders from grocery stores, institutions, and distributors.

Markets

Workplaces

Every Friday morning, Adam Woodley wakes hours before the first rays of sunlight illuminate Wheeler Peak in northern New Mexico. While the valley is still dark, Woodley heads to the Taos County Economic Development Corporation to load a refrigerated truck with locally made hummus and tabouli; gluten-free quinoa cookies; fresh sprouts; and pots of mint, basil, and flowers. By 4am, Woodley begins the loop between Taos and Albuquerque, stopping in Los Alamos and Santa Fe, to deliver these goods to dozens of groceries, restaurants, and even to individual homes.

He picks up items from others along the way, like flats of wheatgrass in Santa Fe, to deliver further on his route or carry back to Taos. His delivery work—which can become an eighteen-hour work day—is one of the integral parts of New Mexico’s blossoming local food movement.

Transporting food from farms to consumers is one of the major challenges in the local food movement, says Tawnya Laveta, programs director at Farm to Table, a Santa Fe–based nonprofit that helps connect communities throughout New Mexico with local food. “There’s always an assumption [that] if farmers can just coordinate better, they could meet the needs of our larger population,” she says. Farmers markets have helped fill this need by providing a central location for producers and consumers to gather, but providing food to rural communities or selling to restaurants or grocery stores can take more coordination. Connecting food to wider markets can be a full-time job in itself, and farmers have plenty on their plates already. “You’re just maxed out at some point in the season if you’re on the farming side of it,” says Laveta. Having someone else manage product distribution and interface with markets allows farmers to focus on the farming. It also helps to connect producers with more markets and provide consumers with a wider variety of local food.

Conventional agricultural models use a highly capitalized, streamlined process to move America’s raw harvest over hundreds of miles to manufacturers, packagers, and supermarkets. Local food systems fill similar needs on a smaller scale, but with a particular attunement to the nuances of the local community. These food hubs come in a variety of arrangements. Some are simple— farmers markets are probably the biggest food hubs around, says Laveta. Other food hubs, like La Montañita Co-op Distribution Center, have a physical location where consumers can come to find just what they need. Some help provide local produce to public schools, restaurants, and rural communities through a carefully coordinated system of cold storage and distribution.

There’s one common denominator in all these food hub models, says Laveta, “It’s all about the relationships.”

Woodley began delivering food products for members of the Taos Community Economic Development Corporation about eight months ago. Everyone pitches in for the cost of gas, and Woodley takes a cut from each producer’s invoice. By combining delivery runs, Woodley facilitates producers’ ability to fill WWW.EDIBLESANTAFE.COM

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orders at small, out-of-the way places in Albuquerque, as well as larger stores, for a fraction of the cost (and time) that it would take for each producer alone. “People who are the food vendors inside Taos’ commercial kitchen…they wouldn’t be driving [to Albuquerque] the hummus that they just made, but this fellow can,” says Laveta. “It’s a nice way that each entity is able to make a little income by doing what they love doing.” And while he’s out, Woodley tries to connect emerging vendors with new markets. “There’s an eighteen- or nineteen-yearold guy who just started producing his own tortillas and sells them at Cid’s [a grocery store in Taos],” says Woodley. “I told him to send samples with me and I could help get him in markets in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. I’m looking forward to hopefully helping him get his tortilla business off the ground.”

Some food hubs also help farmers decide what, and how much, of any particular kind of produce to grow. Months before the growing season begins, Farm to Table brings farmers and buyers together to talk about what vegetables the restaurateurs want to buy in the upcoming year and what price the farmers can accept. Others help provide training for new farmers entering the business. Larger networks, like La Montañita Co-op Distribution Center, help supply smaller groceries and co-ops around the state by piggybacking small orders from startups and rural operations onto larger orders headed in the same general direction.

In addition to distributing food to rural communities, a food hub can help keep food in the area where it was grown. With the demand in urban centers for New Mexico grown food, Laveta says keeping local food in the communities where it was grown is a huge issue. At stake is food sovereignty, which is the right and ability for a community to grow its own food for feeding its members. In a food sovereignty model, only the excess produce is sold to wider markets. But if local grocers aren’t prepared to carry local produce, or if farmers run up against too many institutional barriers, they could easily be tempted to sell in urban markets to high-end restaurants with the guaranteed sales and potential to make a better profit.

Agri-Cultura Network in Albuquerque seems to have found a healthy balance between feeding its own community and selling to

Alternatively, food hubs with coordinated distribution can provide market access to more isolated communities. Last year, Farm to Table rented space in a walk-in cooler in Pojaque to use as a produce dropoff and storage spot. This connection allowed cooks in the Pojaque commercial kitchen to supply two Santa Fe restaurants with posole.

Now that they have an established market, they have the potential to expand what they offer. “Once farmers get involved and hear what others grow and what the market can bear, they start getting excited about what they could grow the following year that they hadn’t considered as options before,” says Laveta.

These value-based decisions are a shift from the dominant industrial paradigm that guides most agriculture in the US, but for lovers of local food and communities committed to their members, bolstering these local systems and relationships is an obvious choice. Despite his eighteen-hour days, Woodley is passionate about his work in food delivery. “It’s a job I feel really good about….even when the money isn’t great,” he says. “I’d much rather deliver Quinoa Qookies to La Montañita than Thomas’s to Walmart.”

Taos County Economic Development Corporation 1021 Salazar Road, Taos, 505-758-8731, www.tcedc.org Farm to Table 618 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, 505-473-1004, www.farmtotablenm.org La Montañita Co-op Distribution Center lamontanita.coop/co-op-distribution-center

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bigger markets. The network, which is made up of fourteen farms— thirteen of which are within the South Valley—supports a CSA for roughly two hundred and fifty families and supplies grocery stores and restaurants with salad greens and other seasonal produce. A portion of families within the CSA program rely on governmental food aid benefits, and Agri-Cultura has worked hard to be able to accept federal food assistance vouchers. And it is these families who are the organization’s top priority. Agri-Cultura's commitment to providing food for the local community is part of what draws their farmers to the network and is a value that builds interest and loyalty from their CSA members, restaurant partners and donors, says Anzia Bennett, Program Director for the CSA.

FA RM ER, R ES TAU RA N T, CHEF, FO O D A RTI SA N , FO O D TRUCK, FO O D O RGA N I Z ATI ON , FO O D RETA I LER , B E V ERAG E A RTI SA N , FO O D W RI TER , a nd LO CA L FO O D HERO FO R A N E D I B L E SA N TA F E L O C A L H E RO AWA R D .

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NOMINATIONS MUST BE MADE BY OCT 15, VOTING OPENS OCT 20! ediblesantafe.com/localhero edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014

Save Water Santa Fe

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Conserve • Educate • Lead

City of Santa Fe Water Conservation Office 505.955.4225

Remember, cooler weather means you can water less.

As we head into fall, lower temperatures and shorter days mean your garden needs less water. As the days get shorter, so should your watering times.

Fall is also a good time to reassess your landscaping and plan for saving water in the future. And don’t forget to turn off all automatic irrigation systems by November 1.

By watering wisely, you can have a beautiful garden and still be a watersaving warrior.

To learn about water restrictions, water-saving tips, rebates for water-efficient appliances, and all about water conservation, visit savewatersantafe.com.

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Bringing Home the Harvest LA COSECHA CSA

By Nissa Patterson Photos by Stephanie Cameron

La Cosecha staff: Alfonso Alvarado, Anzia Bennett, Esther Salas, and Jose Luis Ortiz

When I was a stork-legged six-year-old, my family received food

He tells me a story of a brawny construction worker, a man who

stamps. In those days you went down to the office, a small window set

has faced many hardships that include losing a son to an overdose.

in a grey concrete building, to pick up your stamps. We usually wait-

The man cries when he remembers coming home from school as a

ed over an hour in a stringy line of people, a human chain of sweat

young boy, opening the refrigerator, and finding nothing there. “In

and anticipation. I always feared the window would slam shut right

therapy we talk about what people are emotional about, and food is

before our turn, leaving us alone with hunger. It didn’t, and when our

something that we are all emotional about,” Wagner points out.

turn came, a booklet of stamps was slapped on the table in front of my eager nose. They smelled like cheap glue and rotting paper.

For a long time after our call, I think about this construction worker. I imagine him coming into Centro Savilá and picking up a

Over thirty years later, that acrid experience lingers in my gut as

La Cosecha CSA bag. It brims with garlic, eggplants, carrots, basil,

I talk to Bill Wagner, director of Centro Savilá, a South Valley treat-

arugula, ancho chiles, beets, collard greens, blackberries, green chile,

ment center devoted to healing and recovery. “Poverty carries a lot of

zucchini, and jalapeños. He heads home to fix a meal—maybe tacos

stress and shame with it. Our memories hit an emotional spot,” he

overflowing with a spicy collard green-zucchini and ground beef mix-

says. Wagner and I are on the phone talking about La Cosecha CSA,

ture, along side a dish of roasted beets. He sets a place for his son and

a program that provides fresh South Valley-grown produce to area

for the memory of his boyhood self. At the end of the meal he puts

residents, including Centro Savilá’s clients.

leftovers away in a refrigerator full of vibrant vegetables.

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A meal isn’t only about having enough to eat. It is fuel for our inner sense of safety, a way to ease fear and uncertainty. “Sometimes people are depressed, and a big part of it is that there just isn’t any food in the fridge,” Wagner points out.

La Cosecha, which means “the harvest” in Spanish, is a CSA, or community supported agriculture, that understands the importance of food. The vision for the CSA came in 2011 when a group of farmers, collectively known as the Agri-Cultura Network, set out to address food insecurity in the South Valley. They wanted to make sure the produce they grew in the valley was available to the people living around their fields, not just to patrons at farmers markets and restaurants. As Andrew Valverde, a young farmer now part of the network, puts it, “This is about feeding my neighbors, my family, me.”

The idea was that they would provide a weekly share (arriving as a bag of groceries) of their produce, for a fee. Half of the participants, from anywhere in the city, would pay full price for their weekly share while the remaining half would be recruited from the South Valley and receive a share for a reduced rate. Recruitment would focus on families with young children who meet the income eligibility requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP (what we used to call food stamps), which for a family of four means a net monthly income of $1,963 or less. In New Mexico, at any given time, about twenty percent of the population receives SNAP benefits.

In 2012 the Agri-Cultura Network hired Anzia Bennett and charged her with carrying out their vision. “We started with twenty families,” she explains. “We charged seventeen dollars for the reduced rate bag but we quickly learned that for many families it was hard to come up with that every single week, May through October.

They just have so many demands on their budget.”

Bennett worked with the farmers and community partners to figure out what to realistically charge for the reduced rate share and how to raise the money to lower the price. By summer 2014, they reduced the price from seventeen dollars to five dollars per week for a full share or three dollars for a half share. To put it in perspective, a full priced share is thirty dollars, a half share is fifteen dollars, and a bunch of locally grown carrots at the Downtown Growers Market is roughly five dollars a bunch.

In the 2014 season, La Cosecha CSA provided over two hundred families twenty-five weeks of locally grown produce, and half received the reduced rate. “We found that the new rates were doable.

Families could fit [five dollars] into a weekly budget,” said Bennett.

To make it even more accessible, families can pay for their bags with SNAP, although many families choose to save their monthly SNAP benefits, which in New Mexico average $128 per person, for staples such as beans and meat.

That is just what Megan and her family do. They receive a half share each week, at the reduced rate of three dollars, and use other WWW.EDIBLESANTAFE.COM

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Packing CSAs for pick up and eager customers get their veggies at the SVEDC.

benefits to buy staples for the family. “One of our favorite things to make is meatballs. My husband hides the La Cosecha CSA veggies in them—chard, kale, and all the wonderful herbs from our bag.” Her kids, two and four years old, gobble them up.

Megan and her husband are full-time students. Funds are stretched but they care about quality food. “We would not be able to feed our kids this kind food otherwise. We just would not be able to afford it,” she explains. “Where we really notice the difference is in the off months from La Cosecha. We go to the store and try to match what we get in our bag, but we just can’t do it.” (La Cosecha only offers their boxes for twenty-five weeks during summer and fall.)

At Centro Savilá, one of twelve places La Cosecha CSA bags can be picked up in the South Valley, staples such as beans and rice are added to the bags which the facility pays for. Dr. Will Kaufman of First Choice Community Health Care, another partner of the program, raves about the healthy cooking classes La Cosecha CSA sponsors at the South Valley Health Commons.

“Participating in these classes has been some of the most hopeful experiences I have had as a primary care doctor. The difference between giving the same five minute talk on ‘what is diabetes’ in a clinic visit compared to standing in front of one of the La Cosecha cooking classes with the health generating smells and tastes surrounding me could not be more stark.”

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Cooking classes are just part of how La Cosecha CSA supports member health. Each week recipes for less familiar items, like eggplant and sorrel, are nestled in the bag along with a newsletter about health topics. At an annual farm party, La Cosecha CSA members can feast with the farmers who grow their food and can get a blood pressure test. As Wagner put it, “Other ways of food production hurt the land, the economy, and our health, but La Cosecha CSA is a new way.”

We desperately need a new way. In February 2014, Congress passed the latest version of the Farm Bill, seventy-five percent of which is spent on nutrition programs such as SNAP. The new version cut SNAP by 8.7 billion dollars over ten years, estimated to result in a ninetydollar per month reduction in benefits for eight hundred thousand recipients. In New Mexico, our governor recently announced a plan to attach a twenty-hour a week work requirement to SNAP benefits, even though fifteen percent of New Mexicans are unemployed.

These changes will likely inflate the number of children growing up in the glare of the bare refrigerator and in the clutches of food insecurity. Like the construction worker and like myself, memories will be with them each time they sit at a table, talk about food, and feed their own children. And who will decide what they remember?

La Cosecha CSA, lead the way. www.agri-cultural.org, www.agri-cultura.org/la-cosecha-csa

OCTOBER ‘14

What can you do to join in?

OCTOBER 1 – 31 Take the Eat Drink Local Challenge Support local restaurants in Santa Fe and Taos during the Moveable Feast Attend one of the many local events occuring duing Eat Drink Local Month October 1 kicks off our Eat Drink Local Challenge. Partners from every part of our local food system urge you to dine out, cook in, and celebrate the ingredients, landscape, and people behind our plates through a month’s worth of events, restaurant meals, and plenty of cooking and drinking at home.

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A celebration of premier dining destinations and the bounty of seasonal ingredients grown in New Mexico.

Celebrate local food and pledge to eat only locally grown and produced food for the entire thirty-one days of October.

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Food And Medicine COMING FULL CIRCLE

BY SAM MELADA

Presbyterian Growers Market, photo by Stephanie Cameron

The relationship between food and medicine has a long, convoluted history that has evolved over millennia through combinations of experimentation, superstition, and scientific rigor. Doctors in places like China and India encourage the consumption of healing foods in patients’ diets. In Western countries, the separation of food from medicine and health has a lineage that can be traced back as far as the Socratic dialogues by Plato, such as the Gorgias, wherein Plato argued that cookery and food must be separated from the idea of medicine proper.

More recently, in the late nineteenth-century dinner tables echoed the cry of, “Eat your peas, they’re good for you!” The enjoyment of fresh food was transformed by the development of canned food, and as many may remember, no suburban kids wanted to eat vegetables of their own volition. Parents, unaware that canning reduces significant nutritional value from vegetables, believed the canned food was healthy and berated their kids to eat it. In mainstream America, where medicine came in tidy, processed packages, many people believed that food with similar aesthetics would similarly have healing properties. But in recent years we have started to unpack this complicated relationship; fresh fruits and vegetables have reentered the world of Western medicine.

In 2002 Kaiser Permanente began sponsoring farmers markets, thanks to the allopathic pioneer, Dr. Preston Maring. The enduring influence of Dr. Maring, who advocated prevention and health through proper diet and contributed to the opening of thirty-five markets in five states, is hard to fully measure. Hospitals have taken 42

edible Santa Fe | FALL 2014

a different approach to health than Dr. Maring; they are rewarded financially after the worst has already happened. In our current healthcare system, hospitals do not make their money by preventing people from being admitted. Increasingly, people use the emergency care in hospitals as primary care, which creates an unsustainable financial burden on our healthcare system. Without adequate access to check-ups and preventative care, people only seek healthcare after they are in dire need, rather than nipping illness in the bud. Only in the last ten to twelve years have healthcare providers recognized the wisdom of Maring’s approach and the value of prevention.

According to the Center for Disease Control, New Mexico has experienced an overall rise in diabetes and in childhood and adult obesity during the last decade. Diet, shaped by access to healthy food, has played a primary roll in this increase. Obesity exacerbates many health problems. Diabetes and hypertension, which co-occur with obesity, often increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and many other serious health issues that lead to hospitalization. It is a domino effect.

In 2014 we are on the cusp of healthcare reform. As our population gains increased access to healthcare with the Affordable Care Act, we still must look at where our food comes from and its role in improving the health of our community if we aim to turn the trend around.

By increasing access to quality foods, overall baseline health of the citizens of New Mexico can be improved. Poverty is a major contributing factor to food choices. It is cheaper to eat processed food than it is to buy local and organic produce. For a struggling family, choosing fast food or processed, take-home food often is more realistic than

buying groceries and making food at home. Buying produce and processed, prepackaged food from a big-box store is cheaper and more convenient than going to a retailer of organic produce or a farmers market.

Hospitals, like other enormous institutions, implement change slowly, but administrators and doctors understand the connections between diet and the services they provide. For five years, UNM Hospital sponsored an on-campus farmers market. After it was adopted by the Sustainability Studies program, it was moved to the more heavily trafficked main campus from the medical center. Presbyterian Hospital, for the past three years, has maintained a small but growing farmers market just east of the hospital on Central Avenue and Spruce Avenue near the University every Tuesday from 7am to 12pm, rain or shine.

The New Mexico Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has expanded its scope to become an avenue through which individuals and families can gain access to local fresh food. Individuals and families can use SNAP benefits not only in conventional grocery stores, but also at many farmers markets throughout New Mexico. Presbyterian Healthcare Services has also contributed to increasing access to local food by supporting programs such as La Cosecha CSA (see page 38). Low-income families in the South Valley can get a weekly supply of locally grown produce, as well as recipes, from local producers at a substantial discount.

Presbyterian has also piloted a fruit and veggie prescription program called Fresh Rx, which connects low-income pediatric patients at risk for diet-related diseases with fresh food from farmers markets. Doctors write qualifying Fresh Rx patients a prescription for fresh local produce that they can get at the Presbyterian Market on Tuesdays or at the Downtown Growers’ Market in Robinson Park on Saturdays. In turn, Presbyterian provides a grant that subsidizes the cost of the food to fill the prescription. Families can spend up to twenty dollars per week at their market and receive a matching amount good for fruit, vegetables, local honey, nuts, and other fresh foods.

They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the proof of these programs has been in the responses from program participants. La Cosecha members say that their groceries taste better and they feel better with quality ingredients in their diet. The long-term benefits will be challenging to assess, as they will likely lead to fewer diet-related illnesses over a long period of time. With only shortterm results, it’s still safe to say that returning to a view of food as medicine is a step in the right direction. With any luck, other healthcare providers will follow Presbyterian’s lead. As healthy-eating programs grow, so will the health of our citizens. They can begin to nourish people, the land, and the local economy in an upward spiral, and its apex might be beyond our wildest expectations.

Albuquerque Growers Market @ Presbyterian 505-865-3533 www.abquptowngrowersmarket.org

Bring Home the Local !

Shop at your nearest growers’ market for the freshest, best tasting food brought to you directly by the people who grow and raise it. See what’s happening in your community and get to know your local farmers!

Feel great about the food you eat.

Summer 2014–15

n LocallyGuideGtorLoocaw l Food New Mexico’s

Pick up your copy of Locally Grown at growers’ markets, community centers and WIC clinics across the state. Or, call the New Mexico Farmers’ Marketing Association at 888-983-4400 and we’ll send you a copy.

www.FarmersMarketsNM.org

Grow. Glean. Distribute.

COLLABORATING TO FEED THE FOOD INSECURE Story and Photos by Leah Roco

Seed2Need volunteers with Penny Davis on far right.

“If we were gleaning in every community in New Mexico, there is likely at least half a million pounds of food out there [we could harvest to feed people].”

Sometimes dire needs bond the strongest partnerships. According to Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap project, New Mexico has some of the nation’s highest rates of food insecurity, both for children and adult populations. A growing number of New Mexicans understand that to address this issue we have to work together. They also see the potential in our farmland to feed New Mexican families who are without adequate access to healthy food. Toward that end, farmers, individuals, and organizations are now collaborating to grow, glean, and distribute hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables for New Mexico’s most food insecure.

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Not long after her retirement in 2008, the recession awakened Penny Davis to a new career path. Pouring over daily newspaper stories about New Mexico's hungry families, Davis decided to apply her master gardening skills in a practical way. She planted a twenty-by-twenty-foot vegetable garden and donated the harvest to Storehouse West, a Sandoval county food pantry. From that was born Seed2Need, a project to reduce hunger and to improve the nutrition of families facing food insecurity in her community. In 2009, the project expanded onto the property of Victor and Nora Scherzinger. When neighbors Dr. Robert Lynn and Janet Braziel got wind of the garden, they decided they would offer land.

Seed2Need has continued to expand. It now sprawls across two acres split among three parcels in Corrales. Master gardeners, Boy Scouts, Bosque Prep seventh graders, and a crew of volunteers from all over town maintain it. “Every year people come around and offer us more land,” Davis discloses. “We could easily be five acres by now.” What she needs is more volunteer hands in the field and their donated time.

Roadrunner is the largest food bank in New Mexico, serving nearly forty thousand hungry people every week. Unlike a food pantry, which distributes food directly to individuals and families in need, the food bank distributes to food agencies like food pantries, homeless shelters, and daycare centers. With more than thirty years of collecting and distributing food for the hungry, their capacity and ability to mobilize volunteers makes them an essential resource for smaller food security organizations like Seed2Need and Galloping Grace.

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Ugly, rotten tomatoes become the perfect treat for pigs and other animals at Galloping Grace Youth Ranch. The ranch returns the favor in truckloads of manure instrumental in building healthy soil at Seed2Need. Also located in Sandoval County, Galloping Grace serves as an educational agriculture center and an innovative community supported agriculture (CSA) model. Children learn to care for rabbits, chicks, and goats, and that these animals contribute to food systems on several levels. Unlike the traditional CSA model, those who buy an annual share in Galloping Grace don’t take home food. Each share provides a modest monthly donation to the organization’s educational programs, which in turn produce over thirty dozen eggs a week, and this year, three hundred pounds of sustainably raised meat, all of which gets donated to Rio Rancho Public Schools and Roadrunner Food Bank.

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Seed2Need also functions as a formal educational setting. Since 2010, Eagle Scouts have led eight projects to expand and maintain the gardens. This spring, Bosque Prep seventh graders, enrolled in a course about hunger and poverty in New Mexico, helped plant thousands of seedlings. In the fall they returned to help harvest.

Kids learn about the value-chain of food, and also about what happens to food deemed inedible for humans. This year, blossom end rot, a common tomato disorder, struck numerous plants in the Seed2Need garden. Students learn that those blunted tomatoes have a life beyond the garbage.

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In 2013, Seed2Need yielded more than forty thousand pounds of produce. Everything Davis and her team of volunteers grow they donate directly to seventeen food pantries and soup kitchens across Sandoval and Bernalillo Counties. “We provide farmers market quality produce that gets picked in the morning and is in someone’s kitchen that afternoon,” confesses Davis's daughter Leslie with the giddy voice of one who takes humble pleasure in doing good deeds in anonymity. Seed2Need selects crops based on nutritional value and productive capacity. They try not to grow commonly donated crops such as carrots, onions, or potatoes. Instead tomatoes, squash, peppers, and cucumbers take priority in the gardens.

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As local food becomes an integral part of the food bank’s stores, these small organizations also become important resources. Roadrunner's Chief Operating Officer Teresa Johansen reasons, “I can continue to grow the food bank, but additional partnerships created in a local community makes the whole system more sustainable.” Working with fresh produce such as tomatoes from Seed2Need and perishable food like the meat from Galloping Grace means that food has to be processed and distributed quickly. The weakest link in achieving true sustainability for everyone involved is a steady stream of volunteers. They assist with sorting incoming produce so that Roadrunner can determine the urgency with which food should be dispersed. In general, by the time a tomato has reached the food bank, it will need a home within the next day or two.

While farms like Seed2Need have developed a system to donate all the food they grow, most farmers need to sell their produce at the highest price possible to make ends meet. At the end of a growing cycle, farmers often have food left in a field, either because they don’t have a market or because the need to make way for the next season’s crop.

Roadrunner and Seed2Need have diligently grown a network of local farmers and gardeners who donate excess and end-of-season product to hungry New Mexicans. Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from a farmer's field after the main harvest is complete. This summer, volunteers for Seed2Need and Roadrunner successfully gleaned several thousand pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables from Corrales backyard gardens and from a cherry and apricot orchard near La Luz. Johansen explained, “If we were gleaning in every community in New Mexico, there is likely at least half a million pounds of food out there [we could harvest to feed people.]”

The relationships between farms and food banks, born of need, begin to address hunger issues in New Mexico with results that extend beyond building food security. As discarded materials become resources for others to use, sustainable ecological cycles develop. Social capital grows as kids and adults gain agricultural and nutritional knowledge and skills. It doesn't take a business owner to build capital. This is community wealth building, and it's happening all around New Mexico.

Seed2Need P.O. Box 874, Corrales 505-385-4864, www.seed2need.us Galloping Grace Youth Ranch 1500 Sea Road NE, Rio Rancho www.ggyr.org Roadrunner Food Bank 5840 Office Boulevard NE, Albuquerque 505-247-2052 www.rrfb.org Photos from top to bottom: Food Depot truck, Roadrunner Food Bank volunteers sort through apples, Penny Davis with Seed2Need volunteers, Seed2Need voulunteers show off their tomatoes.

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Discover the many faces of local food at the

2014 LOCAL FOOD FESTIVAL AND FIELD DAY

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12, 11am – 4pm at the Gutierrez-Hubbell House, 6029 Isleta SW • local food • free samples • chef demos • food trucks • local beer • • hands-on workshops on gardening, cooking, and beekeeping • live music • kid's activities • • seed mural project • bike valet • pie contest • "faces" exhibit • LEARN MORE AT bit.ly/1sQaQDS

Sustainable Aging

INCORPORATING COMMUNITY AND FOOD TO HELP SENIORS

By Valerie Ashe Photos by Stephanie Cameron

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An oasis in the food desert, the Center for Ageless Living (CAL) in Tome, just east of Los Lunas, addresses the needs of seniors in its forty-five-resident community. This assisted living center not only provides nourishing food, much grown on-site, but also cares for basic human needs to sustain a healthy lifestyle in old age: fresh air, exercise, comfort, and a sense of wellbeing. CAL is also home to a day spa, salon, restaurant, event space, and small vegetable farm, all open to the public as well as residents. Suzette Lindemuth, CAL’s owner and director, says it’s important that the residents feel part of society and their surrounding community. Seeing the public come and go, watching preparations for the occasional wedding on the six-acre campus, or spending time in the garden, gives residents a sense that they are part of something bigger and that they still have a place in the world.

Issues of food security, or access to adequate healthy and culturally appropriate food, impact our most vulnerable community members. Seniors are no exception. Their struggle to protect themselves from food insecurity and hunger is greater than the general population’s. For example, seniors may have enough money to purchase food, but they might not have the resources to get to a grocery store because of a lack of transportation options, or capacity to prepare food because of physical limitations or health problems.

The US Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Aging tells us that in 2040 there will be 79.7 million older adults in the US, more than twice as many as in 2000. In 2011, 4.8 million Americans over the age of sixty were food insecure.

Worse, the number of food-insecure seniors is projected to increase by fifty percent when the youngest of the Baby Boom Generation reaches age sixty in 2025.

Lindemuth recognizes the need for a different approach to senior care. In 1998 she read The Fountain of Age by Betty Friedan, whose mother was aging at the time. Friedan identified that the biggest problem for people aging

in our culture is isolation. “Many elders think they want to live alone, that they have lived alone for a very long time. In reality, most seniors have lived alone for only a small fraction of their lives,” Lindemuth observes. “They grew up in families. They may have gone off to school or the military among large groups of people. Most of them raised their own families before living alone. Once they’ve lived alone awhile, they show signs of depression—not eating, not sleeping well—all a result of living in isolation.”

“Why do you think community gardens are so popular?” Lindemuth muses. “The volunteers are usually elderly women. The gardens give them a sense of belonging, a sense of community.” Lindemuth and her team want to create an environment where people feel comfortable and connected—not just senior residents, but also family members who come to visit them, and even the public. Most people who move to assisted living don’t need medical care; they need help with day-to-day living, such as getting dressed, going shopping, and preparing meals.

CAL runs on private pay with funding from the VA Pension and Aid and Attendant Program as well as Medicaid. Because the center is not owned by a large national corporation or traded on a stock exchange, Lindemuth enjoys autonomy to choose how the center is run and the food choices they offer because she and the board can make decisions quickly without waiting on funding or legislation. A decade ago, Lindemuth started purchasing food from local farmers as often as possible for residents' meals and for the restaurant’s menu. Five years ago, she converted a two-acre parcel adjacent to the center into a large garden to supplement purchase of local food. During the fall season, she serves fresh tomatoes, chard, onions, basil, tarragon, lettuce, beets, and honey to residents and visitors, all harvested from on-site gardens.

Volume and price are always a consideration for institutional food programs. New Mexico has a short growing season, limiting options, and small farms often must charge

Photos from top left to bottom: Suzette Lindemuth, owner and director, Center for Ageless Living raised beds, and residents enjoying garden in the courtyard.

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more for their produce. To supplement what she grows on-site, Lindemuth works with Amyo Farms, Sterling Gardens, Jefferson Farms, and Vida Verde Farm for other vegetables, and with Talus Wind Ranch for meat. She would love to supply more local food to residents, but seasonal local food must by supplemented by larger commercial suppliers to provide consistent and healthy meals to feed forty-five seniors three times a day.

Tastes are a challenge. Lindemuth says, “We all know what we like to eat by the time we’re adults, and many of the seniors are very particular about what they will and won’t eat. You had better have that banana at lunchtime every day, which is difficult to accommodate in a strictly local model.” Every generation that comes through the center changes. Just a few years ago, she couldn’t get most residents to eat salad. They wanted a lot of canned vegetables, because that was what was common in the era when they grew up. Now everybody wants fresh greens.

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Philosophically, the way nursing homes have been built and operated hasn’t changed in decades, but the CAL takes a different approach. Management at senior facilities can change frequently, which isn’t necessarily sustainable. According to Lindemuth, the definition of sustainable is the ability to maximize one’s natural resources: time, money, shelter, or food. CAL takes sustainability seriously—at every level. For example, she had a water treatment plant installed at CAL to be able to recycle water from the facility in their gardens. CAL also uses water from on-site wells very consciously. The center has its own treatment plant and recycles as much water as possible. With the exception of paying a nominal fee each year for irrigation of the farm, CAL hasn't paid a water bill in years, which ultimately means it has money to spend on things like better food for residents.

Lindemuth says, “The questions the senior care industry should ask itself are: Can we make long-term care affordable?

How do we care for people going into their nineties as the Baby Boomer generation continues to grow old? It’s difficult to keep pace with how fast that generation is aging.” She believes if we don’t use our resources wisely, and creatively integrate systems for people, environment, and the bottom line, we can’t age sustainably. Her business model keeps senior residents as healthy as possible by reducing isolation, nourishing them with healthy food, and keeping medical costs down through healthy living.

She also believes that we’ll see more community-based aging as more people begin to understand the detriments of isolation and the benefits of care centers that prioritize good food, sustainability, and a sense of community. People should be able to age in their own communities near where they have raised their families and feel a sense of belonging. The country will see more of this model for senior living in coming years—it will continue to grow as people seek to age healthier.

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Saturday, October 11, 2014 6:00 pm Share your love of the Farmers’ Market and sustainable agriculture in Northern New Mexico at our annual celebration!

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Apple Orchard Tours Fresh Apple Cider Pumpkin Patch -- large selection of pumpkins Green Chile Roasting Ristras and Red Chile Live Entertainment and Home-made Food

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Internationally Inspired, Locally Sourced Harvest Feast • Specialty Cocktails • Live & Silent Auctions • Farmer All-Star Awards ❧ Tickets per person $135 For more information or to purchase tickets: www.farmersmarketinstitute.org or call 983-7726.

All proceeds benefit the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute 1607 Paseo de Peralta, Suite A, Santa Fe, NM 87501 P: 505-983-7726 • F: 505-983-0815

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Photo Credit: Janet Russek and VERVE Gallery of Photography

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Resources: Water Footprint Network and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Street Food in Bloom A NEW VISION FOR LOCAL ENTREPRENEURS

By Gail Guengerich Photos by Stephanie Cameron Researching the Street Food Institute is like reaching for an apple and bringing down a whole shower of leaves and songbirds on your head.

You realize that the apple you’re touching is only the most expressed part of a deeply rooted living system that impacts the entire yard.

The apple is the shiny new Street Food Institute (SFI) food truck, dishing out seared shrimp tacos and ancho pulled pork. The tree is the mission of SFI—a nonprofit venture of the Santa Fe–based Simon Foundation—to wrest local fast food from national corporations, fan the flames of micro-business, empower underserved young people, and shore up the local food economy with a sense of joy and community.

Ground zero for this tall order is a Central New Mexico (CNM) Community College SFI special topics course called Mobile Food Operations in which students like Joslynn Gutierrez spend a semester learning both the business and the praxis of running a food truck. “I had a food truck of my own before this class,” says Gutierrez, “and didn’t know anything about business…[what I learned] was a big shocker.”

The curriculum, developed in partnership by CNM and SFI, explores business plans and marketing plans, health department requirements, social media, kitchen logistics, city codes, and menu concepts in the classroom. The real action happens during the hands-on prep work and on the food truck itself.

Chef David Sellers, formerly of Santacafé and Amavi in Santa Fe, directs the program. As the semester progresses, he gives students the opportunity to showcase their own inventions in a weekly cook-off.

The winning dish (judged by several criteria from taste to ability to execute on a food truck) is added to the chalkboard menu. Sellers has enjoyed watching some of these student-created dishes enjoy massive customer appeal. Two that ascended to food truck glory were Gutierrez’s Hawaiian-New Mexican burger (ground beef and chorizo topped with sautéed pineapples and jalapeño chutney) and Verlynda Toledo’s jalapeño-popper-inspired grilled cheese sandwich accompanied by a fresh early-summer tomato salad. Gutierrez loved these challenges; they pushed her tightly knit class forward. “Everybody was getting better at what they do…that’s what competition is all about.”

The program creates a kind of perfect storm of vision, down-anddirty pragmatics, and hands-on training that empowers students.

Scott Clapp, classroom instructor for the first semester pilot program, recognizes this as a unique arrangement in culinary arts education.

Rarely in the industry do culinary students get the opportunity to

immediately apply what they’ve learned from the classroom in a realworld situation.

Food trucks are particularly viable business opportunities because the out-of-pocket expenses are a trifle compared to those required to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant. Lack of affordable opportunity is something that Steve Simon, president and CEO of the Simon Foundation based in Santa Fe, has recognized as a local problem for some time. The idea for SFI was born out of his troubling observation that the young are fleeing Santa Fe en masse for more amenable economies and communities.

“The average age of employed persons in Santa Fe is fifty-five years or older. That’s not a healthy, balanced culture,” says Simon. The previous mayor of Santa Fe, however, wasn’t particularly interested in addressing the loss of a young, creative class, so Simon redirected his project to partners in Albuquerque. Things have turned around with the current mayor and Simon hopes to have a similar program embedded at Santa Fe Community College next year.

The myriad partnerships form an intricate root system that feeds the program. CNM houses the course; the food comes in part from Agri-Cultura Network, a coalition of South Valley farmers; and a state legislative appropriation pays for the trucks. The program has already sprouted offshoots. SWEPT (Southwest Educational Partners for Training)—a South Valley nonprofit that offers job training, ESL, and GED courses to the local community—will also host an SFI training program that mirrors the course at CNM. The entire endeavor adheres to the social enterprise model, investing in society rather than turning a profit.

Empowering young people to succeed as culinary entrepreneurs may be a primary objective, but SFI also aims to create a new wave in healthy, delicious food truck culture, similar to that of Austin or Los Angeles. While Albuquerque has little clusters of food trucks, Simon notes that much growth needs to occur before the city reaches that level of street food culture. “Food is something integral to life and culture. Around the world, markets are the center of communities. In America we’ve veered away from that,” says Simon. “We move so fast, and feel alienated from our neighbors.”

Fast food in America often means a flimsy factory-farmed burger we eat in our car or street food in the form of a lonely little hot dog vendor or soft pretzel cart. This is an impoverished American

From top left clockwise: SFI student Vernon Pajarito; chipotle pork shoulder tacos with salsa arbol, pickled vegetables, and cotija cheese; smoked pork belly banh mi with siracha, pork pate, and sprouts; left to right: Chef David Sellers, Carrie Avritt, Vernon Pajarito, and Alfredo Trujillo.

WWW.EDIBLESANTAFE.COM

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conception of street food. Sellers is inspired by the wildly vibrant street food cultures of Mexico and Southeast Asia, hawker cultures where, he says, “People who have talent to share are able to make a living because the entire community is wrapped in that.”

It’s something hard to imagine if you haven’t traveled. So SFI sponsored a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, for some of the students, exposing them to an entirely different way of living and eating—a difference so vivid and poignant that Simon hopes to include local community leaders on future trips. For Gutierrez, who had never been out of the country, it was a heady experience. The love for food expressed through well crafted cuisine shared in a public setting thrilled her, and gave her a sense of what street food could mean in Albuquerque. “I’m still feeling the buzz from that trip.” Indeed, upon their return, Chef Sellers says the class dedicated the truck to Oaxacan inspired food for the next couple of months. “It was really fun. We did tacos, tortas, different moles, all kinds of stuff.”

Meanwhile, the local community benefits from the availability of quality, affordable fast food. A freshly made sandwich with a side only costs seven or eight dollars—comparable to a soda-and-fries value meal. The profit from the purchase then stays in the community rather than evaporating into the corporateshareholder stratosphere.

And that’s why SFI’s model will bear fruit on every bough— of economic development, community health, food security, and community culture. And, keeping to the metaphor, when two additional food trucks come online this year, suddenly an orchard grows. It’s the community connection that Gutierrez loves most of all, “When you’re cooking in a kitchen, once the food goes out, it’s done.” But, she says, talking to the customer and seeing them bite into what you’ve made is totally different. “You interact on a much more personal level.”

That, in a nutshell, is what sharing food, and street food, is all about.

Note: For the latest on the SFI truck whereabouts and menu, follow them on Facebook. To get into the SFI spirit of local food, check out their monthly Salud y Sabor event at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

318 Isleta Boulevard, Albuquerque, 505-217-2492 www.streetfoodinstitute.org

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Food Service for a Sustainable Future

By Sam Hedges Photo by Stephanie Cameron A choppy cellular connection links me in Albuquerque to Guido Lambelet in Santa Fe. His voice is calm, methodical, and introspective. I ask him about his work as executive chef in the café at the Santa Fe Opera House, as well as his work as general manager of the café at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Both fall beneath the unique umbrella of the Bon Appétit Management Company, or BAMCO. Lambelet and I discuss the menu for the IAIA and the dinners he served six nights a week during the summer season at the Opera House. The word local comes up a lot, more than you'd expect for a café serving students and visitors.

Lambelet’s description of a typical menu at his cafés differs from my expectations for food served in a university or a large art institution. He comments on New Mexico’s poor tomato season this year, and I think, "How did he know that?" I remember food at my college: fried, reheated, ladelled from Aramark pans, and so light in nutrients that my digestive tract would have to readjust to real nutrition whenever I dined in the real world. In the words of BAMCO, "In the 1980s, the industry standard for college and corporate cafeterias was casseroles and mystery meat, served glop by glop out of steam tables. If you were seeking a fresh vegetable, you were out of luck unless iceberg lettuce qualified."

Hate to break it to you, but in 2014 the industry standard remains largely unchanged. In 2009, I found myself wondering, in my fourth year in college, why more of my tuition hadn't gone toward providing quality food.

Guido Lambelet

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In the late eighties, Fedele Bauccio and Ernie Collins were thinking along the same lines. Coming from giant food corporations, they set out on a different road and created the Bon Appétit Management Company from a San Francisco–based caterer. It started with hiring chefs to make quality food from scratch and on-site in Silicon Valley. Within the first decade, they began a farm-to-fork program that required each chef to source twenty percent of ingredients within a one-hundred-fifty-mile radius.

They were the first in their industry to serve sustainable seafood, rBGH-free milk, cage-free eggs, and pork raised without gestation crates. The list of firsts for BAMCO is long, and the number of their cafés around the country outruns my patience in finding them all. Let's just say

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institutions like the University of Pennsylvania and Intel now have BAMCO cooking for their students and employees.

Because industrial-scale food privileges uniformity, cross-country endurance, and blemish-free skin over taste, it's not uncommon for those who value the best food to purchase locally. For chefs, taste is supreme and fresh food grown for flavor and short mileage is ideal.

For each BAMCO café, local growers can register as vendors, provided they fit the standards set by the company.

As a farmer who sells to restaurants, I know the discrepancy between what a restaurant might claim to source locally and what it actually serves, particularly on the corporate level. Lambelet casually lists off the local vendors from whom he purchases. I wait, but the list goes on: Kyzer Farms for pork, the Sweet Grass Co-op for beef, the Old Windmill Dairy, Espanola Valley Farm, Rancho La Jolla, Ancient Waters Farm, Sun Greens Living Food, La Montañita Co-op Distribution Center, and Farm to Table's restaurant delivery service. The list is more impressive than those I see in some high-end restaurants. Lambelet purchases an average of forty pounds of fresh salad greens per week for the month of July at the Opera House and twenty pounds for the memoir IAIA's café. BAMCO's Santa Fe cafés ranked highest in orders from Farm to Table's restaurant deliveries in 2013.

Lambelet’s position as executive chef is unique. He points out that most corporate food providers standardize menus, regardless of place.

Lambelet, however, is fairly autonomous. He builds his menus based on the institutions' vision, their customers, and seasonal sources. Lambelet loves food. Exercising creativity and deep appreciation for ingredients is easy when his employer empowers him to source twenty percent locally, to make all sauces and dressings from scratch, and to list the corporate quality guidelines in his cafés.

Locally sourced food is often more expensive than its conventional counterparts. Universities, after all, have other costs to think about.

Lambelet tells me about a ground beef experiment in which he tested the cost of conventional corn-fed beef against locally produced grassfed beef. He started with forty pounds of each. In cooking, the conventional beef loses ten pounds of weight in water and fat, while the grass-fed retains its full weight. In the end, the price difference isn't as great as we might assume. While Lambelet sees the benefits to those he feeds, and to his bottom line, he also sees direct impacts on the producers he works with. Lambelet approached the Sweet Grass Co-op to ask if they might sell beef patties in addition to their ground beef. He was the first to receive them. Now a number of Santa Fe restaurants use Sweet Grass patties.

Lambelet confesses that local sourcing in New Mexico in winter can be slim pickings, but he has hopes that some food will be grown on the IAIA's own campus in its greenhouses during the lean months.

Last year his neighbor in Española grew frisée strictly for the Opera House's preview dinners. At IAIA, Lambelet sees the change every day in students who come from populations where diabetes is rampant as they enjoy the healthy food he makes. Some come to the school having never tried real greens, but they leave with a taste for fresh vegetables.

Not all good work is done center stage. BAMCO’s work in the community and its support of local farmers may go unnoticed in the busy museums and colleges it services. I appreciate finding quality ingredients in places where a wide variety of people come through to eat. It's quiet work, but it’s this kind of work that gives the local food community stronger roots. Lambelet agrees. After we get off the phone, he texts me more farm names and menus. I can't help but smile. www.bamco.com

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Adelitas Alameda Café Anasazi Restaurant Andiamo!

Arroyo Vino Atrisco Café Bert’s Burger Bowl Bouche Bistro Café Pasqual’s Casa Chimayo Coyote Café Del Charro Dr. Field Goods Kitchen El Farol Epazote on the Hillside Fuego at La Posada Gabriel’s Georgia Geronimo Iguana Café Il Piatto izanami Izmi Sushi Jambo Café Jinja Joseph’s of Santa Fe l’Olivier La Boca La Casa Sena La Plazuela Las Fuentes Loyal Hound Luminaria Maria’s Midtown Bistro Omira Grill Osteria d’Assisi Pecos Trail Café

Pizzeria da Lino Plaza Café South Pranzo Pueblo Artist Café Pyramid Café Red Sage Restaurant Martin Rio Chama Ristra San Francisco St. Bar & Grill Santa Fe Bar & Grill Santa Fe Capitol Grill Santacafe Shohko Café Steaksmith at El Gancho Sweet Water Harvest Kitchen Swiss Bistro & Bakery Taberna La Boca Tabla de los Santos Terra at Four Seasons TerraCotta Tesuque Village Market The Bistro at Courtyard The Compound The Galisteo Bistro The Grille at Quail Run The Guesthouse The Old House The Palace The Ranch House The Shed The Teahouse Tomasita’s Tortilla Flats Vanessie Vinaigrette Zia Diner

Photo by Lois Ellen Frank

cheers to all these great santa fe restaurants for another great event!

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Connecting the Dots

SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS AT THE SANTA FE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

By Sarah Wentzel-Fisher • Photos by Stephanie Cameron

One of the many beautiful things about institutions of higher learning is that they function as microcosms of larger social entities like cities, counties, or states. As much as individual departments are able to do research and test theories in their labs, social experiments can happen campus-wide to demonstrate the feasibility of systemic changes that might be applied at a municipal or state level.

Changes afoot in many departments at the Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) create the key variables in just such a microcosm, demonstrating that sustainability and food security are integral, and when practiced together contribute to more efficient and egalitarian society.

From a food pantry to a farm-to-fork culinary program and from food service to large-scale solar powered aquaponic greenhouses, SFCC is primed to prove they can ensure everyone has affordable nutritious food to eat, and they don’t need to burn nonrenewable resources to make it happen.

In 2011 while watching a Thanksgiving special at home, SFCC Executive Director of Marketing and Public Relations Janet Wise saw a program on food pantries on college campuses. When classes reconvened, she surveyed students to ask if they, or someone they knew, experienced hunger. Over ninety percent of respondents reported some level of food insecurity. One woman told her a story about how important attending college was to her and her family, but that it also meant a financial burden that pinched the weekly food budget. Wise approached the Santa Fe–based philanthropic group 100+ Women Who Care for startup funding. With a three thousand dollar grant and a small closet in an auxiliary building on campus, she launched the Campus Cupboad, a food pantry to serve SFCC students.

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The first year, the Campus Cupboard gave out seventeen thousand pounds of food; the second year thirty thousand pounds. The number of clients using the service has doubled since opening. Volunteer students and staff operate the pantry. Currently, most of the food, shelf stable items like canned or packaged goods, is donated by students and staff or by the Food Depot. But the pantry occasionally offers fresh fruits and vegetables as a result of surpluses from gardens on campus. Wise has also connected with Erin O’Neill, the SFCC Culinary Arts Garden coordinator to glean from the garden’s bounty.

Campus Cupboard clients and other students on campus can volunteer at the garden, and consequently take home veggies.

The SFCC Culinary Arts Garden consists of a several dozen raised beds and a small orchard adjacent to the patio outside the East Wing Eatery. O’Neill and Culinary Arts Program Director Michelle Roetzer have created a program where students learn more than saucier skills and event planning. Students, under the guidance and supervision of O’Neill, plant, care for, and harvest heirloom herbs, fruits, and vegetables as ingredients for their work in the kitchen with Roetzer. While the gardens cannot supply all the food needed in the program, the garden yield helps students understand where food comes from in tangible way.

When the garden produces more than they can use in the day’s kitchen exercises, produce goes into campus food service meals and home with students. Roetzer says her vision is to continue closing the distribution gap, cultivating as much as possible on campus or sourcing it locally.

While the Culinary Arts program teaches students about farm-tofork food preparation, the campus food service does its best to model this in practice. Director of Food Service Bezhad Dayeny learned an

appreciation for local food from an early age living in Iran, where all food was grown nearby and sold in open-air markets. He sources many of the ingredients for the campus cafeteria and catering services from local producers: fruits and veggies from area farmers during the growing season; coffee from Aroma Coffee, a local roaster; and all milk and half-and-half from Rasband Dairy in Albuquerque. Like Roetzer, Dayeny would like to move away from large national suppliers and reduce the food miles of his ingredients. Feeding eleven hundred people everyday, he understands his food purchases, if made locally, can have a big impact on the local economy. He says the two biggest challenges in integrating local food into the cafeteria are price and availability. His highest priority is ensuring that on-campus meals are affordable to students and staff. To offset higher costs of local ingredients, he makes food from scratch—everything from yogurt to soup to salad dressings.

In the coming year, sourcing ingredients close to campus will become easier. Since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, many community colleges have developed sustainable technology trades programs. SFCC offers training in energy efficiency, solar technologies, biofuels, water treatment, and, most recently, greenhouse technologies. Greenhouse Technologies Program Coordinator Eric Highfield came to SFCC last year to develop the program as the first step in a sustainable agriculture plan on campus. This year, Highfield provided herbs, produce, and fresh fish to the culinary program growing in a five-hundred-fifty square foot interim greenhouse. Next year, he will bring the campus’s first large scale aquaponic greenhouse online. The new facility will grow approximately forty thousand

heads of lettuce and eleven hundred pounds of fish, all for on campus consumption, using about two percent of the water it would take to produce the same quantities using conventional methods.

Highfield says, “Through integration we can improve the efficiency of our resource consumption even more, and that is exactly what we hope to achieve at SFCC in the near future.” He describes closed loop systems where greenhouses produce food for hungry students, greenhouse gasses and by-products become a renewable source of energy, the training in these trades produce businesses and jobs, which in turn make a stronger local economy.

While relatively new, the combination of these innovate projects at SFCC already demonstrate how a different model of food production can, and is working. They should be commended and looked to as an example for work at municipal and state levels towards more sustainable systems. www.sfcc.edu Pg. 60 left: SFCC garden; right: Jennifer Bleyle and Janet Wise at the Campus Cupboard. This page top left: Eric Highfield in the aquaponic greeenhouse; top right: Bezhad Dayeny, Erin O'Neill, Eric Highfeld, and Michelle Roetzer; bottom right: SFCC culinary lab.

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table hopping

Local Hospitality

By Sarah Wentzel-Fisher • Photos by Stephanie Cameron

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From top left clockwise: Juan Bochenski, Anasazi Restaurant's market salad, Kristian Markland, Adam Kerr and Gregory Romo, Tom Kerpon, and Eric Stumpf.

It takes a special disposition for a chef to choose to run a restaurant at a hotel or a resort. He or she may have a larger budget than small independent restaurants and a more consistent staff, due to employee benefits which allow certain freedoms, but the chef must also contend with corporate policies, many bosses, seasonality, and the entitlement of tourists.

Hotel dining and food service has long had to fight a reputation of using poor quality ingredients in large quantities dressed up to look great but taste like cardboard. The popularity of farm-to-fork dining, mandates to reduce food waste, and the pressures of ever-shrinking margins on chefs have inspired new trends among hotel restaurants.

Further, many corporate policies now require local procurement and food education in order to add value and authenticity to the guest experience.

Discussing resort restaurants in an issue about food security may seem antithetical, but the reality is much of New Mexico’s economy relies on tourism. While tourists provide significant support for these resorts, their restaurants have worked hard to engage locals and to meet their fine dining desires as well. Often, it is the vision of the chef that makes a dining experience in these environs unique and memorable. In this issue five hotel chefs tell how they leverage the advantages of corporate ownership to support local producers, champion regional gastronomy, generally give back to their communities, and create a dining experience both locals and visitors can love.

ERIC STUMPF THE CORN MAIDEN – TAMAYA RESORT AND SPA BY HYATT While many New Mexico chefs have been nominated for a James Beard award, few have been invited to cook at the Beard House. Chef Eric Stumpf of the Corn Maiden at Tamaya Resort and Spa represented the Southwest last April, showcasing some of New Mexico’s best artisanal flavors in dishes like elk posole with blue corn hominy, spiced chicharrones, and micro-cilantro.

Stumpf thrives in the kitchens of big resorts like Tamaya. He feels the staff, the budget, the space, and the audience allows him the freedom to experiment. At a place like the Corn Maiden, a close relationship with the agricultural producers and traditions of Santa Ana afford him space to further flex his culinary creativity.

His passion for local flavors and gastronomic craftsmanship in the kitchen pervade his everyday menus at the Corn Maiden. His inspiration comes from his surroundings. Tamaya Resort offers acres of prime Rio Grande agricultural land, adjacent to higher elevation pastures, all with a breathtaking view of the Sandia Mountains. At the resort Stumpf, and Cheryl Scantlebury, executive chef for the resort, have an active beekeeping program. Two dozen hives provide honey and bees wax for the restaurant and spa. They also work closely with Santa Ana Enterprises, the producer of Tamaya Blue Corn and a number of other indigenous foods.

Tamaya offers one of very few classically elegant dining experiences in the Albuquerque area. If you’re looking for a night out where every-

Corn Maiden's Bison Filet with huilacoche, wild mushrooms, and pepita mole.

one at the restaurant will be dressed to the nines, and you’ll remember the food for years, visit Stumpf and his team at the Corn Maiden.

1300 Tuyuna Trail, Santa Ana Pueblo, 505-771-6060, bit.ly/1xprr9D

TOM KERPON LAS FUENTES RESTAURANT & BAR – BISHOP’S LODGE Tom Kerpon comes from the old guard. The articulation and popularization of modern Southwestern cuisine twenty years ago by chefs Mark Miller and John Sedlar inspired the then-young Texan to pursue a career in the culinary arts. He cut his teeth at resorts in Dallas and the Caribbean, but came to Santa Fe more than fifteen years ago to pursue the fiery flavors that made him passionate about cooking.

Kerpon took the helm as executive chef at Bishop’s Lodge in July. In need of a change of pace from small independent restaurants, Kerpon made the leap to the kitchen of Las Fuentes Restaurant and Sunflower Bar and Grill. In his new position, Kerpon brings a long history and commitment both to community and to local food, having been a long-time board member of Santa Fe Wine and Chile, and working regularly with Cooking with Kids.

At Las Fuentes, Kerpon hopes to keep what’s working, and bring a little of his own magic into the mix at Bishop’s Lodge. Locals have long favored the restaurant as a outstanding Sunday brunch spot, but with so many great restaurants in the heart of Santa Fe, the short five minute drive to the lodge often seems too great a distance for dinner. To lure locals, Kerpon plans to host a series of his signature beer and wine dinners in the coming months.

1297 Bishop’s Lodge, Santa Fe, 505-819-4035, bit.ly/1pXHCac

JUAN BOCHENSKI ANASAZI RESTAURANT – ROSEWOOD INN OF THE ANASAZI Juan Bochenski is a career resort chef, spending his formative years in high-volume, high-pressure kitchens in Argentina, London, and the Caribbean. He takes a gentler approach to operating the kitchen at the Inn of the Anasazi, offering an encouraging and supportive work environment for his staff. A combination of personality and lack of a language barrier (almost everyone speaks Spanish in his kitchen), WWW.EDIBLESANTAFE.COM

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Bochenski’s rapport with his staff is palpable. He seems to have unusual empathy for the hardworking line cooks and waiters, who often work two or three jobs to make ends meet.

This sense of camaraderie in the kitchen has created a level of commitment to teamwork and excellence unusual in corporate settings.

Beyond the bonds with his staff, Bochenski is also a team player when it comes to other Santa Fe chefs. He describes how chefs frequently call each other when they need an ingredient before the next delivery arrives, or when they are short staffed and need extra hands in the kitchen. Part of what will keep Bochenski in Santa Fe is a community of chefs that thrives on collaboration more than competition.

As important as how he runs his kitchen, is what he makes in it.

His attention to detail and relationship comes through in taste as well.

Whether its duck enchiladas, house made pastrami, empanadas, or seasonal marmalades paired with house made bagels, Latin flavors, European training, and New Mexico terroir come through in spades in every dish created at the Anasazi.

113 Washington, Santa Fe, 505-988-3030, bit.ly/WuwAMP

KRISTIAN MARKLAND RED SAGE – BUFFALO THUNDER RESORT BY HILTON Kristian Markland is new to Santa Fe, but not to New Mexico. He took the reigns at Red Sage in June, after moving to Santa Fe nine months ago with the intention of opening his own restaurant. Markland brings a commitment to a tightly run kitchen, and a creativity and craft with local ingredients.

As a young man, Markland aspired to cook. He finished high school early and made his way unsupported to the Bay Area to pursue the culinary arts in Napa. While there, he worked with Thomas Keller and Hiro Sone, was on-call at the Hudson House, and stauged on his days off with Gary Danko. He also has worked for himself. In an ambitious effort he opened a small farm-to-fork fine dining establishment in Ruidoso in 2001, probably well before the community was ready for such a concept.

At Red Sage, Markland is excited to hone a unique menu of contemporary ranch cuisine. He describes his culinary style as smoky and rustic, with an unusual and refined quality. He integrates traditional New Mexico flavors like corn and chile, but likes to depart from classically New Mexican preparation. For Markland, he feels it’s important to take uniquely regional ingredients and make them relevant to contemporary tastes. In addition to articulating a menu with style, he also aspires to cultivate ingredients like honey, herbs, and vegetables on the resort's large acreage, and fully vest himself in the local scene.

20 Buffalo Thunder Trail, Santa Fe, 505-819-2056, bit.ly/WuwTqP

GREGORY ROMO AND ADAM KERR DOC MARTIN’S RESTAURANT – TAOS INN Gregory Romo and Adam Kerr make up the dynamic duo busily raising the bar for food and beverage at the Taos Inn. Romo, an promising young chef from Los Cordovas southwest of Taos oversees 64

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Doc Martin's Grilled Flat-Iron with green-chile smothered fried potatoes, three pepper slaw, bourbon & bean demi-jus.

kitchen staff and menu specials for both Doc Martin’s and the Adobe Bar. Kerr has cultivated a second to none wine list and a sense of purpose and direction in overall food service at the Taos Inn. Romo grew up in traditional New Mexico kitchens where he and his relatives worked together to prepare food from field to fork. His family cultivated large gardens and small livestock. As a youth, he worked beside many relatives learning butchering, food preservation techniques, and cooking for a crowd. He started his restaurant career in some of the most esteemed kitchens in Taos, training with Zeke Lambert and Joseph Wrede.

Romo loves simple ingredients prepared well. While much of his inspiration in rooted in traditional New Mexican foods, a father from Oaxaca instilled a love for more exotic flavor combinations.

Kerr refers to himself as a hospitality lifer. He celebrates the art of wining and dining, and loves that this is his path in life. He started his career in hotel management, but soon found he had a passion for wine, which lead him to Napa to learn at the barrels and bars of the best. Love brought him back to Taos, where he married and now is raising a family. In addition to his stellar wine list, Kerr brings a passion for learning and unfaltering encouragement to his staff. He wants to see his forty-plus kitchen and wait staff cultivate and pursue their dreams.

The combination of Kerr’s support and ambition with Romo’s connections with local community and culture make food and beverage at the Taos Inn exactly what it needs to be—exquisitely local and exceptionally good.

125 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos, 575-758-1977, bit.ly/1qDPxYb

OCTOBER 2014

www.ediblesantafe.com/feast PARTICIPATING RESTAURANTS:

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Anasazi Restaurant at Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi • Andiamo! • Bouche Bistro Cafe Cafe • Dr. Field Goods Kitchen • Duel Brewing • De La Tierra at El Monte Sagrado Doc Martin’s at The Historic Taos Inn • Farmhouse Bakery & Café • Galisteo Bistro • Georgia Iconik Coffee Roasters • Il Piatto, Italian Farmhouse Kitchen • Joseph's Culinary Pub • L'Olivier La Boca • La Plazuela at La Fonda • Midtown Bistro • Osteria d’Assisi • RASA Juice Bar Red Sage at Buffalo Thunder Hilton Santa Fe • Second Street Brewery • Sugar Nymphs Bistro Taberna La Boca • Terra at Four Seasons Resort - Rancho Encantado TerraCotta • The Compound

Each day during the month of OCTOBER, select restaurants in SANTA FE and TAOS will prepare a special, prix-fixe dinner, or entree featuring sixty percent or more local ingredients.

For a complete listing of where to dine, menus, and participating farms visit www.ediblesantafe.com/feast.

ALBUQUERQUE

PREMIUM

The

New Mexico's only certified authentic, handcrafted, wood-fired Neapolitan pizza. Handmade mozzarella, dessert pizzas, local beers, Italian wines. Casual atmosphere and rooftop patio.

3009 Central NE, Albuquerque 505-254-9462, www.zincabq.com A three level bistro featuring contemporary cuisine with a French flair. Dinner daily, weekend brunch, fabulous cocktails, and tasty bar bites!

2933 Monte Vista NE, Albuquerque 505-433-2795, theshopbreakfastandlunch.com

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311 Gold SW, Albuquerque 505-814-1599, www.villamyriam.com Family owned from farm to cup, we are steeped in three generations of coffee excellence.

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2929 Monte Vista NE, Albuquerque 505-554-1967, www.amoreabq.com

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Support these restaurants, and support local food communities.

300 Broadway NE, Albuquerque 505-265-4933, www.hartfordsq.com

600 Central SE, Albuquerque 505-248-9800, www.thegrovecafemarket.com

Our seasonal menu features local ingredients and changes weekly—enjoy the variety! Breakfast, lunch, and dinners-to-go. Sunday Brunch. Specialty coffee. Wonderful baked goods. Catering.

The Grove features a bustling café experience serving breakfast, brunch and lunch. Local, seasonal, organic foods, Intelligentsia, coffee and tea, beer, wine, and signature sweets.

5901 Wyoming NE, Albuquerque 505-821-1909, www.5starburgers.com

4803 Rio Grande NW, Albuquerque 505-344-9297, www.lospoblanos.com

Come in for breakfast or lunch, creative American classics with Latin and creole influences, made from local and organic ingredients.

Fresh beef, free of hormones or antibiotics. Best burger in New Mexico says USA TODAY. A wide selection of sandwiches, salads, a kid’s menu, beer and wine. Happy hour 4 - 6 every day.

Rooted in organic ingredients from our own farm and the Rio Grande Valley region. Join us at La Merienda, Wed-Sat 6-9pm, by reservation only.

1828 Central SW, Albuquerque, 505-842-5507 www.vinaigretteonline.com

8917 4th NW, Albuquerque 505-503-7124, www.farmandtablenm.com

2031 Mountain NW, Albuquerque 505-766-5100, www.seasonsabq.com

Our salad-centric philosophy focuses on bold flavor combinations and savory proteins to compliment a huge variety of organic greens.

A wonderful dining experience! Enjoy delectable seasonal dishes created from scratch, sourced from local farmers and our beautiful on-site farm.

Oak fired grill, local ingredients, and the best patio dining Old Town has to offer!

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ALBUQUERQUE

3109 Central NE, Albuquerque 505-268-9250, www.yannisandlemoni.com

10601 Montgomery NE, Albuquerque 505-294-9463, www.savoyabq.com

Yanni’s and Lemoni Lounge, located in Nob Hill for twenty years, serve the freshest seafood, steaks, chops, pasta, gourmet pizza, and homemade desserts.

California wine country in the Northeast Heights.

Farm-to-table dining from the area's best farms.

Wine tastings and happy hour.

1403 Girard NE, Albuquerque 505-792-1700, www.piattininm.com Piattini, “small plates” in Italian, serves small and large plate Italian creations in a warm and friendly neighborhood atmosphere, using local, fresh ingredients and featuring a beer and wine bar.

PLACITAS

Creative Casual Cuisine

4003 Carlisle NE, Albuquerque 505-884-3625, www.nmpiecompany.com

3423 Central NE, Albuquerque 505-255-8226, www.zacatecastacos.com

221 Highway 165, Placitas 505-771-0695, www.bladesbistro.com

Handmade sweet and savory pies with an emphasis on simple, pure flavors, and premium ingredients.

Locally roasted coffee and espresso drinks compliment our pies. Order your holiday pies now!

Zacatecas features recipes handed down from generation to generation with flavors that are true to the history and culture of Mexico.

Zacatecas is a real taqueria.

Chef and owner Kevin Bladegroen brings together fine and fresh ingredients, artistic vision, and European flair in every dish. Sunday brunch, fabulous cocktails, and an award-wining wine list.

SANTA FE

L’OLIVIER 229 Galisteo, Santa Fe 505-989-1919, www.loliviersantafe.com Chef Xavier Grenet creates elegant and refreshing cuisine combining classic French culinary techniques with Southwestern flavors and ingredients.

414 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe 505-955-0765, www.riochamasteakhouse.com Serving the finest prime and choice chops, dry-aged steaks, and seafood. Chef Tony Blankenship's philosophy is “real food, natural ingredients.”

Wine list features more than 800 labels and 20 wines by the glass.

653 Canyon Road, Santa Fe 505-982-4353, www.compoundrestaurant.com The Compound Restaurant has a heritage rich in history and regional influences. Chef Mark Kiffin continues to preserve a landmark tradition of elegant food and service at his Canyon Road institution.

CAFFÉ BAR TRATTORIA

604 N Guadalupe, Santa Fe 505-983-8977, www.5starburgers.com

228 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe 505-989-1904, www.mangiamopronto.com

Fresh beef, free of hormones or antibiotics. Best burger in New Mexico says USA TODAY. A wide selection of sandwiches, salads, a kid’s menu, beer and wine. Happy hour 4 - 6 every day.

A little slice of Tuscany in Santa Fe. Enjoy italian comfort food, gelato, espresso, wine, and beer all day long on our beautiful sidewalk patio.

20 Buffalo Thunder, Santa Fe 505-819-2056, www.buffalothunderresort.com Red Sage at Buffalo Thunder is perfect for your next romantic night out. Fare rotates seasonally. Enjoy the extensive wine list.

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SANTA FE

815 Early, Santa Fe 505-989-1288, www.rasajuice.com

500 Sandoval, Santa Fe 505-466-1391, www.cafecafesantafe.com

Upscale pub food in a casual setting. Eleven craft beers on tap, select wines, and artisanal ciders.

An organic juice bar and café committed to offering delicious plant-based foods, cold pressed juices, and innovative cleansing and detox programs.

Innovative. Creative. Inspired. Gracious.

Our cuisine is traditional Italian fare with hints of Southwestern influences.

125 East Palace, Santa Fe 505-988-5232, www.lacasasena.com

1814 Second Street, Santa Fe 505-982-3030, www.secondstreetbrewery.com

1607 Paseo De Peralta, Santa Fe 505-989-3278, www.secondstreetbrewery.com

A local favorite for over thirty years! Chef Gharrity features New American West cuisine infused with fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients.

We also feature an award-winning wine list.

Second Street offers a welcoming, friendly environment where you can enjoy hand-crafted beer and delicious food. Gluten-intolerant friends can enjoy gluten-removed hand-crafted Kölsch and IPA.

Located near the Railrunner train depot, Second Street Railyard offers comfortable atmosphere, good food, and delicious micro-brewed beer.

Now brewing gluten-removed Kölsch and IPA.

505 Cerrillos, Santa Fe 505-780-5073, www.talinmarket.com

95 W Marcy, Santa Fe 505-984-1091, www.ilpiattosantafe.com

112 West San Francisco, Santa Fe 505-983-7445, santafeculinaryacademy.com

Talin T-Bar Traditional flavors Made quickly and with love Ramen. Monday: Dumplings!

A local favorite since 1996, boasting an authentic Italian farmhouse experience, sourcing its ingredients directly from local farms, dairies, and ranches. Extensive wine list.

The Guesthouse is a student workshop and showcase through the SFCA. The menu reflects the curriculum and changes regularly to embrace local, seasonal products. Reservations recommended.

222 N Guadalupe, Santa Fe 505-954-1635, fireandhopsgastropub.com

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304 Johnson, Santa Fe 505-989-1166, www.terracottawinebistro.com A smart, casual restaurant located in a charming one-hundred-year-old adobe. Seasonallychanging, globally-inspired cuisine and an extensive, valued-priced wine list.

709 Don Cubero Alley, Santa Fe, 505-820-9205 www.vinaigretteonline.com Our salad-centric philosophy focuses on bold flavor combinations and savory proteins to compliment a huge variety of organic greens.

LOS LUNAS

5 Thomas, Los Lunas 505-866-1936, www.greenhousebistro.com Good food always puts you in a good mood!

Fresh, seasonal ingredients provide the basis for a meal that promotes healthy living.

TAOS

124 F Bent Street, Taos 575-758-0606

1032 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur, Taos 575-758-8484, www.5starburgers.com

THE BEST COFFEE IN TAOS! Fair trade, organic espresso, chai frappes, smoothies, gelato, and pastries. Featuring the only ROCKBAR ever! Come on in and drop a rock in YOUR drink!

Fresh beef, free of hormones or antibiotics. Best burger in New Mexico says USA TODAY. A wide selection of sandwiches, salads, a kid’s menu, beer and wine. Happy hour 4 - 6 every day.

TAOS

1405 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos 575-758-LOVE, farmhousecafeandbakery.com

123 Bent Street, Taos 575-758-1009, www.ambertsoftaos.com

Organic and local baked goods, breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a beautiful patio overlooking our on-site garden. Farm-to-table dining featuring beef, bison, vegetarian, and vegan entrees.

Lambert’s strives to create a sanctuary for our guests, where they can enjoy delicious food, wine, and cocktails in a relaxed, yet refined, atmosphere.

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TAOS DINER I & II

103 East Taos Plaza, Taos 575-758-8866, www.thegorgebarandgrill.com

125 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte, Taos 575-758-1977, www.taosinn.com

908 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, 575-758-2374 216B Paseo del Pueblo Sur, 575-751-1989 www.taosdinner.com

Our menu is straightforward yet eclectic, and chock full of favorites made from scratch using as many fresh and local ingredients as possible.

Serving lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch.

Patio dining, fresh local foods, award-wining wines, and margaritas. Try our signature chile rellenos.

Home to New Mexican and American homemade, homegrown, and organic breakfast, lunch, and dinners. Gluten-free choices. Beer and wine.

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edible notables GETTING FOOD WASTE OUT OF THE WASTE STREAM

By English Bird, New Mexico Recycling Coalition Executive Director The New Mexico Recycling Coalition (NMRC) has launched a project to increase awareness about the importance of reducing food waste in our state. Through a grant from the Walmart State Giving Program, NMRC will expand awareness of and participation in reducing food waste. From production to service, over forty percent of food is wasted in the process.

In a restaurant environment, the two greatest opportunities to reduce and manage food waste are through best practices in the kitchen, through donation of leftover food, and through collection of food waste for composting.

plastic wrap, lids from cups, plastic food packaging and plastic from shipping containers. Greene is happy to speak with any restaurant interested in starting a food waste composting program: rjasongreene@ gmail.com or 505-248-9800.

505-983-4470, www.RecycleNewMexico.com

WORLD FOOD DAY The Oxfam Action Corps of New Mexico will hold its third Annual Community Dinner in celebration of World Food Day on Saturday, October 18, in Albuquerque. The event will be co-hosted by Interfaith Power and Light, and supported by fellow organizations Bread for the World and Food Corps, all are invited to eat delicious local food, discuss solutions to hunger both worldwide and here in our community, and take action together. This year’s Oxfam Action Corps leaders are Jasmine McBeath, Amanda Dezan, and Kathy Chavez.

Oxfam America is a global organization working to right the wrong of poverty, hunger, and injustice. They collaborate with local people in more than ninety countries to create long-term solutions and campaign to change policies that keep people in poverty. Recent Oxfam campaigns include pushing for work and living wages for farm workers in the US, and an international fight for land rights for farming families being removed from their traditional land, including the Polochic communities of Guatemala and the Curuguaty in Paraguay.

Past quality produce ready to be composted.

Photo courtesy of Walter Dods, Soilutions.

Collecting food waste separately with the intent of turning the material into compost is a straightforward management option. In most cases, the material is taken to a commercial composting facility, which then converts the material into a rich soil amendment. New Mexico currently has only two private businesses that provide this type of collection service, with one in Albuquerque and another in Santa Fe. Composting food waste reduces the cost of trash collection services.

Jason Greene, owner and chef of The Grove Café & Market restaurant in Albuquerque, has set the standard at his restaurant to recycle and compost everything possible. Doing that, The Grove has reduced trash pick-ups and hopes to continue reducing landfilled materials.

The restaurant recycles cardboard, glass, plastics, and paper. All service ware is made from certified biodegradable materials and can be placed in the compost collection containers. Soiled paper and waxed cardboard is added to the mix. Five-gallon buckets are placed conveniently throughout the prep areas and at the dishwasher station.

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This World Food Day, Oxfam asks supporters to take one action against hunger each week through Thanksgiving. An action can be as simple as not eating meat once a week, or as involved as hosting a hunger banquet. The annual celebration of World Food Day on October18 marks the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization at the United Nations in 1945, whose mission is to improve agriculture, forestry, nutrition, and food security. Its motto, fiat panis translates to “Let there be bread.” Now Oxfam and many others celebrate World Food Day to raise awareness of the root causes and solutions to hunger and poverty.

For the dinner, Oxfam Action Corps volunteers purchase fresh seasonal produce available at the Downtown Growers Market. Next they head to the kitchen and start cooking, where the fun begins. They create and cook dishes based on the ingredients on hand. The menu will probably include local beans, red and green chile, peaches, apples, pumpkins, potatoes, greens, and so much more. Quelites and verdolagas will also make a special appearance.

The third Annual World Food Day Community Dinner with the Oxfam Action Corps New Mexico, a free public event, will happen on Saturday, October 18, at 6pm at the First Congregation Church at 2801 Lomas Boulevard NE in Albuquerque. RSVP at bit.ly/1qYPJBk or email nmoxfamactioncorps@gmail.com. www.oxfamamerica.org/take-action

edible notables GIVE SHEEP A JOB: THE NAVAJO-CHURRO Spanish explorers to the New World of the Southwest outfitted their expeditions with all the accouterments needed not only to survive the arduous journey, but to thrive in a way that afforded the opportunity to feel they were transplanting necessary components of homeland culture. Chief among these was the small, rugged Churro sheep, prized for its narrow, light body and its low-grease, double-coat fleece.

quality that stems from luxurious wool, timeless designs, and utilitarian shapes.

The larger bags, El Tote and La Chiquita have Cordura bottoms and straps to handle heavy loads, while the elegant Spirit Bag (ideal for wine and spirits) is hand stitched with a colorful yarn tie. Showing its modern El Tote and Spirit Bag appeal, La Bolsita (the little bag) cleverly holds iPads, other tablets and e-readers, lending a soft, organic feel to technology. For a fifteen percent discount use code Edible Fall. www.lanadura.com Excerpt from original story written by Joseph Mora for www.ediblesantafe.com

NEW MEXICO AT SALON DEL GUSTO Navajo-churro sheep

As time unfolded and miscegenation ensued, Spanish culture began to take on different dimensions through the invariable exchange of goods and ideas taking place with indigenous Pueblo and Plains cultures. The Churro became tightly intertwined with their lifestyles and in the 1860s, the US government, in an attempt to subjugate the rebellious Navajo, nearly destroyed the Churro population.

Stock was further diluted by efforts to improve Churro flocks through introduction of other breeds. In the 1930s, the government targeted Churro sheep, reducing stock as a way to control rangeland erosion, until there were only a few straggling flocks left. The NavajoChurro are now on Slow Food’s Ark of Taste for the US (the Ark is a compilation of rare and endangered species indigenous to any particular area). Recent conservation of the species from a holistic management approach has increased appreciation of the Churro as an agricultural ally to graze languishing fields, as a source of fiber for household items and clothing, and as a source of high-grade meat.

Enter Minna White, a Churro felt maker from Taos. In her business, Lana Dura, White creates beautiful felt products from NavajoChurro wool. She sees the sheep not only as the basis of her business, but as a crucial part of the genetic diversity of the American livestock landscape. White notes the unfeasibility of raising sheep solely for meat. “The sheep must pay for themselves,” she says earnestly in her common-sense New England manner. “They must live long lives— have many off-spring—and that’s why our motto is ‘Give sheep a job.’”

White uses clean New Mexico well water for felt making, which produces smooth, yet extremely durable fabric for wine bags, totes, and purses. Every Lana Dura bag is unique and handcrafted in Taos—products are equally at home in Santa Fe or Silicon Valley, bearing a classic

Through the collaborative efforts of the Rural Coalition, Slow Food USA, and La Montanita Co-op, New Mexico food artisans will be well represented this year at Slow Food International’s premier food show, Salon del Gusto, Terra Madre in Turin, Italy, from October 23 to 27. This event, often referred to as the Olympics of Food, has historically seen few participants from the US, so it is significant to have New Mexican artisan foods represented. In addition to New Mexican food, the Rural Coalition will send a New Mexico delegation comprised of three individuals committed the food justice movement: Pati Martinson, Terrie Bad Hand, and Jaime Chavez.

Martinson and Bad Hand co-direct the Taos County Economic Development Center (TCEDC). They work with small ranchers and farmers to develop markets, do business training, build capacity and long-term food sovereignty. They also conceptualized and manifested the Mobile Matanza, a mobile slaughterhouse works with local Pueblos and traditional ranchers for harvesting mainly USDA certified organic meat from the Taos area. TCEDC has operated successfully for nearly thirty years, and works with four dozen value-added agricultural producers to regenerate an effective regional food system that is culturally connected to the people and the land.

Jaime Chavez, who helped coordinate the Slow Food International delegation to Turin, is the national field organizer for the Rural Coalition and National Latino Farmers and Ranchers. He worked extensively with farm groups in New Mexico to advocate for a full and fair Farm Bill. He also worked with La Montañita Food Coop Distribution Center, Slow Food USA, and World Farmers to prepare shipment of products to Chicago, than to Italy for the festival. All three representatives support traditional, organic, non-GMO approaches to farming and ranching in rural New Mexico. Martinson said that the event is, “an important trade mission and international food forum to [build awareness about] our agricultural heritage in the world among indigenous and traditional knowledge keepers.”

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last bite

Through engaging stories and enticing photography, edible Santa Fe hopes to transform the way New Mexicans shop for, cook, eat, and enjoy food. We believe that an understanding and enjoyment of local food is a critical step on the path to a healthier and more sustainable world. With each issue, we put a considerable thought into the cover. We hope readers, like you, take one glance and want to snatch up the issue. We communicate seasonality and New Mexico’s taste of place through a single image in an effort engage the viewer—so you grab an issue, read on, and start to care about where your food comes from.

Below you will find the recipe that inspired this issue’s cover. In the words of Mark Bittman, food journalist, author, and columnist for the New York Times, “The single most revolutionary thing your can do is COOK!”

ROASTED SQUASH — ZUCCA AL FORNO 1 large butternut squash or other winter squash 1 dried red chile, crushed 1/4 teaspoon salt Black pepper, to taste 1 large handful fresh sage leaves 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 cup olive oil Preheat the oven to 350° F. Halve the butternut squash, remove, and reserve the seeds. Cut the squash into slices or chunks with the skin left on. Using a pestle and mortar or spice mill, crush the dried red chile with a 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt. In a large bowl combine the chile/salt mixture, whole sage leaves, cinnamon, and olive oil. Add the squash and toss so all the pieces are well coated.

Spread the squash pieces in a single layer in a roasting tray with parchment. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Move the sage leaves onto the squash.

Sprinkle the reserved seeds on top. Cover tray tightly with tin foil and bake for 30 minutes, or until the skin of the squash is soft, then remove the foil and cook for another 10 minutes until the squash is golden and crisp. Enjoy!

WANT MORE?

Log on to ediblesantafe.com/recipes

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it’s closer than you think..

Local ingredients, served locally. We seek out the freshest, seasonal organic produce, meats and fish.

Then we serve it up with flair and attentive service right in your neighborhood. Join locals supporting locals. Deliciously.

OLD TOWN ALBUQUERQUE 505.766.5100 www.seasonsabq.com

HISTORIC NOB HILL 505.254.ZINC(9462) www.zincabq.com

ALBUQUERQUE HEIGHTS 505.294.WINE(9463) www.savoyabq.com

Thunderhead Farms in Bosque Farms, NM.

ALBUQUERQUE, SANTA FE 505.850.2459 www.tasteabq.com

. .truly local.