Local Flavor April 2011

April 2011

Santa Fe - Albuquerque - Taos A Taste of Life in New Mexico

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Mediterranean & Italian

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“White Sweepstake Winner– Best of Class 2011”

– San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition

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Bridging the Gap

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A Taste of Life in New Mexico

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inside: A Feast for the Eyes | by Anne Hillerman pg. 16 Some backyard gardens are meant to be a feast for the eyes. Author Anne Hillerman and photographer Don Strel take you into a magical flower garden in Eldorado where the owners share advice on creating magic in your own backyard.

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Photo: Gaelen Casey

Schoolyard Gardens | by Ana June pg. 12 Schoolyard gardens are beginning to spring up across the nation, but at Waldorf schools, tending the earth has been part of the curriculum for nearly one hundred years. We visit the Santa Fe Waldorf School’s garden—and the budding gardeners that are its students.

Photo: Gaelen Casey

Buzz | by Patty and Christie pg. 08 What’s in, what’s out, what’s hot, what’s not. That’s the buzzzzzzz.

At the Table | by Chef Johnny Vee pg. 26 Tireless in his search for new eating adventures, Chef Johnny Vee heads up to Taos to check out the recently opened Gorge Bar & Grill. (Hey Johnny, do they really have the best Buffalo wings in the state?)

Photo: Gaelen Casey

Project Feed the Hood | by Christie Chisholm pg. 22 “Sandwiched between the affluent Ridgecrest and Nob Hill areas, the Southeast Heights garden sits on the corner of Ross and Wellesley in a low-income and somewhat transient neighborhood.” This is one story you will not want to miss.

Photo: Jennifer Spelman

Zuly’s | by Gail Snyder pg. 20 Most everyone in the tiny village of Dixon either farms for a living or has a serious backyard garden, but what they were still hungry for was a perfect little down-home restaurant. Now they have Zuly’s, and life is, indeed, perfect.

Believe in Miracles | by Emily Beenen pg. 32 To start a vineyard in New Mexico, you simply have to believe in miracles—just ask Rick and Mitzi Hobson, of Milagro Vineyards, in Corrales.

Workers Needed! | by Gail Snyder pg. 34

ON OUR COVER:

Waldof School Garden April 2011 ~ P u b l i s h e r s

Patty & Peter Karlovitz E d i t o r Patty Karlovitz P u b l i s h e r ’s A s s i s t a n t Emily Ruch A r t D i r e c t o r Jasmine Quinsier C o v e r p h o t o : Jennifer Spelman A d v e r t i s i n g : Michelle Moreland 505.699.7369. A d D e s i g n : Mario Moreno of INK D i s t r i b u t i o n : Southwest Circulation L o c a l F l a v o r 2 2 3 N o r t h G u a d a l u p e # 4 4 2 , S a n t a F e , N M 8 7 5 0 1 Te l : 5 0 5 . 9 8 8 . 7 5 6 0 F a x : 9 8 8 . 9 6 6 3 E - m a i l : l o c a l f l a v o r @ e a r t h l i n k . n e t We b s i t e : w w w . l o c a l f l a v o r m a g a z i n e . c o m localflavor welcomes new writers. Send writing samples to localflavor@earthlink.net localflavor is published 11 times a year: Feb, March, April, May, June, July, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec/Jan. S u b s c r i p t i o n s $ 2 4 p e r y e a r . Mail check to above address. © Edible Adventure Co.‘96. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used without the permission of Edible Adventure Co. localflavor accepts advertisements from advertisers believed to be reputable, but can’t guarantee it. All editorial information is gathered from sources understood to be reliable, but printed without responsibility for erroneous, incorrect, or omitted information.

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Photo: Jennifer Spelman

Still Hungry? | by Tania Casselle pg. 36 For this first-ever backyard garden issue, we went to four local greenhouses to ask the plant pros for their favorite recipes. Better get busy on your garden….

Photo: Gaelen Casey

See what you can do in your own backyard to help save the worker bee population. Neighborhood by neighborhood, we can be a part of the solution.

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APRIL 2011

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Letter Welcome to the topsy-turvy month of April—a month when localflavor is usually taking a little spring break and not publishing. Not this year.

Too many exciting things have been springing up lately in backyards around Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos to stand on the sidelines. So, for the first time ever, we bring you our April issue, entitled Growing a Community…One Garden at a Time.

For years now, our readers have enjoyed stories of the tiny farms that dot the landscape of Northern New Mexico and the men and women who have created some of the best farmers’ markets in the country. As reader interest in farming grew, an interesting phenomenon began to emerge. People that we talked to were no longer content simply to shop the farmers’ markets; they wanted to experience farming—feel the dirt on their hands and taste the fruits of their own labor. And they wanted to read about others who felt the same way. So, this month we are delighted to bring you some wonderful stories about your neighbors who are truly growing a community, one garden at a time.

On the cover we feature a group of third-grade gardeners from the Santa Fe Waldorf School harvesting grains that they have grown.

As private and public schools across the country join the movement to cultivate schoolyard gardens, we turned to one of the pioneers of this concept, the Waldorf School, where tending the earth has been a part of the curriculum for nearly one hundred years. Our thanks to Mr. Oellig’s class for sharing their stories and luminous smiles.

We also visit Rick and Mitzi Hobson, who moved to the village of Corrales in 1985 and casually began to grow grapes as an experiment—a little hobby that would fit nicely into their new laidback rural lifestyle. What started as a “fun hobby” has now evolved into the Milagro Vineyards, which produces award-winning Zinfandel, Merlot, Chardonnay, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc wines aged in French oak, proudly served at dozens of local fine dining establishments and shipped nation-wide. We bring you this cautionary tale as a reminder to watch what you dream for, as miracles truly do happen in our own backyards.

When I saw Anne Hillerman and Don Strel’s wonderful book, The Gardens of Santa Fe, I knew that we had to include a story on flower gardens. I asked Anne to write a story especially for localflavor—one that would inspire and convince our readers that they, too, could capture some of the magic that was so beautifully portrayed in their book. Still skeptical? Wait until you see what Ken and Maria Olds have created on the windswept plains of Eldorado—and yes, they both work full time!

Nothing quite caught the spirit of our issue, Growing a Community, like the urban garden we heard about on the Southwest side of Albuquerque. It began as an empty, desolate lot, filled with old tires, needles and 35 wheelbarrows of broken glass, until the Southwest Organizing Project galvanized kids, teens and adults to reclaim it for a neighborhood garden. In their first harvest last summer, “they produced more than 6,800 square feet of scarlet runners, tomatoes, onions, sweet corn, squash, pumpkins and yellow-meat watermelons, among a cornucopia of other produce.” SWOP organizers called it Project Feed the Hood. It was our privilege to meet them and tell their story.

You’ll also find the usual suspects: two great new restaurants—the Gorge in Taos and Zuly’s Café in Dixon--as well as some scrumptious recipes from four local greenhouses. (We assume that after reading this issue you’ll be heading straight to your favorite local greenhouse.)

When you stop in to buy plants for your garden, be sure to tell them you saw their recipe in localflavor!

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Santa Fe

THANK YOU

The following individuals, organizations, and businesses have made ARTsmart’s 14th Annual ARTfeast a pleasure for participants and attendees alike, as well as a significant contribution to the creativity of Santa Fe’s young people.

General Fund endowment The Coker Foundation

ScholarShip endowment Fund The Fasken Foundation The Mill Foundation Santa Fe Gallery Association

artSmart BeneFactor Henry and Susan Romaine Charitable Foundation

Support a School Avalon Trust Bottorff Construction Marilyn & Joseph Hughey New Mexico Bank & Trust Paula & Steve Fasken Thelma Walenrod

Support a claSSroom Laird and Corky Brown Century Bank El Centro de Santa Fe Douglas Watkins & Diana Gabaldone

Support a Student Avalon Trust Bryan Close Jackie M. Jonathan Byrd Monroe Gallery of Photography

artSmart Friend Barbara & John Cochran Jan Barber and Family Jonathan Byrd Tom & Holly Eakes Diana Gonzales-Pacheco Paula Lozar Scheinbaum & Russek Ltd.

event underwriterS American Art Collector Collector’s Guide Essential Guide Frontier Frames Inside Santa Fe Los Alamos National Bank Mary and Robert Harbour Santa Fe Properties Santa Fean Magazine Southwest Art Western Art & Architecture Western Art Collector

partially Funded By New Mexico Tourism Department, newmexico.org Santa Fe Lodger’s Tax, santafenm.gov

media SponSorS American Art Collector Essential Guide Hutton Broadcasting Journal Santa Fe Inside Santa Fe KHFM 95.5 Local Flavor Santa Fe Catalogue Pasatiempo Santa Fean Magazine Santa Fe New Mexican Southwest Art Santa Fe Traveler Western Art Collector THE Magazine Trend Magazine Western Art & Architecture

BuSineSSeS & orGaniZationS Absolute Nirvana Spa & Gardens Adobe Gallery Alfie Fernandez Agapao Coffee Alpine Sports Altermann Galleries & Auctioneers Amanda’s Flowers Amavi Restaurant Amaya at Hotel Santa Fe Anasazi Restaurant & Bar at the Inn of the Anasazi AndSoToSleep.net Arlene Siegel Gallery Armadillo Protective Packaging AV Systems Arroyo Santa Fe Beauty Naturally Bishop’s Lodge and Resort Blue Rain Gallery Bobby Levin Body Café Boxes, Bubbles and Beans Brian Lee, CPA Buffalo Thunder Resort Carolyn Silver, Quantum Biofeedback Casas de Santa Fe Charles Azbell Gallery Charleston Place Hotel, Member Orient-Express Collection Crianza Wines Christus St. Vincent Chuparosa Cos Bar Cowgirl BBQ Coyote Café Darnell Fine Art David Richard Contemporary Del Charro Saloon at Inn of the Governors Dinner for Two Dish n’ Spoon Café DJ King George DJ Maynard Del Mar El Corazon de Santa Fe El Farol El Milagro El Rey Inn Elven Velvet Encantado Resort Enchantment Graphics

Essential Guide Evoke Contemporary Figi Water Fine Art for Children and Teens Fresco Fine Art Publications Galerie Zuger Galisteo Bistro Geet Design Georgia O’Keefe Museum Geronimo Get it Together GF Contemporary Giacobbe Fritz Fine Art Glo Skin Golden Dawn Gallery Golden Eye Goldleaf Framemakers Golfsmith Gossamer Wings Grapeful Wine Consulting Great Southwest Adventures Guadalupe Café GVG Contemporary Handwoven Originals Harry’s Roadhouse Heidi Loewen Porcelain Gallery Hilton of Santa Fe Hotel St. Francis Huey’s Fine Art Hunter Kirkland Contemporary Il Piatto Cucina Italiana InArt Gallery Inn & Spa at Loretto Inn of the Governor Inn on the Alameda Invisible City Designs Jambo Café Jane Sauer Gallery Jewel Mark Jinja Bar & Bistro Joe Wade Fine Art Josh’s Barbeque Joyce Robins Judy Tully Inspirational Adornments Justin’s Frame Design Kakawa Chocolate House Karan Ruhlen Gallery Karen Melfi Collection Kiva Fine Art Koi Restaurant La Boca La Casa Sena La Fonda Hotel La Plazuela at LaFonda Las Fuentes Restaurant and Bar at Bishop’s Lodge Le Mesa of Santa Fe Legacy Santa Fe Lensic Box Office Lloyd Kiva New Gallery at MoCNA Luminaria at Inn of the Lorreto Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen Marjorie Lewis Mark White Fine Art Mary Silverwood Max’s McLarry Fine Art Meyer Gallery Milagro 139 Mist Skin Care Museum of Contemporary Native Arts Museum of Indian Arts & Culture

Museum of International Folk Art New Mexico History Museum/ Palace of the Governors New Mexico Museum of Art New Mexico School for the Arts Niman Fine Art NuArt Gallery Oleaceae Osteria d’Assisi Pantry Restaurant/Baja Tacos Peterson-Cody Gallery Pippin-Meikle Fine Art Pizzeria da Lino Premier Distributing Red Sage Restaurant at Buffalo Thunder Resort Republic National Distributing Restaurant Martin Rio Chama Steakhouse River Trading Post RKW Enterprises, Inc Road Runner Airport Shuttle and Charter Rooftop Pizzeria Sage Bakehouse Sage Creek Gallery Santa Fe BMW Santa Fe Brewing Co. Santa Fe New Mexican Santa Fe Properties Santa Fe Sage Inn Santa Fe School of Cooking Santa Fe Soul Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta Santacafé Saveur Signature Gallery Silver Sun Santa Fe Singleton-Biss Museum of Fine Art Skye’s The Limit Hair Salon Skye’s The Limit Realty Sleeping Dog Tavern Sotheby’s Realty/Roxanne Apple Southern Wine & Spirits & Gruet Winery Statements Sutcliffe Vineyards Terra at Encantado Resort The Chmar Gallery The Chocolate Smith The Club at Quail Run The Painted Dish The Pantry The Signature Gallery The William and Joseph Gallery Tia Sophia’s Tresa Vorenberg Goldsmiths Turner Carroll Gallery Ventana Fine Art ViVO Contemporary Waxlander Gallery Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. Whole Foods Market Whole Foods Market Catering Winter Guide Journal, Santa Fe Winterowd Fine Art Zaplin-Lampert Gallery Zoe & Guido’s Zia Diner

individualS Bruce Adams Jane Adams Cassandra Adams-Harford Missy & Marty Agnew Ellen Andes Anonymous Connie Axton John Axton Richard Barger Judith Bell Susan Berk, New Mexico Women in the Arts Barry Bernard Martine Bertin-Peterson Amy Birkan Dan Bodelson Mary Bonney James Bottorff Candy Brenton Anne Burton Trish & Chip Byrd Caroline Burnett Leah Cantor JoDee Chavez Janet Cohen Kate Collins Aimee Colmery Mark Connell Donna Cross Susan Curtis Priscilla Dakin Charles Dale Kindle D’Arco Suann Davin Paula Davis Susan & Jeff Davis Stephen Day Diane Deane Sallie Dinwiddie Suzanne Donazetti Elaine Duncan David Eichholtz Michael Etheridge Brian Fantl Bonnie French Rebecca Friedman Debra Fritz Matthew Gantner Patrick Gharrity Sarah Gilman Alex Giorgio Cristina Gonzalez Steve Gray Lynn Grimes Christopher Hagen Mary Harbour Sandra Harding Deb Hawthorne Katy Hees Matthew Higginbotham Linda Howell, PGA Andree Hudson Jill Johns Andrew Johnson Kerry Johnson Phyllis Kapp Tom Kerpon Elaine Kidd Bruce King Vicki Kirsch Peggy Kratka

Gloria Kratz Shakti Kroopkin Kim Leonard Alice Lusk Kris Marcinik Bernard Marks David Knowlton Nina Mastrangelo Barry McCuan Susan Hallsten McGarry Elizabeth McGuinness Sara McRee Barbara Meikle Mayo Miller Susanna Mireles-Mankus Jeremy Montoya Monika Moores Stephanie Morris Gloria Moss Marshall Noice Mary Olson Patricia & Ken Palmer Sharon Peterson Aleta Pippin Michele Plourde Suzanne Poteet Felicia Ponca Angel Ramirez Matt Redington Tracy Reid Eric Reinemann Shelly Ribando Faye Richards Roni Rohr Susan Romaine Phyllis Roybal Karan Ruhlen Jonathan Sanchez Kathy Scott Sam Scott Genie Shuller Joseph Sulzberg Amy Summa Steve Talbot Isa Tapia Chris Tercero Jono Tew Christopher Thompson Rebecca Tobey Al Trujillo Megan Tucker Christi Turri Karen Van Hooser Lisa Versace Judy Wade Thelma Walenrod Gretel Wanenmacher Genny Waquie Jean Wells Kim White Richard White Skye & Paul White Kathy Whitworth Gloria Zamora

Ariana

Wa

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er

ARTsmart is a volunteer organization that believes the visual arts are critical to a child’s development.

Through charitable donations and events, ARTsmart funds art programs for Santa Fe schoolchildren.

Our annual fundraiser, ARTfeast, is a community project that also promotes economic development.

ARTsmart is a 501c3 nonprofit corporation that works with the Santa Fe Gallery Association.

We’ll see you February 24-26, 2012 for the 15th annual ARTfeast Save the date! Sunday, october 2, 2011 – artsmart Golf tournament

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Th eBuzz

ALBUQUERQUE

by Christie Chisholm

A young refugee is thrown from his country and lands in America.

In a poetic journey, Anon tries to understand and reclaim his past.

Anon(ymous), written by awardwinning playwright Naomi Iizuka, opens at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (1701 Fourth Street SW) on Friday, April 1, and runs through April 3. Performed by Albuquerque’s Working Classroom, the piece is guest directed by Tea Alagic, a Bosnian refugee living in New York City, whose work has been lauded by The New York Times and who has directed pieces around the world. Showtimes are at 7 p.m. on April 1 and 2 and at 2 p.m. on April 3. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors, and can be bought over the phone at 505.724.4771 or online at www. nhccnm.org. There’s also an opening night gala, which includes a preperformance reception, VIP seating and a post-performance reception with the cast for $100. For gala tickets, call 505.977.4932 or go to www.workingclassroom.org.

around the globe for 25 years, doing things like setting the world record for the highest human chair stack (at 21 feet high). New acts will be unveiled for this Silver Anniversary tour, and, for the first time, the Women’s Peace Orchestra of China will accompany the acrobats’ feats of fluidity and strength. Tickets range from $22 to $35 and can be bought at the UNM Ticket Offices, at some Albertsons locations, by calling 877.664.8661 or 505.925.5858, or online at www. popejoypresents.com or www. unmtickets.com.

days (10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday) the Convention Center will be packed with more than 40 chocolatiers, coffee roasters, candy makers, bakers, cafés, restaurants, caterers, breweries and more. In addition to a smorgasbord of samples (I can’t help myself ), there will be cooking demonstrations, cookie-eating contests, coffee and tea seminars, free raffles, cupcake decorating, and live music. Basically, it’s going to be awesome. Tickets are a measly $10 at the door or $8 online, and kids under 12 are free. 401 Second Street NW, 505.768.4575, www.chocolateandcoffeefest.com.

Welcome in spring with a threecourse meal at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa’s awardwinning Corn Maiden restaurant, in the Pueblo of Santa Ana. Every Thursday through the month of April, the Corn Maiden hosts “Rotisserie Thursday,” which gets you a salad, A five-foot-tall African hunting sculpture made out of chocolate. That’s an entrée and a dessert for $45. Start your meal off with a chopped salad what landed Chef Darci Rochau, of romaine hearts, arugula, jicama, pastry chef at the Hyatt Regency roasted corn and cherry tomatoes in Tamaya Resort and Spa, the Best a chile-lime vinaigrette. Then choose of Show prize at the 19th annual between four tempting sweet chileChocolate Fantasy. The event was glazed, soy-orange–marinated or herbheld early last month as a fundraiser rubbed main courses, one of which to benefit the New Mexico Museum is a vegetarian option. Finish your of Natural History Foundation. meal with a flourish ofchocolate-chile Rochau’s entirely edible sculpture marquis with crème anglaise. 1300 consisted of a traditional beaded Tuyuna Trail, 505.771.6037, www.

African ceremonial mask encircled tamaya.hyatt.com. by two elephant tusks, balanced by a thicket of bamboo and perched upon two mahogany African elephants. She Albuquerque’s comedy scene isn’t People love acrobats because they huge, but it’s steadily growing. That’s called it “The Hunted.” remind them of the stunning grace, due partly to events like the annual deftness and balance the human Southwest FunnyFest. This year, body is capable of. When it comes four awesomely funny women from to acrobatic works, it’s hard to Comedy Central, The Late Show, find a more inspiring act than the Showtime and LOGO are coming Peking Acrobats, who are coming to to Albuquerque for the event. Erin Popejoy Hall for two performances Foley, Sandra Valls, Kate Rigg and on Sunday, April 10, at 3 and 7:30 Dana Goldberg will take the KiMo p.m. From Beijing, China, the Peking Theatre stage from 7:30 to 9:30 Acrobats have been traveling p.m. on Saturday, April 30. Tickets range from $20 to $30, and part of the proceeds will go to New Mexico AIDS Services. Our city doesn’t get national acts of this caliber often, so don’t miss out. 423 Central NW, | Chef Darci Rochau 505.768.3544, www.ticketmaster. com.

I don’t think this one’s going to be a tough sell. On Saturday and Sunday, For more than a decade, Corrales April 16 and 17, the Albuquerque artists have opened their studios to the Convention Center is hosting the public, revealing their processes and first-ever Southwest Chocolate and never-before-seen works. This year’s Coffee Fest. Why hasn’t someone thought of this before? For two whole Corrales Art Studio Tour takes place | The Peking Acrobats on Saturday and Sunday, April 30 and 8

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May 1, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sixtytwo artists who work with paint, glass, fiber, ceramics, jewelry, wood and photography are on this year’s list. Plus, the event is completely free.

For more information, visit www. corralesartstudiotour.com.

| “Dancing Shaman”

During World War II, Japanese schoolchildren were enlisted to make giant balloons. They were told they were helping their country’s war effort, but they didn’t know the balloons were used to transport Fugo bombs across the Pacific to American soil. The Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum has an exhibit on this topic up right now, featuring a series of illustrations from a book (Ohkuno Island: Story of the Student Brigade,

by Reiko Okada) written by one of the 2,000 Japanese schoolchildren employed in making those balloons.

You can catch Children of War, Voices for Peace: Japanese and American Perspectives through the end of the month. Admission to the museum is free every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and all day on the first Friday of every month. At all other times, it’s only $4 for adults ($3 for New Mexico residents) and $2 for seniors. 9201 Balloon Museum NE, 505.768.6020, www.cabq.gov/ balloon.

I almost hesitate to tell anyone about this, because I’m selfish and want to hoard the little nugget all to myself.

Luckily, that urge is counteracted by my utter excitement over this place.

Café Giuseppe has been around for a few years, and it’s always been a cute coffee shop with a penchant for cycling (read: lots of bicycles and photos of bicyclists on the walls) and a mean cappuccino. But it’s recently gained an addition in the form of a large side room. This room is wonderful. With sturdy wooden tables, colorful chairs and a couple of benches, it’s the perfect place to

hide away and work. Giuseppe’s still has a lovely patio, its small front room and a lounging area replete with cushy black sofa, all of which are great for sunshine and socializing.

But the side room, which is quiet but not too quiet and bathed in a soft, filtered light, is my new favorite place in Albuquerque. Plus, the place has unbelievably tasty, gooey chocolate-almond croissants and the best Americano in town. Use this information for good, and save me a space. 3222 Silver SE, 505.268.1858, www.cafegiuseppe.com.

SANTA FE

by Patty Karlovitz Sara Moulton, Food TV personality, food editor at Good Morning America, and former executive chef at Gourmet Magazine makes a quick stop over in Santa Fe this May 4 to tout her love of Chantal Cookware.

Moulton, one of America’s foremost celebrity chefs, will demonstrate the popular brand of pots and pans at the Las Cosas Kitchen Shop, in the DeVargas Center, at 6 p.m. Cost is $50 and includes a signed copy of Moulton’s latest cookbook, Everyday Family Dinners, plus a $10 gift card to Las Cosas. For star watchers, Sara will be staying at the beautiful Inn and Spa at Loretto while in our city. To register for the event, call 505.988.3394. More details at www. lascosascooking.com.

or soup kitchen near them. Our local grocery stores, restaurants, charitable organizations and farmers have long been at the heart of the program with their donations. This is your chance to be a part of it, too.

The Girl Scout Cookie Caper was a smashing success with over $20,000 raised for the scouts. Chef Jeff Rubin, of Albuquerque’s Savory Fare, walked off with first-place honors, Chefs Pam and Laurie English, of Cupcakeology, also in Albuquerque, took second, and Chef Antonio Sena, of the Lodge at Santa Fe, took third.

The People’s Choice winners included Cupcakeology, Albuquerque’s Napoli Coffee and the Lodge at Santa Fe. Congratulations to all of the chefs who took the challenge.

If you’re planning on spending even more time outside this spring and summer, don’t forget to nourish your skin and protect it from the elements.

Spending an hour in the secluded adobe casita at Aurora Skin Care Essentials is the perfect way to relax and pamper yourself. All of their personalized treatments are designed to balance and hydrate the skin—a must in our climate! At 136 Daniel Street. 505.920.2429.

| Aurora Skin Care Essentials

| Sara Moulton

Here’s a buzz item perfectly timed for our new April issue, Growing a Community One Garden at a Time.

The Food Depot is asking home gardeners to Plant a Row for the Hungry this spring. Once the produce is harvested, caring gardeners can drop their donations off at the The Food Depot, at 1222 Siler Road, or they can call the food bank for the name of an emergency food pantry

If you’ve been bitten by the spring garden bug, here’s an event that you won’t want to miss. It’s the Annual Master Gardener’s Association Garden Fair, held this year on Saturday, April 30, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The fair includes speakers, exhibits, demonstrations and a xeric and native plant sale. (Some of the healthiest plants in my yard have come from here.) Most of all, it’s a fun day where local experts—folks from garden clubs, greenhouses and nurseries—are all under one roof sharing what they know and love best. Special guest speakers this year are Erin Wade, of Vinaigrette (who will be a featured farmer in our May issue), Gordon Tooley, of Tooley Tree Farm (who was on the cover of our May 2007 issue), and nationally

known writer and garden columnist Scott Calhoun. At the Fairgrounds on Rodeo Road.

Admission is free.

I never need an excuse to go out for dinner, but if you do, here it is. On Thursday, April 17, Kitchen Angels is holding its annual Angels Night Out. The 22 heavenly restaurants that are participating will donate 25% of your bill to the folks at Kitchen Angels, who provide free, homedelivered meals to people here in Santa Fe facing life-challenging conditions. Go to their website, www.kitchenangels.org, to see the list of participating restaurants—it covers the entire spectrum of prices and cuisines.

While I go to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum several times a year, I’ve never taken advantage of the tours that they offer of her home in Abiquiu. O’Keeffe bought the 5,000 square-foot Spanish Colonial–era compound in 1945, and for the next four years supervised its restoration. She lived at the compound (alternating with her home in Ghost Ranch) until 1984, and it was the setting and inspiration for several of her most compelling paintings. The intimate tours are limited to 12 people and last approximately one hour. This is the year that I promise myself I’ll take advantage of yet another amazing cultural experience available only here in New Mexico. www.okeeffemuseum.org.

When the explosive play American Buffalo opened in 1975 in Chicago it changed the landscape of American drama forever with its intensity and physicality.

Playwright David Mamet’s terse and often times vulgar dialogue captured the language of the streets and the deepseated frustration of the underclass and insured the play’s position in modern theater. The gutsy and talented actors of Ironweed Productions bring the play to Santa Fe from April 14 to May 1 at El Museo Cultural. The production features Rod Harrison, Todd Anderson and J.D. Bray-Morris and is directed by Ironweed founder and Artistic Director, Scott Harrison.

Performances are Thursdays, A Taste of Life in New Mexico

Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 Thursdays through Saturdays, $10 on Sundays, and $10 for students, seniors, and groups of 10 or more. Tickets can be reserved by calling 505.660.2379 or emailing ironwoodproductions@yahoo.com.

TAOS

by Patty Karlovitz patty@localflavormagazine.com One of my favorite tapestry artists, Donna Loraine Contractor, brings a solo exhibition of new work entitled Fractured Squares to Taos’ Weaving Southwest from May 3 through May 31. The opening reception is scheduled for Saturday, May 7, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The young woman who owns the gallery, Teresa Loveless (localflavor, Oct. 2010), is the granddaughter of renowned weaver Rachel Brown and is as remarkable as the artists she represents. The gallery is one of the jewels of Taos.

At 106A Paseo del Pueblo Norte, just steps from the Plaza.

| “Aquamarine Panorama” Fractured Square Series

The trio of Marco Barbitta and Laura and Nora Oest run the popular Downtown Bistro at 223 Paseo del Pueblo Sur. Recently they decided to turn their considerable talents to a concept and cuisine not easily found up north--authentic Italian. Enter Stella. Stella’s Italian Restaurant with its large black and white posters of Sinatra and the gang, red and white checked tablecloths and tapered candles brings back the nostalgia of old country Italian cooking. Located at 112 Camino de la Placita near Ledoux Street, it has a great location and all the enthusiasm this trio brings to whatever they do.

575.751.0100.

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La Casa Sena Santa fe’s most beautiful patio is Open.

Chantal Copper Fusion Cookware Demonstration at Las Cosas with Celebrity chef Sara Moulton Wednesday, May 4 at 6:00 pm Chef Sara Moulton Food editor of Good Morning America and former Gourmet Magazine Executive Chef.

Book Signing open to the public with all of Sara Moulton’s books.

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Class is $50 which includes a signed copy of her latest book, Everyday Family Dinners, and a $10 Las Cosas Gift Card.

Make your reservations now for Easter Sunday Brunch. Our Easter menu features New Mexico Lamb and local, farm fresh ingredients.

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A Taste of Life in New Mexico

APRIL 2011

11

Schoolyard A

nyone who thinks that kids today are lazy hasn’t met Michael Oellig’s third grade students.

These nine- and ten-yearold Santa Fe Waldorf School students are an enthusiastic bunch. They greet visitors with a Ute blessing that sounds like a lilting song, look adults in the eye and… think plowing a garden by hand is fun.

It’s a bright Friday afternoon, the sky outside painted with pale cirrus clouds. The kids have just come in from recess, and their cheeks are flush from running around the playground through the cool late-winter air. Their south-facing classroom is sunny, warm and welcoming. Potted plants thrive along the windows, and the deep yellow walls cast everything in a golden light.

An inspiring sense of calm pervades the room, even as the kids move furniture about. They laugh with each other as they quickly set up chairs in a large circle, then stand patiently until everything is ready for what will be a vibrant discussion about one of their favorite things about their school: the garden.

Today, roots are on the minds of the third-grade class as they settle into their wooden chairs. Roots that spiral and twist and turn through the depths of the rich soil just beyond their classroom door. They are roots that supported the growth of crops the students planted and cared for last spring, when they were second graders. Plants like oats, barley, rye and millet. Also corn, soybeans, buckwheat and broom corn. Each child in the room holds a little notebook filled with notes and colorful drawings about last year’s garden, and in singsong unison they read aloud the list of the plants they tended and harvested, landing, finally, on broom corn. As a group, they inexplicably say “broom corn” twice and erupt into laughter.

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story by ANA JUNE photos by JENNIFER SPELMAN

s n e d r Ga

| Harvest time at the Santa Fe Waldorf School.

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Broom corn is funny stuff.

Also funny: squash bugs.

“We had a lot of squash bugs,” remarks Ainsley Reynolds-Smith.

Her classmate Chance Knowlton quickly adds that they tried to get rid of the bugs by collecting them and taking them far from the garden.

“But,” he says, “they just kept coming back, I think.”

Andrea Bruno, age eight, jumps at the opportunity to talk about squash bugs. Her eyes wide with reminiscent wonder, she holds her hands up to indicate a very large squash and says, “There was a squash that was about this big, and guess what the squash bugs did?

They made a little hole in it, and then they hollowed it out!” Andrea is practically out of her chair with excitement as she talks. She has no idea what sort of squash it was, but that doesn’t matter a bit. The squash was “giant” and it got eaten from the inside out.

The memory sparks more laughter...and more memories.

“The squash bugs smelled bad,” says Diego Martinez. “Like Jolly Ranchers,” he specifies.

Another voice chimes up from across the room: “No, they smelled like limes!”

More laughter. More memories.

The garden may be lying fallow right now, but it’s richly alive in the students’ minds.

Nurturing imagination and creating an atmosphere that allows children to experience learning with their whole being is at the heart of the Waldorf philosophy. According to school administrator Barbara Booth—who describes herself as an “administrator who loves to teach, and sometimes gets to!”—Waldorf is education designed to nurture a child’s innate love for learning.

Waldorf education was born in the most unlikely of places—the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany. In April 1919, Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner gave a lecture to the factory workers on his idea of societal transformation that he called Social Threefolding. In it, he mentioned the need to develop a new kind of school that would be independent from governmental control and address education holistically, based on the developmental stages of childhood. The factory owner and

| Waldorf teachers Michael Oellig and Barbara Booth.

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Schoolyard workers approached Steiner following his lecture with the idea that he could develop such a school for the workers’ children. By autumn of the same year, the school opened with more than 250 students.

Now, nearly 100 years and more than 1000 schools later, Waldorf is a worldwide educational movement.

The inspiration that was sparked so long ago in that faraway factory found its way to Santa Fe in 1983. That was the year that a group of local parents founded The Santa Fe Waldorf School, thereby expanding the educational options for Santa Fe children. The school opened with a program encompassing kindergarten through third grade and has since expanded to include preschool through 12th grade, with the first class graduating in 2005. From roots sunk nearly 30 years ago, the school now has grown and flourished on 13 evergreen-dotted acres on the southeastern side of town, where approximately 250 students are immersed in a multi-faceted learning experience that, in addition to a rigorous intellectual and artistic curriculum, includes knitting, movement arts, forestry, world cultures and, of course, gardening.

“These kids love to learn,” Booth says, pointing out that so much of what they take in is by osmosis. “What’s incredible about kids is they really get everything. You don’t have to tell them, you show them.

They live it, they breathe it,” she says, smiling. What follows naturally from an environment where learning opportunities abound is personal empowerment—an idea that sounds simple, but is nonetheless a vital facet of a Waldorf education.

“These kids ask questions, they’re not afraid to question authority and they think for themselves,” Booth explains. Those values are already apparent in the smiling faces of the third-grade class, as one ebullient voice after another rises and intertwines with the next. The classroom is soon buzzing with a joyous cacophony.

Watching over the group with calm benevolence is their teacher.

Michael Oellig, who, by Waldorf tradition, has been these students’ teacher since they started first grade (and will remain so until they pass through eighth), directs the energy where appropriate, with gentle reminders to speak one at a time and not interrupt. All the while, he smiles. It’s clear how deeply he cares about these kids and their learning.

Something else that’s apparent: how much Oellig’s students inspire him too. He listens raptly as the kids reminisce about their garden (“We grew really big beets!” and “We picked apples for cider and apple crisp!”); laughs along with them when one shares a unique observation (“Our apples are kind of green and red…they’re sort of zebra-striped!”); and smiles when their thoughts careen from school garden to…all sorts of things (“I have a guinea pig and two dogs!” and “Once when I was camping, someone was rolling a tire and it ran over me!”).

These kids are not at a loss for words. Nor are they lacking in wonder. Some would say that their experience nurturing life out of bare earth has made a profound and lasting impression on them—but that would be only partially correct. In truth, it seems more apt to say that cultivating the garden, including the “fun” task of plowing the soil by hand, has served to reinforce the wonder and joy that was already alive and thriving within each of them.

Across the school grounds, the sophomore class is more reserved, but no less invested in their educational experiences than the third graders. These older students are poised to spend a week intensively studying forest ecology—gardening on a larger scale, essentially.

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“By high school the kids are moving out more into the community,” says Booth, outlining the natural transition from self to world that occurs with maturity. To this end, they will be spending their weeklong intensive not only studying larger patterns in nature but also assisting community members directly. “We’ll be pruning trees at a bed-and-breakfast up north,” Booth specifies, then tells the students that the property owners are so glad they’re coming to help that they plan to serve them a full lunch by way of a thank-you.

Faces light up at the announcement, and laughter ripples through the room. Learning to prune trees is interesting, certainly, but good food is inspirational.

Still, it’s clear that the lessons run deep, and that the motivation to engage with the greater world rises from more than just a free lunch.

Though only a handful of the current Waldorf sophomores also spent third grade at the school, they understand how the scope of what they’re learning now relates to lessons fostered in the more contained space of a garden.

“We begin gardening when we’re little,” muses sophomore Victoria Lustig, “and it’s mostly learning to care for and tend to things in an enclosed space. But as we go out in to the forest it’s larger, and we can care for more things. It’s expanded.”

This expanded paradigm, which reaches from the self out into the world at large, is built on the same values that flourish in the enclosed space of the garden. It’s a paradigm that rests, in the end, on a foundation of little things, like Jolly Rancher­–scented squash bugs and zebra-striped apples. On the wonder of finding an inside-out eaten vegetable and the joy of plowing the earth by hand. And, most importantly, on a deep and abiding love not only for what can be cultivated and cared for from the earth, but also from the self.

“To be truly human we should all be gardeners,” Booth says, as the sophomores turn back to their Spanish lessons. “Whether we’re gardeners of the soil, gardeners of the heart or gardeners of the spirit, it’s a kind of cultivating and enduring over seasons and time that speaks of the deepest rhythms and mysteries of life. That’s what happens when we connect to nature.”

And though Booth, as a school administrator, is delighted by the fact that colleges actively seek out Waldorf-educated students, she firmly believes that the lessons in themselves are valuable no matter the direction kids choose following high school.

“It doesn’t matter what you’re going to become later as a grownup,” she concludes. “This connection first to self then to the world will inform your body, heart, mind and soul. That’s what it means to be a true human being.”

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A Taste of Life in New Mexico

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story by ANNE HILLERMAN photos by DON STREL

A

pril seems designed to tantalize. In Northern New Mexico, it means half-hearted snow days, a touch of rain, more than enough cold wind and frost to threaten blooms on our fruit trees. And beautiful, jewel-like days that tempt gardeners into thinking freezing nights might be gone. After a winter of subzero temperatures and below-average snowfall, gardeners hold their breath, wondering what survived to stir with April’s promise.

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t s a e f A for the eyes

The year I spent researching and writing Gardens of Santa Fe introduced me to wonderful gardens and generous souls who opened their gates to me and photographer Don Strel. After I finished the book, I learned about other gardens. One of my new discoveries is a gem on the windy plains east of Santa Fe, a lively garden created by two energetic people who also have full-time jobs.

I love the combination of private walled spaces and open, unfenced territory that ends with a stunning mountain view. Their design reflects a respect for precious water and the surrounding landscape and the critters who live there.

Santa Feans Ken and Maria Olds have a passion for beauty. Maria, a nurse who is part of the Christus St. Vincent Quality and Performance Improvement department, and Ken, an entomologist who runs his own contract business, have transformed their property into an oasis. Their garden celebrates the diversity of plants, native and imported, that adjust to Santa Fe’s quirky climate, questionable soil and lack of natural moisture.

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With its patios and fountains, walkways and careful cultivation, the garden looks as though it sprang from the landscape. That effortless illusion belies hours of work and years of planning.

The Olds began with the garden design, working together to envision the walls, paths and patios as an extension of their new home.

Lanky, soft-spoken Ken and shorter, more extroverted Maria work well together. The Olds’ affection for each other reflects itself in their gardening relationship. Ken and his helpers did the hardscaping, creating what gardeners call “the bones”: walls to keep out critters, provide privacy and define the space; walkways to make the garden accessible and inviting; patios with seating to enjoy the results of all that digging, weeding and deadheading. Ken recently built a stone outdoor grill that gets regular use from early spring to the late fall. Maria is in charge of selecting the plants. Together, they handle soil preparation and maintenance. Like all gardens, theirs constantly changes, evolving, growing and teaching them about life and death, abundance and disappointment.

The Olds talk about their garden with the enthusiasm parents show for their children. With an easy smile, Ken refers technical questions to Maria. She smiles back and then moves her right index finger up and down, flexing and straightening. “This is my main gardening tool,” she says. “I point it at Ken and then I say, ‘Dig there.’”

“And I do it,” Ken says. “We call it teamwork, but she’s the chief gardener.”

“I like being able to see the garden, to see something green, from every room in the house,” Maria says. “I love doing this. We love doing this.”

Despite its unsettledness, the Olds appreciate April. It gives them a chance to plan for the growing season from the ground up, with the bones of the garden nicely visible. They discuss what to change, and Maria considers colors and textures. This year’s additions will include at least three deciduous trees.

In the Olds’ garden, this month brings a yellow flourish of forsythia and daffodils. Petite deep purple crocus have already welcomed the change of season, and the green blades of iris protrude over the dark topsoil. Maria’s favorite iris, the slender Siberians, won’t appear for another few weeks. And one of Santa Fe’s most popular spring visitors, tulips, are missing altogether.

“I’m not a big fan of tulips,” Maria says, “Their life span is too short, they only last seven or eight years. And rabbits love them.”

The Olds’ garden, started about ten years ago, reflects what they learned from their earlier gardens in California and Baltimore. Santa Fe brought its own lessons in native plants, water conservation, soil preparation and microclimates: subtle differences in temperature, wind and moisture throughout the garden. Although

the earlier gardening environments differed dramatically, general lessons held true.

“Mostly, I learned about the importance of working with colors and textures in a garden,” says Maria. If you want a serene, quiet space, a place to relax, stay with blues and creams and soft pinks. Those are soothing. I use those colors on the kitchen patio, and it makes me feel like I’m in Aspen.” Instead of aspen trees, which don’t do well at their elevation, Ken planted native Rio Grande cottonwoods. With their white bark and whispering leaves, the cottonwoods offered an ecologically friendlier substitute requiring less water and offering more tolerance for wind and heat.

As Ken well knows, gardens mean more than plants. Rocks, used as walls, walks and fountains, provide an interesting contrast to the plants. Water in the fountain off the main patio trickles over slabs of weathered tan sandstone to splash against smooth gray river rocks. A pair of sculpted cranes, metal birds in the same soothing shades of gray as the river rock, adds to the ambiance created by the music of a flowing stream. The patio opens to a natural-looking landscape and an expansive vista of the Jemez Mountains. In contrast to the cool stone, Maria and Ken use brighter colors in the flowers to set a festive tone for parties. Here and there miniature roses provide spots of interest.

In the intimate walled flagstone patio off the master bedroom, Maria plans to continue an experiment with fragrant, old-fashioned sweet peas, growing them from seed to climb a trellis.

She also cultivates morning glories and Black-eyed Susan vines from seeds sown in the main garden.

A larger rock fountain that Ken can enjoy from his home office sits surrounded by brightly decorated pots from Mexico filled with equally colorful flowers. A magenta bougainvillea, which Ken and Maria purchased 20 years ago at the famous

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APRIL 2011

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| Maria and Ken Olds

Philadelphia International Flower Show, adds to the festive look.

The welcoming entry patio has a more formal tone, in part because of its tall architectural fountain. Soon, roses will bloom by the front door. The variety chosen for 2010 was a robust red climber; before that were Austrian Copper and Golden Showers. Through a stair step cutaway in the front gate, visitors get a peek at this patio as well as a tantalizing glimpse through the large living room windows to the main patio with its views and vegetation.

Throughout the garden, plants in pots (including vivid red geraniums) and those in the ground (such as gaillardia, blue spirea, Mojave desert sage, iris, candy lilies, clusters of dwarf Shasta daisies, silver thread grass, hardy Manzanita and pink sedum) celebrate their good fortune in the hands of expert growers. The Olds use pots to cultivate herbs in the kitchen garden. Maria loves to use fresh parsley, thyme and Greek and Mexican oregano in her gourmet cooking for neighborhood parties. The Olds don’t grow vegetables because, Maria explains, “They can break your heart and they take too much water.”

Instead, they provide water for wildlife: fountains and elevated birdbaths and ground-level saucers for coyotes, bobcats and the occasional mountain lion as well as rabbits, quail and towhees.

“I think the water helps rabbits from eating the plants, but rabbits will eat

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APRIL 2011

everything if they’re desperate,” Maria says.

“You can’t go by “rabbit-proof ” labels. You have to keep an eye on things. If it’s a plant you really treasure, put it behind a wall.”

Water for the garden comes from a 1200-gallon cistern and an assortment of rain barrels. The Olds are careful water users, selecting many xeric plants and respecting the established natives that came with the house site. They left piñon, juniper, cactus, yucca and chamisa in place whenever they could.

Maria lets plants find their own place in the garden. She’s happy with the way the Reiter’s thyme that Ken started in the cracks between the flagstones has spread to create a wonderful living carpet. A prized weeping crab apple adds texture and an unexpected shape. Although she buys plants she likes where ever she finds them, Maria is especially fond of Plants of the Southwest and Santa Fe Greenhouses, because they offer more of the unusual selections she is partial to: Tom Thumb Cotoneaster, dwarf purple hollyhocks and twin larkspur.

Despite the recent fiercely cold winter, the Olds are optimistic about the garden this month. “I can’t tell yet about the coreopsis and the horsetails,” Maria says, “but it looks like most things survived. I’m excited.”

To enjoy more of the writing of Anne Hillerman and photos of Don Strel, see their wonderful book, Gardens of Santa Fe. Gibbs Smith publisher, 2010.

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A Taste of Life in New Mexico

APRIL 2011

19

Zuly’s

story by GAIL SNYDER p h o t o s b y K AT E R U S S E L L

E

ven in the dead of winter, the unincorporated village of Dixon, locally renowned for growing apples, grapes and other fruit, is so lush with potential you feel as if you’ve suddenly landed in an oasis as you drive along State Road 75, with rolling fields and orchards on either side, intersected by the original acequia system dating back to the early 1800s.

| Chalako and Zulema Chilton

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Located some 20 miles from Taos along the banks of the Embudo River, a tributary of the Rio Grande, this small community of approximately 1500 is home to the largest population of organic farmers in New Mexico. In fact, Dixon hosts its own farmers’ market during the summer months, as well as supporting several well-established wineries. And it has more than its share of acclaimed local artists and craftspeople, too; the Dixon Studio Tour, one of the first of its kind, was established in 1982.

They’ve got a handful of beautiful old adobe churches in Dixon; a community center; a post office dating back to about 1900; a charming public library with a wide, welcoming front porch; a radio station; and the Dixon Cooperative Market, boasting a wide variety of products, democratic member control and, as part of their mission statement, the commitment “to invigorate the local economy by supporting local growers and producers.”

But nowhere in this oasis was there a restaurant, a coffeehouse— even a lunch counter. Until the middle of last summer. That’s when Chalako Chilton, born and raised in Dixon, and his wife, Zulema, opened the family-operated Zuly’s Café. Currently open for breakfast and lunch Tuesday through Thursday, plus dinner Friday and Saturday

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nights, the space is clean and bright, with orange and yellow walls, paintings by local artists, a beautiful redwood counter and a cheerful patio out front.

Zulema and Chalako had no previous restaurant experience, just an instinctive feel for great food and the desire to make the café a reality where they can work side by side everyday. “My mom stopped cooking for me when I was still pretty little,” he says, “so I taught myself.” Because he was willing to do the cooking, his parents would buy him whatever he gave them on his shopping list. “And I never learned how to skimp!” he laughs.

Zuly’s (named for Chalako’s wife, Zulema) serves primarily New Mexican and American food. As Chalako is describing the menu to me, a woman who’d been seated out on the patio joins our conversation as she’s paying her bill.

“I’ve lived in Dixon since 1971,” she confides.

“We’ve needed a good restaurant here for a long time. And the food here is great! In fact, two different people on separate occasions have told me that the nachos here are the best they’ve ever had. And these are locals—we don’t usually comment about nachos!”

They use all-natural New Mexican beef, all-natural chicken breast, organic coffee and as much locally-grown produce as they can find.

Chalako—who doesn’t skimp, remember?—tells a great story about how he chose his red chile.

“We’ve always used Hatch green—and it’s vegetarian, they’re both vegetarian, and the green is also gluten-free. One day soon after we opened, this old man came in, you know, an old guy in overalls and suspenders. His hands were all clawed up, his face all blistered by the sun, and he tells me, ‘I’m here to sell you chile.’

I said, ‘Well, I’ve already got my order,’ and he doesn’t say anything, just gives me a five pound bag of his red, from Chimayó. I decided to serve them side-by-side and ask people, ‘Which one do you like better?’ And you know what? That old man’s is the one we’re serving today.”

Besides the familiar New Mexican staples, Zuly’s also has some eclectic, really intriguingsounding other menu items to choose from. Like an omelette with shrimp in garlic sauce, topped with cheese, for breakfast. And Belgian waffles.

For lunch, he makes what he calls the Zuly Salad, with romaine and seasonal local greens, red cabbage, grated carrots, cranberries, nuts and feta. There are also many specials with a heavy Mexican influence like Filete de Pescado. Even the New Mexican menu items are exotic. Try the Dixeno Burger (chicken or beef ), served on a ciabatta roll with cheese and sautéed onions, “smothered,” Chalako adds, “with green chile.

Not just a little spread on top but smothered!”

“I can vouch for that,” another customer grins. He’s come up to the counter to give his order to Chalako, who’s acting today as waiter, busboy, cashier. The man explains he’s just come from the post office. “This came to my box,” he

tells Chalako, handing him an envelope, “but it’s addressed to your dad, so I thought I’d just give it to you while I’m here.”

Chalako goes back into the kitchen to give the customer’s order to Elton, his 19-yearold son, who’s the cook. “This place feels like home,” the customer says of Zuly’s. “It’s pretty, it’s welcoming and the food is really good here.

People have tried to do this before. But…” He just smiles and shrugs.

“Has Zuly’s become a local gathering place?”

I ask another customer.

“Oh yes,” she answers without hesitation.

“There’s a writing group who meets here regularly. They sit back in that corner by the window.” Then there’s the astronomy club and the library staff. Locals tend to gravitate to each other’s tables (“especially on Friday nights!” one man adds).

People come not just from Dixon but Truchas, Peñasco, Los Alamos, Taos, the Española Valley, even Albuquerque, all mostly lured in by word of mouth. “Once they eat here,” Chalako says confidently, “they will return.”

“We’re lucky,” the woman adds with an approving nod. Chalako is hoping to get a beer and wine license soon, although, so far, that’s being held up in limbo due to a frustrating conflict between the county and the state. He’d like to continue bringing other influences to the dinner specials—a Thai night, for example, a Chinese night—along with more dishes introduced by his wife, who is originally from Tepic Nayarit, Mexico. She recently taught him to make tinga, a dish of beef and pork with chipotle sauce and caramelized onions. These have turned out to be extremely popular. “She orchestrates,” Chalako tells me with a chuckle, “and I make it.”

Once the weather warms up, business will triple, if last summer is any indication, and then things will get really crazy busy. Meanwhile, because it’s currently the slow season, both Chalako and Elton are the family business’s only employees, but Zulema and the two younger children Brissa and Evan help out regularly.

During a lull in customers as the afternoon begins to wane, Elton wanders out to talk to another young guy who’s come in for a to-go order and to show off his new hairstyle, the logo for his car growing on the back of his otherwise bald head. “Chevy Boy!” Elton laughs, going back to make his order.

When he returns to hand over the bag, Chalako passes him carrying an armload of dishes he’s just bused from one of the outdoor tables. Elton widens his eyes at Chalako, saying, “Oh my God, dude, there’s like three mountains of dishes back there!”

Zuly’s Café is located on the High Road to Taos, 46 miles north of Santa Fe and 26 miles south of Taos.

505.579.4001. www.zulyscafe.org.

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t c e j o r P

A Feed the Hood story by CHRISTIE CHISHOLM photos by GAELEN CASEY

Dubbed Project Feed the Hood, the mission of SWOP’s garden is to engage area residents in growing their own food and developing a healthy eating lifestyle.

Sandwiched between the affluent Ridgecrest and Nob Hill areas, the Southeast Heights garden sits on the corner of Ross and Wellesley in a low-income and somewhat transient neighborhood. SWOP chose this plot for a reason: to organize.

The purpose of the nonprofit is to unite underprivileged communities of color, and it strives to reach that purpose in a multiplicity of ways—through grassroots campaigns for political action, with education and leadership building, and by raising awareness. SWOP isn’t an agricultural organization, but since 2007 it’s tried to bring communities together through gardening. Its first garden sat in the South Valley, and another one was established at the base of Pajarito Mesa in 2009. “We want to make a garden in every area of the city,” says Rodrigo Rodriguez, a SWOP organizer who helps run the project.

The idea for starting a garden in this neighborhood came about through conversations with City Councilor Rey Garduño, who represents the district. After about four months of talking, the space was settled on in January of last year, just in time to get it ready for spring planting. The land is donated by the city for this use, but SWOP doesn’t own it. Because it’s city property, the nonprofit can’t build any permanent structures on it, and it can’t sell any of the food it grows—not that it would want to, anyway.

One of the main reasons it has the garden is to give its harvest away, and Rodriguez and others

| SWOP organizer Loren Gomez

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APRIL 2011

patch of dirt heaped with old tires, soiled diapers and needles is an odd place for a garden. When the SouthWest Organizing Project got permission from the City of Albuquerque to take over the tract in early 2010, its workers and volunteers lugged out mounds of the stuff, including more than 35 wheelbarrows’ worth of glass. But once the weeds and debris were plucked and plots were laid, it produced more than 6,800 square feet of scarlet runners, tomatoes, onions, sweet corn, squash, pumpkins and yellow-meat watermelons, among a cornucopia of other produce.

magazine.com

give it away by the sackful every chance they get. Mostly, they give it away to kids.

Two elementary schools—Bandelier and Kirtland— bookend the garden, and so most of the people who pass by are kids. Because of this, most of the people who volunteer to work in the garden are kids, too. SWOP even bought a few sets of tiny hoes and rakes to make it easier for young hands to turn the soil. But even the kids who don’t step foot inside the garden’s walls are offered food. “We’ll send kids with a bag of tomatoes,” says Rodriguez, “and tell them to take it to someone.”

Rodriguez says simple things like a bag of tomatoes can make a difference. Because the neighborhood is so impoverished, he says, kids don’t always have food at home.

“Some of these kids are just hungry,” he says. “They’ve told me.” He recalls a time he handed a bag brimming with tomatoes and onions to a little boy and instructed him to take it home. After a few minutes, he walked outside the garden and found the little boy sitting and eating tomatoes. “He said he had no food,” Rodriguez says. “He eats at school, but he doesn’t always eat at home.”

Rodriguez attributes the problem partially to the fact that, as is the case in many low-income communities around the country, there aren’t any grocery stores in the neighborhood.

The closest one, he says, is a Smith’s on Yale and Coal, which is about two miles away. Since many residents don’t have cars, it’s a trek that prevents some people from buying food on a regular basis. “It’s a food desert,” he says.

There also aren’t any farmers’ markets in the area. “People here don’t even know what a growers’ market is,” he says. He hopes that initiatives like the garden will help to change that.

Every Saturday, Rodriguez and other SWOP members turn the garden into a living, working classroom by teaching different workshops. Past workshops have been on topics such as composting, rainwater harvesting and seed saving.

SWOP advertises its workshops on its website and sends out e-mails, and neighbors have come to expect the weekly classes.

The largest class size the organization’s had is 20 adults, and Rodriguez wants to see that grow. “At some point, I want to go door to door,” he says.

After only a year, the garden has already started to spread its roots in the community. “We’ve had several hundred volunteers,” he says. “Tons of kids come out; [schools] bring busloads of kids.” About 40 children from the neighborhood are regulars at the garden, and Rodriguez says they love it.

“They’re genuinely interested in learning. And they know that when they come to the garden, they’re there to work.”

They also like taking home the prizes they helped grow.

“We planted jack-o-lanterns,” Rodriguez says. “This little girl walked out with a pumpkin as big as her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so happy in my life.”

The garden isn’t a silver bullet, and the neighborhood still has issues, but residents like having it there, and for the most part they defend it. “Nothing’s gone missing, the tools are still here,” says Rodriguez. Once, one of the garden’s scarecrows was set on fire in the middle of the night, but rather than let it burn, neighbors used the water from a nearby kiddy pool to extinguish it. It may seem like a small gesture, but Rodriguez sees it as a mark of a community pulling together.

People from Ridgecrest have gotten involved, too. “They have gardens,” Rodriguez says, “but they bring seeds and extra

| George Lujan

A Taste of Life in New Mexico

APRIL 2011

23

Project

Feed the Hood

plants.” One of SWOP’s goals is to show people how to grow their own food at home as well, so they can start their own gardens. Part of that is teaching them about seed saving.

SWOP has been generating a seed library for the last four years, and in that relatively small amount of time, it’s already amassed hundreds of varieties. Some seeds have come from colleagues’ and friends’ personal gardens, like the corn seed someone found in an attic that had been stashed there for 50 years and still sprouted. All of the seed is non-GMO, and SWOP especially likes finding heritage seeds that reflect New Mexican farming traditions. The organization now has so much seed, it’s still in the process of cataloguing all of it—last year it harvested seeds from 25 pounds’ worth of beans alone.

One of the advantages of creating a seed library, Rodriguez says— other than the obvious benefits of cost-saving and sustainability—is that over time plants, and their seeds, will adapt to their surroundings and produce more food. “Seeds get used to the city environment,” he says. “They get acclimated to places that aren’t optimal.”

Eventually, SWOP wants to hand over the garden to residents so it can establish new gardens in other neighborhoods and spread knowledge about nutrition and community health. For Rodriguez, the project is about a lot more than growing food. It’s about the social, political and economic implications of food systems. “It’s about eating healthy,” he says. “Talking about what we’re eating and why we’re eating it.”

Who: Judith Schlosser What: Volunteer chef Where: St. Elizabeth Shelter When: Tuesdays or Fridays Why: “Everybody needs a little help sometimes and everybody has to give a little help sometimes.”

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You, too, can volunteer to join our fabulous kitchen team. Just call Susan at 505-982-6611.

Compliments of localflavor magazine

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FOUR COLORS OF CAZUELAS! The Spanish Table now carries tapa-sized cazuelas in red, charcoal, cream, and terracotta.

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A Taste of Life in New Mexico

APRIL 2011

25

At The Table:

story by CHEF JOHNNY VEE p h o t o s b y K AT E R U S S E L L

l il r G & r a B e g r o G e h T

M

y history with Taos goes back to the late 1980’s, when I was living in Sydney and working for a company that set up American-themed restaurants in that beautiful Australian city. Hearing of the popular new culinary trend that was sweeping the states called Southwestern cooking, we ventured to hop on the bandwagon and introduce the cuisine and concept Down Under. I found a chef consultant named Dan Hoyer who headed down to assist us in establishing the authenticity of the food, and Dan was from Taos.

| Arik and Lisa Zamora

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As we hatched our plan to thrill the Aussie palates with all things New Mexican, Dan regaled me with tales of the beauty and history of the region while training me in the nuances of the spices--in particular the chiles that define this unique cookery. When I finally visited New Mexico to gather more information for the project, the beauty of the state, and specifically Taos, was everything Dan had described and more.

Jump ahead to 1993 and my return stateside. Through the next almost two decades, Taos played a happy part in my career. I helped open a cooking school there, was involved in the opening festivities for El Monte Sagrado Resort and spent many a wine-and-food–fueled night at my buddy Joseph Wrede’s groundbreaking Joseph’s Table Restaurant. Some of my favorite people on the planet live in Taos and I always love to make the trek.

I had started to hear good things about a new restaurant called The Gorge Bar & Grill, which opened on the Taos Plaza in the space that for decades housed Ogilvie’s, so I jumped at an offer from my editor to go interview the chef and spend the night at the historic Taos Inn. On my first visit to Taos, the town was described as being “like Santa Fe was 30 years ago,” and I’m always surprised to observe that even almost 20 years later, though Taos has certainly grown, it is pretty much the same. Still very laid-back, the spirit of Easy Rider Dennis Hopper is ever-evident in the rhythm of the populace. Its charm is its relaxed aura. Donald Rumsfeld and Julia Roberts aside, Taos is safe from becoming too cosmopolitan too soon. How would this new restaurant fit in to the chronicles of her food landscape?

I meet with The Gorge chef Arik Zamora on one of those sunny winter afternoons when, though the wind is cold, you can tell that spring is dying to get here. The understated but stylish second-story dining room offers premier views of the Plaza as well as a big comfortable central bar and nicely designed dining areas that allow diners to choose what they are in the mood for: buzzy cocktail lounge or more sedate noshing. There’s a separate, private dining room that seats 30 and is soundproofed from the rest of the restaurant. I seem to recall that macramé planters were hanging everywhere in the previous restaurant and am glad they are gone; the renovation is charming.

Before Zamora joins me, I look over the large menu and am impressed with its span and fun sense of itself. The different areas of the menu are given clever titles, including a taco section called “It’s the Only Food Shaped Like a Smile” and a kiddy menu entitled “Gorge Tested, Mother Approved.” Desserts are listed at the top of the menu with a caption that warns, “Life is short…eat dessert first!”

(I noticed this on another menu posted in town. Do Taoseños know something

we don’t, and is Rumsfeld to blame?)

I am returning later that evening to dine, but our photographer Kate Russell is hovering to capture our conversation, and, lucky for me, food is to be part of the shoot. Though I don’t remember meeting Zamora before, he reminds me that we had met at The Compound, where he had worked most recently for more than 3 years.

“Tell me about your childhood,” I begin.

“I was born in Albuquerque and raised in Honolulu. My mother was a single mom and in the Air Force, so we moved around a lot. I lived in Korea for a time and also Japan when I was 10 and 11 years old.”

“Do you remember anything about the food there?” I ask.

“Oh yes, I remember the soba noodle bars and these vending machines that had all sorts of interesting food in them that I was curious to try.”

“How did you get into cooking?” I ask.

“My grandparents lived in Albuquerque, so when I was 19 I moved back there and went to UNM to study business and finance. I got a restaurant job to support myself but was always having to skip classes to fill in a shift in the kitchen. When I was thinking about what I wanted to do, I realized that I wanted to get a job that would keep me from going hungry. Working in a restaurant you never go hungry,” he finishes with a laugh.

“While figuring out where I wanted to live, I kind of wandered the country, going to college in Minnesota for a time and Washington State. I worked in a restaurant in Destin, Florida, before coming back to Albuquerque. I started at Seasons Rotisserie & Grill in Old Town, working there for four years, and also worked at the Artichoke Café for three years. I met my wife, Lisa, at Seasons where I first met Keith and Kevin Roessler, who own The Gorge.”

Zamora tells me the story of the Roessler brothers (he refers to them as K²) and their family who have been in the restaurant business for years. Their uncle, Roger Roessler, a pioneer in fine dining in Albuquerque now runs an acclaimed winery in Sonoma along with

Keith and Kevin’s dad, Richard. A lengthy stint working under Mark Kiffin prepared Zamora for this, his first gig as Executive Chef. “I started out as a grill cook at The Compound but moved up to sous chef after four months. I was commuting from Albuquerque and working closely with Andy Nichols, Kiffin’s chef du cuisine. Lisa was GM at Seasons; I was spending more time in the kitchen than I was with my wife.”

Though he enjoyed his experience at The Compound, Zamora reached a burn-out phase of his cooking career and considered other options. “I felt the need to re-evaluate my career. I thought maybe I would work on the other side of the business as a food purveyor. We even considered a move to Denver, and then the offer to do The Gorge came along. Part of the deal was to have Lisa be the manager here. We jumped at the chance.”

“How much input did you have in the concept?” I ask.

“The Roessler twins bought the building and started to plan the renovations. They asked me what I thought the concept should be.

Right away I said no fine dining. No cheese-covered New Mexico food.

We agreed that we wanted a casual contemporary feel that covered all the bases. With our full bar menu, burgers, entrees, kids menu, and party menus we attract customers from different budgets and price points. I drew from all my cooking experience and incorporated dishes that include some of my favorite flavors and foods.”

I compliment Arik on the design of the room. “We wanted to create an environment and menu that we would like. We designed it to have an upscale flair but be comfortable. No hokey, cheesy gimmicks. We all took part in the renovations. We were up here tearing down walls and painting and plastering.”

The Gorge opened on the 23rd of July last summer. “We opened over Fiesta Weekend and ran out of food in five hours. I think we served 700 meals that day. We restocked and opened the very next day.”

APRIL 2011

27

At The Table:

The Gorge

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At this stage, food starts to arrive from the kitchen: amazing Buffalo chicken wings, seared ahi tuna and yummy bison sliders. We have to pause and wait to sample them until after they are captured on film. “I looked forward to the challenge of opening in Taos,” says Zamora. “It was tricky renovating a 30-year-old building, but the Roesslers let me design the kitchen I wanted. The kitchen is one hundred percent new.”

I ask him to compare the three towns he has worked in here in New Mexico. When I mention that the Santa Fe restaurant scene can be a bit crazy, Zamora chuckles, “Taos is just different crazy. And even though Albuquerque has a larger job pool to choose from with the college culinary program, I think the kitchen staff in Santa Fe restaurants have higher expectations placed on them. I think we had the best crew in town at The Compound. In Taos the pool is even smaller. Taos is like a mini-Santa Fe, just more laid back. It was hard adjusting to casual dining after The Compound and I did have to do a good amount of training with my cooks on technique. But I have assembled a great team. I believe that anybody can be a great cook as long as they have the will and passion.”

“Your signature dishes,” I ask. “I think the Ahi Tuna, our Spicy Green Chile Sirloin Stew, the sliders, and our wings--we have the best wings in the state. And people in Taos seem to love oysters more than in the other places I’ve worked, we sell up to a 12 dozen a day.”

When we finally get to sample the goodies, I agree. Judging from the dinner I was to enjoy later that night, including a plate of positively addicting Crispy Fried Green Beans, clearly Chef Zamora knows his cooking. And when I ask what it’s like to finally be working with his wife, he responds simply, “Lisa is awesome.”

So while Taos slowly expands, as El Monte continues to define its niche and Joseph Wrede hatches his next plan of attack, The Gorge starts its ascent into the culinary history books of this tranquil town. With Arik and Lisa at the helm, I think a new classic is born.

The Gorge Restaurant is located in the heart of the historic Taos Plaza at 103 East Plaza. 575.758.8866.

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f, perchance, you are interested in making wine, whether commercially or for a hobby, Milagro Vineyards owners, Rick and Mitzi Hobson have three rules to abide by: keep your day job, keep your day job, keep your day job.

Gardening requires lots of water—most of it in the form of perspiration. –Lou Erickson

The Hobsons lived in Albuquerque’s North Valley until 1985; Mitzi was an educator, and Rick was an engineer who sold mechanical equipment.

They moved to Corrales in ’85 and began growing grapes as an “experiment.”

“We liked to drink and eat, and it was totally to be the fun part of our life,” Mitzi explains when I inquire as to how one comes to oversee ten acres of grapes in the little village of Corrales. “It was about getting family together to mark the seasons and celebrate.”

Then the (unpaid) work began. Their land was a field of alfalfa and Christmas trees, so the initial task was to dig them up and haul them to local parks to be donated. The next task was the primary planting of the grape vines, another rigorous ordeal that required long hours and a lot of assistance from family and friends. “We kept wondering,

A Taste of Life in New Mexico

‘This is what we’re doing for fun?’”

Mitzi laughs in recollection.

Coolers of beer were placed at the end of the long rows of vines, Rick explains, which provided a stand-in liquid incentive for their efforts until the harvest and production of those first bottles of wine. “That’s why I always tell people,” he says, “it takes a lot of beer to make wine!”

Although an engineer by trade, Rick grew up in a family of farmers, and the science of growing grapes seemed to be the perfect combination of family heritage preservation and personal ambition. “Wine,” he asserts, “is made in the vineyard, not in the winery.” This was not something that he fully understood at first, and so began the tremendous learning process about soil, irrigation, compost, vine maintenance, fungus and pests.

“Every year it’s something,” he states. “In 2006, we had more wasps and hornets than you’ve ever seen in your life—and boy did they love the zinfandel.” In 2010 (also known as The Year of the Raccoon), Mitzi trapped dozens of the masked mammals, assuring me they were driven five miles away and released. The Hobsons now run what they deem a “practical organic” vineyard.

“We’re a sustainable operation, which to us means that we don’t use pesticides, unless we absolutely have to. But we won’t sacrifice the vines to call ourselves organic.”

It soon became clear that what started as an amateur experiment with five gallon glass containers was not going to remain just a “fun” hobby. “We made enough wine to know it could be good,” Mitzi says proudly. The Hobsons then decided they would raise all

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Milagro is Spanish for “miracle” because it takes a miracle to grow grapes here. –Mitzi Hobson

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of their own fruit, and although not all of the vineyards belong to them (roughly half of the ten acres), they supervise all the growth and then buy the grapes from the smattering of neighbors whose land they till. Those initial vines, purchased from California, were bare-root grafted vines (own-rooted vines are susceptible to a pest that eats the roots) and of a particular stock that is very sensitive to water, appropriate to the arid New Mexico soil.

“This characteristic allows control of the growth rate of the vine,” Rick explains, getting into the intricate story of the grapes of Milagro. “If the vine grows too fast, then there’s too much space between the leaves, and it becomes too pithy and dies in the winter.” It appears that vines are like exceedingly temperamental children that need endless attention. From the end of January to the beginning of February, pre-pruning (or long pruning, which is the textbook term) happens, wherein all but the long canes of permanent spurs get cut off. Long pruning is a technique used in places with late spring frost, like New Mexico. The buds start their growth at the top and work their way down, so vintners wait as long as possible before cutting down to the last two buds at the bottom, where the growth occurs. Rick recalls back in the late 80’s when Gruet Winery owner Laurent Gruet came to assist in the pruning process, cutting so much vine, Mitzi says, that Rick was very concerned because he thought they were over-pruning. But of course, he admits now, they knew what they were doing, were very helpful and improved the overall quality of the fruit. All soil amendments are spread by hand from the last week of March into the first week of April, and the final pruning takes places in early May. Then the fast and furious growth season of New Mexico

begins, and “shoot thinning” (getting rid of all the volunteer growth and leaving spurs every five inches on the vine) happens.

The vineyards require constant and meticulous observation.

One always has to be mindful of proper spacing, making sure there is plenty of light and room for the fruit. The canes are positioned regularly through wires to assure upward growth of three to four feet, after which the tips are cut to focus the vine on fruit ripening. The vines are stressed in order to develop the flavor of the grape.

Rick explains this process: “Stressing means on a hot July afternoon you look down a row and see a combination of the shiny front and the green back side of the leaf, which means that many of them are turned away from the sunlight in order to conserve water.” Sugar levels of the grapes are sampled continuously until harvest in August. “For red grapes you want really black skin, no light can shine through. When I chew the skin, it has be chalky—no green taste,” Rick clarifies,“and the seeds need to be brown and ripened. The seeds make a contribution to the flavor, and if they’re not ripe, there’s a lot of astringency in the wine.”

Once the grapes are harvested, the wines at Milagro are made a bit differently than most. The varietals the Hobsons have focused on in their vineyards in the valley are Chardonnay, Riesling, Merlot and Zinfandel. Half a mile away, on a hillside, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are grown (evidence of the existence of microclimates neither Rick nor Mitzi knew about until they started this business). The wines are made in the Old World style, which means they have slightly more fruit character and are drier, leaner, and meant to accompany food. They also have less alcohol, “simply because,” Rick says unapologetically, “I like to drink

Believe in miracles a lot of wine.” One of the key decisions in going commercial was the use of French oak barrels, which give the wine a nice, round texture in the mouth (as opposed to wines aged in other, less expensive containers). However, with the barrels costing $1100 each, the Hobsons then had to commit to producing enough grapes to justify this expense.

“And the pig!” Mitzi exclaims as we walk out of the former horse barn that now holds 100 French oak barrels. “You have to be wondering about the pig.” The mascot on the vineyard’s label is Wilbur (yes, after Charlotte’s Web), a pig that lived in the house with them for fourteen years. Wilbur was very well known in Corrales—better known to some, in fact, than his owners.

Folks that would come looking for the vineyard and ask for the Hobsons were met with confused looks until they added, “You know, the place with the pig.” So when Milagro became a commercial venture, Wilbur solidified his place in Corrales history. “He had a very good palate,” Mitzi recalls. “He knew the good grapes.”

Any gardener or farmer is well acquainted with the patience, learning and hard work it takes to be successful, and Rick and Mitzi are no exception.

That they’ve succeeded despite any real structural support for viticulture that exists in, say California or Oregon, is extraordinary.

“We really haven’t cut any corners in terms of what we do in the vineyard,” Rick states with confidence, “and we feel like we’ve created something distinctive to New Mexico. One of our goals is just to get people to give New Mexico wines a try. The wine making is getting a lot better here—even Oregon and Washington didn’t start out so good.”

The Hobsons are both in their 60s, and much of the work has become physically more challenging, but they are counting on nephew, David Hobson, (who helped plant those initial vines when he was 14 and is now 38) to continue the family business.

“You just have to want to do this so much; I hope what we’ve learned can be passed on,” Mitzi says.

“You have to be very tenacious,” Rick adds.

And willing to sweat. And believe in miracles. And if all else fails, have a pet pig with a good palate.

The Milagro Vineyards are located at 985 West Ella in Corrales. The winery is open for tours and tastings by appointment. 505.898.3998. Milagro wines can be found in locally owned restaurants and liquor stores as well as purchased at the winery. www.milagrovineyardsandwinery.com.

|

Rick and Mitzi Hobson and nephew, David Hobson

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Workers story by GAIL SNYDER

! d e d e Ne

“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

Photos: © Miketanct and Irochka via Dreamstime.com

Albert Einstein

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C

alling all local backyard gardeners! We’ve got a global crisis on our hands, and we need your help!

It’s the bees. They’re dying off in hideously huge numbers. For the past five years, beekeepers the world over have been losing alarming numbers—as many as 90 percent—of worker honeybees. Very few dead bees are found near the hives; the queen and her brood invariably remain intact, along with plenty of honey and pollen reserves within each hive.

But colonies can’t sustain themselves without their worker bees, and so eventually, in each case, the affected hives’ entire populations die out. This condition is known as colony collapse disorder, and there are any number of possible suspects contributing to the bees’ mysterious demise, including pesticide use, genetically modified crops, global warming and the highfructose corn syrup some beekeepers have started feeding their colonies to supplement their stores through the winter months.

Not to put too fine a point on it, if nothing is done soon to turn it around, the resultant disaster will affect this planet’s entire food chain.

Albert Einstein, in what turns out to have been a prescient observation, once said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

If his prediction is accurate, then we’re on our way to extinction ourselves, if we don’t act fast. And, whatever the cause for colony collapse disorder, the common denominator for all of the suspected culprits is us.

Humans. Who else would invent pesticides, genetically modified crops, high-fructose corn syrup and the factors contributing to global warming?

So, we humans got ourselves (and the rest of the food chain) into this fix. And it’s a dilemma of unimaginable proportion. Is there anything we can do to help divert disaster? Yes, and it’s something each and every individual can do, in our own backyards. Address it garden by garden.

According to Wikipedia, a study last year found that bees that were fed pollen from a variety of different plant species showed signs of having a healthier immune system than those eating pollen from a single plant species.

“Gardens are whole little ecosystems,” says Bobbe Besold, a Santa Fe artist, activist and urban gardener who has grown her own food for the past forty years. “We have a smallish yard, and I want to cram as much into it as I can.” She describes her garden as being an “urban jungle.”

Rather than separating flowers from fruit trees from the edibles, she says, “I plant everything together and far too close to each other, never in rows, so my vegetables, flowers, herbs and edible weeds (like purslane, lamb’s quarters and dandelions) grow in a wild and unruly manner. Which, mostly, I love.” So do the bees who are attracted to her yard.

Most of our food, which comes to us from bigger agribusiness farms, is grown as a mono crop, and that practice, Bobbe says, “doesn’t encourage native bee species to go in there.” So how can backyard gardeners attract bees into their yards? “Plant what you love,” she replies enthusiastically.

“Companion planting originated thousands of years ago in this part of the world. Nasturtiums like to be near squash—they attract beneficial insects. Marigolds are really a worker flower. They keep the population of

destructive insects down and contribute to the vitality of food crops. Cosmos are big, beautiful flowers that attract both bees and butterflies.

The main thing is diversity. Choose plants that have flowers you love.”

Herbs, she says, are a wonderful idea for attracting bees because they have all different types of flowers. Native hyssop, sages, lemon balm, rosemary, lavender, oregano, marjoram and chives are good herbs to consider planting to lure in bees and help them stay healthy.

Bobbe is also a fan of wild roses. “A variety of fruit trees is important, as well, because they blossom at different times, attracting the ‘good guy’ insects,” she says. “Trees like peach, apricot, native plums, cherries. And I have native shrubs. Berry producers, like currant bushes, are beneficial to insects. So are grapes and native honeysuckle, which is really easy to grow!

Gooseberry is also good.”

What not to do, Bobbe is also very clear about. “Lots of wild domestic honeybees are affected by various types of pollution, especially the insecticide neonicotinoid. It’s been banned in Europe, because it binds to the nervous system of the insect and it is persistent in the environment. It goes into the soil and the water, breaking down the navigational abilities of the worker bees.”

Honeybees are not the only species that need our protection and help, she adds. “There’s been a 96 percent drop in the bumblebee population, and they’re the major pollinators for tomatoes. There are lots of other native pollinators, like sweat bees, flies, moths, butterflies. They’re looking for nectar, they move from plant to plant, which is not the same activity as bees. (There’s a reason bees are called busy!) And bats, small birds, particularly hummingbirds, as well as accidental pollinators, including humans hitting stuff as we walk through the garden, causing pollen to drop to the ground.” What she loves most about honeybees, however, is “that they allow me to get eye-to-compound-eye with them.”

And even if you don’t have lots of yard space, you can still play your part for the bees by planting things in pots. “If you love cucumbers (which do very well in containers), then put some nasturtiums in there, too, which have edible flowers, leaves and seeds. Plus they are a companion to cukes. Or combine basil, marigolds and a tomato plant. My personal favorite book on the subject is The Bountiful Container by McGee and Stuckey.”

And, finally, don’t forget a birdbath or shallow bowl, “just as long as bees and other pollinators can get their little feet on the edge of it and drink. If it’s more than three inches deep, put a rock in the middle. And make sure it’s up so cats can’t get to it. The best gardens,” Bobbe concludes, “for bees and for humans, nurture what is wild along with that which is cultivated.”

Another local backyard gardener, Calliope Shank, will have been a Santa Fe resident for 29 years this summer. A dedicated farmers’ market shopper and lover of organic food, she says, “I’m so inspired by the skills of the folks who grow for the market.” Calliope has been aware of the drastic drop in the bee population for the past several years. Originally raised in Pennsylvania, where her parents grew most of the family’s food, Calliope has a compost pile, never uses chemicals and generally finds gardening in New Mexico “very challenging and difficult. Each year I learn new things and have new problems.” She’s realizing more and more as she goes along about the importance of soil building (“I think my backyard was mostly fill-dirt, and I am realizing how much work it takes to build good soil!”).

This year, she says, she and a neighbor are going to get together to strategize on how to counter such problems as squash borers.

Her persistence has paid off. In Calliope’s garden last year, she grew small amounts of summer and winter squash, peas, runner beans, tepary beans, a few carrots and beets, a few bush beans, some blue corn, cilantro, parsley, mint. “I have a few raspberries and a few strawberries and a few new, small fruit trees, one old apple tree. I have very modest yields.”

Providing plants especially for the benefit of bees is of great importance to Calliope, who is highly appreciative of their honey, their role as pollinators and their many other gifts. “I love the way they sound when there are many at work in the garden. I love watching them. I love the symmetry of the honeycomb and the little I know about how they communicate by dancing.

I’ve been more tuned into them for the past few years, also, because I’ve been getting bee sting therapy for arthritis, and so have lost my fear of the stings. I have not yet been stung in the garden.”

She’s still learning what plants bees like.

“When the squash is blooming, I am so happy to see the bees. I plant lavender for the bees, and borage, which they love (best when grown from seed, and it will reseed itself ). The bees also are very busy at the pink penstemons when they’re blooming. Their buzzing, and the streams of them coming and going, is very audible, visible and lovely.” Like Bobbe, Calliope mentions the importance of providing water in the garden for bees—this is, after all, a desert—and she learned from a beekeeper friend to put a piece or two of wood floating in it so they can sit and drink without drowning.

Imagine home gardens multiplying yardto-yard, neighborhood-to-neighborhood, across cities, towns and villages all through New Mexico. Imagine yourself looking down, from the window of a plane flying high over our state, at the countless little backyard oases below. That’s also the bees’-eye view. Imagine bees multiplying now, too—hive by hive, nurtured by what we plant. And now, start digging!

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Still

? y r g hun

s t o r y b y TA N I A C A S S E L L E photos by GAELEN CASEY

Deep-Dish Pumpkin Pie

Greg Tickle of Santa Fe Greenhouses When Tickle and 25 staff members feasted on a lunch from the nursery’s garden, he realized what community was: “To grow and share food.” He’s not a frequent cook, preferring to provide the bounty and assist his kitchen-savvy wife, but he turned his accidental purchase of the wrong milk into the secret ingredient that makes his pie a hit--that plus fresh pumpkin, which is easy to grow in good sunlight and loose soil. “Once they root out they just go crazy.”

Tickle’s tip: Put your money in the soil and it’ll pay big dividends. If you put a ten-cent plant into a dollar hole, you’ll get a ten-dollar plant.

9-inch unbaked deep-dish pie crust (use a deeper dish, not a shallow pan) ¾ cup white or raw sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (adjust for taste) 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (adjust for taste) 2 eggs Bake and extract the pulp of 1 small pumpkin, 2 to 3 lbs in weight. (Grow your own!)

Add 14 fluid ounces sweetened condensed milk (adds rich taste and probably some calories)

Cincinnati Chili Tony An of Osuna Nursery Tony An encourages sharing the harvest. “Have a vegetable swap: Everyone grows one thing and swaps.” Osuna is a family-run nursery, and An learned to cook from his mom. The Korean diet is produce-rich, although An is not tied to one cuisine. “If I like it I’ll try to replicate it and put my own twist on it.”

His biggest challenge is cooking dishes that appeal to all three of his kids. They like vegetables (sighs from envious parents), partly because An makes veggies fun.

1 pound lean ground beef 1 large onion, finely chopped 2 bell peppers, one red, one green, chopped 1 can (30 ounces) tomato sauce 1 can (15 ounces) diced tomatoes 1 can (15 ounces) pinto beans 1 can (15 ounces) kidney beans Salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder to taste 1# package linguine Shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 425°. Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in a small bowl. Beat eggs lightly in a large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in the sweetened condensed milk. Pour mixture into pie shell. Bake for 15 minutes. After the first 15 minutes, use a pie crust ring to reduce crust burning. Reduce temperature to 350°, and bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 30 to 60 minutes. Serve immediately, while still warm. (Do not freeze, as this will cause the crust to separate from the filling.) Note: The basic pie recipe is adapted from the Libby’s pumpkin can; the ingredients have been modified for taste and freshness. Men like this recipe! They can work off the calories digging in the garden.

Start browning the ground beef in a large pot. Before it completely browns, add finely chopped onions and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes. Be sure to set some of the chopped onions aside as a topping. Next, put the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and chopped peppers into the pot. Add salt, pepper, chili powder and cumin to taste. Bring to a boil. Finally, rinse the beans and add to the chile. Let the magical brew simmer until the onions and peppers are soft. Preparation is like serving spaghetti: noodles in the bowl, then topped with sauce (or, in this case, chili). Top off the chili with the shredded cheese and chopped onions.

This is a year-round recipe, although it’s even better with fresh veggies from the garden. Dice up fresh tomatoes instead of using canned, or add fresh veggies to bump up the recipe and make it healthier, tastier and more rewarding.

Santa Fe Greenhouses is located at 2904 Rufina Street in Santa Fe. 505.473.2700. www.santafegreenhouses.com.

Osuna Nursery is located at 501 Osuna Road NE, Albuquerque. 505.345.6644. www.osunanursery.com.

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s we spring into the new season, it’s time to turn to our local garden stores for the supplies and advice that ensure a successful and nourishing harvest. And who better to share their recipes than the people who help us grow the ingredients? These gardening experts and enthusiastic home cooks nurture their produce from seed to table. They stepped out of their greenhouses and into their kitchens to reveal a few of their favorite food tricks--and some twists on traditional recipes.

Cream of Green Pea Soup with Lettuce Rand Lee of Payne’s Nurseries and Greenhouses Vegetarian Blue Corn Posole Shane Pennington of Agua Fria Nursery Pennington gets a kick out of making a difference in people’s lives by teaching them about natural, organic gardening. Fittingly for his nursery’s name, the biggest problem he sees in New Mexico vegetable gardens is water--too much, too little or uneven watering.

“It all comes down to water; water is life.” Pennington cooks a lot, although he doesn’t follow recipes, just focuses on flavor. As the local staple of posole is traditionally made with meat, he devised a deliciously different way to cook it for his vegetarian wife.

2 cups dried blue corn posole 24 cups of water 1 container of extra firm tofu 14 ounces cubed into ½” to 1’’ squares 1 onion, chopped 10-12 medium mushrooms, about ½ pound 5 Tablespoons olive oil (or other oil) 3 Tablespoons garlic, minced (or to taste) 4 Tablespoons New Mexico hot red chile powder (adjust for taste) 1 teaspoon oregano salt to taste one lime cut into wedges sprinkle of pine nuts Soak the corn for 24 hours. Drain, rinse and place in a stockpot with 24 cups of water and boil for several hours (until the corn “explodes” and is soft). Add chile powder, oregano and salt to taste.

In a pan, heat 3 tablespoons of oil and brown tofu and add to stockpot. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in pan and sauté mushrooms until they soften and oil darkens. Add the onion to the mushrooms and sauté until just tender. Add the garlic to pan, and cook just long enough to allow it to soften without toasting. Add this to the stockpot. Simmer for a couple hours. Best served the next day, as the flavors will meld together. Serve with a squeeze of lime and a sprinkle of pine nuts. Enjoy!

Serves 8-10 Agua Fria Nursery is located at 1409 Agua Fria in Santa Fe. 505.983.4831.

Lee remembers his intense pleasure as a child when his gardener and cook mother taught him the names of flowers, herbs and vegetables. Now he, too, loves turning people on to plants and seeing their eyes light up when they grow something beautiful. “You can find a way to grow something wherever you are. You can grow a ton of food in containers.”

2 1/2 cups fresh green baby peas 1 medium to small leek, washed and finely minced 2 large shallots, peeled and minced 1/2 head Boston lettuce, shredded 4 cups rich chicken stock 1 cup light cream (Don't be afraid of the cream. Half and half is not a good substitute; it has too watery of a mouth feel.)

5 Tablespoons butter 1 Tablespoon flour 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon freshly ground coriander seed 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper 1 Tablespoon minced fresh dill leaves Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a large pan. Add the minced leek, shallots and shredded Boston lettuce. Stew over medium heat until the lettuce is just wilted. Sprinkle one tablespoon of flour over the vegetables, and continue to cook for another 2 minutes on low. Add the ground coriander seed and white pepper, baby peas, chicken stock and sugar. Simmer until the peas are just tender (do not overcook). Set aside 1/2 cup of the peas. In a blender or food processor, puree the remaining vegetables and stock. Pour back into the pan and bring to a slow simmer.

Whisk in a cup of light cream a little at a time. Add salt to taste. Bring the vegetables, stock and cream to a boil, stirring constantly. Add 2 more tablespoons of butter and stir until the butter is dissolved. Remove the soup from the fire and serve, sprinkling with the reserved whole peas and the dill.

Serves 4 to 6 Substitutions: 1. If fresh green peas are not available, substitute frozen petits pois (baby green peas). C&W makes the sweetest.

2. Notes from Lee: "The original recipe calls for a garnish of chervil leaves, not dill, but we never had any chervil around our farm and nobody else we knew did, either. Italian parsley leaves or cilantro leaves would work well, too."

This recipe is adapted from My Lord Lumley's Pease-Potage, a 17th century British recipe, as it appeared in The Horizon Cookbook and Illustrated History of Eating and Drinking through the Ages, Vol. II, Menus and Recipes (American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., 1968).

Payne’s Nurseries & Greenhouses is located in Santa Fe at 715 St Michael’s Drive 505.988.9626 and 304 Camino Alire 505.988.8011. www.paynes.com A Taste of Life in New Mexico

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Introducin g Chef Matt Ostrander

© 2011 Insightfoto.com

& SA N TA F E ’ S

“C O N S C I O U S C U I S I N E ” DI N I N G E X PE R I E N C E !

The Inn and Spa at Loretto is pleased to introduce Chef Matt Ostrander as Luminaria Restaurant’s new Executive Chef.

No stranger to the local Santa Fe foodies, and a quintessential Santa Fe chef, Matt is self trained, gaining his experience in some of the great culinary establishments in the area.

Ostrander’s “Conscious Cuisine” leverages his native culinary training and passion for Ayurveda’s wholesome cooking approach to give guests a feast for the five senses.

PROTECTING NEW MEXICO’S NATURAL TREASURES

Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Cena Pronto Three course menu available from 5:00pm – 6:30pm. Legacy Club members enjoy 20% savings on regular menu.

211 Old Santa Fe Trail | 505.984.7915 | luminariarestaurant.com

The Trust for Public Land is working to create a 570-acre refuge minutes from downtown Albuquerque. Plans for the Price’s Dairy land include an outdoor classroom and access to the Rio Grande Trail. The Trust for Public Land— conserving land for people in New Mexico since 1982.

To learn more about TPL’s work around the state, visit tpl.org/NewMexico.

Photo: Don Usner

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Taste the New Southwest Chef Charles Daleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s modern rustic cuisine introduces a Contemporary American fare that is regionally inspired

by Northern New Mexico and infused with local and organically sourced ingredients.

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Britta is the Qualifying Broker for Becker Realty, LLC, a boutique brokerage specializing in condo sales and available for all your residential real estate needs.

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