Edible San Juan Mountains Fall 2011

san juan mountains Traversing the San Juans to bring you the story of local food, season by season.

No. 6 Fall 2011

telluride’s honga im know your processor new hospital cousine comforting food the deer huntress

Member of Edible Communities

y5

Fabulous Coffee Shop Tour

50

Southwest Colorado

Ridgway

Hw

Telluride

Silverton Rico Hwy 550

T

lion Dollar Highwa l i M y he

Cortez

Hwy 1

Mancos

60

Durango wine

books

cocktails

art

beer

baked goods eats

Cortez

Spruce Tree Coffee House

318 E. Main St Cortez, CO 81321 970.565.6789

Ridgway

Cimarron Books & Coffee House

380 W. Sherman Ridgway, CO 81432 970.626.5858 www.cimarronbooks.com

Silverton

Avalanche Brewing Co. 1067 Notorious Blair St. Silverton, CO 81433 970.317.0321

www.sprucetreecoffeehouse.com

Rico

High Ground Coffee Shack

232 S. Argentine

(S. of town, next to Conoco)

Rico, CO 81332 970.967.4444

Telluride

Durango

Steaming Bean Coffee 915 Main Ave Durango, CO 81301 970.385.7901 www.thebean.com

Mancos

Steaming Bean Coffee

Absolute Bakery and Cafe

221 W. Colorado Ave Telluride, CO 81435 800.230.2326

www.absolutebakery.com

The Steaming Bean Telluride

www.thebean.com

110 S. Main St Mancos, CO 81328 970.533.1200

Contents

2

PUBLISHER’S LETTER

4

NOTABLE EDIBLES

Sheperds Lamb

Farm To School

Hippocrates

Pick Your Own

The Farm (gets bigger)

5

EDUCATION AND CLASSES

6

Chokecherries

By Rachel Turiel

8

The New Hospital Food

By Leslie Vreeland

10

THE DIVA DINES

Comfort Food: San Juan Style

By Lauren Slaff

14

The Sunnyside of Processing

By Jess Kelley

18

The New Hunter – she’s good

By D. Dion

22

Tim Turner: An Edible Interview

24

Honga Im

by Emily Brendler Shoff

Dave Banga of Banga’s Farm in Mancos, CO

26

NOMAD – A PORTRAIT SERIES

by Rick Scibelli, Jr.

32

OUTTAKES

1

A

long time ago, I asked a friend carrying his rifle to shoot a bird that had perched on a wire above us. It was singing. He shot it. A blistering crack was followed by the unearthly silence of bruised eardrums. Time stalled; the bird fell forward, still as a whisper, landing in front of us with a lonely wet-clay muffled thud. Thirty years later I often still think about that ugly deed. I still feel shame. It still feels unreconciled. With that one request, I became a member of the fraternal order of the cruel.

I don’t hunt and I probably never will. (It doesn’t help that I have never shot a gun. Well, a pellet gun. And I managed to shoot myself with that.) And with the exception of that bird, I have never seen anything hunted down. But I eat meat. Brisket, ribs, flanks and filets. Chops, loins, ham and bacon. Chicken, turkey, duck or goose. You shoot it, I will eat it (just don’t make me watch). Or, of course, I can order it from the menu or buy it from the store. It is all quite convenient. I don’t have to see or consider anything except which fork to eat with.

In this issue of Edible San Juan Mountains, Jess Kelley set out to do a story on Sunnyside Meats, the only USDA-sanctioned meat processing plant anywhere in the region. Deb Dion set out to do a story on women who hunt. Both stories have that bird once again on my mind.

As you will soon read, Jess, an omnivore herself (and a nutrition therapist), knew from the minute she assigned herself the story that she was committed to see “everything,” beginning to end. And cut from the same cloth, Deb set out to see things from “the firing range to the gas range.” I could tell that both women, journalists through and through, were enlivened by the idea of being witness (and in Deb’s case, pulling the actual trigger) to yet one more thing in this world that may seem closed-off to those who elected another career.

For me, the idea just made my saliva taste like tin foil.

So Jess and Deb went and I won’t ruin the endings. Let’s just say they are both still omnivores. Maybe even more peaceful omnivores, if that is possible.

Needless to say, being that I go through this life haunted by the idea that I might just be missing something, I knew I too would have to eventually witness one or the other if not both … and I too—gulp—would have to see everything. Because if I were ever going to eat meat in peace without the subtle flavor of hypocrisy … I had to see if I too could stand witness.

Since I need shooting lessons to say the least, the choice was clear.

I drove up to Sunnyside Meats and immediately could see there was one smallish black-and-white longhorn cow in the Temple Grandindesigned holding pen. Grandin is the now famous animal scientist who has championed the humane handling of livestock, developing thoughtful and humane systems that essentially eliminate stress. Sunnyside religiously employs her ideas.

The cow was chewing her cud and contemplating the new visitor. She tasted grass; I tasted metal.

I have to digress here: To allow a guy strapped with cameras into your meat processing plant says something. To me it says you have nothing to hide.

“Are you sure you are okay?” asked Richard Hess, the former custom home builder turned meat-processing plant manager. He meant it. I was seasick. I stood on the pristine floor in the pristine white-walled Grandin-designed room and felt the need to hold somebody’s hand. The best Richard could do is offer to pick me up if I passed out. I leaned against the wall. It felt cool and I felt green. “You look pale,” he said. Yes, yes, I can feel that; tell me again: exactly what am I going to see? Prepare me one more time. “Well … Ivan here is going to lead the beef down that chute over there and into this holding pen in front of you.” And he did. She was still chewing her cud. “Are you sure you are okay?” Yes. I have to see this … now tell me, what will hap— And just like that, mid-word of mid-sentence, it was over. It was immediate as immediate can be.

That’s it? “Yes, that’s it,” Richard said. “And that is the way I want to go.” He lost both his parents to cancer. I lost my stepdad to Alzheimer’s. I am not sure I don’t agree with him. That, or die in my sleep (and good luck to me on that long shot).

I still eat meat – grass-fed and humanely processed, of course. Actually, it just might taste a little better now with a little less of that guilt I seem to sprinkle on every serving.

Grandin spent a lot of time thinking about what she has devoted her life to. As she so rightfully noted, death in nature is rarely gentle. A scavenger doesn’t wait for the weakened to die before taking the first bite. Animals die of starvation, dehydration, injury, disease, predator attack or, in many cases, a combination.

So the longhorn and the bird left this world in a similar fashion: both doing what they do, unknowing and unaware. One chewing, one singing. The difference? The bird died for nothing.

Grandin said something like: nature can be cruel.

Yes, nature … and me.

Rick Scibelli, Jr. Publisher

2 edible SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS FALL 2011

edible

san juan mountains PUBLISHER Rick Scibelli, Jr.

MANAGING EDITOR Jess Kelley

COPY EDITOR Michelle McRuiz

WRITERS Lauren Slaff Rachel Turiel Emily Brendler Shoff D. Dion Leslie Vreeland

DESIGNER GC Lease

PHOTOGRAPHER Rick Scibelli, Jr.

FOOD STYLING Lauren Slaff

ADVERTISING Durango, Cortez and Pagosa Jess Kelley jess@ediblesanjuanmountains.com Rick Scibelli rick@ediblesanjuanmountains.com Telluride/Montrose/Ridgeway/Ouray: Dale McCurry and Jennifer Mandaville, WellSpring Publishing, Marketing and Public Relations wellspring@ediblesanjuanmountains.com

CONTACT US info@ediblesanjuanmountains.com edible San Juan Mountains 361 Camino del Rio Suite 127 Durango, CO 81303 To send a letter to the editor, email us at Jess@ ediblesanjuanmountains.com. For home delivery of edible San Juan Mountains, email info@ ediblesanjuanmountains.com; the rate is $32 per year. edible San Juan mountains is published quarterly

by Sunny Boy Publications. All rights reserved.

Distribution is throughout southwest Colorado and nationally by subscription.

No part of this publication may be used without written permission of the publisher. Š 2011.

Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspelling and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our sincere apologies and do notify us. Thank you.

ON THE COVER: After 15 years of taking pictures ... you accumulate tricks for getting your subjects comfortable. You learn short cuts to getting to the essence of who somebody might be. Honga Im, right, was not going for any of the tricks. She saw right through it. I think she said something like: You are going to have to work harder than that. And she was right. My schtick had been revealed ... just like that.

As an accomplished pianist, an artist, a successful restauranteur, mom of two and rumor has it, an insanely good skier, there is little chance of outworking her and no chance of out smarting her.

So you just have to try to keep up.

And writer, Emily Brendler Schoff, gave it a good effort. Learn something about this Telluride icon on page 25. RS

NOTABLE EDIBLES Shepherd’s Lamb Gets National Press: Molly and Antonio Manzanares weren’t surprised when their certified organic, grass-fed Navajo-Churro lamb were mentioned in the September issue of Men’s Journal. “We had an article in an April issue of the New York Times in the food section,” said Molly. “We were surprised when that happened. We’ve been so busy we just don’t have time to think about it.” Shepherd’s Lamb is located in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, at the foot of the San Juan Mountains, and has been in the family for generations. They process their sheep at Sunnyside Meats and can be reached at organiclamb.com.

Farm to School Offerings Growing: Schools throughout the ESJM reading area are all serving more local meats and produce this year including Telluride, Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio. For the 2011-2012 school year, meats from James Ranch, LB Brand COOP Natural Meats and Ranch Foods Direct will be featured in Durango 9R cafeterias. In addition, organic apple juice from the Wacky Apple in Hotchkiss, wheat from Blue Horizons Farm, organic fruits from Chimney Rock Farms and potatoes and greens from Farm-I are on the menu. Director of Student Nutrition for 9R, Krista Garrand, said that she gets better quality food with a longer shelf life when buying locally. In Igancio, Kim Cotta, Director of Food Service, offers fresh fruit or a vegetable snack to all Ignacio elementary students daily. She also works with Chimney Rock Farm in addition to the greenhouse on-site, dubbed “The Secret Garden” where students help grow tomatoes.

Homegrown Festival: Growing Partners of Southwest Colorado is presenting the fourth annual Home Grown Apple Days Festival, held at Buckley Park in Durango, on Sunday, October 16, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. This free-to-the-public event showcases and celebrates the apple and provides opportunities for residents and tourists alike to learn what they can do to promote and practice food security and sustainability.

Hippocr ates Kitchen and Gr and Opening: A 20-year dream came to fruition for Dr. Nasha Winters of Namaste Health Center as her new location, complete with a certified gluten-free commercial kitchen, opened earlier this month. Located at 1800 East 3rd Avenue, Suite 112, Durango, the kitchen portion of the health clinic is trademarked “Hippocrates Kitchen.” Oper-

Cortez’s Farm Bistro Expands: The once six-table, 800-square-foot Farm Bistro, operated by Rusty and Laurie Hall, expanded this past August into a new location at 34 West Main Street in Cortez. The couple, who also operate Seven Meadows Farm, in addition to making homegrown, homemade, local and organic lunches, have also quadrupled the bistro’s size to 2,500 square feet. The bistro now seats more than 50. Sevenmeadowsfarm.com.

(formerly Cocina Linda)

Durango’s First Organic Restaurant fresh, healthful food grown by local farmers 309 W. College Drive (next to Albertsons) 259-6729 • www.LindasLocalFoodCafe.com

4 edible SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS FALL 2011

ating out of the kitchen is both the Wildflour Bakery (wildflourbakery@yahoo.com) and the Intolerant Italian, who each make a selection of gluten free breads, pastas and more. This is also the new location for Durango Nutrition. An open house with live music, food and beverages will be held Sept. 21 from 4 to 7 p.m.

Namastehealthcenter.com.

Pick Your Own: Colorado State University Extension will hold its annual apple “U-Pick” harvest in late September or early October, depending on when the fruit ripens. The U-Pick will start at 9:00 a.m. and normally runs until 3:00 p.m. The orchard is located at the Southwest Colorado Research Station in Yellow Jacket. The station is about 18 miles north of Cortez. Take Highway 491 to Road Z and turn left (west). The orchard is clearly visible on the left. The “U-Pick” will offer twenty-seven different varieties of apples at below market price on a first-come, first-served basis. For information on the exact U-Pick date, please call the CSU Montezuma County Extension Office at (970) 565-3123 closer to harvest time.

Education and Classes

At The Farm lunch bistro, you’re likely to be sitting next to the person who grew your lunch.

Culinary Classes at Weehawken: Based in Ridgway, this arts education oasis is offering up classes in everything from basic culinary knife skills, gluten free holiday baking, wine tasting and the art of sushi. For a full schedule of classes visit www. weehawkenarts.org or call (970) 318-0150 (Tues.-Sat. 8:00a.m.6:00p.m., Mountain Time).

The Color ado Building Farmers progr am: Offered by Darrin Parmenter at Colorado State University Extension in Durango, is a series of eight evening classes aimed to support new farmers explore farming as a business and while providing intermediate and experienced farmers with tools and ideas to refine and enhance their business management, production, and marketing skills. Classes will be held on Wednesdays, starting October 19, at 5:30 pm. For more information, call (970) 382-6464.

Milk a Goat: Jim Graham and Margaret Stone of J & M Dairy in Hesperus are offering on-site classes September 24th and October 15th through Fort Lewis College’s continuing education program on raising Nubian dairy goats, feeding and caring for kids, the process of milking and the products made from the milk, including cheeses, butter and yogurt. They will also cover the pros and cons of consuming raw milk, the benefits of Kefir and recent legislation for dairy farms (970-247-7385 to register).

Photo of mama chicken at the owners’ Seven Meadows Farm,

by Deste Relyea

Homegrown and homemade food for eat-in or take-out, community farm stand, books and locally made products.

Lunch mon-sat 11-3, farm stand open until 5:30 34 West Main in Cortez • 970 565 3834 www.sevenmeadowsfarm.com

NOTABLE EDIBLES

Prunus Virginiana

BY R ACHEL TURIEL

I

f you’ve ever made a pint of chokecherry jelly, so gorgeous with magenta shine, you know the feeling of pride that blooms in your jelly-making heart when you line your finished jars up like children at Christmas, all gussied up in their holiday reds. And just like parenthood—where at the end of the day your mind crops out the indignities—in January your chokecherry jelly contains no earwigs or sweaty kitchens, only the pure wholesome goodness of summer.

Chokecherry preserves (jelly or syrup) is a Southwestern delicacy. The taste is deep berry sweetness with a whisper of wild earth tang.

The flavors are layered—sweet then spiced then nutty then grassy—like geological strata or a fine wine. If the berries had a spokesperson, it’d be a cultured debutante who ran off to the mountains to learn the crazy wisdom of the earth.

However, making chokecherry jelly requires such effort that after you’ve squeezed the last drop of bright fruit juice from your jelly bag, you begin to regard other popular jelly-making fruits—raspberries, blackberries, blueberries—as obscenely rudimentary. Like maybe when you’re old and stooped and your eyesight’s gone, then you’ll make batch after batch of easy raspberry jam.

You cannot buy chokecherries at the store. You’ll roam the hillsides like a hungry black bear before landing under a chokecherry tree laden with accommodating fruit. However, those tiny purple orbs contain as much seed as flesh, and separating the two is like sneaking a lovey out from under a sleeping toddler. Case in point: 26 cups of berries equals nine cups of finished jelly. Nine very precious cups.

But to not take part in the historical gathering of chokecherries that beckon every which way in the San Juan Mountains would be like attending a wedding reception and not jumping to your feet when the cover band thumps the first bars of the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction.”

Chokecherries (Prunus virginiana) brighten San Juan slopes from August through September. They are ripe when the color is so dark purple they’re almost black. Fresh off the tree, their flavor is sweet with a hint of cotton balls inserted between your lips and gums. Astringent is the technical term. My children, whose taste buds are mysterious confounding organs, eat them raw by the handful.

According to the exhaustive tome Native American Ethnobotany, out of all native plants, the chokecherry tree rates second in having the greatest number of uses. (The roots were used as a dye, the sap to fasten arrowheads to shafts, the leaves as a poultice for cuts, the bark for coughs and the berries for food. Plus 332 other uses). Chokecherries were the most important fruit crop in the diet of many western Indian tribes, who pounded and dried the berries (including the protein- and fat-rich seed), mixing it with meat to make a concentrated food called pemmican.

Chokecherries grow from 4,500 to 9,000 feet, interspersed with scrub oak, ponderosa, pinyon and juniper, but also mingled with aspens. They are especially abundant along waterways.

My son’s godmother recently told him that the letters he sent her were more valuable than gold. “Then if I give you letters will you give me gold?” the six-year-old wondered. “No, honey,” she replied, “they’re so valuable you can’t put a price on them.”

Rachel Turiel raises children, chickens, honeybees, vegetables and fruit on an urban homestead in Durango. Read more of her work on her blog: 6512 and growing.

6 edible SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS FALL 2011

CHOKECHERRY SYRUP *Pick a mess of chokecherries (if you’re making multiple gathering trips, you can store chokecherries in the fridge or freezer until you’re ready to make a big batch). *Wash and do your best to de-stem fruit *In large pot, mix 4 parts chokecherries to 1 part water. Wait for the earwigs to rise to the top and remove. Simmer vigorously for 1/2 hour. Crush berries with potato masher. *Strain juice by squeezing chokecherry mash through cheesecloth or jelly bag. Be aggressive. Add 1/2 - 1 cup of honey or sugar for every cup of chokecherry juice. Simmer on low heat and stir until desired thickness attained. *Rejoice and freeze or can (water bath) for future use.

SAN JUAN BEAR SAUCE *Mix chokecherry syrup with applesauce 1:1. (you can use less sweetener because of the natural sweetness of the apples).

CHOKECHERRY JELLY *Follow steps 1-4 for chokecherry syrup. *Mix pectin into chokecherry juice and boil hard for one minute.

BACK OF THE HOUSE

Step Aside Jell-O ... Montrose Hospital Goes Local

E

BY LESLIE VREELAND

very Tuesday and Friday afternoon when Tamara Chronister pulls into her driveway, she is greeted by her chickens. “They see the car, and they come running to the fence,” she said. They dash for greens, bell pepper seeds and other leftover tidbits donated from the kitchen at Montrose Memorial Hospital, where Chronister, owner of In the Beginning Egg Farm, has made a delivery.

Mike Krull, director of food services at Montrose Memorial Hospital and head chef at the hospital’s Lobby Grille, cooks 1,000 eggs each week for guests and patients, and Chronister is one of three suppliers.

Krull aims to use whole, local foods—a philosophy to which he has become increasingly committed over the last two years. “When I saw the economy fall,” he said, “it became clear that money needed to go further with our regional producers. I want to spend as many dollars locally as I can and reinvest in my community.”

Chronister’s eggs are a perfect example: Krull cooks with yolks and whites, then saves the shells and food scraps for Chronister to use for compost, and for the hens that laid the eggs in the first place.

The Lobby Grille’s menu is filled with sophisticated f lavors from ingredients sourced within a few hours’ drive.

The beef comes from Randy Meaker, a Montrose rancher who sells whole steers to Krull, who butchers and cooks the entire animal. The bison is from High Wire Ranch in Hotchkiss, and the tomatoes for Krull’s tomato sauce might come from Montrose farmer Mike Anders, who also sells the chef fennel, baby artichokes and winter squash.

Or the tomatoes might come from Kerry Mattics of Mattics Orchards in Olathe, who also supplies the hospital with peaches, sweet corn and roasted poblano peppers.

This fall, Krull’s staff will prepare and freeze 150 gallons of tomato sauce, made with heirlooms like Brandywine and Yellow Boy, for use throughout the winter. Additionally, they will freeze close to 1,000 peaches (“We’ll have a dynamite cobbler come January,” Krull said) and as many as 2,000 ears of local sweet corn.

Krull tends his relationships with suppliers as carefully as he tends the 800 meals that f low out of his kitchen each day. Mattics said Krull is very specific about what he likes, which helps Mattics improve his produce: “He told me he’d prefer to see my tomatoes a little less ripe, because they wouldn’t hold up when he sliced them – and I appreciate that.” This is in contrast to other buyers, said Mattics. “If they don’t like something, you never hear from them again.”

MAKING CHOICES Local foods cost more. “This choice comes at a premium,” said Krull, but then again, the fact that he buys in volume helps offset the extra costs. For other regional hospitals, conversations around this local-sourcing trend have also begun, with cost as the main prohibitive factor. But Wendy Cashman, the clinical nutrition director at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, said the hospital’s administration is gung-ho about local, whole foods. The administration is looking at ways to get these foods in the door, despite the potential increase in cost.

Meanwhile, Chef Mike O’Brien at Mercy Regional Hospital’s Garden Terrace in Durango said he’s all for supporting our local farmers.

He’s even put in a request for beef and produce from Durango cooperative James Ranch for his kitchen.

KEEPING UP WITH DEMAND

CHEF KRULL’S CHICKEN RELLENOS AND ROASTED RED PEPPER SAUCE Serves 4 Roasted Red Pepper Sauce 4 roasted red peppers 1 clove garlic 1 tablespoon chipotle pepper purée in adobo 2 peppadew or piquillo peppers Combine all ingredients in blender and puree until smooth. Add salt to taste.

Rellenos 1 Troyer Poultry or Colorado Redbird whole chicken, roasted and shredded (leg and thigh meat is preferable; save the breast for chicken salad tomorrow) 1 tablespoon chopped scallions 1 teaspoon minced garlic ¼ cup Rocking W (Olathe) shredded pepper jack cheese 2 tablespoon panko bread crumbs 8 medium roasted poblano peppers

1 cup semolina flour ½ cup all-purpose flour 2 egg whites 2 ½ cups milk ½ cup flour for dredging 1 tablespoon chile powder

Back in Montrose, Krull’s suppliers eat at the Lobby Grille. They don’t get a discount. But despite the higher costs of locally sourced food, nothing on the menu costs more than about $7.00. Of the 800 meals Krull and his staff serve each day, only 25 percent are needed for the hospital’s actual patients. The rest go to the public, and that number is growing.

Today, Krull, who has become a sort of pied piper of produce (with a degree from the Culinary Institute of America), is contemplating a trip to Nucla, where he’d spied some sunf lower sprouts at a recent farmer’s market. He wants to build a three-grain salad with bulgur and quinoa. The more he can find to bring back, the easier it will be to justify the expense. His eyes f lash with an idea. “I’ve heard someone sells a terrific granola down there, too,” he said.

Salsa and sour cream for garnish

Roast chicken whole with assorted fresh herbs in body cavity if you desire. Shred chicken and fold in scallions, garlic, cheese and panko. Cut small slit in roasted poblanos and fill with chicken mixture.

Combine remaining dry ingredients. Beat egg whites to medium peaks. Mix milk with dry ingredients; gently fold in egg whites. Combine chile powder and seasoned flour; lightly dredge each pepper in flour, and then dip in egg-white batter.

Preheat cast-iron skillet or heavy bottom saucepan with grapeseed oil, using as little oil as needed to gently pan fry all sides of rellenos until golden brown.

Serve rellenos with roasted red pepper sauce, and garnish with salsa and sour cream.

9

THE DIVA DINES

COMFORTING FOOD: SAN JUAN STYLE

BY LAUREN SLAFF

T

he transition from summer to winter can be harsh and unwelcome. But when the crisp nip of autumn arrives in the San Juans, it is nothing short of a sensory celebration. Outside the aspens beam, donning their seasonal yellow coats, while inside we begin to gravitate to the familiar crackling glow of wood-burning stoves, dusting off a favorite, well-worn coat to keep us cozy as the temperatures start to drop. We gravitate, too, toward the pleasures of tried, true and loved recipes we dub “comfort food.”

After years of fussy food trends, often leaving us visually dazzled but still hungry, the comfort food concept has made its way back into the forefront of popular cuisine. Today, celebrated chefs like Thomas Keller of The French Laundry in Napa Valley have parlayed their well-honed skills into elevating family favorites like Southern fried chicken, deviled eggs and meatloaf. Even with a $50 price tag, Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home cookbook, featuring the cuisine of its namesake, family-style venue, spent weeks at the top of The New York Times best-seller list.

With some highly caloric research (woe is me), tips from friends and loyal readers, my notebook and a purse full of Tums, I found standout renditions of our comfy favorites, some prepared traditionally and some with creative license. Here are a few to sink your teeth into ‘round this neck of the woods. chicken pot pie

Almost every food culture has their version of a savory pie, usually as a means to utilize leftovers or lesser cuts of meat that require some embellishment. Italians have calzones, Jamaicans’, patties, the English claim the Shepherd’s Pie and we in the colonies, our classic chicken potpie.

When I arrived at the Pagosa Baking Company, I was surprised to see an actual entire pie and not something poured into a ramekin. Even the tastiest potpies that come to mind are more sauce than substance. The idea of slicing one evokes visuals that harken “cleanup on aisle 5!”

To my pleasant surprise, the hefty slice, enrobed in a Rocky Mountain Milling organic flour crust was so tender and flaky it would have made any country grandma proud. It emerged unscathed and chock-full of plump chicken, vegetables and just enough moisture to marry the flavors. Served with a generous side salad, PBK’s dense pot pie delivers satisfaction without turning a meal into a fishing trip.

Pagosa Baking Company 238 Pagosa Street, Pagosa Springs www.pagosabakingcompany.com biscuits and gr avy After the Revolutionary War when food stocks were low, this hearty breakfast prepared Southerners for long days of grueling work on the plantation. Better known today for curtailing

10 edible SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS FALL 2011

11

(continued from page 10)

LIBATION symptoms of a long night at the bar, this dish has become a classic on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. Having not grown up with biscuits and gravy, when introduced to this dish I thought something was missing. Biscuits with … I dunno, something and gravy?

Recently a friend tipped me off about Durango Doughworks’ rendition and my entire perception changed. Plump clusters of Sunnyside Farm’s sage sausage enveloped in velvety pepper-spiked gravy were indeed main-ingredient material. Now I get it! Generously ladled over fluffy-as-clouds, freshly baked biscuits, the marriage of flavor and texture left barely enough room for one of Doughworks’ signature filled-to-order doughnuts.

Durango Doughworks 2653 Main Avenue, Durango www.durangodoughworks.com

CHICKEN FRIED STEAK

Chicken-fried steak is confusing. What is it? Chicken fried with steak? Steak wrapped in chicken? My pal from Georgia calls it “country-fried steak,” which quells the confusion ever so slightly. Whatever you call it, folks everywhere seem to crave the tenderized cube steaks coated and frying in the style of Southern fried chicken. Tamee Tuttle of Ridgway’s True Grit Café, the selfproclaimed “multi-generational redneck” proprietress, serves the dish in true country style. The beef is far better seasoned and served crispier that other lackluster versions I’ve chewed in my travels. The seasonal arrival of Olathe sweet corn adds vibrancy to traditional accompaniments like “homemade smashers and gravy.” If you seek heat, splash on one of the café’s own house recipe hot sauces like “Fire in the Hole,” then cool off with a draft beer from neighboring Smuggler’s Brewery.

The True Grit Café 123 North Lena, Ridgway www.truegritcafe.com

MILKSHAKES

In the ‘50s, high school hangouts like Bond’s in Jersey challenged hormone-amped ice cream fans to finish one “AwfulAwful” milkshake, promising the “reward” (or punishment) of another free. My mom said she never knew anyone who did it.

Mouse’s Chocolates of Ouray, along with its variety of Wonka-esque confections, blend up the craziest shakes a kid, especially a grown-up one, could dream of. Generous swirls of thick, soft-serve ice cream are mixed with house-made dark and milk Belgian chocolate “goop” (as employees call it). Shakes can be laced with delights like shaved Belgian chocolate, shots of food-coma-resistant house-roasted espresso beans, clouds of whipped cream and even a fudge garnish. Though it comes with a straw, you’ll want to tackle this one with a spoon since the requisite shovel won’t quite fit.

Mouse’s Chocolates 520 Main Street, Ouray www.mouseschocolates.com

BUTTERMILK FRIED… quail?

I was drawn to 221 South Oak in Telluride by the lure of a comfort food classic gone wild: fried mac-and-cheese. While awardwinning chef Eliza Gavin obliged my request with her surprisingly light yet decadent four-cheese interpretation, she also steered my quest in a new direction with her tantalizing take on the queen of comfort, Southern fried chicken. Her preparation substitutes quail for chicken. She prepares it in the classic method of bathing in buttermilk before dredging in seasoned flour and frying, and presents it atop a swirl of spicy honey with a hint of cider vinegar, its acidic quality cutting and complementing the richness of the meat. I actually licked my fingers. Arugula adorned with a mound of creamy Bleu D’Auvergne cheese morphs this dish into a hybrid of the official comfort food of college students everywhere. Only this one went abroad for a semester.

221 South Oak 221 South Oak Street (duh!), Telluride www.221southoak.com

Lauren Slaff is a displaced New Yorker. When she isn’t cooking food, she is teaching about food, or writing about food or consulting about food. Her friends like it best when she is cooking though.

t e l l u R i d e

C r e at i v e Contemporary seasonal fare Proprietor chef Chad Scothorn

d u R A n g o

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In Between the Pasture and the Pack age

– Harvesting Meat at Sunnyside

BY JESS KELLEY

If you consider yourself a foodie. If a “Know Your Farmer” sticker is mortared to your vehicle. If you’re first in the farmer’s market egg line, read Wendell Berry, abhor GMOs and chronically parley with pals over the paramountcy of eating local. Then have you, in dark contemplative moments, ever wondered if you could stomach a slaughterhouse? I bet you have. Sure, you might be chummy with dreadlocked farm-standers, but let me ask you this: do you know your meat processor?

Be honest, you probably don’t really want to. Ignorance is bliss. But knowing what happens in between the pasture and the package is part of it, dear foodie. At Sunnyside Meats, it’s not as bad as you might think. It’s practically La Plata’s version of Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm. Meet Jerry Zink. He’s thought about these in-between parts. He thought so much about the potential ramifications of in-between parts done wrong—then making sure they were done right—that in 2002 he built a USDA-inspected, Colorado statecertified organic meat processing plant steps away from his own home.

Silly rabbit. Why would someone build a slaughterhouse in his own front yard? His high school sweetheart (now wife) nurse practitioner and fifth-generation Durango native, Karen Zink, wondered this too. So, for his blue-eyed bride, it had to be done better than right. Today, standing outside Sunnyside Meats with Jerry, who’s likely wearing a signature Hawaiian shirt, and a pinch-hischeeks smile, what you’d notice most is what is not there. There are no flies. There is no smell. It’s quiet, and the outdoor holding pen floors are pristine. This is about the furthest cry from the processing plants exposed in Eric Schlosser’s best selling Fast Food Nation (“You can smell Greeley, Colorado, long before you see it,” he penned.)

Now, before we go inside, another question. Why would an engineer who’s already a successful businessman (Jerry started Stone Age, a high pressure water-blast tool company with a School of Mines classmate 31 years ago) spend millions to start a boutique meat processing plant? Three reasons: history, land stewardship and demand. Both he and Karen’s families have farmed the land on Sun-

Ivan Robles, of Sunnyside Meats 14 edible SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS FALL 2011

Following his day job, Jerry Zink, in his signature Hawaiin shirt, can often be found working the fields – which includes pulling weeds.

nyside Mesa (between Durango and Bondad, off U.S. 550) for over 100 years. As a boy, Jerry and his family grew potatoes and raised cattle and sheep. Karen’s family, the Shorts, raised wheat and pork and ran a dairy operation. “This is how my father’s family lived,” said Karen while snacking on Sunnyside Meats’ award-winning sausages, pointing across the valley to original homestead sites, cabbage ripening in their garden yards away. “There were 12 children at home. They ate out of the root cellar and the barnyard.”

With the next generation in mind, which includes the Zinks’ two daughters, Heidi and Holly (owner of Sunnyside Farms Market in Nature’s Oasis), Jerry and Karen have dedicated development rights on Sunnyside Farms to La Plata Country Open Space Conservancy, placing a conservation easement on the land for agriculture purposes. Additionally, every invoice from Sunnyside Meats has a dollar added for donation to open space. Outside the processing plant, Jerry also grows about 5,000 bales of certified organic hay annually (for “ladies with horses” and for Shepherd’s Lamb to finish on). It’s not uncommon to spot him out on the tractor or helping Ian Chamberlain, Ranch Foreman and Farm-I founder, work the 225 acres of certified organic farmland the Zinks have placed in his charge. In fact, employees will tell you it’s not uncommon to see Jerry doing any part of the job they’ve been hired to do.

The demand for a meat processing plant originated 18 years ago, when the Shur Valu processing plant in Ignacio closed.

Until 2002, anyone who wanted to have meat processed for sale had to travel to Monticello, Utah. That’s about a two-hour drive from Durango. Now, hormone- and antibiotic-free beef, pork, lamb, goat and bison ranchers travel from all over the western slope and New Mexico to have their meat processed at Sunnyside. In 2009, there were 6,278 federally inspected meat and poultry slaughtering and processing plants in the U.S., and on a normal day one large plant can processes 5,000 cattle. Sunnyside does about eight. Each step of the process is meticulously executed, documented and observed by a USDA agent, a veterinarian and through Sunnyside’s self-enforced safety standards.

“We’re after a market that is different. We want any producer or consumer to walk in here and feel good about every step.

We’ve had home-school groups in here—it’s an open door.

That’s the type of transparency we are trying to have,” explains Chamberlain.

Bucolic and all—the real question is, would I, a journalist, feel good about the process of animals getting killed and cut up? I’m, ahem, a foodie, I think. Maybe I don’t want to be anymore. Could I stomach it?

When Jeff Mannix from Santa Rita Ranch dropped off two of his Texas Longhorns (a heritage cattle breed) one morn-

15

Richard Hess, operations manager at Sunnyside Meats

ing for processing, I asked if he stays to watch. “I drive away from here and I feel like shit for the rest of the day,” he said. “I’m from New York. I grew up with beef in Saran Wrap. I love these animals; they are an extraordinary breed. I feed them by hand, as organic as I can.”

This is not the best start, I think.

But once Mannix drives away, the upbeat harvest floor (right, not kill floor) staff takes over. Without electric prodding or yelling (with kissing noises, actually), the animals are moved into naturally shaded, well-tractioned, spacious holding pens. Much of how Sunnyside Meats humanely handles animals is based upon the work of Dr. Temple Grandin. Dr. Grandin, author and advocate of her own autism, is a designer of livestock handling facilities and a professor of animal science at Colorado State University.

“We raise them [animals] for us; that means we owe them some respect,” she has said. “Nature is cruel, but we don’t have to be. I wouldn’t want to have my guts ripped out by a lion. I’d much rather die in a slaughterhouse if it were done right.”

The first Longhorn is allowed inside (they go willingly because it’s well-lit, and preferable to the shaded pen). Again, I can’t help but notice what’s not there: anxiety, panic. The animal is calm, staff unruffled. Once in the knock box, a captive bolt stunner (a cylindrical, mag light, shaft-shaped trigger used to discharge a blank round) is placed behind the head, and then bam!

The 872-pound Longohrn “falls down like wet spaghetti,” as Jerry puts it. I asked Richard Hess, operations manager and fourth generation Durango native, if watching this ever gets to him, because shockingly, it didn’t really bother me. It happened so fast.

“It doesn’t look that bad to me,” he said. “I’m kind of envi-

ous. They never had a bad half a second in their lives. I watched my dad die of cancer; my mom is sick now—this is an easy way to go.”

I couldn’t help but agree, having recently watched three different grandparents suffer in nursing homes. “I grew up around this,” Hess said, who, like the Zinks, is from a ranching family. “I walk into that holding cooler and all I get is hungry.”

Standing in the cooler, surrounded by rows of stamped, labeled and aging carcasses (cattle will hang for 10 to 21 days, depending on a rancher’s request), the fat on the grass-fed carcasses is notably more orange in color (which means the beta-carotene content is higher) than the grain-fed carcasses. I can’t say hunger is the feeling I have in here; rather, cold and overwhelmed.

From there, inside the processing room, large-handed Jack Swayze (in his 70s) and other employees cut steaks and grind ground beef. Humane treatment also extends to employees (again, zero resemblance to Greeley). They are paid decent wages and they have health insurance. “Jerry has been so fair to me, a really good employer, and I’m not just saying that,” said Swayze as he sliced a ribeye from the bone.

Verdict: after witnessing all the in-between parts (some of the more gory details spared) that ribeye still looked delicious.

Meats processed at Sunnyside under a variety of growers’ labels are available at farmer’s markets, stores and restaurants throughout the San Juans. Bundles of locally grown, antibiotic-free beef and pork can be ordered from Sunnyside Meats. Call (970) 385-0230 or visit sunnysidemeats.com.

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Wendy Crank, an elk hunter from Norwood, spends Sunday afternoon, Aug 21, 2011 practicing her shot. “I get buck fever,” Crank said. “I just shake uncontrollably. Practicing is a lot different than the real thing.”

BACK OF THE HOUSE

GIRL GETS BOY: A Hunter Gets Her First Elk

BY D.DION

I

opened up the envelope from the Division of Wildlife and pulled out my hunting tag. It was an elk tag, first rifle season, either sex, Unit 70—I had basically won the lottery. I should have been thrilled, but I wasn’t. I was pregnant.

My due date was just weeks before my season, so in theory, I could still go out and hunt. But I had only shot a rifle once, to pass my hunter education test, and I wouldn’t be able to practice now. Rifles are loud (in the 150-decibel range) and you can’t put ear protection on a baby in utero. Besides, pregnant women carrying firearms seem to make guys at the shooting range nervous.

Not that seeing women at a shooting range is unusual anymore. According to the National Sporting Goods Association, there was a 5.4 percent increase in the number of women hunters between 2008 and 2009. Approximately 136,000 females picked up rifles or crossbows that year. Here in southwestern Colorado, in my hunter education class, there were eight women and only two men. Most of them were there for the same reason I was: to set out on a gastronomic odyssey. We were epicurious about game. We wanted lean, wild elk meat and we were willing to become animal assassins in order to get it.

It seemed strange to think about shooting a living thing while I was trying to grow one in my belly, so I tucked the tag away and forgot about it until hunting season. By the time the first rifle season opened, I had a newborn son (in addition to our two-year-old girl) and my life had assumed its own hectic rhythm of sleepless nights and busy days. So even though my chances of bagging an elk seemed very small, I was at least looking forward to a few hours of quiet and a long walk in the woods. Or so I thought.

We set out before dawn on that chilly October day, and a few hours later we heard gunshots crackling across the valley. My hunting partner, Jeff “Domer” Hebert, had shot about a half-dozen elk since he moved to Telluride from Louisiana. Domer smiled reassuringly and whispered that the gunfire would probably scare some of the herd toward us, which was good because I was already tiring of the adventure. I hadn’t expected my rifle to feel so heavy; I was leaking breast milk through my shirt; and the hushed, creeping pace of hunting in the cold autumn air was not a warm enough activity for my thin, stretchy yoga pants. The pants were not camouflage-colored either, but they were the only thing I could fit into so soon after giving birth.

My friend was right—the herd was starting to climb the hillside surrounding us. I spotted a cow elk, but it moved out of sight before I could quiet my nerves and put my fumbling fingers on the trigger. Then I swung around and saw him—a bull elk, frozen for a split-second, and through my rifle sights he was so perfectly positioned in the red crosshairs that he looked like the illustration on the cover of the Division of Wildlife hunting guide. I startled myself when I shot and then I froze, too. The whole scene probably lasted less than a minute, but it played out in slow motion, like a cinematic effect. The bull stopped and then tumbled backward, dropping and rolling hooves-over-head down the hill.

19

“SHOOT HIM AGAIN, SHOOT HIM AGAIN, SHOOT HIM AGAIN, DID YOU GET HIM?” shouted Domer, temporarily deaf from the gun’s report. My hands were shaking too hard to clear the spent bullet from the chamber, much less take aim and fire again.

“I got him,” I said.

We ran down the hill and saw him lying still. At first I was exhilarated, but it was sobering to watch his eyes as they became glassy, like marbles, as the life left them. At least I knew he hadn’t suffered long—it was a perfect heart-lung shot.

During those same few minutes of shooting and scurrying around, several other shots were fired all around us, and a few hundred yards away other hunters were emerging from the forest hollows to survey their takes. A couple of other elk had been culled, and after some brief conversation everyone set to work dressing the animals. I was not the only person to get my elk from that herd that day, but I was the only one wearing yoga pants.

Field dressing is a nice term for butchering—or pre-butchering, to be more accurate. After an initial incision that lets the air escape from the thoracic cavity, it’s a matter of cutting open the chest (you need a bone saw), pulling out the guts and organs and quartering the animal.

Because no matter how strong you think you are, no one can carry out an entire elk. Even a small vehicle can have trouble carrying a whole animal.

It was once the elk dropped to the ground that my culinary journey truly started. Domer is a skilled chef (he graduated from cooking school in New York) so I had an expert teaching me how to skin and carve the elk. He sliced off the tenderloin and the backstrap, nodding at me to hand him the long, slender game bag. “This is the very best of the meat,” he explained as he slithered the meat into the bag. I had imagined something more grisly, like a horror movie. The flesh felt like Jell-o, and there was less blood and smell than I’d expected. I only flinched once, when Domer cut out the bull’s canine teeth and then popped out of the jaw. A souvenir, he said, handing me the teeth. The canine teeth of an elk are made of ivory, a rare animal dental trait shared only by elephants, walruses and some whales.

There were four more bags, one for each leg or quarter of the animal.

The bags were heavier than I could have imagined. It took us two long, slow treks to the truck, and we were drenched with blood by the time we drove home. We hung the four quarters in the workshop to cure for a week, and Jeff gave me a quick tutorial with the tenderloin and backstrap on how to clean, slice and package the meat.

I was feeling pretty euphoric and exhausted after such a long day, or I might have realized that after my partner went home, I was the one who would be left to process the hundreds of pounds of meat in my kitchen and strung from the ceiling of the workshop. Most hunters take their elk, deer or antelope to a professional butcher out in Naturita, but not me. By the time I realized what I’d signed up for, it was too late. I should have been cooing at and cuddling my new baby, but here I was, in bloodsoaked yoga pants, wishing I had sharper knives.

It turned out just fine. I sharpened our knives, borrowed a meat grinder from my friend Jess and Googled some meat processing tips. It took several days to butcher the elk all by myself, but it was empowering to experience the whole undertaking from start to finish: from the firing range to the gas range, from shooting to grilling and everything in between. When I put an elk steak in a pan now, it’s a very different feeling.

And being able to provide healthy, all-natural, ultra-lean meat for my family—that’s the best feeling of all.

Deb Dion is a writer and editor of Telluride Magazine. She lives with her husband and two children and has no idea what to do with the two ivory elk teeth sitting in a cup on her windowsill.

WHITE BEAN AND ELK CHILI Ingredients 1 package ground elk (app. 6-8 ounces) 2 tbsp. olive oil coarse white salt and ground pepper (to taste) 2 white onions 3 cloves garlic 6 tomatillos 2 cans Herdez salsa verde (or any green tomato salsa) 1 pound dry white beans (great Northern or navy beans) 2 tbsp. Better Than Bouillon vegetable base Directions

Wendy Crank, second from left, and Kristen Parrino, right, and Parrino’s kids, Lilli, center, and Izzi, practice their rifle skills outside of Norwood on Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011.

Soak beans overnight, then drain. Put beans and vegetable base in crockpot for several hours, until they start to soften. Dice and add tomatillos to crockpot and keep cooking. Brown meat in a pan with olive oil, salt and pepper. Add diced onions to pan. Drain pan and add meat, onions and green salsa to the crockpot.

Simmer for another ½ hour to an hour.

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TIM TURNER - An Edible Interview -

In 2005 you decided to start Zia Taqueria on the north side of Durango. As a former owner of more than one bakery (including Bread here in Durango), ... why burritos?

Burritos?? It’s more about the genre of foods we serve than just burritos. Since 1994 I’ve been interested in Mexican food of all varieties. I was running a very successful bakery in Cambridge and a buddy of mine came to me with a menu from a burrito joint in New York City. We studied the menu, the ingredients, and concept, and wrote a business plan to open a similar concept in Cambridge, MA, but it never came to fruition. In the winter of 2004, tens years later, I was living and working just north of town. The days when I didn’t make my lunch, I found myself thinking of a juicy chicken burrito from “Rancho Grilly’s” or a super taco from “La Taqueria”, from my two short years in the Bay Area. There was a need for a good place to eat, with clean healthy food, at a reasonable price on the north side of town.

Zia has experienced notable success. Tell us, how were the first two years that you often hear can be the make or break point for a restaurant?

The first two years were brutal. We looked busy from the outside, and

we were, but our systems, our staffing, our food sourcing, were all struggling, and filled with stress on all levels. We pretty much spun our wheels for two years trying to get it dialed. But we made it through those challenging times, we found some great people, we implemented systems, and worked hard on sourcing good local food..... and gave a lot to the community along the way. I’m glad we stuck with it, and believe me, at times I was ready to bail at any moment.

So you had second thoughts those first two years?

Certainly had my share of those moments. The Winter of 2005-06 brought more than a few. Those moments can be dark and lonely. Especially when staff members “no-show”, you work short-handed doubles, come home to the books at 11PM, and realize you may not have enough money in the bank to cover payroll, unless you have strong sales over the the weekend - and there’s no forecast for snow, the mountains are bare, the streets are quiet, and times are tight for the locals.

You spent your earlier professional life in commercial real estate.

How did you manage to get into the restaurant business?

I worked for a development team out of Syracuse, NY in the late 80’s and was handed the “food category” with which to work. We were leasing brand new space in 1million sq.ft. shopping centers. We needed to find 10 food court operators, 4 sit-down restaurants, specialty coffee shops, confectioners, gourmet food stores, all the things we have learned to expect from modern retail shopping centers. I became close with a gal who operated 5 coffee shops and she encouraged me to get into my own business - I connected with an Icelandic baker and another partner who had some operations experience. We opened Carberry’s bakery and coffeeshop in December of 2003 in Cambridge, MA. It fit me, I loved it, and we had a great thing going.

What is the biggest challenge you face trying to keep your menu as local as you do?

Zia is a Mexican restaurant, our customers expect to find guacalmole, pico de gallo, limes, rice, fish tacos, and fresh lettuce year round. These items are the most challenging for us, as they are either not locally grown, or when they are, it’s a limited season. I would love to someday have 10 greenhouses growing lettuce and tomatoes for us throughout the year. The rice, the avocados, and the fish... well, those are tough ones, they may end up off the menu some day.

You are a numbers guy. Do you see this as economically viable?

In other words, it is a beautiful idea in theory. Fully realized, do you see a system of micro farms also being a system that generates enough income for people (farmers, ranchers ... distributors) and their families?

I had the incredible opportunity to ride a bike around France this summer and witness how closely that country lives to the land, and how well they live. The system of micro farms works there, but they live a different lifestyle, and have for a very long time. It could work here, but folks would pay more for food, less for other things, and farmers would live a moderate lifestyle. Look at Joel Salatin, he makes it work. We are a nation which has distanced itself from our food. The real questions

What would be your number one piece of advice to somebody who wants to start a restaurant?

Have a solid business plan, plenty of money, and make sure you’re committed for the long-haul on all fronts.

Ten years ago, if I had said you would own a Mexican restaurant in southwestern Colorado someday what would you have said?

Southwestern Colorado??? Where’s that? I had no idea where Durango was, or even that it existed prior to 1999. I think I would have been excited regardless of where it was going to be. I’m very pleased, sometimes to the point of disbelief, that I have landed here.

When was the happiest time of your life?

Pushing cattle and dudes around 20,000 acres up in Tom Miner Basin at BBar Ranch in Emigrant, Montana. A lot of my friends were chasing comma’s around the Dot-Com boom and I decided to check out, escape the rat race, and get to a peaceful place. I think I have some cowboy blood in me, and I absolutely love riding out into the range before first light, knowing my lunch is packed, and there’s no need to get home before dinner time. (continued on next page)

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What conceivable change would you like to see made that would take the availability and affordability of healthy local food to the next level?

I would like to see the knowledge of guys like Gabe Eggers and Mike Nolan, as it relates to larger-scale farming, be passed on to other growers, for the regional land owners to make connections with such growers, to have a commercial facility with which to process, store, and distribute the food which is grown, and to have programs whereby people can trade time and/or money for food - whether it be directly with the farmers or with the processing/storage/distribution facility. We need to start growing food on a larger scale if it is going to be more widely available and affordable. I’m not talking about little Monsanto’s popping up, but 5 - 20 acre parcels being farmed for vegetables, 60-80 head dairy farms, some more local chicken enterprises, it’s all possible, and it needs to happen for us to get to the next level.

are, what’s enough? How much money do we need and who’s willing to change their lifestyle to make it work?

Fifty-five years ago, my mother lived and worked on a crop farm with her family in Maine. She picked beans, fed chickens, sewed her own prom dress, and ate three square meals a day - it was a simple life, a hard one, but simple. Maybe we all need to take a step back in time.

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What would you like to be doing in ten years? What does your life look like?

If the gods and spirits are willing, I’ll be here in Durango, continuing with the restaurant business, but more focused on raising and growing food. Maybe another concept which lends itself specifically to regionally-grown food. Taking time away to explore other parts of the world. Maybe someday returning to Tom Miner Basin for the summers, to work on the ranch. It’s a special place and I feel it pulling me back from time to time.

What is your favorite thing to do with your time when you are not working?

I like being around our home. My wife, Becky, and I have created a lovely place. It’s work, but it’s fun and we enjoy being at home together. Gardening, creating, eating, cooking, firing up the pizza oven, stirring the compost, feeding the worms, harvesting hops, weeding, watching the bees and birds, picking apples, it’s all a joy, it truly is. There are lot’s of distractions though: trail running, mountain biking, skiing, hiking, a good book in front of a fire, friends for dinner, listening to music... the list is long.

Rumor has it you treat your employees pretty good. In fact, you have been known to even buy them bikes when they need one to get to work. What is the motivation behind this?

The Golden Rule. Treat folks the way you’d like to be treated. I try to do whatever I can to help out our managers and staff, bikes and good work shoes are a no-brainer. It gets more challenging when it’s car loans, advances to buy new windows for their homes, or pay off old debts - but we try to say “yes” to whatever seems reasonable. We struggled through the first two years, trying to develop a great team and to develop a strong culture. Just about every time we make a leap of faith and go beyond our comfort zone with helping someone, it works out fine. Trust in your people and trust in the universe go a long way.

Are you the same person today as you were ten years ago? Twenty years ago?

In many ways, I’m the same person. My beliefs are the same, my spirit is the same, my love for fellow man and nature is the same, and my desire to make the world a better place remains central. My capsule is growing older, but deep down inside I’m the optimistic child who believes that anything is possible, all you need to do is dream it.

Go to www.ediblesanjuanmountains.wordpress.com to read the entire interview.

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Honga Im

by Emily Brendler Shoff

GRILLED AND UNTIL LAST YEAR, IF MY HUSBAND BLAKE WANTED TO EAT LOCALLY-

W

hen I step into Honga Im’s restaurant to meet with her, the summer afternoon rains have just begun to fall in Telluride. Before sitting down to chat, Honga and I both watch the hail smack the pavement.

Honga is wearing a “Save the Oceans” t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Her hair is pulled back into a floppy bun. She looks strong from a summer of hiking and chasing children. Around her neck, she wears a leather choker with an Asian coin at the center. It’s easy to imagine that she looked much the same when she first moved to Telluride in the early 1980’s. Back then, she was fresh out of school in Boulder and camping above town in Royer Gulch. Every day, she’d walk into town to work odd jobs—as a waitress at Excelsior, as a salesperson at Telluride Fine Arts Gallery, as a barista at Baked in Telluride (until she was yelled at for not knowing how to make coffee—she’s a tea drinker). She even did some modeling for outdoor guidebooks. Indeed, upon closer inspection, I discover that Honga is on the cover of the mountain biking guide I’ve been using all of these years.

25

(continued from previous page) “Everyone thought I was some kind of crazy hippie for living out here,” Honga said. “My Korean parents kept trying to talk me out of here and into someplace bigger. A city. Graduate school.

They didn’t understand why I was here.”

Glancing around her hip Pan-Asian restaurant today, lined with sleek black-and-white photographs and oil paintings from around the world, it’s hard to picture someone finding Honga or her dreams crazy.

After all, I’ve been in this restaurant when all of its 150 seats are filled, and the waiting room is packed tighter than the gondola on a powder day.

When I first moved to Telluride, back when Honga’s was in a tiny Victorian house, people would willingly wait outside, in the winter, for a table.

A Telluride winter. They would also bring their skis right to the restaurant and stack them outside. People came from all over to taste her unique dishes inspired by trips to Thailand, Japan, Bali, Korea, China, Vietnam and India.

It turns out, though, that Honga also had once had her doubts about running a restaurant. Born in Seoul, Korea, Honga moved to the States when she was 2. She’d been a fine arts major in college. What she was doing in the food industry? She was also having serious concerns about the energy that restaurants used and the waste they produced. After all, she gotten into the business because she was in love with traveling and wanted to share some of the tastes she’d experienced with her friends in Telluride. Who was she to be trashing the earth?

At one time, she’d signed the papers to sell the place when the seller’s loans fell through. “At that moment,” Honga said, “I realized that I needed to find happiness in what I was doing and make the restaurant work.”

So at 29, she reinvented the place. She started ski patrolling in the winter to help pay the bills. And she found solace in the name she had given her restaurant—Honga’s Lotus Petal—and bloomed out of the murky water and into the light. She added the sushi bar and made a commitment: to make as little impact upon the earth as possible.

Honga sources everything locally except the fish, which, she buys only from Hawaii—one of the most responsibly managed fisheries in the world. The restaurant precycles by buying in bulk and limiting packaging. They compost all food scraps and send the compost back to their grower, Kris Holstrum, on Hastings Mesa. Their cooking oil is turned into biodiesel. Straws are provided only upon request.

At one point, we did away with straws, but luckily my manager Ana convinced me that a restaurant is a great place to inspire but not to preach. I’m lucky to have so many good people all around me. It’s all a balance.”

I look around at everything Honga has incorporated into her new space on Main Street: the beautiful ginkgo leaves pressed into the glass walls that line the stairs, the Japanese tea den downstairs, the exquisite pottery that everything is served in. From the kitchen, the first smells of coconut milk and onions are rising into the air. It seems she has indeed found the perfect balance.

Emily Brendler Shoff made the mistake asking a street vender in Thailand to make her som tom salad “the way you like it,” and had to sprint across the beach for ice cream. These days, when she makes this salad with her husband at home in Telluride, she’s grateful that her two little girls give her the excuse to temper the heat.

LAAB (Serves 4)

This is a great dish featuring salad greens, fresh herbs, onions, and garlic. Laab means salad in Thai. Many other countries have their own variation of this warm weather way of eating.

1 head butter leaf lettuce or any yummy large leafed lettuce 1 pound ground beef (or any meat or tofu) 1 small onion, finely diced 1 clove fresh garlic, minced ¼ cup fresh lemon juice 1 chili, minced (spicy variation) ½ oz mint…chiffonade ¼ oz basil…chiffonade any other herbs in the garden like cilantro ¼ cup quality grade fish sauce 1/8 cup sugar, honey, or agave Directions: Rinse, separate, and dry lettuce leaves. Cook ground beef and drain any grease, if any.

Mix the onion, garlic, lemon juice, chili, mint, fish sauce and sugar in large bowl. Combine with ground beef.

Spoon some beef mixture into the natural cup of each lettuce leaf and eat like a taco.

No utensils needed.

HONGA’S SOMTAM SALAD (Serves 2)

When I go to Thailand, I always search for the ladies who sell som tam.

They wear conical hats and balance a stick over their shoulder with a mortar and pestle on one end and the somtam ingredients on the other.

I substitute cucumbers for the traditional green papaya in this recipe, as they are abundant in almost in all of North America.

2 cucumbers of medium size, peeled and seeded 2 cloves fresh garlic ¼ peanuts, crushed 1 lemon, juiced 1 medium sized ripe tomato, diced 1 tablespoon quality fish sauce 1 tablespoon brown sugar, honey, or agave 1/8 ounce fresh cilantro, roughly chopped 1 small fresh chili (or more if you want it spicier) Directions: Cut cucumbers up in angled thin slices. Crush and bruise the garlic.

Transfer the garlic to a large bowl and add the lemon juice, tomato, fish sauce, sugar and cilantro. Toss this mixture with the cucumber, top with peanuts, and serve.

FARM NOMADS Some come from across town, some from across the country and then others from other countries all together. Some work to support a family and some work to support an ideal that they believe in. This series of portraits is nothing more than an effort to reveal their stories without words.

Dustin Stein, 27, of Durango CO takes a needed rest in the shade of his teepee on Seven Meadows Farm outside Mancos on July 28, 2011. “Aside from the hardwork, it’s great,” Stein said.

“Dawn to dusk.”

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Kayla Wexelberg, Banga’s Farm

Louise Nelson, 25, Tomten Farm

Lianne Nicholreimer, Banga’s Farms

Daniel Aragon, 29, Tomten Farm

Hanna Penberthy, 25, Tomten Farm. “I was born in Telluride, but l left as a child,” she said. “Before I moved back I had my own farm. Two acres of strawberries in Kettle Falls, WA.” It was there that she learned that farming is not for the faint of heart. By excercising her water rights, she was taking water from farmers down stream. She never grew comfortable with that. Penberthy now splits her time between jobs. Tomten is just part time.

Martin Alcocer, 46, The James Ranch. Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Alison King, 22, Lawrence KS. Seven Meadows Farm.

Moe Cooley, Stone Free. Cortez. Also leads his band, The Moetones

Ellen Bennett, 21, Flagstaff, AZ. Banga’s Farm

Cody Edwards, 27, of Durango CO. Banga’s Farm.

Soizic Ziegler, 23. Tomten.“This is my first time West of the Mississippi

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Carlos Alcocer, 43, The James Ranch Gardens. Tamaulipas, Mexico

Jypsy Roth, Cortez, CO. Stone Free Farm.

OUTTAKES

(clockwise from the top) Honga Im gets a warm hello from a friend and fan behind the sushi bar at Honga’s Lotus Petal in Telluride, Ian Chamberlain, ranch forman at Sunnyside, spends the day flooding the fields south of Durango, (above) Tim Turner checks in with Mike Nolan of Mountain Roots, one of Zia’s suppliers. (left) Kristen Parrino helps her daughter, Izzi, 7, take aim with a .22 outside of Norwood. (center) Jerry Zink takes on a field of potatoes, peppers and weeds.

Hand picked and fresh for you!

Fridays @ S. Oak St 11-4pm June 10th until mid-Oct

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fresh & regional everything... fruit, vegtables, flowers, potted plants, herbs, chicken, eggs, elk, buffalo, beef, cheese, drinks, baked goods, jewlery, soaps, essential oils, clothes, furniture, pottery, prepared foods, music, presentations & more!

Get a taste of our community.

www.thetelluridefarmersmarket.com 415.728.2509

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The Orthopedic & Spine Center of Excellence Mercy Regional Medical Center Centura Health complies with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and no person shall be excluded from participation in, be denied benefits of, or otherwise be subjected to discrimination in the provision of any care or service on the grounds of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, sexual preference, ancestry, age, familial status, disability or handicap. Copyright Š Centura Health, 2011