Edible Southwest Colorado, Issue #20 Spring 2015 by Edible Southwest Colorado

southwest edible colorado Traversing the San Juans to bring you the stor y of loca l food

No. 20 mud season 2015

THE GRAVITY OF OUR OWN KITCHENS old men in the field the blair book project first milk

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THE BLAIR BOOK PROJECT By Katie Klingsporn

WEEDING WEEDS By Kati Harr

GRAIN-FREE QUICK BREADS By Becca James

THE CHIP PEDDLER By Rick Scibelli, Jr.

THE FARMACY

By Sharon Sullivan

THE GRAVITY OF OUR OWN KITCHENS By Rachel Turiel

OLD MEN IN THE FIELD By Rick Scibelli, Jr.

36 38

SPRING RECIPES Kannah Creek Brewing / Cyprus Cafe

34 FIRST MILK By Becca James

DIY: DANDELION PESTO By Rachel Turiel

READERS OPINION: A MOUNTAIN LION RETORT By M. Andrew Taylor Dustin Stein feeds a field of new moms, babies and yearlings in Mancos, CO.

EDITOR'S LETTER

very fall, with the year’s final issue on the stand, I think, finally, a rest. Two days later, I am licking my paws like an idle dog. A month later I am contemplating things, like the happiness of others. I surf Craigslist for a banjo I don’t know how to play. I should shave my head. Should, should, should. Maybe we should get a kitten? I am quitting caffeine (a proclamation that lasts until about 11 am). February comes and goes in geologic time, yet it is still winter when, at this magazine, we have to start thinking about spring. This is a monumental test in motivation. It can feel like shopping for new flip-flops during a blizzard. But story ideas start to trickle in, initiating faint tectonic shifts in my spirit. Becca James pitches “spring milk,” which carries me forward to a place where the sun sits higher on the horizon. Apparently the first milk of the season tastes different. It tastes better. And after a long winter silence, Rachel Turiel, our managing editor, emerges with an idea. That is what her stories often start as: Ideas. Themes. Notions. This issue, it’s about dinner and eating at home and eating out and what it all means and where it is all going. “Do you like the idea?” she’ll ask. I say something like, ‘It feels ambitious, but I know you will do something good.’ And of course she does. Then Ole Bye suggests a photo essay on old tractors. “Do it,” I say to the accomplished photographer. “No time,” he says. So I do it because it is a good idea. And it leads me to a lot of tractors buried in snow. So I wait for the melt and it snows again. And then, again. But as it is in Colorado, it turns 60F and just like that, the snow is gone and the mud is here. If you own an old tractor in Southwest Colorado, you probably have heard of Joe Schmidt. Joe reclaims old tractors and gives them new life. Working tractors, not shiny show tractors. Joe lives with his dad, our cover model, Armond, 88, in Lewis. Armond couldn’t give two wits about tractors. Hovered over a vintage percolator over a vintage stove under a vintage window, Armond tells me about a buck deer named Buck he once, not long ago, had as a friend. “He would hang out in the living room,” his son added. And then one day the authorities came and relocated Buck. “To Hovenweep,” Armond said. Now, whether you think feeding wild animals in your living room is a good idea or not, you couldn’t help but feel a pang of loss for Armond. He loved that deer. “I know I could go over to that fence and call his name and he would come running. But Hovenweep is too far. Do you know anything about cats?” Yes, Joe loves tractors, but Armond, soothing my soul with marine-blue eyes untouched by time, clearly loves animals. “A little,” I answered to the cat question, not clarifying that “a little” meant that I know they purr and they meow and I had recently, in a winterized funk, contemplated adopting one. Just outside the window, Armond’s cat absorbed the heat of the early-March sun while resting on 2 edible

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an empty wooden cable spool that was floating on ankle-deep mud. He looked tired. “The vet says he has fluid in his lungs,” Armond said. “What can you do about that?” I went outside and crouched down. I felt oddly important and now fully thankful to be working again … even if that meant I was pretending to be a vet. I stuck out my hand seeking approval and received it. The cat was working just to rest. I said, “Joe, I think he might be suffering.” “Don’t tell dad that,” Joe said. “He was just hunting mice yesterday. And now today, he is like this again.” Yes, you are right, don’t tell your dad. Let the cat rest. Let him doctor himself, and mindfully lick his paws. Let the returning sun replenish him with vitamins. Maybe he will hunt again tomorrow. Joe then handed me a small album. On every page, a carefully cataloged photograph of a tractor. A real picture. A photograph made on film. Pet deer and tractors, sick cats and photographs, words and stories. Beautiful people loving what they love. "Would you like a Pepsi?" Armond asks. Why yes, yes I would. – Rick Scibelli, Jr. (The day before we went to press, I learned from Joe that his dad’s cat had peacefully passed away. “But we already got him a new one,” Joe said. “We went down to the shelter and got him a big ol’ longtail furry outfit.”)

southwest edible colorado EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Rick Scibelli, Jr.

MANAGING EDITOR Rachel Turiel

ON THE COVER Armond Schmidt, 88, waits for water to boil at his Lewis, Colorado, farm. A native of Santa Paula, California, Schmidt moved to Lewis in the late ’70s following a construction accident that crushed his right elbow. Schmidt had been a heavy equipment operator. Now, he is surrounded by farm tractors that his son rebuilds. You won’t find a story specifically about Armond in this issue – but we couldn't resist his charm. Armond happened to be sitting next to his stove, just as you see him. The pictures on the cover (and above) weren’t posed.

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hey sprout in untidy tangles from sidewalk cracks and root down stubbornly amid the showy perennials we so carefully cultivate. They erupt in thorny backyard clusters, shoulder out our favored vegetables and thrive on the trammeled margins of society. People generally put weeds in the category of bothersome nuisance. But Katrina Blair sees in weeds something entirely different: nourishment, culinary potential, wellness and a key to human resilience. Blair is a Durango-based wild-food forager, teacher, Turtle Lake Refuge founder and grower. She extols the virtues of her favorite weeds in her book, The Wild Wisdom of Weeds: 13 Essential Plants for Human Survival. The 358-page book, released in November 2014, is a charming collection of photographs, recipes and writing on the culinary and medicinal benefits of some of Earth’s most common edible weeds. And Wild Wisdom’s ambitions go beyond didactic plant guidebook: spread through its pages is a pitch for human survival based on tapping into the wild intelligence of nature and utilizing what it so readily offers. Because weeds do, after all, grow like weeds. Blair, who fell in love with plants as a child and began foraging for wild edibles when she was a teenager, said she always knew she would write a wild food guidebook. So when she was approached by Chelsea Green Publishing to write a book, she had just the thing in mind. And she had already started on it. In Wild Wisdom, Blair spotlights dandelion, mallow, purslane, plantain, thistle, amaranth, dock, mustard, grass, chickweed, clover, lambsquarter and knotweed. When asked why she chose these 13, Blair contends that they actually chose her. She has encountered them in travels all over the world, from Japan to the Philippines and the Arctic, and they make themselves readily available. “There are amazing things that these wild plants do,” Blair says. “They clean the earth and they clean our bodies. They are just such a gift, and we have them growing wildly and freely everywhere around us.” “They are edible as food and they are all easy to access and find and identify,” she says. The book, which is part field-guide, part memoir and part philosophical treatise, walks readers through the basics of each plant, expounding on its beneficial qualities before offering tips on harvesting, preserving and preparing. Wild Wisdom also features poems,

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drawings and Blair’s lighthearted musings on the weed world. Readers will learn that amaranth is anti-inflammatory and chickweed draws toxins out of the body; clover is an expectorant and knotweed stimulates the heart. Take these weeds into the kitchen, meanwhile, and the possibilities are vast. Recipes run the gamut from thistle root kraut to purslane peach pie, mallow milk shake, sprouted lambsquarter tabouli and dandelion pesto. Knowledgeable as she is, Blair says researching the book was eye opening. “I was already in love with these plants, but when I went into depth … I was blown away by them,” she says. “These wild, resilient crops are so rich as a resource for food and nutrition. And

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what I think came through more and more was that they can help us be self-reliant where we live. It’s pretty powerful.” By welcoming weeds into our kitchens and our lives, Blair contends, we humans can better connect with our innate knowledge of how to survive in harmony with, and make wiser and more passionate decisions about caring for, our planet. “The more of us humans who are eating wild, the more of a stronger advocate we can be for caring for the earth,” she says. Amen. That calls for a glass of dandelion juice, and maybe even a sprouted clover cookie. /

Weeding Weeds (naturally) By Kati Harr

h, weeds: those impervious little suckers, always threatening to elbow out your lettuce or strangle your tomatoes. Every home gardener has to contend with their share of persistent flora rejecti. Following are some basic, natural weed control methods for those of us who may eschew chemicals in favor of less toxic approaches.

HAND CULL/CULTIVATE The trick to easy weed culling, according to many garden aficionados, including Kirk Williams, Yard Manager at Native Roots in Durango, is to “get ’em while they’re young.” The more established the root, the harder to oust the intruder. Pulling when the soil is damp, but not soggy, makes it easier to remove the entire root. You can use tools such as hoes and shovels to hack away at the annual weeds, being careful not to dig too deeply and damage your desired plants’ roots. John Wickman, President at Native Roots, says to be careful with perennial weeds. If you break those off at the root, another is bound to appear. It’s best to use a forked weed-puller and get as much of the root and runners out as you can. Hand culling is a great way to become familiar with the rhythms and phases of your garden season, get some exercise, and spend time in the fresh air and sunshine. Something to keep in mind: all of this pulling and digging is hard work and you’ve got to stay one step ahead, which means taking time to go camping or out of town or on vacation can leave you in a leafy lurch. EAT THEM Weeds are just plants, after all. And like any other thing on the planet, “beauty (or, in this case, functionality) is in the eye of the beholder.” Some weeds are edible, some can be

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LIVING MULCH/INTERCROPPING Living mulch is created by allowing some of the less-useful (to you) plants to take up space between coveted garden goodies, potentially shading and crowding out other unwanted plants. Many clovers, as well as purslane and some vetches, are a great option for this. Using this method keeps soil undisturbed, adds nutrients and holds water while battling back some of the more persistent garden intruders. You can use this same method with desired garden plants by planting lettuce among your carrots, for example, or using the traditional Three Sisters combination of corn, beans and squash. The benefits of these methods reach beyond just keeping weeds at a minimum. They diversify your plot and keep pest problems contained, or even fight them off altogether. MULCH/SMOTHER Mulching is popular for a few reasons: it can provide aesthetically pleasing, natural pathways and it is very effective for weed control. Mulch also helps with water retention and boosts soil nutrients. And, it’s a one-step process. Lay it down and walk away. Williams suggests shredded cedar as his go-to mulching material, as it is super fibrous, slow to break down and extremely effective at controlling weeds. Other mulch options are newspaper, shredded leaves, grass clippings, hay or compost. By laying down these organic materials in a thick mat around and between your plants, weeds are

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deprived of light and air, thus growing more slowly or not at all. Unfortunately, organic mulches can hide pests, like slugs, which bring a different battle to the frontlines of keeping your garden healthy and productive. Another popular option for smothering weeds is landscape fabric. This “fabric” is actually woven from plastic material and comes in various thicknesses ranging from white, whispy and nearly translucent to black, tightly woven and opaque. Being made of plastic, it may feel a little sketchy allowing it in the vegetable garden, though it is widely accepted as safe. Williams advises it’s not harmful as long as it doesn’t break down, which means you may need to replace it as it wears and tears, especially in high-traffic areas. Aesthetically, weed fabric leaves much to be desired and it is necessary to make holes around your plants so that you may effectively water, although a drip irrigation system underneath can tackle that problem. SPRAY/TORCH Chemical herbicides are widely available and known to be extremely effective at keeping weeds at bay. But at what cost? Their effect on the environment, our bodies and beneficial pollinators is questionable, at best. Fortunately, there are organic sprays available. They may not be quite as effective, but are a step in the right direction, fending off weeds while maintaining a healthy landscape. Native Roots sells a vinegar, orange oil and molasses spray that is very effective, according to Wickman. Spray weeds early on a hot day, with plenty of sunlight left before sundown as it is the burning effect that does them in. This spray is most effective for annual weeds. Another option is using a blowtorch to kill weeds and weed seed in your plot. This is an especially easy method for larger plots and you can do it in any temperature or time of day. Garden blowtorches run anywhere from $20-$200 and are available online. Safety is a top concern, as it can be dangerous to wield a torch in dry, heavily wooded areas. It is also not effective for weeds that creep right up to your desired plants, so must be used in combination with hand pulling. A garden completely free of weeds is an impossibility, unfortunately. However, by utilizing any of the methods above, either alone or in combination, your garden has the potential to increase its productivity and you can keep weeds at bay effectively. Happy weed wrangling! /

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used in homemade beauty products, and some are medicinal. [See page 4 for more on eating weeds.] We’re talking free food, people! And with locally grown organic greens running between $3 and $5 a bundle at some food stores, it’s pretty enticing to stroll out to your garden and pluck a few handfuls of purslane or mallow to bulk up your dinner salad. Not only are weeds delicious, they’re nutritious. Purslane has the highest concentration of omega-3 fatty acids of any leafy vegetable. A single serving of dandelion leaves packs a whole day’s worth of vitamin A in its bright, bitter punch. Viewing these plants as partners rather than adversaries is a great weed control method for the less vigilant gardener, freeing them up to enjoy rafting the river, trying out that new micro-brew or hitting the trail instead of toiling away in the dirt. One drawback to the “if you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em” ethos is that not all weeds are edible (I’m looking at you, bindweed). Also, your co-workers at the company picnic may be the tiniest bit suspicious of your dandelion pesto [See page 38 for a recipe]. Oh, well, more for you.

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grain-free quick breads By Becca James

rain-free baking has gained popularity of late as people eliminate gluten and, often, all grains to address health concerns or just invest in a more nutrient-dense diet. However, we still long for that “bread” component so ubiquitous in our culture. The pastries, biscuits, and toast of childhood beckon. Enter grain-free baking to approximate that experience if not replicate it perfectly. The ingredients of grain-free baking differ from gluten-free baking and are often simpler. Coconut flour, almond flour (and other nut flours), arrowroot powder, and tapioca flour constitute the backbone of grain-free baking in my kitchen. The arrowroot and tapioca are not strictly necessary but provide needed structure in some recipes. Watch the arrowroot and tapioca, however, because they can spike blood sugar if used in large amounts. Almond flour is my favorite to work with as it boasts a buttery flavor, an impressive nutritional profile, and yields a tender crumb reminiscent of “regular” flour. Coconut flour is a wonderful alternative that, while generally producing a spongier texture, will keep you satiated with its high fiber content. I often will mix the two, taking the best from both to produce crowd-pleasing results. Both flours provide a low-glycemic, low-carb alternative to grain-based flours. With the exception of these flour substitutions, the other ingredients for grain-free baking look very much as they do in traditional baking. Reduce fat with almond flour as the almonds bring their own lipids to your recipe. Coconut flour loves added moisture and generally requires quite a few eggs for a good result. Do not by any means use coconut and almond flour interchangeably. They have very different characteristics and your recipe will not turn out well with a direct substitution. Quick breads are the easiest starting place for newcomers to grain-free baking. They will give you a result often indistinguishable from traditional breads. Dive in and try these fast and easy grain-free quick breads with a spring twist. /

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INGREDIENTS 4 large eggs, yolks and whites divided 1/3 cup coconut flour ¼ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon cream of tartar ¼ teaspoon baking soda 2 tablespoons finely minced fresh chives 4 tablespoons cold butter (or coconut oil, if you need a dairy-free version)

METHOD Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Separate eggs, putting the whites in a mixing bowl and the yolks in a small bowl. Whip the egg whites with a hand blender or in a stand mixer until they are about doubled in volume and holding soft peaks. Add the egg yolks and continue to whip on medium speed until incorporated and no yellow streaks remain. Mix together the coconut flour, salt, cream of tartar, and baking soda. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter or two forks until the pieces are the size of small peas. Add the chives to the dry mixture. Then add the dry mixture to the whipped eggs and fold gently until the two are combined. Dollop approximately quarter-cup-sized scoops onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat. Bake for 15 minutes until starting to turn golden on top. Variation: add 2/3 cup grated, aged cheese to the dry ingredients for a cheesy chive biscuit.

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Rhubarb Muffins METHOD Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with muffin papers. Depending on the size of the muffin cups, this recipe may fill a mini loaf pan in addition. If so, grease the small loaf pan with coconut oil, butter, or coconut oil spray. Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Combine the wet ingredients in a small bowl, whisking well to make sure the eggs are incorporated. Cut rhubarb into approximately half-inch pieces. If the stalk is thick, you can slice lengthwise once or even twice to achieve this. Chop pecans, if using. Stir the rhubarb and pecans into the batter until evenly distributed. Divide into the muffin cups (and mini loaf pan if needed) and bake for 25 minutes (10 minutes longer for the loaf pan) until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and the tops are starting to brown.

INGREDIENTS 3 cups blanched almond flour ½ cup arrowroot powder ½ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoons cinnamon (more or less to taste) ½ cup dehydrated cane juice or coconut sugar (adding more or less to taste will not affect the outcome of the recipe) 3 eggs ½ cup yogurt, buttermilk, or coconut milk mixed with 2 teaspoons lemon juice for acidity ¼ cup butter or coconut oil, melted 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 ½ cups fresh rhubarb ½ cup chopped pecans (optional)

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An Edible interview with Neil Hannum

riving across 160 between Cortez and the Ute Mountain Farm & Ranch Enterprise (about 14 miles south and due west, much of it unpaved, from Cortez), Neil Hannum peers out the enormous windshield of his early-model yellow delivery truck, named Sunshine, and takes in the four-corners landscape: sagebrush and grey-green outcroppings, red cliffs and alluvial fans. “Man it just makes me want to paint,” Hannum says, raising his voice over Sunshine’s road-weary roar. Five years ago, the former designer (not a surprise when you see his notable, self-designed, logo) was ready to try something new. Durango Snack Werks was born and just like that, Hannum became the Chip Peddler. Hannum gets his non-GMO corn from the Ute Mountain Farm & Ranch Enterprise (a 120-mile round trip from the headquarters in Durango). With the help of one part time employee, Hannum picks up the corn, grinds the corn, and cooks the chips. And if that isn't enough, he literally pedals and peddles them himself, his customized delivery bike and bike-trailer playing a pivotal role in his branding. Number four of his company's four-part mission statement denotes: Give back to two-wheeled sports. From the very beginning, locals took note. Hannum was everywhere and eventually, so were his chips (both potato and corn although corn seems to be the focus as of late). Now, five years later, 16 edible

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his chips have been served at the White House, and major grocery store chains are paying attention to his efforts. It might be safe to say that Hannum, along with the bike, bowler hat and handlebar mustache, was always the chip peddler. He was already a brand. He just needed the right idea. Where and when and what was the impetus for your idea to start a local potato chip company? What were you doing for a living before Chip Peddler? 1a) I had been following the local food movement trends 2a) To create local jobs 3a) Insanity What were you doing for a living before Chip Peddler? 1b) Living the dream 2b) Selling my soul for little in return 3b) Part-owner of Creative Conspiracy, a graphic design shop located in Durango Did you consider other ideas before settling on chips? Brewery, distillery, art gallery and even a magazine, by the way. I love what you are doing. Did anybody try to talk you out of it? The owners of Route 11 Potato Chips, where I bought some of

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my equipment. Mostly I was encouraged to try by the people who own Durango Soda Company – the makers of Zuberfizz – and SKA Brewing. Who was your very first customer? Dietz Market Tell me about that first sale. Did you just walk in with your product and say ... say what? We had taken out an ad in the paper and Kay, at Dietz Market, called us letting us know she was very interested in carrying our products. What was the moment when you first realized that this idea of yours just might work? I am still waiting for it, but I’m taking it all step by step. Looking back, what was your biggest hurdle? I could say “building the shop” or “getting into stores,” but in reality, I seem to be my own biggest hurdle. All of my weaknesses are amplified; I’m still learning more in failure than success. Looking forward, what do you see as your next hurdle? We have been contacted by Whole Foods and asked if we would like to be part of their “Local Vendor Program.” This will require us to focus all of our efforts on the tortilla chip line of products, adding another flavor and all of them being offered in a larger size. Sorry potato chips fans, they will be put on hiatus until further notice. You have a unique branding concept that is hard to miss (I think you even look like a chip peddler). Where did this branding concept come from? It almost seems like the brand preceded the company instead of the

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other way around. As a designer, you have to flush out all of your ideas, and some of the first ones were “Colorado Chips” and “Rocky Mountain Chips” and then somewhere in the brainstorming the name “Chip Peddler” came to me. From there, all of the marketing pertains to letting the consumer know where we buy our ingredients and supporting twowheel sports. What would be your advice to somebody considering a similar leap? Understand marketing and branding, remember after all the hard work, your brand will be the part that is most valuable. Take business classes. Intern at a place with a similar business model. What are you reading? I just finished reading Two Years Before The Mast, Richard Henry Dana’s account of working the California hide trade in the 1830s and the trip around the Horn and back to Boston. My great-grandfather also took the same journey in the early 1880s, from Livermore, England, to San Francisco and back as a seaman. What are you listening to? KSUT. The programs, Timbuktu and Beyond and The Velvet Rut on KDUR. The artists Carute Roma, Lady Lamb and Eileen Jewell. When the chips and guacamole come out, do you dig in or, due to your business, are you overdosed on chips? I think that we make the best “Salty”® tortilla chip in the business and the new “El Rancho con Queso”® tortilla chip is hard to stop eating. So, no, I’m not tired of them yet. /

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Tammy Barrett, and her daughter Jalee.

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n a rainy Saturday in January, Nick Love and his wife, Nicole Cooling, blend strawberries, bananas and yogurt into smoothies in a small kitchen at Montrose’s Black Canyon Gymnastics where a dozen people have gathered for a midday potluck meal. Outside the kitchen, a table is covered with dishes, including locally-grown pinto beans cooked with onions and garlic; a savory corn casserole; and a plate of chocolate chip cookies made with oats, whole-wheat flour, nuts and raisins. There’s also a platter of raw veggies and a bag of fresh clementines. Tammy Cuneo has brought a crockpot of simmering chopped pork seasoned with garlic and apple juice, plus a tossed green salad. Her partner, Jason Ott, discovered only recently that he likes vegetables. “I couldn’t get Jason to eat any veggies – except for potatoes and spaghetti squash,” says Cuneo. These potluck attendees have been prescribed fruits and vegetables by their physicians through Local Farmacy Rx. “Local Farmacy Rx – Nurturing Farms and Families” is a 12-week program through which income-qualifying patients receive vouchers to spend on fresh produce at local farmers markets while attending cooking classes to learn how to use the produce. Two years ago, Olathe resident Abbie Brewer was managing the Montrose Farmers’ Market. She noticed a certain clientele was absent. She began researching online for ideas to integrate the lowincome population into the local foods movement. She discovered a New York City program called Wholesome Wave, in which physicians prescribe fresh fruits and vegetables to their patients. At the time, Brewer was also volunteering for LiveWell Montrose Olathe, a Valley Food Partnership program that promotes healthy eating and active living. Collaborating with groups such as Montrose Memorial Hospital, Center for Mental Health Montrose, the county’s Health and Human Services, and the Hispanic Affairs Project, they created Local Farmacy Rx. The group secured a $165,000 Colorado Health Foundation grant to fund a two-year pilot program that Brewer manages. Nurse practitioner Jana Faragher recruited a network of Montrose and Olathe physicians willing to prescribe fruits and vegetables to

Photos by Michelle Ellis

SOUTHWEST COLORADO MUD SEASON

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patients they believed could benefit both health-wise and economically. Participants were given $35 vouchers to spend each week on fruits and vegetables at the Montrose Farmers’ Market. Additionally, the nine families who signed up for Local Farmacy attended biweekly cooking and health education classes. Eighty percent of class ingredients were from local farms. “It strengthened not only families, but local farmers, too,” says Brewer. Together, family members cleaned and chopped eggplants, bell peppers, purple potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes – whatever happened to be in season – trying new recipes using vegetables that some had never tried before. “It was critical to have all family members involved,” including children, who typically don’t do the shopping or cooking, says Faragher. Participants were given handy kitchen tools – salad spinners, vegetable scrub brushes, and graters – to take home as “incentives.” After making veggie tostadas, cabbage salsa, or vegetable stir-fry in class, the families sat down together and ate. Officially, the 2014 Local Farmacy season began August 23, and ended November 1. However, a kinship formed from the cooking and sharing of meals; and participants expressed an interest in staying connected with one another, says Brewer. Thus, the first crop of Local Farmacy clients decided to continue meeting monthly for midday potluck meals throughout the winter. To the January potluck Ann Evans brought a jar of pickles she canned herself – a skill she learned from the food preservation class. “I bought the book, a canning pressure cooker, and learned to preserve pickles, tomatoes, salsa and corn,” says Evans. “The kids really enjoyed it. They made jellies and jams.” Evans and her husband, Darwin Arnett, and their kids were among seven families who had never been to the Montrose Farmers’ Market before last summer. “I saw things that I didn’t know grew here,” says Arnett. Prior to signing up for the program, none of the nine participating families were aware that the farmers’ market accepted SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits. In 2014, Farmacy bucks accounted for 2.7 percent of Montrose Farmers’ Market sales. More significantly, vendors noted last year an increased use of SNAP benefits due to a greater awareness generated by Local Farmacy clients. Food stamp purchases, which included eggs and meat as well as produce, provided about 40 percent of overall farmers’ market sales, says Brewer. Two years ago, the

Jeannie Miller, a physicians assistant and the chief medical officer at River Valley Family Health Center in Olathe.

percentage of farmers’ market sales from SNAP benefits was zero. To track program results, participants’ height, weight and blood pressure were measured and recorded before and after the threemonth period. Misael Quintero discovered he had high blood pressure so he started eating smaller portions, consuming less salt, and eating more fresh produce. Quintero also started exercising more. By the end of the 12 weeks, his blood pressure decreased by 20 points, and he lost 10 pounds. Overall program outcomes showed an increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, a median BMI reduction of 1.5 percent, and family members sharing meals together more often. Several of last year’s Local Farmacy participants, like Misael’s wife, Francisca, have offered to help mentor a new group of families during the 2015 Local Farmacy season, says Brewer. Quintero has volunteered to translate for Spanish-speaking clients. Brewer says she hopes to start this year’s program in July, and wants to increase participation from 9 to 40 families. She also hopes to increase physician involvement. Farmer Alyssa Tsukushi says it was great to see a new group of patrons at last year’s market. “I was giving turnips to the kids,” she says. “They would chow down on them raw. They’re very sweet. People loved them.” Jason Ott, the former steak-and-potatoes-only guy, says he’d bring his daughter to the farmers’ market every Saturday where, from her stroller, she’d point to the apples, peaches and plums

that he would buy. And, she loved Tsukushi’s turnips. “Now, instead of cereal, she eats turnips for snacks,” says Cuneo, her mother. Sixty-three-year-old Bonnie Glover finishes her lunch while explaining why she signed up for Local Farmacy. She says her son wanted to participate for the “sake of his 10-year-old,” but wanted his mom to do the program with them. So, together, the three generations of Glovers attended the cooking/education classes and learned new recipes such as roasted leeks – “good as chips, or in salads,” says Glover. “I learned a lot of tips, even as old as I am. Little Ryan absolutely loved the cooking in the kitchen. He thought it was the best thing. When he stays with Grandma, he cooks more.” At the potluck, Brewer is wearing a white and green baseballtype jersey with the phrase “Eat Your Vegetables.” Apt attire for the mother of four teenage boys. She understands how some families might need a little help, or incentive, to spend money on fresh fruits and vegetables when budgets are tight. And, how it becomes easier once you know how to prepare fresh produce, how delicious it can be, and, how eating more vegetables improves health. Brewer says she frequently heard exclamations of “Wow, this is good,” as people tried new foods for the first time. Not only did Local Farmacy help families improve their diets, it provided an avenue for medical providers to initiate conversations about nutrition and lifestyle, and gave local farmers a new clientele. “It’s been a win-win-win for everybody,” says Brewer. /

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Vintage photo of a family enjoying dinner, Lodz, Poland, circa 1950s.

the gravity of our own kitchens By Rachel Turiel

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t happens like this. My family and I are innocently eating something produced and packaged by others – mayonnaise, marshmallows, pricey squares of toasted wasabi seaweed encased in enough plastic to house a classroom hamster – when cartoonish light bulbs ping above my head. I could make this. Most recently it was horseradish sauce. Two days later a homely, dirt-spangled root was churning to mash in my food processor, my children wincing as the biting aroma leapt out, lashing at nostrils and eyes. I enjoy cooking. I like midwifing chemical reactions, spinning a motley assortment of fridge inhabitants into something called dinner, and nourishing others with these daily experiments. Cooking connects me to the season, my home, my hands, and the earthysweet secrets within a beet’s rugged hide. Despite food being a central spoke on the wheel of humanity, research confirms that we’re spending half as much time cooking as our parents and grandparents did. Of all nations, Americans spend the least amount of time preparing meals: approximately 27 minutes a day (according to an international study conducted in 2011). Additionally, the USDA reports that half the money we spend on eating goes to food prepared outside the home. Why are we cooking less and what are the repercussions of this decline? How does cooking affect our health, finances, families, and environment? Is knowing how to scramble an egg or assemble a spontaneous meal from the outback of our fridge part of being a well-rounded human? Or is it just another chore to outsource, like sewing clothes or building homes? If cooking is continuing a conversation started hundreds of thousands of years ago, can we opt out, and simply order something to go? Is there a crucial interaction between our brains and, say, chopping vegetables – much like the synergistic partnership between meat and flame – that stokes the very fire of our DNA, making us, in essence, human? WHAT IS COOKING? First, what constitutes cooking? Is it the mere act of turning on the oven? Can opening cans be involved? Erin Jolley, program manager for the Southwest Colorado branch of the nationwide non-profit, Cooking Matters, defines cooking as what you perform with your high-end oven, your microwave in a hotel room, or camp stove in the woods, i.e. anything from a 10-ingredient stew to hot dogs. Jolley says, “It’s the combination of an individual’s access to resources, skill set, preferences and traditions that result in what we eat for dinner; a kind of recipe in itself, mixed with complex ingredients.”

THE MONEY FACTOR Of all nations, Americans spend the smallest percentage of their income on food, just 6.4% (France spends 14%; Kenya, 45%), a number which has decreased by 50% in the past fifty years. The reason is twofold. Americans have the greatest disposable income, and, since the 1970s, our principle food production policy has been to create the cheapest possible calories. According to Bryan Walsh, in his Time magazine article Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food, American farmers have increased their corn harvest per acre by 25% in the past decade through chemical fertilizer use and $262 billion in taxpayer subsidies between 1995-2010. The food industry briskly turned this abundance of corn into cheap meat, milk, eggs, soda, and snack food.

One dollar currently buys 1200 calories of potato chips (likely fried in corn oil) versus 250 calories of vegetables. This might beg the question: in a time of diet-driven disease, why isn’t our government subsidizing fresh fruits and vegetables? Food activists Michael Pollan and Marion Nestle say the true costs of our cheap food show up in rising obesity rates, environmental degradation, lax safety measures and disgraceful labor practices. Matt Kelly, personal finance coach in Durango, notes that while everyone needs to eat, food budgets allow for a tremendous range of discretionary spending. Some will pay high dollar for the health benefits of extra virgin, cold pressed, organic olive oil in a glass bottle. Others will always congratulate themselves on securing the lowest price in every food category. Kelly believes that even in a world of cheap fast food, cooking at home is always the least expensive way to eat. Cooking utilizes unpaid labor plus circumvents spending time and resources on obtaining one single meal. Kelly spends $400 per month on groceries for his family of three (which includes the notoriously voracious species: teenage boy). His grocery store cart contains almost no prepared food, mostly fresh fruits, vegetables (10% - 25% organic), whole grains and meat (grass-fed). (Google: “dirty dozen produce” to see which fruits and vegetables are most important to buy organic.) Jennifer Smith, a Durango mother, has made a job out of procuring what she feels is the most healthful food possible for her family. She buys, direct from the farmer, grass-fed milk and meat, pastured eggs, the freshest in-season organic vegetables and certainly the olive oil described above. She creates everything from cookies to pickles out of carefully researched ingredients. The Smith family spends a full 45% of their income on food (much like Egypt or Pakistan), which means they forego vacations that don’t involve driving their 1999 Subaru to a campground. Smith explains, “We eat this way because life is so much more enjoyable when you’re healthy!” Erin Jolley serves 500 low-income families annually through cooking classes and supermarket tours where she teaches people on a budget how to stock their carts with healthy food. The majority of her supermarket tours take place at Wal-Mart, where she notes with raised yes, believe it eyebrows, “you can find plenty of healthy food.” Jolley says that cooking at home saves money on the front end because you’re spending less on pre-made meals, and in the long run because there will be potentially less health-related costs. HEALTH The food industry is here to help the beleaguered cook. You can buy pre-made, frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pre-formed and -cooked hamburgers, and your child’s entire portable lunch portioned into a raft of molded plastic. In order for prepared food to remain tasty, cheap and well preserved, it often contains large amounts of sugar, preservatives and trans-fats (which have been

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THE FAMILY MEAL CONUNDRUM It is well documented that while many aspects of family life have become more egalitarian, cooking falls disproportionally on women’s shoulders. Ruth Reichl, former editor of Gourmet, once said, “I don’t think there is one thing more important you can do for your kids than have family dinner.” This quote has been dragged through the feminist mud as proof that unrealistic expectations are still slung at women. “How about hug them occasionally?” Virginia Heffernan rebuts sarcastically in her The New York Times essay, What if You Just Hate Making Dinner? Research links regular family meals to everything we want for our kids – lower rates of obesity, substance abuse, teen pregnancy and depression – while boosting vocabularies, self esteem, and the intake of new foods including increased amounts of fruits and vegetables. For some families, dinner is a rarefied island of togetherness between the hustle of work, school and homework. Some psychologists say don’t worry about the meals, these benefits come simply from spending time with your children. However, after working with thousands of families, Erin Jolley says “Cooking leads to more family togetherness; it models to children that good health is worth spending time on.” If picky, ungrateful kids have spurred your own cooking fatigue, as well as the weary quest to find, as Heffernan says, the least “endocrinologically devastating” ingredients, the book, French Kids Eat Everything, by Karen Le Billon, may provide relief. Le Billon suggests that Americans’ privileged choices plus modern parental guilt and lack of a strong culinary tradition have created entitled children who snack constantly (French advertisements for snack food often come with warnings) yet have little respect for food. Le Billon promises that feeding kids wouldn’t be so stressful if we followed the French rules including, adults and kids eat the same thing; stop the compulsive snacking (feeling hungry between meals is okay); eat family meals without distractions (devices off); relax and enjoy eating, no bribes or rewards.

banned, limited and required to be labeled in many other countries). However, not all prepared food is suspect. Although many prepared foods are made with cheap ingredients, Charis (pronounced Care-iss) Rose, deli manager at Durango Natural Foods, points out that her prepared foods are made with fresh, local, healthy ingredients, all of which you can pronounce. Rose also asserts that children are more likely to try new foods when they’re not prepared by Mom – Brussels sprouts, for example – sinking the theory that adventurous eating is exclusive to the family meal.

by the deftness in which she approached what probably felt like the most important task we could imagine, feeding us. Perhaps we’ve traded tangible time at a cutting board for a voyeurism built on nostalgia.

THE ENVIRONMENT It appears that every pre-made, packaged lentil curry, granola bar or rotisserie chicken you buy costs the environment multiple times. The EPA states that 13% of all generated waste is plastic, the most common vehicle for packaged food. Plastic, from oil extraction for manufacturing to its eventual resting place in the landfill, is a train wreck of air pollution, groundwater contamination, and chemical exposure. The American Chemistry Council acknowledges “virtually all food packaging materials contain substances that can migrate into the food they contact.” Indeed, according to the website WebMD, 90% of us have detectable levels of the endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in our bodies.

IF YOU HATE TO COOK If you don’t like cooking, coming home hungry and tired at 6 pm to the prospect of more work doesn’t help get you in the mood. Matt Kelly, finance coach, says prior planning makes all the difference, so that eating out becomes a pre-meditated choice rather than a last minute Hail Mary. Kelly’s unsexy though rational advice is to make a weekly meal plan and shop accordingly. Furthermore, “get a crock pot and a crock pot recipe book.” Kelly uses his crock pot to make healthful, simple meals that cost between $5 - $10 for at least six servings. Kelly also recommends taking a few weekend hours to cook the majority of the meals for your week: pre-chop a large amount of vegetables; cook a pot of beans; wash lettuce for quick salads; roast a few trays of vegetables and a rack of sweet potatoes; make a pot of soup; roast a chicken. Having the right tools helps. Every participant in Cooking Matters gets a new chef’s knife because, Jolley says, “if you can’t cut a vegetable, chances of eating healthy decrease.”

THE TIME FACTOR AND THE COOKING PARADOX If you feel like you don’t have enough time to cook, this may be because Americans spend more time working than people in any other industrialized nation. Michael Pollan reports in his book, Cooked, that since 1967 we’ve added 167 hours to the amount of time we spend at work annually. That’s equivalent to an entire month. American labor movements have historically fought for higher wages, whereas European labor movements have sought more time off. And yet, we’re finding more time than ever for screens, including, ironically, watching people brawl culinarily on Top Chef, or Rachael Ray load her oven with bread crumb-crusted mac and cheese. We’re posting our meals on Facebook and Instagram, filling our Pinterest accounts with digitally-collated recipes. Many chefs enjoy celebrity status, perhaps, as Michael Pollan says, because “cooks get to put their hands on real stuff, not just keyboards and screens but fundamental things like plants and animals and fungi.” Could it be that lodged somewhere in our modern brains is an ancient storyline that we just can’t ignore? Or at even closer range: many of us can recall watching our mother in the kitchen, reassured

EPILOGUE In writing this essay, I hoped for a definitive answer as to why I feel compelled to steam up the already sweltering house canning salsa on a late-summer day; or to give myself carpel tunnel from slipping acres of skins off roasted green chiles. And though I can wave the banners of frugality and sustainability, this pull springs less from any philosophy than from the irrepressible fingers of my very DNA reaching for a knife when presented with a horseradish root. It’s not too far fetched to postulate that the ongoing, multi-step projects in my kitchen – bone broth, yogurt, kombucha – help to answer the ever-nagging question: “What am I doing with my life?” For a moment, it becomes clear: becoming intimate with the act of nurturing myself and others. For the first time in human history, vast choice surrounds the act of feeding ourselves. But, perhaps this isn’t the gift we perceive it to be. If we better understood what to eat and when, rather than pursuing the cheapest, most convenient, often sugar-laden food available, perhaps we’ d be pulled from the orbit of TV cooking shows back to the gravity of our own kitchens. Clearly, this is an individual choice, molded by privilege and poverty, motivation and limitation, each of these factors shaping the ingredients that come together to comprise our meals. /

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old men in the field Photos and Text by Rick Scibelli, Jr.

A 1931 steel wheel John Deere Model D sits willing and able in Joe Schmidt's barn.

f cars were like tractors, many of us would still happily be commuting in our Packards and Nashes. Some of us would still be using Ford’s Model A (of course, the replacement for the Model T) as an everyday driver. Sixty-year-old cars are a novelty. But sixty-year-old tractors are just getting broken in. They age, but don’t seem to tire. Farmers refer to them with pronouns like “he” or “she.” It’s like a relationship … without the need to talk about feelings. As photographic subjects, tractors are stoics. They do not like the pomp and circumstance of a photo much like their brethren, the farmers. They’re not going to meet you halfway unless halfway means they are willing sit there while you release the shutter. They don’t much care for the attention. The following photographs were taken throughout Montezuma County.

An iconic John Deere Model B, with a wide front-end assembly, built between 1935 and 1952. "He is probably a 1950 or so," Joe Schmidt, the owner, says, making this tractor the third and final incarnation of the B, called the "late styled" Model B. It was designed for row-crop farmers who needed agility and speed that a huge tractor, like its cousin the John Deere Model A, could not provide. More than 200,000 Model Bs were produced over its 20-year production span. They were considered innovative and ahead of their time. Deere & Company was started by John Deere in 1836 in Grand Detour, Illinois. Deere, a blacksmith, built hand tools prior to building his first steel plow. Prior to that invention, most mid-western farmers were using wood or iron plows. Today, Deere is the largest agriculture machinery company in the world with more than 60,000 employees.

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Case Model LA, built between 1940 and 1953. At 52 horsepower, it is reported to be the largest Case tractor at the time. The J.I. Case Corporation was founded in 1844 in Racine, Wisconsin, by Jerome I. Case. In the 19th century, they built steam engines. In the 20th century, they built tractors. Following several merges and acquisitions over several decades including mergers with International Harvester and, later, New Holland (forming the parent company CNH Global) Case is now a subsidiary of the Italian conglomerate, Fiat, the company best known for its sports cars and the pop star, J. Lo. This tractor is owned and maintained by Joe Schmidt of Lewis, Colorado.

oe Schmidt has a photo album filled with images of his tractors. He has fondness for each one, like children. “That’s an Alli-G,” he says, giving the nickname for an Allis Chalmers model G, a cultivating tractor. It means the seat is off center so the operator can look straight down between his legs and see what he is plowing. To get Joe to talk about tractors in poetic terms is impossible. What you hope to hear is something like ‘it’s about nostalgia, and loss and reconnecting to my ancestors. My tractors have souls.’ Instead Joe will search and scramble and wiggle with the discomfort of a man who finds no peace in the subject of himself. “I don’t know, you know, I just don’t know …” he will say, quickly deflecting the line of questioning as far away from him as possible. Joe, a lifelong bachelor and former commercial fisherman, helps take care of his dad on their acreage in Lewis, Colorado. He has never owned a cell phone or a computer. “I don’t do that email,” he says. The tractor doctor has no answering machine, either. “We just never got around to getting one,” Joe says. “You have a passion for this, Joe. Where do you think that comes from?” “Oh, I don’t know … an-y-way … this over here, he is a John Deere L,” pointing to another seemingly content behemoth corralled in one of his three tractor barns like a dusty draft horse just waiting for spring.

(Clockwise from top left) A 1952 Ford Model 8N owned by Jerry Potter in Mancos, Colorado. Ford N-Series tractors were produced between 1939 and 1952, making Potter's tractor relatively new. Henry Ford believed his competition was the horse and set out to design tractors for farmers who were not mechanically inclined. The Ford 8N, at the time, was the best-selling American tractor of all time. The 8N was replaced by the Golden Jubilee in 1953. A 1959 John Deere 730 diesel with an adjustable wide front owned by Mike Nolan in Mancos, Colorado. "It has the original tires," Nolan says. "It only has 5500 hours on it." Dustin Stein parks his classic and much sought-after Allis Chalmers G in Mancos, Colorado. The "Alli-G" is a row tractor that was originally designed for small vegetable farmers. Around 1930, as a marketing ploy, Allis Chalmers began painting their tractors bright orange (influenced by the California poppy fields). International Harvester and Case soon followed suit thus giving birth to the ubiquitous red tractor. A Farmall Super AV high clearance cultivator owned by Paul Bohmann of Confluence Farm. The Super AV was produced between 1947 and 1954 by International Harvester. McCormick Farmalls were produced from the 1920s to the ’70s for small family farmers.

First Milk

for a period in the summer before weaning them to grass. We find this grows healthy calves which learn from their mothers how to effectively graze and forage. (Confession time. I buy cream in the winter for my tea. Have you tried Earl Grey without cream? It is decidedly lacking. I tried freezing cream, but it separates and is a bit weird and oily so the best quality, grass-fed, low-temperature-pasteurized cream that I can buy sneaks into our fridge. Shhh…don’t tell our cows). Other than these indulgences, we wait. We eat cheese. The cold, grassless winter was indeed the impetus for the creation of cheese. Cheese developed originally as a way to preserve milk for travel or for winter, when ruminants could not access pasture. Being a seasonal dairy works for us as a modern business practice because we embrace this time-honored principle and make most of our milk into cheese. For us, cheese making and dairying are complementary activities; one necessarily depending on the other. Lack of milk is not a problem in January. In March, however, as the snow begins to depart and that warm, malty smell of spring inhabits the air, we want it. We watch the cows grazing below the house in the “maternity ward.” The kids know what to look for. “Mom, that one is off by herself. Do you think she’s getting close?” “Maybe,” I answer. “Keep an eye on her.” Truth be told, the birth of that first calf is so gloriously hopeful in its concrete evidence of the cycle of new life, we forget about milk

and marvel at the glassy-eyed, wobbly-legged newcomer. Maybe the next day, one of the kids will ask, “How long until milk?” “Six more days,” I respond. “Oh, right,” says the resigned questioner. They remember we wait for the cows to work through their thick, yellow, antibody-rich colostrum before the true milk is flowing. We milk our cows once a day so the wait is six to seven days. Over the centuries, we humans have developed our current modern dairy breeds to produce much more milk than one calf could ever drink. This assures ample nourishment for both bovine and human consumers. Then, the wind-whipped spring day comes when the milk is ready. It is morning dew and smooth satin sliding down our throats, carrying with it the taste of hay, new shoots of grass, and the promise of another season of growing, harvesting, creating, and preserving. It was worth the wait. In this moment, we intensely feel a sense of place and time, interwoven and mingled together giving rhythm and solidity to this life. Any food, eaten seasonally, can evoke this sense of a spinning and tilting earth and remind you of your small spot on it. Simply pay attention. You will feel your connection whether you are tasting the tender leaves of early spinach or enjoying the first creamy milk of spring. Eating seasonally is eating consciously and eating consciously is eating well. /

By Becca James

Stay & Soak in Colorado’s

ur family doesn’t drink milk. Well, at least not from December through March. We are dairy farmers who milk our cows only between April and November when they’re grazing on green grass. I don’t drink a lot of milk anyway, even in the summer, leaning toward fermented dairy like yogurt, kefir, and cheese. There is one time of year, however, when I crave it, love it, and drink it with relish. When the months of going without suddenly seem like an eternity and the memory embedded in our taste buds tugs insistently at us. This is the first week of April when calving starts and the first milk flows. Our family views milk as a seasonal food like peaches, basil or cherries. Milk has a luxuriously long season compared to produce – eight months on our farm – but it is seasonal nonetheless. When we first started milking cows, however, we would buy milk in the winter. One year, we even milked Bonnie, a late-calving cow, through

one particularly snowy winter. As we got deeper into our dairying practice and became more intimately familiar with both the land and animals, we decided that we, too, could become more connected to the cycle of the seasons. We dry up the cows in November for a long winter’s rest. We freeze a little milk in the fall, destined for a few batches of silky yogurt in the winter or maybe a special cup of hot chocolate. Big glasses of milk are nowhere to be found. Part of this philosophy and practice of seasonal eating springs from our commitment to mimicking nature. Elk calve in the spring and nurse their babies all summer. Then, in their own instinctual animal way, they send their offspring to fend for themselves in the fall. This allows the mother to either grow another healthy calf or to maintain good body condition throughout the winter. Mirroring this process, our cows calve in the spring, then nurse their calves

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SPRING RECIPES INGREDIENTS 2.5 pounds pork, shredded or diced 1.25 pounds onion, diced small 3 tomatoes, diced small 1 tomatillo, diced small 6 green chiles (Anaheim Peppers), diced small 3 jalapenos, diced small 2 tablespoons garlic, minced 2 tablespoons Sriracha 4 tablespoons chipotle paste 3 tablespoons (or to taste) salt 1 tablespoon black pepper 2 tablespoons cumin 3 tablespoons chicken base 1+ gallons hot water

Cyprus Café’s Chef Vera’s Spring Zucchini Linguine INGREDIENTS 2 medium zucchini 2 tablespoons salt 3 tablespoons olive oil 8-10 sugar snap peas or snow peas 3-4 spears asparagus ½ teaspoon minced fresh garlic 4-5 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half 3-4 tablespoons white wine 2 tablespoons butter 2 teaspoon chopped fresh mint 2 teaspoon chopped fresh basil ½ fresh lemon for squeezing

METHOD (serves 8) If you own a spiralizer, spiralize the zucchini on the smaller blade. If you don’t own one, you may want to buy one, because they are super cool. But if not, slice the zucchini into julienne strips. A mandolin could work, too. Toss the zucchini strips with 2 tablespoons of salt, place in a colander and allow to drain for at least 30 minutes. Discard the water and rinse the salted zucchini. Heat a large sauté pan for 30 seconds or so. Add the olive oil, peas, and the asparagus. Sauté for 30 seconds to one minute, add the zucchini and garlic, stir and sauté for a few more seconds and then add the cherry tomatoes, white wine, herbs and butter. Toss all ingredients until hot. Turn off the heat, add squeeze of lemon and salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately with shaved Manchego cheese and pine nuts.

2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts Salt and pepper to taste

KANNAH CREEK BREWING PORK GREEN CHILE A

favorite in Colorado, Pork Green Chile gains its rich

green color from small, firm and tart tomatillos. Pork shoulder is slowly cooked until tender in the verdant broth

from dried peppers. The slow-braised pork is more meatysweet than toasty. We recommend pairing this dish with a blonde ale (consid-

– thinner than some bean-and-beef-based chilis – and has

er our own, Island Mesa, which will be released mid-May).

subtle heat thanks to milder Anaheim Chiles. Serve the chile

A blonde shows off the subtle malty bread flavors in the beer,

with tortilla chips and lime wedges after the flavors have

and compliments the salty pork. If you prefer another style,

concentrated.

we recommend an IPA (consider our own, Broken Oar),

The faint smokiness of the roasted peppers is more than offset by the bright tomatillo acidity. The fresh, green chiles bring in the zip, so there are none of the dark raisin notes

whose crisp hop bitterness shows off the complex spice of the three different peppers.

METHOD (serves 4 to 6) Cover the bottom of a large pot with olive oil. On medium-high heat, sauté pork for 10 minutes. Add chiles, tomatillos, onions, jalapenos, garlic and sweat for 7-10 minutes. Add tomatoes and sweat for another 3 minutes. Add hot water, chicken base, chipotle paste, Sriracha, salt, black pepper, and cumin, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 2-4 hours. Once cooked, add roux to desired consistency. ROUX In a pan over medium heat, melt one stick of butter and 1 teaspoon of chicken base. Add flour until all liquid is absorbed but not to where there is dry flour. Mix together until a ball of dough-like substance forms. Continue to cook until golden brown. Add small amounts to the simmering pot of chili until fully dissolved and desired consistency is achieved.

M -F 9a-8p sat 11a-7p

sun seasonal hours

12 beers always on tap plus limited and unique brews. tour the brewery daily at 4p.

READERS OPINION

DIY PANTRY

URBAN ARCHERY FOR URBAN DEER? NOT A GOOD IDEA By M. Andrew Taylor

Stop Buying and Start Making:

DANDELION PESTO By Rachel Turiel

pring comes on slow in the Southern Rocky Mountains. It’s like taking Amtrak rather than an airplane to your destination: a long, pleasing journey with plenty of station stops at which to peer out a window and notice the first lemon-yellow goldfinches returning. We’re just decelerating off the icy ramp of cabin fever and excessive soup consumption when dandelion greens arrive. They show up like a cherished guest, the kind that gets everyone laughing and staying up too late begging to hear more stories. And now, giddy on the increasing arc of the sun and the promise of a new growing season, these diminutive, nutritious plants, free for the picking, are inextricable from this very season of renewal. And really, eating dandelions is not so radical; I mean, every Eastern European grandma is on her hands and knees right now stuffing jagged leaves into a pouch, her grandmother’s warning about scurvy still ringing in her ears. But somehow much of America still treats

Dandelion Pesto

Juice of 1 fat lemon 2 cloves garlic

INGREDIENTS

Salt

3 cups young dandelion leaves 1 cup roasted nuts (roast in oven/toaster oven at 250F for 20

METHOD

minutes. Pecans, walnuts, or almonds work well.)

Blend everything until smooth

1/2 cup olive oil

38 edible

SOUTHWEST COLORADO MUD SEASON

these sunny little plants as enemies, mounting chemical attacks as if a small yellow-headed flower is something to be afraid of. Do we need to discuss why you should eat dandelions? How dandelion leaves are a power food? How they have almost as much calcium as milk, cup for cup, or how they’re walloped with potassium, iron, beta-carotene, Vitamins B, C and K? How the USDA ranks them in the top four green vegetables in overall nutritional value? How they taste mild and forest-y with just a hint of bitterness – a bitterness that your liver would encourage you to eat and which disappears under a tangy salad dressing or in a rich, nutty pesto? Some harvesting tips: Pick ’em young, they get more bitter after flowering; look in shady spots where they’re less likely to have flowered. Watch out for areas that may have been sprayed with chemicals. If you live in a super hip place, you can probably find them at your local farmers market or natural food store. /

2015

he opinion article “Urban Archery For Urban Deer?” in the Fall 2014 Edible, outlining a well-meaning vision of uber-qualified bowhunters to solve Durango’s “deer problem,” warrants further and deeper discussion. The article states, “Without intervention, urban mule deer populations will continue to increase, likely bringing an accompanying uptick in mountain lions seeking prey within Durango city limits.” The idea is that because there are deer within the city of Durango, and since mountain lions prey on deer, then more mountain lions will be attracted to the city. Therefore, our children are at imminent risk from the lions and we need to act (by killing the deer with bows and arrows) before it is too late. For starters, nature is not that simple. One reason a mountain lion might venture into an urban area is that the species is highly territorial and, for instance, a younger mountain lion who has not yet established a territory can get “pushed” by an older, established mountain lion into more marginal, unoccupied habitat, such as near an urban area. So, more mountain lions in the wild, not more deer in town, might result in a lion ranging near town. The opinion further states, “There is no valid reason that Durango could not follow suit and implement the most successful and cost-effective method of urban deer population control.” Let’s address this extraordinary idea that archery is the “most successful and cost-effective method of urban deer control.” Have there been studies on this “success” and high level of “cost efficiency” comparing other methods of animal control (bait-and-trap, dart-and-tranquilize, shotgun buckshot versus arrows, or game and fish agency personnel simply shooting the offending animals themselves)? How do these towns (on which the opinion extrapolates) compare to urban Durango in size of population and mix and density of ownerships? There’s much more, but let’s move on. Here is one enormously valid reason that hobby bowhunters, even those who have graduated from a mythical, animal damage control, uber-bowhunting certification/qualification class (where many are called and few are chosen), should not seriously be considered as a solution to controlling (read: killing) animals in an urban environment. It is bowhunting itself. Bowhunting is a primitive and inefficient method of killing, which causes great suffering and substantial wounding. When an animal is struck by an archery broadhead, it almost never dies immediately, but runs some distance, where it bleeds to death if not found by the hunter. Or it suffers a debilitating wound and lives with the inflicted damage – a

razor broadhead and/or portion or all of the arrow shaft stuck into bone or muscle. The obvious problem, besides the immense suffering, is while the animal is bleeding, it can, and often will, run away, especially if pursued. In an urban area with mixed ownerships, a wounded and bleeding animal would end up in someone’s backyard, or a park, street, or highway. Confusingly, the opinion states that these “urban” deer would only be hunted on “publicly-owned lands.” How would killing deer on these public lands reduce the deer living in neighborhoods? It’s likely that the more you hunt these unidentified public lands, the more you indoctrinate the deer to simply stay in larger private parcels and subdivisions. There is a palpable “in a perfect world” aspect to the opinion that bowhunters could cleanly, cost-effectively, and efficiently eliminate Durango’s “urban deer problem.” If the citizens of Durango agree that deer should be reduced or eliminated in town, then the city should (continue to) work with Colorado Parks and Wildlife for solutions. If mountain lions begin to threaten our children – which the article states is not only probable, but imminent – Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should be notified immediately! The USFWS employs the world’s experts at tracking and killing individual “problem” mountain lions. The larger issue is that we live in towns like Durango because they are partly wild and wholly magnificent. We not only build our cities in wild places, but spread them up and out and farther into the very wild places that attracted us here in the first place. By doing this, we diminish much of that wild, but not all of it. And certainly not cleanly. Expecting no wildlife in our midst, then, seems to me a little unreasonable, although indelibly, and most assuredly, human. So, let’s not consider solving Durango’s “deer problem” by having an urban archery season. To do so would be terribly inefficient, horrifically inhumane, and probably not even necessary in the first place. /

M. Andrew Taylor is a writer and editor who worked for four years as the Southwest Regional game damage specialist for the Colorado Division of Wildlife where he investigated mountain lion and black bear depredations on domestic livestock, and administered and led special deer hunts in agricultural areas.

outtakes

Old Fashioned Standards Passed on for Generations!

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