In the Land of Chile and Pecans SOUTHWESTERN NEW MEXICO by Katherine Mast · Photos by Stephanie Cameron
Agriculture in southwestern New Mexico generally means just a few crops. Pecans and chile top the list; cotton, dairy, and onions enter the story. Vineyards near Deming and Mesquite provide grapes to many of the state’s wineries, and a number of small farms help make farmers markets in Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences lively, bustling places. Chances locally grown produce will appear on a restaurant menu are slim, but New Mexico beef and Hatch green chile often make an appearance. To really see a community’s landscape, one has to get off the highway. At seventy-five miles an hour on I-25, occasional pecan groves and chile fields only hint at the richness of the landscape a little further west, and at the reasons the region in known as the Green Chile Capital. The side roads paint a different picture. The slower route from Las Cruces to Truth or Consequences parallels the interstate, but tucked in the Rio Grande valley, it passes through a smattering of small communities that tend the famed agriculture of the region. Not far from Las Cruces, pecan groves rise in carefully manicured rows—evenly spaced lines of pruned trees with a remarkable lack of anything growing beneath. 36
edible Santa Fe | SPRING 2015
Highway 185 parallels the Rio Grande, coming so close that only a few willows separate the road and river. The media has reported in recent years about how little water runs through the river, but the cracked and dry riverbed is still shocking to witness. In the winter months, just a trickle snakes through, winding from bank to bank, evaporating completely in sections, and reappearing further south. Eventually, the rows of pecans give way to fields of harvested cotton and acres of last year’s chiles. Tufts of white on brown earth are evidence of cotton production. Chile farms still hold bare skeletons of stalks and leaves, with desiccated red fruits hanging from the dry stems. In spite of abundant agriculture in the region, the local food movement is nascent compared to Albuquerque or Santa Fe. Several restaurateurs, from Las Cruces to Socorro, said that finding locally grown produce in the quantities they needed was a major impediment to sourcing locally. Others, marketing New Mexico salsas and pecans topped with spices, sugar, or chocolate, seemed unaware of ingredients—like fruit—that could be sourced within the state. The food is there—its just not making it to local markets yet.