Fall 2021: Atmosphere

edible NEW MEXICO

®

THE STORY OF LOCAL FOOD, SEASON BY SEASON

MEMBER OF EDIBLE COMMUNITIES

Atmosphere

ISSUE 75 · FALL SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2021

505 Cerrillos, Santa Fe . 505.930.5325 . radishandrye.com

Fall

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2021

CONTENTS DEPARTMENTS

39 #EDIBLENM

GRIST FOR THE MILL

40 BACK OF THE HOUSE

4

CONTRIBUTORS

44 EIGHT AROUND THE STATE

6

LOCAL HEROES

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24

28 32

36

By Willy Carleton and Briana Olson

Sage Bakehouse, Nexus Brewery & Restaurant, Vegos, Montoya Orchard

FORAGING

Autumn Mushrooms in the Mountains

by Ellen Zachos

Season of the ’Wich by Candolin Cook

76 LOCAL PROVISIONS GUIDE 80 LAST BITE

Albuquerque’s Mile-Hi Farmers’ Market

TOUCH AND GROW

A Geothermal Greenhouse to Combat Greenhouse Gas by Susan DeFreitas

®

THE STORY OF LOCAL FOOD, SEASON BY SEASON

Demitarianism

60 THE WORLD’S STRATOSPHERIC FOOD PROBLEM

FACES OF FOOD

NEW MEXICO

50 COOKING FRESH

FEATURES

Adaptable Ambience with Garden Containers

by Marisa Thompson

edible

Patios / Outdoor Dining

EDIBLE ENTREPRENEUR

Liz Gaylor and Tiny Grocer ABQ by Robin Babb

ON THE COVER

A Look at Nitrogen, Near and Far by Willy Carleton

MEMBER OF EDIBLE COMMUNITIES

Atmosphere

ISSUE 75 · FALL SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2021

Atmosphere at Farm & Table in Albuquerque. Photo by Stephanie Cameron.

64 RETURNING TO RESTAURANTS

As Many of Us Rush Back to Dining In, What Does the “New Normal” Look Like for Restaurateurs?

by Ellie Duke

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GRIST FOR THE MILL

Atmosphere “What a mystery is the air, what an enigma to these human senses!” writes cultural ecologist and geophilosopher David Abram in his landmark The Spell of the Sensuous. It is so pervasive and ever present, like the sea to fish, that we easily overlook its utter importance to our lives. We often miss, as Abram eloquently describes, that the air “is the soul of the visible landscape, the secret realm from whence all beings draw their nourishment.”

Amid a sustained swell toward social justice, ongoing fluctuations in a global pandemic, and a late summer horizon marred with long-term drought and wildfire smoke, this issue of edible takes a deep breath. It’s a breath of hopeful and measured relief, but also one of renewed commitment to face the challenges ahead. It’s a breath of the stuff that profoundly and inescapably connects us.

Air is elemental to our atmosphere, whether the literal layer of sky we inhabit, or the intangible energy and attitude of a place. Ellie Duke’s story considers how the atmosphere of restaurants has changed, shifting first to create healthier and safer environments for diners and workers to breathe in and then to adapt to a transformed workforce. Candolin Cook reports on a scene at a recent downtown Albuquerque Artwalk, where, despite a storm and ongoing impacts of the pandemic, a sense of shared enjoyment around food had returned to the streets.

In the more literal sense of the word atmosphere, we also turn our attention to the sky from which we draw nourishment but which, all too often, we take for granted. At Khalsa Family Farms, technology and innovative design are helping curb the carbon footprint of local food production. Carbon dioxide and methane are not the only greenhouse gases that agriculture produces; in these pages we also take a closer look at the often under-examined role of nitrogen in our food systems, both near and far, and report on how to limit nitrogen pollution at all levels of individual and collective action.

Finally, there is an air of excitement at edible because our new sister publication, The Bite, hits stands the first week of September. The Bite provides smart, artful, bite-sized stories that foster a deeper understanding of our region’s diverse culinary cultures; inspire adventurous, informed, community-minded forays into local food; and help build a stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive food community. Pick up The Bite’s monthly issues at the same locations where you find edible.

PUBLISHERS

Bite Size Media, LLC Stephanie and Walt Cameron

EDITORS

Willy Carleton and Briana Olson

COPY EDITOR Marie Landau

DESIGN AND LAYOUT Stephanie Cameron

PHOTO EDITOR Stephanie Cameron

EVENT COORDINATOR Natalie Donnelly

DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER Cyndi Wood

VIDEO PRODUCER Walt Cameron

SALES AND MARKETING Kate Collins, Melinda Esquibel, and Gina Riccobono

PUBLISHING ASSISTANT Cristina Grumblatt

CONTACT US

Mailing Address: 3301-R Coors Boulevard NW #152, Albuquerque, NM 87120 info@ediblenm.com ediblenm.com

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EDIBLENM.COM We welcome your letters.

Write to us at the address above, or email us at INFO@EDIBLENM.COM Bite Size Media, LLC publishes edible New Mexico six times a year.

We distribute throughout New Mexico and nationally by subscription.

Willy Carleton and Briana Olson, Editors

Subscriptions are $32 annually.

Subscribe online at ediblenm.com/subscribe

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

Stephanie and Walt Cameron, Publishers

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edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

© 2021 All rights reserved.

thank you for your continued support ROSEWOOD INN OF THE ANASAZI

A NA SAZ I

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CONTRIBUTORS

ROBIN BABB Robin Babb is a writer and the owner of Harvest Moon Books. She lives in Albuquerque. @harvestmoonbooks STEPHANIE CAMERON Stephanie Cameron was raised in Albuquerque and earned a degree in fine arts at the University of New Mexico. Cameron is the art director, head photographer, recipe tester, marketing guru, publisher, and owner of edible New Mexico and The Bite.

CANDOLIN COOK Candolin Cook is a PhD candidate in history at the University of New Mexico, freelance writer, editor, and former co-editor of edible New Mexico. She lives in Albuquerque, where her husband owns Vida Verde Farm, and believes in supporting local agriculture and food businesses whenever possible.

WILLY CARLETON Willy Carleton is a co-editor of edible New Mexico and The Bite. He is the author of Fruit, Fiber, and Fire: A History of Modern Agriculture in New Mexico, which explores the cultural and environmental history of apples, cotton, and chiles in our region.

SUSAN DEFREITAS Susan DeFreitas is the author of the novel Hot Season, which won a Gold IPPY Award for Best Fiction of the West-Mountain Region, as well as a book coach and freelance editor. Before going back to school for her MFA, she was a greentech blogger and journalist covering topics related to sustainable living; in recent years, inspired by the potentials of regenerative agriculture, she's returned to journalism to cover sustainable agriculture. She makes her home in Santa Fe.

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edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

ELLIE DUKE Ellie Duke is a writer and editor who previously worked as the Southwest US editor at Hyperallergic. She is a master’s candidate at Harvard Divinity School.

BRIANA OLSON Briana Olson is a writer and co-editor of edible New Mexico and The Bite. She was the lead editor for the 2019 and 2021 editions of The New Farmer’s Almanac, and also works with Agrarian Trust, a nonprofit supporting land access for next generation farmers.

MARISA THOMPSON Marisa Thompson is New Mexico State University's Extension Urban Horticulture Specialist, responsible for active extension and research programs supporting sustainable horticulture in New Mexico. In addition to studying landscape mulches and tomatoes, her research interests include abiotic plant stressors like wind, cold, heat, drought, and soil compaction. She writes a weekly gardening column, Southwest Yard & Garden, which is published in newspapers and magazines across the state and on her blog. Find her on social media @NMdesertblooms.

ELLEN ZACHOS Ellen Zachos lives in Santa Fe and is the author of eight books, including the recently released The Forager's Pantry. She is the cohost of the Plantrama podcast (plantrama.com), and writes about wild foods at backyardforager.com.

Zachos offers several online foraging courses at backyard-forager.thinkific.com.

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LOCAL HEROES

sage bakehouse BEST CAF​​É, SANTA FE An Interview with Andrée Falls, Owner Photos by Douglas Merriam

Left: Andrée Falls, owner of Sage Bakehouse. Right: Bread on display.

Andrée Falls grew up in the restaurant business. At age four, she was sitting on the kitchen counter of her mother’s restaurant watching the cooks prepare the day’s lunch, and by age eight, she was wearing an apron—she’s been cooking and baking ever since. In 1981, Andrée went to Paris for a semester abroad that turned into a three-year stay. When she returned home to Dallas in 1984, she opened Parigi Restaurant, which she helmed until 1995. After selling Parigi, she moved to Santa Fe and opened the Sage Bakehouse, an artisanal bread bakery, pastry shop, and café.

Long before moving to New Mexico, you spent three years in France. How did that experience shape your approach to baking bread, and your approach to food more generally?

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edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

The experience of living in France was transformative. It was the first time I ever experienced sourdough bread. Pretty much from the first bite of Poilâne bakery bread, I was addicted. I have always been extremely taken with the idea of very simple, delicious, nutritious food. Poilâne’s bread, with exceptional flour, salt, and water (and nothing else), was a perfect example of this sort of food.

Describe the backstory of one of your loaves. Where does the wheat come from and how is it ground?

Our whole wheat and rye flours come from the San Luis Valley, west of Alamosa. They are stone ground by Kris Gosar in Monte Vista, Colorado. We’ve worked with Kris since the day we opened back in 1996. Our other flours come from a cooperative of farms Ahmed Obo, founder and chef-owner of Jambo Cafe.

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Left: Heirloom Tomato Tartine with mozzarella curd and basil. Right: Avocado Smash with Serrano Ham.

in southeastern Colorado and southwestern Kansas. They are milled with a pneumatic system at a mill about forty miles north of Denver.

In addition to being a bread bakery, your shop is also a café. How much of the menu is sourced from local farms? Is there a seasonal item that you are particularly excited about to look out for this fall?

As for local sources for the café, it really depends on the season. We use local eggs for our most popular item, the scrambled egg tartine, year round. Now, of course, we feature local tomatoes and will soon have soup with local corn. As we transition out of the pandemic, our menu is quite small, but everything that we can purchase from local suppliers, we do. As we move into fall, there will be soup with autumn squashes and salads with wilted local greens.

Along the way, you’ve earned master’s degrees in both liberal arts and English. How have those degrees helped shape your work?

I think there is actually a book-length answer to this question, but in general, I think having the good fortune to study where and what 8

edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

I have has really made me appreciate the complexity of all that is going on in my little business. So many of the issues—environmental, political, and social—that one reads about daily are actually unfolding right in front of me every day. I am very motivated to produce food that is good for people and easy on the environment, to provide opportunity for the team of people I work with, and to nurture a spot that supports the local community. I think doing this is deeply important.

Is there a local food issue that particularly matters to you?

There isn’t one particular food issue that matters most to me. I’m really interested in how my little food business affects the local community, from paying a good wage and having excellent working conditions, to providing our customers with delicious products and genuinely kind, caring service, to working with local vendors . . . it’s all part of an interconnected puzzle that I find challenging, fascinating, and rewarding.

535 Cerrillos, Santa Fe, 505-820-7243, sagebakehouse.com

LOCAL HEROES

nexus Brewery & Restaurant NEXUS BREWERY, BEST GASTROPUB An Interview with Ken Carson Jr., Owner Photos by Stephanie Cameron

Left: Ken Carson Jr., owner of Nexus Brewery. Right: New Orleans–style gumbo with chicken, andouille sausage, and pico de gallo.

Ken Carson Jr. is an Albuquerque native and attended New Mexico State University. He worked for thirty-five years as a banker, starting out as a federal bank examiner. He has held the position of state banking commissioner for the State of New Mexico and was appointed president of the Bank of Belen, where he worked for fourteen years.

Ken shifted career paths and opened Nexus Brewery & Restaurant in May 2011. Nexus has consistently been rated as one of the best restaurants in Albuquerque for food, beer, and service.

Your restaurant’s name is drawn from Star Trek VII: Generations, where Captain Kirk and Picard get pulled into the nexus, an alternate plane where everything is perfect. Do you ever find yourself

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edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

standing in the dining room at Nexus, wondering if the scene could possibly be real, the way Picard does in the movie?

I do not necessarily feel like I am in the nexus, but I hope that our customers and even our team members feel really positive about our goal to have a special place—a place where they can get away and experience special food and beer and a place where they can relax.

In your mind, what makes a perfect gastropub? Why did you choose to open a brewery with a kitchen?

I did not intend for Nexus to be a restaurant. The original plan was for a small room where we could make paninis or simple sandwiches

Chef-Owner Mark Kiffin welcomes Chef Peter O’Brien

Santa Fe’s Premier Culinary Collaborative

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visit CompoundRestaurant.com for menus & more 653 Canyon Road 505.982.4353 reservations recommended

photo: Gabriella Marks

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Southern fried chicken and waffles at Nexus Brewery.

with potato chips. And then I heard, back ten years ago, that all these people were going to open breweries. Then I said to myself, if I can open a brewery then they can open a brewery. So during construction, I told the contractor, expand the space for the kitchen and put in a kitchen hood. We will figure out what to do later. Then I started talking to people and asking what they thought we should serve.

Everyone said, just do paninis. I do not even like paninis, so I decided I wanted something different. My first idea was to do barbecue, but I had customers in the business that had struggled and I figured if I screwed up on food costs, that was too big of a risk to take. So I came up with the concept of making fried chicken and waffles, from doing research on the internet. But because I was from New Mexico, I had to have red chile, so I came up with the concept of New Mexican soul food. This was one of the best moves I ever made.

In an era defined by the IPA, your flagship is a scotch ale. What goes into your team’s decisions for crafting new beers?

We had planned on doing something different from day one; IPAs were everywhere. I discovered scotch ale at Kelly’s and really liked it.

So we set out to make scotch ale as a differentiator. Our plan was to be on the maltier side of beer. Unfortunately, some people interpreted that our beer was not as good because we did not load it with hops.

We continue with our goal to be maltier, but we have also made some really good IPAs. Early in the pandemic, you told us your to-go business was hopping. Now that tables are full again, are you continuing to do carryout? How have you handled the transition back?

Yes, we did a lot of takeout. We have a lot less now than during the height of the pandemic, when indoor dining was still restricted.

Online orders continue at probably about 5 to 10 percent of what they were during the pandemic.

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edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

Your NM Hot Chicken is a local spin on Tennessee hot chicken, and it is true to its name—hot. Was there a particular meal or experience that inspired the creation of this dish?

On the Food Network, I heard about Hattie B’s Hot Chicken in Nashville, and then KFC came out with a hot chicken locally. I thought the KFC product was not very good. So my daughter and I looked at the recipe from Nashville and set off to use New Mexico chile and delete the sugar, cause we do not know anything about sugar in our NM chile. It worked, and we created NM Hot. Why soul food? Is there an origin story to your bringing together Southern and New Mexican cuisines?

On soul food, it was simply marketing 101. I looked around and found no one was doing soul food and I researched chicken and waffles and no one was doing that, so that is how I decided. In banking in Belen and Albuquerque in general, I noticed that there is a formula for success in the restaurant business, and that is to always have some New Mexican food on the menu. Plus, that is what I grew up on. So I knew I had to have red and green chile. One other inspiration was my wife, who is African American; her dad is from Louisiana and her mom is Hispanic New Mexican. The menu was derived from food I used to get when I went to their house, like green chile and fried chicken.

What’s the most popular item on your menu? What’s a dish you wish people would try more often?

Fried chicken and waffles. I would say that people are really missing out on our gumbo and red beans and rice. They are exceptional. Also, our barbecue is really good. We make a red chile barbecue sauce from scratch, using red chile pods; it too is exceptional.

4730 Pan American NE, Albuquerque, 505-242-4100 nexusbrewery.com

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505.898.3562 AlamedaGreenhouseABQ.com 9515 4th St NW Albuquerque, NM 87114

LOCAL HEROES

vegos BEST FOOD TRUCK An Interview with Elizabeth Bibiano, Head Chef / Owner, and Jonathan Bibiano, General Manager / Owner Photos by Stephanie Cameron

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Elizabeth and Jonathan Bibiano on the Vegos food truck.

Vegos is an all-vegan food business with a focus on New Mexican cuisine. The menu takes inspiration from the kind of food New Mexicans grow up on—the plates that give you the warm fuzzies. Vegos places an emphasis on made-from-scratch goodness that’s wholesome and just downright delicious. The crew is currently serving out of a tiny food truck trailer, lovingly named Rosita, whose serving schedule has been reduced as Vegos navigates the process of expanding into a brick-and-mortar store.

Your original vision was to fill the void of vegan New Mexican food. The need was clear to vegans and vegetarians—any words to inspire omnivorous skeptics to try your food?

h

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The word vegan can be misunderstood. So instead let’s try words like chips and salsa, calabacitas, horchata, or even guacamole. Not only are these combinations of words familiar, but—it might surprise folks to know—they’re naturally vegan too! There are plenty of everyday staples people are familiar with but may not see as vegan. We just think good food is good food, and we aim to make dishes that appeal to everyone by using familiar flavors and textures while substituting the animal-based products with plant-based ones. We believe a tamale or bowl of posole can be just as delicious without meat; instead of focusing on what we don’t put in our food, we like to focus on what does go into it.

j

Amazing coffee, incredible food.

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Top left: Conchas. Bottom left: Seitan burrito. Right: Nachos and enchiladas.

Was there a pivotal moment or experience that inspired you to go vegan? Is there anything about eating or cooking vegan that is easier than you might have expected?

You’ve been voted best food truck, but you’re planning to open a brick-and-mortar venue soon. How can readers help, and what can we expect from the menu once you open?

While we were living in an RV in the middle of Alaska, the nearest grocery store was a two-hour drive away and meat was hard to come by. So we challenged ourselves to go a month without meat.

What started as an experiment slowly evolved into a new way of life. Most people think that going vegan means you’re “giving up” so many options, but I’ve found the opposite to be true. We still enjoy all the same foods we did before, just in a new way. Name a food you couldn’t live without and there’s likely a vegan version.

When a vegan version doesn’t exist, that’s when I get the most excited, because that means I get to create something that’s never been done before.

It’s very surreal to us to have been named best food truck—what an unbelievable honor. While we love the food truck world, we are also so excited about this next Vegos chapter! We want to continue our focus on fast and affordable vegan New Mexican cuisine while also offering guests the option to build what they want. This means a menu with various proteins, starches, and sauces, where guests can choose burritos, tacos, enchiladas, or tamales. We will continue with some staples people have come to love, like our seitan burrito, tamales, and enchiladas, but there will be new options too. We are excited about our panadería being available daily as well. This means conchas, empanadas, churros, and sopapillas. Thirsty for more? A storefront means we can start serving our scratch-made drinks too! The greatest help folks can bring is by coming out and continuing to dine with us.

Sharing our name with friends and family is the greatest compliment.

The community has been amazing to us, and we are so grateful to be a part of it.

What’s the secret to a good vegan tamale?

Love, of course! Oh, and fat, ha! But really—the fat you choose to use in your masa, I think, is pretty essential. While tamales are traditionally made with lard, there are so many vegan substitutes out there! I encourage folks to experiment and find their perfect combo.

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edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

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VEGETARIAN KITCHEN Fine International Vegetarian and Vegan grab and go including ready to serve complete meals.

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ALBUQUERQUE La Montañita Co-op–Nob Hill & Rio Grande Keller's Farm Fresh at Eubank and Candalaria Lowe’s Market on Lomas Moses Kountry Natural Foods Silver Street Market Triangle Market in Sandia Crest Lovelace Main Hospital Heart Hospital of New Mexico Sandia National Labs UPC at UNM UNM Hospital in La Cocina Cafeteria

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LOCAL HEROES

montoya orchard BEST FARM, GREATER NEW MEXICO An Interview with Victoria Montoya, Owner/Operator Photos by Stephanie Cameron

Left to right: Victoria Montoya; her daughter, Allison; and her parents, Juanita and Pat Montoya.

Victoria Montoya is a fourth-generation farmer on her family’s land, continuing in the footsteps of her parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. Montoya Orchard specializes in apple cider and all things fruit, and grows and processes everything on-site, using a commercial kitchen that is completely solar-powered. Everything is grown naturally, meaning no pesticides and also no waste.

You are a fourth-generation orchard operator, with fruit trees dating back to the early days of the business. How did the orchard get started, and how has it grown to what it is today?

Our orchard was started by my great-grandparents and passed down through the generations. My parents took over forty-seven years ago and grew the business into local farmers markets. They started the Española market in the parking lot of a library. They worked hard and continued to expand by building a commercial kitchen on-site so that they were able to make apple cider and get certified by the New Mexico Environment Department. Growing up, I worked the markets and helped pick fruit. As I got older, I realized how much I 18

edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

loved the land and the work we were doing. Since I have taken over, we have been able to expand with online sales, community-supported agriculture, educational programs, and wholesale. Taking what I have learned from previous generations in my family, I have been able to combine traditional ways of farming with modern technologies to improve and expand our business.

Northern New Mexico has a long history of growing fruit, especially apples. As an orchardist so deeply rooted in the Española Valley, what does the long-standing apple-growing tradition in New Mexico mean to you?

It’s as simple as family. I am continuing to fulfill my family’s dream of providing food to our community. Days spent at the orchard are not just work; they’re days spent with my parents. I have spent days in the kitchen with my grandma showing me how to make capulin jelly, or planting trees with my father, or picking sunflowers with my daughter.

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Left: Victoria Montoya. Middle: Victoria and Allison in flower field, and peach harvest. Right: Victoria and Pat Montoya, and apple orchard.

What’s the best part of running an orchard?

One of the best parts is showing up to a farmers market with everything we have harvested and seeing our community so excited to eat our fruits and veggies. We have customers who were children going to markets with their parents and now they bring their own children to buy fruit from us.

What’s the hardest part?

Most parts of farming are hard. The worry is always there each season: Will we have enough water? Will we have a late freeze? Will the tractor last another season? We farm in the hundred-degree heat and still work in the winter snow. Farmers don’t get to call in sick—my father jokes, “Farmers don’t retire, they die.” We don’t farm because it’s easy; we do it because we love it.

Your sour cherry jam is a best seller and deservedly so. What’s your favorite way to use the jam in your own kitchen?

My daughter loves to put sour cherry jam over ice cream or waffles.

I like to use it in place of cranberry for the holidays, especially on leftover turkey.

Is there a local food issue that is particularly important to you?

I am passionate about our children learning where their food comes from. I work closely with the Cooking with Kids program, going to local schools and talking about farming and helping prepare a meal with the children. So often, children don’t know where the food they eat is coming from, beyond Walmart. It’s also important that all people have access to healthy, locally grown food.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with edible readers?

You grow your fruit without synthetic pesticides. How difficult is it to grow a worm-free apple in New Mexico?

As a woman in agriculture, it is important to me to continue to pass down our traditions to the next generation.

It can be difficult to grow worm-free apples, but we have had years of practice. We use all-natural practices and are sure to use calcium and iron for our trees. Everything sprayed on our trees is organic and we spray every fifteen days. Any apples that are not market worthy go into our cider, jams, and vinegar, so there is no waste.

We truly appreciate all the support and love we receive from our community. We don’t ever take it for granted—we are able to do what we love because of everyone who buys our products and supports our family business.

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edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

montoyaorchard.com

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FORAGING

Autumn Mushrooms in the Mountains Words and Photos by Ellen Zachos Lobster mushrooms (Hypomyces lactifluorum).

Mushrooms depend on moisture. In the desert, this means that if there’s no monsoon, there're no mushrooms—or, at least, very few fungi. But in a good year, when the rains come and the temperatures are just right, fall can be a productive mushroom season in northern New Mexico. Now is the time to look for bright-orange lobster mushrooms, tasty oysters, and plentiful honey mushrooms. If you want to safely hunt for (and eat) wild mushrooms, here are some fundamental beginners’ guidelines.

1. Never, EVER eat a mushroom you’re not 100 percent certain of.

That’s a good general rule for all wild edibles, but the stakes are especially high with mushrooms because, yes, some are deadly when eaten.

2. Make a spore print. Many mushrooms look similar on the outside, and taking a spore print will help you differentiate among species. To make a spore print, detach a fresh cap from its stalk, then cut the cap in half. Place one piece on a light sheet of paper and the other on a dark sheet. (Dark spores will show up better on light paper, and light-colored spores will be easier to see on dark paper.)

Cover each piece with an upside-down drinking glass, and let it sit overnight. In the morning, lift the caps and check the paper for a dusting of spores. Spore color is an essential identification factor for 24

edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

many mushrooms. For example, honey mushrooms produce a white spore print, setting them apart from some toxic look-alikes.

3. Cook your mushrooms. The cell walls of mushrooms are made of chitin, not cellulose (which is what we find in plants’ cell walls).

Humans do not digest chitin well. We may not be able to digest it at all. (Scientists disagree on this point.) Cooking breaks down chitin, making mushrooms easier to digest. It also makes the nutrients in mushrooms more accessible to the human body. Need more convincing? Some mushrooms can cause stomach upset when eaten raw, but are entirely harmless when properly cooked.

4. Join a local mushroom club. The North American Mycological Association (namyco.org) lists local clubs on its website. You can learn about the New Mexico Mycological Society at nmms.wildapricot.org.

Ready to get started? Let’s begin with the lobsters. Not only are they easy to identify, but their story is especially interesting. Lobster mushrooms (Hypomyces lactifluorum) are actually two fungi in one.

They begin as a species ofleft, either a Russula or Lactarius, which is then From clockwise: Buckwheat Millet Sourdough, Green n' Red Chile Cheese Sourdough, Rosemary parasitized by the Hypomyces fungus. This gives the outside of the Cheddar Sourdough, Rye Molasses and Fennel Sourdough, and Sprouted Rye Sourdough.

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FORAGING

Top left: A brown spore print shows up best on light-colored paper. Bottom left: Honey mushrooms (of the Armillaria genus). Right: Aspen oyster mushroom (P. populinus).

mushroom its lobster-orange color, contorts its shape, and improves the flavor of the host mushroom. These are large, bright-orange mushrooms, and they generally grow singly, emerging from soil.

Lobsters are meaty, dense fungi. When you open a bag of freshly picked lobsters (or a jar of dehydrated ones) they do indeed smell like shellfish—but that’s where the similarity ends. This shouldn’t discourage you from foraging for them, but will help you manage your expectations. If you think of them as big, chunky fungi with a pleasant mushroom flavor, you won’t be disappointed. But if you expect to use them as a lobster substitute, you may feel like you’ve been duped.

The lobster not only has excellent mushroom flavor, but is also easy for beginning mushroom hunters to identify. Look for them in long-established forests, among conifers.

Oyster mushrooms are another good choice for beginner foragers.

There are several species of oysters (in the Pleurotus genus) that grow in New Mexico, with the aspen oyster (P. populinus) being the most common. All oysters grow on wood (sometimes on subterranean roots) and have gills on the underside of their caps. The color of the 26

edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

caps may vary from white to brown, but aspen oysters tend to have a light tan color. When oyster mushrooms grow upright from subterranean roots or from the tops of branches, they may develop off-center stems. When they grow from the sides of logs or trees, they may have no stems at all. Oysters grow all year round, but are most common in fall, and they are often found in large clumps. Oyster mushrooms produce a white to pale-gray spore print.

Honey mushrooms (of the Armillaria genus) are not beginner mushrooms, but they’re tasty and often very abundant. If you’re an experienced mushroomer, or lucky enough to know someone who is, look for honeys in conifer forests at elevations over seven thousand feet. They grow from wood, have brown caps that flatten with age (with dark brown or black scales on the caps), and they produce a white spore print. A. ostoyae (the most common honey mushroom in New Mexico) has a ring on its stem. Honey mushrooms should be cooked for at least ten minutes to avoid gastrointestinal distress.

The thrill of the mushroom hunt is real. If you want in on the action, buy yourself a few good field guides, take some classes, and join a local club. Knowledge is power—and mushrooms are delicious.

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EDIBLE ENTREPRENEUR

Liz Gaylor and Tiny Grocer ABQ A LITTLE CORNER GROCERY AIMS TO MAKE LOCAL PRODUCE MORE ACCESSIBLE—AND LESS INTIMIDATING—FOR EVERYONE

By Robin Babb · Photos by Stephanie Cameron

Liz Gaylor, owner of tiny grocer ABQ in the Old Town neighborhood of Albuquerque.

Although tiny grocer ABQ is new, the idea for it had been percolating for quite a while by the time it opened in 2020. Liz Gaylor first thought of opening a little, locally focused grocer back in 2008, when she was living in northern Colorado. Farm-to-table restaurants and community-supported agriculture (CSA) were just starting to take off, and the new attention to local, sustainable farming was prompting all sorts of new business models. At the time, she was working at a farm that had a CSA program, and saw the potential—but also the fatal flaw—of the traditional CSA model.

out to eat instead, and then we waste this fresh produce, and then I

“People would sign up for these CSAs but then wouldn’t stick around for them, because they’d get beets or something in their weekly box and go, ‘I don’t know how to cook this, and then we go

no worrying what to cook with the vegetables in your CSA box that

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edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

feel bad!’” Gaylor recalls. “It seemed like the processing of [the produce] was kind of the missing piece.”

In researching alternatives, Gaylor came across Three Stone Hearth in Berkeley, which seemed to fit the bill perfectly. A communitysupported kitchen, Three Stone Hearth sources all (or most) of their ingredients locally, then turns those ingredients into dishes that people can simply pick up and take home to serve for dinner. No waste, you don’t know the name of or don’t know how to prepare. It was exactly the model that Gaylor was looking to replicate in Colorado.

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addition to body care products, there are locally produced vinegars, honey, and tea for sale.

Of course, Gaylor didn’t realize she was in for another global crisis. The pandemic was rough on her newly opened business, and she kept Old Town Herbal closed to everything except online and curbside orders through most of last year. Despite the dire situation, when the caf​é right next to Old Town Herbal closed down during the pandemic, she recognized it as an opportunity to make her original idea for a local grocer come to life. In August of 2020, she opened up tiny grocer ABQ. The landlord was more than happy to rent her the tiny corner store, which offered just enough space for some simple food prep, a gelato freezer, some pantry shelves, and a display fridge. There, Gaylor and her staff sell fresh produce, meat, eggs, bread, and dairy from local producers, as well as some prepared and packaged food.

Customers can get coffee and housemade scones, or pick up groceries for the rest of the week.

Although it’s located in Old Town—one of the more touristy parts of the city—Gaylor says that the majority of her customers are locals, especially people who live in the neighborhood and are grateful to have a source of fresh produce within walking distance. The farmers and producers that she buys from are grateful, too, especially since farmers markets were mostly shut down over the last year. And after recently getting certified to sell local produce through the Double Up Food Bucks program, which allows Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) customers to buy local produce at half price, Gaylor is hoping that her little grocery is even more accessible to local customers.

Cold case at tiny grocer ABQ loaded with local products.

Unfortunately, Gaylor had to table the idea—the Great Recession hit in 2007, and opening a new business suddenly didn’t seem wise.

On top of the financial straits of the time, the drought in the Southwest caused many farms to close down, including the one that Gaylor was working at.

“After all that, I was like, ‘I’m never gonna work for somebody ever again,’” she says.

That year, she started making and selling small-batch soap at a local farmers market. Her small enterprise quickly grew, and Gaylor pursued a certificate in clinical herbalism so that she could expand her product line. In 2014, she officially opened Mountain Aven Herbal, and began selling her homemade lotions, salves, and tinctures online in addition to at the farmers market. “My regulars really kept me afloat during those years, and have ever since,” she says.

In the fall of 2019, Gaylor got the opportunity that she had been looking for to move back to Albuquerque. She rented an open space in Old Town that became Old Town Herbal, where she still sells her Mountain Aven products, along with plenty of other herbs and herbal products from local and regional growers and producers. In 30

edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

Recently, tiny grocer ABQ started hosting monthly Community Supper events organized by Cassidy Tawse-Garcia, the baker behind the microbakery Masa Madre. The pay-what-you-can dinners are prepared by local chefs with locally grown produce, and provide a great opportunity for diners to meet the farmers and ranchers working to feed the Albuquerque area. In the anxious days of relearning how to socialize after being cooped up inside for the past year and a half, these dinners are a welcome way for people to connect to the wider community in a cozy environment. After a summer break, tiny grocer ABQ will start Community Suppers again in September, with the schedule and menus posted on their Instagram.

Despite the fact that she’s opened two businesses in the past three years, Gaylor isn’t done with new ideas. She recently leased a restaurant kitchen near tiny grocer ABQ and Old Town Herbal to facilitate preparing food, and she’s hoping to find a larger space where she can combine Old Town Herbal and tiny grocer ABQ into one operation, with a bigger kitchen and the capacity to process and store food throughout the year. This would allow her to expand her menu of prepared soups and sandwiches, and make it easier to freeze and preserve produce while it’s in season (and keep food waste down in the process). This way, too, customers can buy only the local produce that they know they’ll use— instead of getting a case of CSA overwhelm.

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TOUCH AND GROW

Adaptable Ambience with Garden Containers BRIGHTEN OUTDOOR SPACES WITH POTTED PLANTS THIS SEASON

By Marisa Thompson

Container garden. Photo by Maksim Shebeko.

Container gardening is nearly as versatile as your imagination.

Useful in small spaces, like a balcony or front doorstep, containers can also liven up the whole yard if you tuck them between existing perennials that have finished showing off this year.

Container plants can also be moved around to spots with optimal sunlight or more protection from the cold and wind. If yours aren’t thriving, and you know drainage isn’t the issue (more details below), try moving the container to a different part of the yard. And if a polar vortex is on the horizon, look up the cold hardiness of your container plants (how cold can they get before becoming frost damaged) and move those that are tender to a protected location—even indoors in extreme situations.

For just about any given plant, the roots are not as cold tolerant as the aboveground portions—because they don’t have to be. Soil acts as an insulator, protecting roots from wild temperature fluctuations in the surrounding air. The roots of container-grown plants are more vulnerable to cold injury because they’re more exposed aboveground.

To protect plants from cold injury, whether potted or in the ground, consider these tips: 32

edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

1. Select species hardy enough for your area. Use the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map at planthardiness.ars.usda.gov to determine what zone you’re in.

2. Cover the root zone with a carpet of mulch several inches deep.

Recommended mulch materials include woodchips, bark, pine needles, leaf litter, pecan shells, or any other fibrous, natural material you can access easily.

3. Utilize microclimates. Walls—low or tall—can dramatically alter temperatures and wind exposure.

4. Water less frequently in winter, but still saturate the entire root area about once per month, even if the aboveground tissues have died back (a few inches of snow may not be enough water).

5. Be cautious with fertilizer. Nitrogen, in particular, can cause a flush of new growth in plants that are not yet dormant or don’t go dormant at all (e.g., roses, pines, nandina, etc.). New growth is especially tender and easily damaged by cold and wind.

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Left: Adequate drainage in a growing container is a much bigger deal than many new gardeners realize. Photo by Marisa Thompson. Right: Kale, cabbage, and pansies growing in container. Photo by Maksim Shebeko.

Winter or summer, the biggest concern for container gardening (including houseplants) is drainage. Roots need both water and oxygen to survive. In waterlogged soils, sufficient oxygen cannot reach the spaces between soil particles where the roots are waiting. The best soils for containers are light and porous, and therefore well draining.

At the nursery, look for products clearly marked as “potting soil.” No matter how permeable your soil is, if the drainage holes are clogged— or there are no drainage holes at all—roots will suffer sooner or later.

Avoid putting gravel or sand in the bottom of containers because water does not drain easily from a fine-textured soil (like potting mix) to one that is coarser (like pebbles or rocks).

To get you growing in the right direction, here’s a list of plants for your outdoor containers. Thanks to several landscape consultants and online resources for their insights and inspiration.

Try native and adapted grasses like little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), sand lovegrass (Eragrostis trichodes), Indian ricegrass (Oryzopsis hymenoides), and Karl Foerster feather reed grass (Calamagrostis × acutiflora). Others with beautiful foliage that persists into winter include beargrass (Nolina microcarpa), dianthus (Dianthus spp.), and coral bells (Heuchera spp.). Several conifers also per34

edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

form very well in containers, depending on their heat tolerance and the pot size.

For a splash of color, pansies are tried and true but do require ample water. Mums have done remarkably well in the Learning Garden at the New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center at Los Lunas, with relatively low amounts of water. Both pansies and chrysanthemums (a.k.a. mums) are edible, to boot. Ornamental cabbage is another colorful edible, albeit bitter; red and purple kales may be more palatable and just as bright.

Kale and cabbage, in fact, are just a few of many cool-season veggies that will continue to produce, as long as they’re protected. Depending on the weather and where you are in the state, that protection might mean a light frost cloth or sheet on colder nights, or it might mean a cold frame structure that traps solar energy (and requires ventilation on warmer days). Again, if your containers are easily movable, you can move them indoors for protection on a need-to-grow basis.

Another perk of early fall gardening: you'll find some great deals on plants and pots once the heat of summer has begun to shift into the crisp cool of October.

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FACES OF FOOD

A Geothermal Greenhouse to Combat Greenhouse Gas KHALSA FAMILY FARMS MELDS COMMUNITY AND TECHNOLOGY TO REDUCE THEIR CARBON FOOTPRINT

By Susan DeFreitas · Photos by Stephanie Cameron

Tarn Taran Kaur Khalsa, chairwoman of the Khalsa Family Farms board of directors; Mark Ridenour, farm manager; and Sirivishnu Singh Khalsa, president of the Khalsa Family Farms board of directors. edible New Mexico | FALL 2021 36

Khalsa Family Farms greenhouse with rows of tomatoes.

Right: Sunflower and broccoli microgreens.

Climate change, for many parts of the West, means a future that’s hotter and drier, marked by weather both more extreme and more unpredictable than in the past.

Difficult climatic conditions are nothing new for northern New Mexico, and Khalsa Family Farms in ​​Española is a case in point.

“When I started [farming in this area] in 1999,” notes Tarn Taran Kaur Khalsa, chairwoman of the board that runs this nonprofit farm, “I was humbled by the challenges that generations before me experienced in northern New Mexico: the hot spring winds, the surprise of summer hail storms, the blistering sun, and the short growing season.”

One of the farm’s key strategies for meeting those sorts of environmental challenges is its geothermal greenhouse.

The 8,600-square-foot structure features an underground “climate battery,” which utilizes the thermal mass of the soil under the greenhouse to help regulate its internal temperatures. Often called a groundto-air heat exchanger, the system offers year-round heating and cooling via a ground-source heat pump.

As we took a walk through the greenhouse when I visited in July, farm manager Mark Ridenour pointed out the large metal tubes stationed at various intervals around the ceiling, as well as the big blue

pipes sticking out of the ground. “These tubes suck the hot air from the ceiling through a series of underground pipes, and once it’s cool, disperse it—it exhausts out of those blue pipes there.” He went on to explain that in the summer, when the ground-to-air heat exchanger kicks on, the air comes into the system at ninety to a hundred degrees and, after it cools, is emitted into the greenhouse at seventy degrees.

This, in combination with a “wet wall” evaporative cooling system, helps keep the greenhouse environment temperate on even the hottest days. “Between the wet wall and the climate battery,” Ridenour notes, “you know—we really couldn’t live without them.”

The same system works in reverse in the winter, keeping the greenhouse right around forty degrees, even when temps outside dip to five below.

Ground-source heat pumps make use of the fact that no matter what Mother Nature is doing aboveground, the temperature of the earth just five feet below the surface stays between forty-five and seventy-five degrees year round. By using the earth as a thermal regulator, ground-source heat pumps either deposit or extract low-intensity heat, in a way that can be used much like the thermostat in a house.

WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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At Khalsa Family Farms, for example, the farmers will let temps run a little hotter for the muscular tomato plants I saw this summer, which like it hot, but they’ll turn the dial down later on in the season for the peas, which prefer a more temperate climate. Being able to control temperatures in the greenhouse this way allows Khalsa Family Farms to grow food year round, remaining in “perpetual harvest.”

One of the big contributing factors to climate change is the carbon footprint of, well, nearly everything, including fertilizer.

Khalsa Farms is an organic operation, run on an ethos of ecological stewardship, so it relies on fish fertilizer, compost, and compost tea rather than chemical fertilizers—and one of the big projects currently under way at the farm is to further cut the carbon footprint of transporting fertilizer by fertilizing with the nutrient-dense water from their fish ponds.

I learned this when I asked Ridenour about the big rectangular, concrete-lined hole in the ground on one end of the greenhouse.

“That’s going to be our hydroponic pond,” he explained. “We’ll have an active hydroponic farm, with fish in there, so we’ll be able to have aquaponics as well”—which, he explains, means they’ll be able to fertilize the greenhouse through its drip irrigation system with water fed directly from that pond.

Khalsa Family Farms was established on the campus of the Hacienda de Guru Ram Das Ashram in the village of Sombrillo, just outside Española, in 2018, when a group from that spiritual community came together to construct the greenhouse. One year later, the farm incorporated as a nonprofit with a mission to grow and sell healthy, organically grown produce year round while regenerating the soil, sharing food and supporting food security in the Española Valley, and “provid[ing] beautiful environments that heal and inspire.”

Ninety percent of its farm crew comes to participate in its oneto-ten-month Farm Learning Program, which attracts people from around the country who want to experience hands-on, small-scale organic farming in greenhouses and open fields. Earlier that day, I’d learned that these volunteers worked six hours a day in exchange for room and board, as well as (optional) daily yoga and meditation classes. I ventured to ask if the fish in the aquaponics system would be part of the diet here at the farm.

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edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

Ridenour laughed. “No, definitely not. This is a vegetarian community—mostly vegan.” When the aquaponics project is complete at the end of the year, their resident fish population would be able to relax, I imagined, and enjoy the peaceful kirtan music piped into the greenhouse alongside the farm’s volunteers.

Ridenour went on to note that the future pond is positioned in front of the greenhouse’s “wet wall,” which means that when the fans there kick on, they’ll be blowing cool air right across the surface of the water, furthering that evaporative cooling effect, much like a swamp cooler. And just having that body of water there in the greenhouse will further help to cool the greenhouse on hot days—and warm it on cold ones—by acting as a thermal regulator. (“We expect to see maybe a five- or six-degree difference,” he noted.)

Khalsa Family Farms’ commitment to the environment manifests in myriad other ways as well, from the variety and diversity of the crops it grows to the cover crops it employs to its pollinator-friendly companion plantings and the compostable plastic containers it uses for produce sold at farmers markets in Española and Santa Fe. Walking back toward the “Shady Patch” at the back of the farm alongside Khalsa, I asked if she saw a connection between their spiritual practice as a community and their work here at the farm. She considered for a moment and then replied, “Yoga is not just a series of postures. The word yoga means to join the spirit and the body. I say, get off the yoga mat and grow food, serve others in your local community, and do your part for the climate.”

She notes that in addition to feeding the farm’s volunteers, community-supported agriculture subscribers, and farmers market patrons, Khalsa Family Farms donated a thousand pounds of produce in 2020 to Barrios Unidos, a nonprofit in Chimayó, when many of their neighbors were short on food.

As we walked, we talked about how, during the pandemic, we’d seen large, centralized food distribution systems break down, in much the same way they do during natural disasters—and what this may portend for the ongoing threat of climate change.

“Support your local farmer now,” Khalsa said, smiling, as we walked the rows, “and they’ll be there for you when you really need them.”

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BACK OF HOUSE

SEASON OF THE ’WICH AFTER A TOUGH YEAR, TUERTA TURNS ITS EYE TO THE FUTURE

By Candolin Cook

In Spanish, the word tuerta/o means a person with one eye (or only having sight in one). The restaurant is named in honor of Liam Kimball’s one-eyed cat, Lydia. Pictured: Ninny Threadgoode Fried Green Tomato Sandwich. Photo by Stephanie Cameron.

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edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

Liam Kimball, owner of Tuerta. Photo by Joel Wigelsworth.

The afternoon of Friday, July 9, was a sweltering one hundred degrees, as local artists, artisans, performers, and food vendors busily set up their booths for the downtown Albuquerque Artwalk. A feeling of excitement crackled in the summer air, especially for local business owners, since the previous month’s Artwalk and Pride celebrations had brought a much-needed boost to the struggling commercial district. Over the past year, downtown businesses have suffered not only a loss of revenue due to the pandemic but also a spike in vandalism, which led many to board up their storefronts and even close temporarily. Turnout for tonight’s festivities seemed particularly promising because the state’s COVID-19 restrictions were fully lifted on July 1.

Galleries, shops, and restaurants could now host their art exhibitions and events indoors, as well as on the sidewalk, and many were using the occasion as a sort of post-lockdown grand reopening. But, just as the street vendors were putting finishing touches on their tables and tents, a blanket of dark monsoon clouds and winds came roaring in.

It appeared downtown was in for another bit of bad luck and that Artwalk would be rained out.

One of the businesses that had planned something special for the evening was Tuerta: A Sandwich Shop, located at Fourth Street and Central. Owner Liam Kimball had teamed up with former Campo sous chef Daniel Garcia for a pop-up dinner service at the normally lunch-only spot. Offerings included fermented carrot pasta with housemade cavatelli and mushrooms; a smoky bir-

ria burger; sorullitos de maiz (Puerto Rico–style corn fritters); and a miso caramel and matcha cake ice cream sandwich. While the menu branched out from the restaurant’s usual offerings, they were right in line with Kimball’s cooking style, employing local and seasonal ingredients, experimentation, and a touch of whimsy.

“It’s just food—it’s supposed to be fun,” Kimball tells me over lunch, a couple of days before Artwalk. “I don’t want to come to work and not have fun, and I want people who come [into Tuerta] to feel the same way.” The tiny sandwich shop is fun. From the framed Rodney Dangerfield albums on the wall to the tall stack of Halloween VHS tapes on the beverage cooler to the ever-changing menu’s irreverent sandwich names (e.g., Dirty Dancing II: Cubano, Mitch Hedberg Chicken Club, Megan Thee Stallion Thee Sandwich), Tuerta seamlessly blends silliness with seriously good food.

Kimball, who’s an Albuquerque native, has a culinary pedigree including stints at popular restaurants in Chicago, Providence, and New York, where he attended culinary school. Five years ago, he took a front-of-house position at Los Poblanos in Albuquerque, but still longed to open his own restaurant, on his own terms. “I always wanted to work somewhere where I could try all the stupid stuff I wanted to do,” Kimball says. One not-so-stupid idea was applying complex tastes and techniques to his favorite food, the humble sandwich: “I wanted to do sandwiches because they are multicultural and almost universally recognizable. It’s a great way to take disparate ingredients WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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BACK OF HOUSE

Black Magic Wolfman Butternut Sandwich with roasted butternut, beets, apple pico, kale, and garlic-chickpea sauce. Photo by Joel Wigelsworth.

and make them work together. Most any food is good when you put it on bread . . . maybe not pancakes.”

True to his original intention, Kimball’s food succeeds in being both approachable and ambitious. Tuerta’s many gluten-free or vegan offerings, for example, are the result of countless hours of recipe development to make sure they are every bit as good as, or better than, meat- and cheese-based offerings. “I want solid [vegan] dishes, not ‘throwaway’ options, like, ‘here’s a salad.’ There’s so many more vegans now, for so many reasons, and it’s leading to a lot of innovation.”

One such innovation has Kimball working with local mushroom purveyor The Art Farm, UNIncorporated, to take their products’ “ugly parts” (i.e., stems and broken pieces) and grind them into a roasted mushroom and seitan sausage. His excitement for plant-based cuisine has even led to a Vegan Nite dinner service every third Friday of the month. Kimball also deeply values procuring quality local ingredients. “I love that I’m able to buy from local farmers even at my scale and price point,” he says.

While Kimball exudes enthusiasm and a positive attitude, he admits that being a restaurant owner, especially downtown, has been tough.

When he opened Tuerta in October of 2019, Kimball had faith in the food-and-drink-led revitalization of downtown Albuquerque, and 42

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envisioned a spot that catered to office workers, tourists, and—eventually, when his hours expanded—locals with the late-night munchies. But by the following summer, he was one of the only businesses on this stretch of Central without its windows shuttered. “It looked terrible. It was a really lonely, dystopian scene down here.” Kimball, however, is quick to praise his loyal customers who ordered takeout during the pandemic, and the solidarity he felt with his neighboring restaurants. “It feels like a real community. I know I can go borrow an egg from Sister or Oni if I need to.”

Over the last couple of months, however, business is “starting to get back to where it’s supposed to be,” says Kimball. “Everyone just spent a year cooped up in their houses. I think now they’re thinking, ‘might as well go downtown and see some people.’”

On the evening of July’s Artwalk, they did just that. Despite a solid half hour or so of torrential rain, hundreds of Burqueños braved the elements and began making their way downtown. Just after 7 pm, the storm rolled out as quickly as it had come in, and a brilliant setting sun peeked out from behind silver clouds. A line started to form outside Tuerta, and Kimball began serving pickled watermelon aguas frescas to happy customers. Everyone was laughing and having fun.

317 Central NW, Albuquerque, tuertanm.com

FIRST FRIDAY ARTSCRAWLS

Sept 3 & Oct 1, 5pm–8pm

SATURDAY POPUPS

October 2 & 9,10am–3pm

Local Spanish-style tapas restaurant with fine wine and beer. Patio dining with full service!

1025 Lomas Blvd NW, Albuquerque · 505.503.8645

EIGHT AROUND THE STATE

Patios / Outdoor Dining Great food, personalized service, and atmosphere are always part of the experience of dining and drinking out. Even pre-pandemic, outdoor dining has always had an allure. When posed with the question “inside or outside?” we almost always unanimously opt for the open air. With access to some of the most spectacular sunsets, a big sky, and one of the longer warm seasons in the country, New Mexico has an abundance of great patios on which to enjoy your meal. This is by no means an exhaustive list—if you have the lowdown on the best patios in your city or county, drop us a line, and we will be sure to check them out.

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FARM & TABLE

What we are eating and drinking: Charcuterie board and bottle of rosé Worth noting: Farm & Table has created three unique spaces on their farm for exclusive dining. Each deck features dining and lounge furniture so you can enjoy the sunset over the ten-acre pasture. Pre-order your charcuterie board and wine the day before, and your picnic space will be ready when you arrive.

Find: 8917 Fourth Street NW, Albuquerque, farmandtablenm.com

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ARDOVINO’S DESERT CROSSING

What we are drinking and eating: Mezcal paloma and the weekend special: two-pound tomahawk chop rib eye from Marfa Meat (not pictured) 44

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 Worth noting: Like nowhere else, Ardovino's Desert Crossing is a desert oasis. They offer a locally sourced menu with many items grown right on the property.

Ardovino's hosts a farmers market year-round on Saturday mornings, where you can shop and then enjoy brunch.

Find: 1 Ardovinos Dr, Sunland Park, ardovinos.com

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AMADOR PATIO BAR & GRILL

What we are drinking: Red Agave Margarita with hibiscus syrup and a chile rim Worth noting: The Amador patio is the main entertainment hub of the venue, where you can always catch live music. Thursday evenings are comedy night.

Find: 302 S Main St, Las Cruces, amadorpbg.com

730 St Michaels Dr, Santa Fe, loyalhoundpub.com

614 Trinity Drive, Los Alamos • 505-662-8877 pajaritobrewpubandgrill.com

  the unbeaten views of Albuquerque, with uninterrupted sightlines of the mountains, downtown city lights, and captivating sunsets.

Find: 806 Central SE, Albuquerque, hotelparqcentral.com/apothecary-lounge

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RANCHO DE CHIMAYÓ

What we are drinking: Frozen prickly pear margarita Pro tip: While waiting for your food to arrive, don’t forget to stroll the grounds that sit behind the restaurant. With perfect timing, you can witness a spectacular sunset over the rooftop.

Find: 300 Juan Medina Rd, Chimayó, ranchodechimayo.com

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 APOTHECARY LOUNGE

What we are drinking: Lowrider Bicycle made with Corralejo Blanco Tequila, Ancho Reyes Red Chile Liqueur, red chile demerara, Marble Cerveza, and gold flake Worth noting: Apothecary Lounge, located on the Hotel Parq Central rooftop, is the ideal place to bask in 46

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SANTACAFÉ

What we are eating and drinking: Mezcal caipirinha and Maine lobster rolls with tartar and tarragon butter Worth noting: Santacafé has been a restaurant icon for over forty years. It was bought in 2019 by Santa Fe restaurateur Quinn Stephenson, the driving force behind another Santa Fe legend, Coyote Cafe.

Find: 231 Washington, Santa Fe, santacafe.com

& Tasting Room Edible Local Hero 2020 Present this ad for a 2 for 1 Tasting!

Mile Marker 15 Highway 68 Velarde NM 505-852-2820 blackmesawinery.com

304 N. Bullard St. Silver City, NM

serving dinner Friday, Saturday, Sunday Reservations Recommended www.EatDrinkRevel.com

Fresh and sweet organic pecans, from our southern new mexico orchards to your kitchen Order online at delvallepecans.com 575.524.1867

craft beer organic wine artisan cocktails

The Story of Local Food Delivered right to your door six times a year.

Subscribe at ediblenm.com/subscribe

  What we are drinking: Angel’s Share Margarita made with Glencoe Distillery Aquila Worth noting: Located in midtown Ruidoso, the back deck is nestled in the ponderosa pines overlooking the Rio Ruidoso.

Find: 2704 Sudderth Dr, Ruidoso, sacredgrounds-coffee-and-tea-house.com

PRAIRIE STAR RESTAURANT & WINE BAR

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What we are eating: Rib eye steak served with scallionsmashed fingerling potatoes, garlic-sautéed asparagus, and cabernet demi-glace, along with a glass of rosé

 SACRED GROUNDS COFFEE & TEA HOUSE / GLENCOE DISTILLERY TASTING ROOM

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Worth noting: Prairie Star is set against the backdrop of the Santa Ana golf course and unobscured views of the Sandia mountains. Chef Myles Lucero creates special prix fixe Wine & Dine menus every Wednesday and Thursday, which include three courses and a bottle of wine for two people.

Find: 288 Prairie Star Rd, Santa Ana Pueblo, mynewmexicogolf.com/prairiestar

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September 11

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EIGHT FINALISTS. YOUR VOTES WILL DETERMINE THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE WINNER. ALBUQUERQUE: FORK & FIG • HIGH POINT GRILL • TUERTA • STREET FOOD INSTITUTE SANTA FE: LUMINARIA AT INN & SPA LORETTO • LOS ALAMOS: PAJARITO BREWPUB & GRILL LAS VEGAS: THE SKILLET • RIO RANCHO: TURTLE MOUNTAIN BREWING CO.

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COOKING FRESH

Demitarianism Recipes and photos by Stephanie Cameron

Polk’s Folly and Full Circle Potstickers and Sauté​​ed B ok Choy.

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Demitarianism is a relatively new and little-known (in this country, at least) dietary practice of halving the intake of animal products—making conscious efforts to reduce meat consumption, mainly for environmental reasons. The concept was coined in October 2009 in Barsac, France, in a joint workshop on nitrogen and European grassland biodiversity, where participants developed The Barsac Declaration: Environmental Sustainability and the Demitarian Diet.

See our story, “The World’s Stratospheric Food Problem," on page 60 for a deeper exploration of how animal product consumption can contribute to nitrogen pollution and pose major environmental threats.

So how do we approach halving our meat intake? The first step is rethinking meals to foreground non-meat items and

POLK’S FOLLY AND FULL CIRCLE POTSTICKERS Prep time: 30 minutes; Cook time: 5–10 minutes; Total time: 40 minutes Level: Intermediate • Serves 4 1/2 pound ground pork 1 teaspoon cornstarch 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1 1/2 teaspoons ginger garlic paste 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 cup mushrooms (oyster or shiitake), diced 1/2 cup cabbage (red or green), shredded 1/4 cup green onions, chopped 36 4.5-inch round or square wonton wrappers 1/4 cup vegetable oil, divided 1/3 cup water Soy sauce and wasabi, to taste

SAUTÉ​​ED BOK CHOY Prep time: 2 minutes; Cook time: 8 minutes; Total time: 10 minutes Level: Easy • Serves 4 2–3 heads baby bok choy, rinsed well and sliced in half lengthwise 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil 1 1/2 teaspoons ginger garlic paste 1/4 teaspoon salt Splash of chili oil, to taste

to make the animal products we do use go further. The second step is to commit to using the most climate-friendly animal products we can for those items that we decide to keep in our diets. Sourcing meat from a small rancher that uses regenerative farming practices in New Mexico, for example, will reduce the carbon footprint of your meat and, ultimately, add less greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as a result. For this reason alone, spending our dollars with local ranchers and supporting the local food economy is a great place to start. In this edition of Cooking Fresh, we dive into demitarianism, considering the meat we are buying, making it go further, and not making it the most prominent item on the plate.

This recipe uses half the usual amount of pork, combined with mushrooms, to put halving meat into practice. There are multiple producers creating many sausage varieties and growing mushrooms—we are showcasing Polk’s Folly Butcher Shop & Farm Stand’s red chile ginger sausage and Full Circle Mushrooms’ shiitake and oyster mushrooms. Foraged mushrooms would work well in this recipe too.

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients up to and including green onions.

To assemble the dumplings, place wrappers on a clean, flat work surface.

Spoon 1/2 tablespoon of the raw pork mixture into the middle of each wrapper. Using your fingers, rub the edges of the wrappers with water. Fold the dough over the filling to create a half-moon shape, pinching the edges to seal. Keep folded potstickers under damp paper towel while working.

Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Working in batches, add potstickers in a single layer and cook until they start to get crispy on the bottom, about 2–3 minutes. Working quickly, add 1/3 cup water; cover and cook until liquid has evaporated and bottoms of dumplings are crisp and golden, about 2–4 minutes.

Serve immediately with soy sauce and wasabi.

To freeze: Place uncooked potstickers in a single layer on a baking sheet overnight in the freezer. Then transfer to freezer bags.

This versatile side pairs well with everything from potstickers to sausage to fried tofu and rice.

Pat bok choy dry. Add oil and ginger garlic paste to a wide skillet. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the oil begins to bubble around the ginger garlic, but before it starts to brown.

Toss in the bok choy and spread into one layer, cut side down. Sprinkle with salt, then cook, without stirring, until starting to turn brown, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook for another 2 minutes or until the green leaves have wilted and the white bottoms begin to soften but still have some crunch.

Transfer to a platter and drizzle with chili oil if desired.

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Red Chile Chard Enchiladas with Crema—no cheese.

Garnished with avocado a nd cilantro.

Red d Char Chile s ilada Ench e. s chee with

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RED CHILE CHARD ENCHILADAS WITH CREMA Prep time: 30 minutes; Cook time: 30 minutes; Total time: 60 minutes Level: Medium • Serves 6–8 Red Chile Sauce 20 dried, whole red chile pods 3–4 garlic cloves 1/4 white or yellow onion, diced 2 1/2 cups water 8 ounces tomato sauce 2–3 cloves garlic 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon onion powder 1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano 1/2 teaspoon cumin Enchiladas 2 bunches chard 3/4 white or yellow onion, diced 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus 1/4 cup for tortillas 1 dozen corn tortillas 2 cups cheddar cheese, grated (optional)

This recipe is already on the demitarian side, with cheese as the only animal product. You can halve the cheese or go completely vegan, omitting the cheese and topping the enchiladas with a cilantro lime crema made from cashews.

Preheat oven to 250°F. Arrange chile pods on a cookie sheet and roast for 20 minutes. Flip chiles halfway through the roasting process. Remove, and increase oven heat to 350°F. After the chiles have cooled to touch, remove stems and seeds. Add chiles and onion to a large saucepan and cover with water. (Use at least 2 1/2 cups, as you will need 2 cups of the chile-infused water for blending.) Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Carefully remove chiles and onion from the pot with a slotted spoon and add to the blender. Add 2 cups chile water and remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.

While the chiles roast, clean and remove stems from chard. Dice stems and onions, and roughly chop chard leaves, keeping them separate. In a large, deep skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over high heat and sauté onions and stems until softened. Reduce heat to medium and add chard leaves to the onion-and-stem mix; cover to steam until bright in color and just softened.

Pour chile sauce over chard and simmer on medium-low heat, allowing water to evaporate and sauce to thicken slightly.

Over medium-high heat in a small skillet, heat a few tablespoons of oil. Fry each tortilla for about 30 seconds on each side.

In a 9x12-inch casserole dish, layer 4 corn tortillas, cover with 1/3 of the chard-and-chile mixture and then 1/3 of the grated cheese (omit or halve the cheese if desired). Repeat until you have 3 layers, and bake in the oven for about 10–15 minutes or until the cheese bubbles.

DAIRY-FREE CREMA Prep time: 25 minutes Level: Easy • Makes 1 1/4 cups

Place cashews in a medium bowl, cover with warm water, and soak for 20 minutes before draining. Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth and creamy. Refrigerate for up to 1 week.

1/2 cup canned coconut milk 1/2 cup cashews 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 3 ounces lime juice 1/4 cup cilantro, stems removed

WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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tyle ese-S eet Chin , Sw m o o k hr d Bo Mus o, an t a t Po Stew Choy

Chin

eseStyl Swe e Be et P ef, o t and ato, Bok Ch Stew oy

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edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

CHINESE-STYLE STEW WITH BEEF/MUSHROOM, SWEET POTATO, AND BOK CHOY Prep time: 15 minutes; Cook time: 15 minutes; Total time: 30 minutes Level: Medium • Serves 4 4 garlic cloves 1-inch fresh ginger, diced 2 cups mushroom mixture (oyster, king oyster, lion’s mane, or foraged mushrooms) and 1/2 cup shiitake mushrooms, chopped; OR 1 pound beef (hanger or rib eye) 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 2 tablespoons Chinese five-spice (see recipe on this page) 4 cups beef broth or vegetable broth 2 tablespoons tamari sauce 1 sweet potato, peeled 2 heads bok choy, trimmed and leaves rinsed and separated and cut into wide diagonal slices 2 green onions, sliced

A five-spice mixture makes this stew. Of course, you can buy Chinese five-spice at the market, but toasting and grinding your spices just before use will make all the difference in this umami-forward dish. If you are lucky enough to bring up a haul of porcinis, morels, or other meaty mushrooms from foraging, this dish is a beautiful way to showcase them. And we have many local growers to choose from when sourcing mushrooms. If you instead decide to make the dish with meat, use 1 steak for four people.

Pulse garlic and ginger in a food processor.

Use a vegetable peeler to carefully slice the sweet potato lengthwise into long, thin ribbons.

For the meat: Trim fat from steaks and slice across the grain into 1/4-inch slices. Sprinkle meat with the salt and half the garlic mixture.

Heat oil in a dutch oven over high heat. Brown the beef lightly in batches for 3–6 minutes. Remove to a plate using a slotted spoon.

For meatless version: Heat oil in a dutch oven over high heat. Brown mushrooms with half the garlic mixture, and when they begin to release their water, remove to a plate using a slotted spoon.

Reduce heat to medium. Add remaining garlic mixture and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in five-spice powder, then broth, and then tamari.

Add sweet potatoes, cover the pot, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes.

Stir in bok choy until wilted, about 2 minutes. Stir in beef or mushrooms until hot, another 1–2 minutes. Ladle into bowls and garnish with green onions.

CHINESE FIVE-SPICE Prep time: 10 minutes Level: Easy • Makes 1 1/4 cups

Toast whole spices in a dry skillet until fragrant, 2–3 minutes. Place all ingredients in a spice grinder (or coffee grinder) and grind until smooth.

Store in an airtight container.

6 star anise pods 1 1/2 teaspoons whole cloves, or 1 1/4 teaspoon ground 1 cinnamon stick (3 inches long), or 2 tablespoons ground 2 tablespoons fennel seeds 2 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorns, or 3 teaspoons regular peppercorns

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Find morita chiles at M exican grocery st ores or at Savory Spic e Shop in Santa Fe .

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edible New Mexico | FALL 2021

FRIJOLES BORRACHOS (DRUNKEN BEANS) Prep time: 30 minutes; Inactive time: 8–24 hours; Cook time: 3 hours; Total time: 1 day, 3 hours, and 30 minutes Level: Easy • Serves 4–6 2 1/2 cups dried pinto beans, rinsed 3 tablespoons kosher salt, plus 1 teaspoon 4 slices bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces 2 tablespoons avocado oil 1 white onion, chopped finely 1 poblano chile, stemmed, seeded, and chopped finely 3 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 cup tequila 3 1/2 cups water, divided 2 morita chiles 2 bay leaves 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed 12 ounces Mexican-style lager 1/4 cup tomato paste Garnish 2 limes, quartered 1/2 cup cotija cheese, crumbled (optional) 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped Pickled onions (see recipe on this page)

These Drunken Beans have a rich, complex flavor that comes from using a mixture of beer, tequila, and morita chiles (a type of chipotle, meaning a dried and smoked red jalapeño pepper). This recipe only relies on a small amount of meat, with the bacon adding smokiness. Using morita chiles allows you to omit the bacon without sacrificing depth of flavor.

Dissolve 3 tablespoons of salt in 4 quarts of cold water in a large bowl.

Add the beans and soak at room temperature for at least 8 hours, or up to 24 hours. Drain and rinse well.

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 275°F. Boil 1 cup of water and pour in a bowl with morita chiles and let it reconstitute for 30 minutes. When the peppers have finished soaking, mince and set them aside. Reserve the chile water.

For meat version: Cook bacon in a dutch oven over medium heat, occasionally stirring, until crisp, 5–8 minutes. Transfer bacon to a paper towel–lined bowl and set aside.

For meatless version: Heat a dutch oven over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of avocado oil.

Add onion, morita chiles, and poblano to bacon fat or avocado oil and cook, frequently stirring, until vegetables soften, 6–7 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 2 more minutes. Turn heat to medium low, add tequila, and cook until evaporated, 3–4 minutes.

Increase heat to high; stir in 2 1/2 cups water, reserved chile water, bay leaves, remaining teaspoon of salt, beans, and coriander, and bring to boil.

Cover, transfer to the oven, and cook until the beans are just soft, 45–60 minutes.

Remove the pot from the oven. Discard bay leaves. Stir in beer and tomato paste and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Simmer vigorously, frequently stirring, until liquid is thick and beans are fully tender, for about 30 minutes. Season with salt, to taste. Serve with lime wedges, cilantro, cotija and reserved bacon (if desired), and warm tortillas or cornbread.

PICKLED ONIONS Prep time: 5 minutes; Inactive time: 1 day; Total time: 1 day, 5 minutes Level: Easy • Makes 1 quart 2 cups distilled white vinegar 4 whole cloves 1 garlic clove, halved 2 teaspoons honey 2 teaspoons kosher salt 1 bay leaf 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes 4 cups boiling water 1 large red onion, halved and thinly sliced

Pickled onions are a great garnish to add texture and depth to any dish.

We put them on Frijoles Borrachos, and on enchiladas when using crema.

Stir together the vinegar, cloves, garlic, honey, salt, bay leaf, and pepper flakes in a 1-quart glass jar until the honey dissolves.

Place the onions in a mesh strainer and slowly pour boiling water over them while holding the strainer over a sink.

Add the hot onions to the brine. Gently press the onions down in the brine to fully submerge.

Put a lid on the jar and place it in the refrigerator for at least one day before eating. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

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Sweet Potato Hash with Tempeh and Taco Seasoning.

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SWEET POTATO HASH WITH BEEF OR TEMPEH Prep time: 15 minutes; Cook time: 20–25 minutes; Total time: 40 minutes Level: Medium • Serves 4 8 ounces ground beef or tempeh 1/2 cup walnut pieces (use in tempeh version only) 2 tablespoons taco seasoning (see recipe on this page) 1/2 cup water 1–2 tablespoon avocado oil, divided 1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced into small cubes (about 2 1/2 cups) 2 cups brussels sprouts, halved 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced 2–3 cups kale, roughly chopped Salt and black pepper, to taste Canola or other vegetable oil for cooking the beef or tempeh

Hash is perfect for breakfast, brunch, or dinner, and the leftovers make great burritos.

For the meat: Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and brown ground beef, using a spatula to break up the meat as it cooks.

When the meat is cooked through, sprinkle 3 tablespoons of taco seasoning over the meat. Add 1/2 cup water and stir to combine.

Set aside.

For meatless version: Pulse nuts in a food processor until finely ground, almost powdered. Add the tempeh and pulse on and off until it’s ground into crumbles; careful not to overdo it.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet. Add the tempeh mixture and sauté over medium heat until turning golden, stirring occasionally.

Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of taco seasoning over the tempeh. Add 1/2 cup water and stir to combine. Set aside.

In the same skillet the beef or tempeh was browned in, add 1/2 tablespoon of avocado oil. Add diced sweet potatoes, dash with salt and pepper, and sauté for 10–15 minutes over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until almost cooked through.

Add remaining 1/2 tablespoon of avocado oil and the onions and brussels sprouts, and sauté for about 3 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Fold in kale and taco meat or tempeh and continue to cook until heated through and kale wilts.

TACO SEASONING Prep time: 5 minutes

Place all ingredients in a small jar, cover, and shake to combine.

Store in an airtight container.

Level: Easy • Makes 1/2 cup 4 tablespoons chile powder 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon onion powder 2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon paprika 2 teaspoon sea salt 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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THE WORLD’S STRATOSPHERIC FOOD PROBLEM A LOOK AT NITROGEN, NEAR AND FAR

By Willy Carleton

Photo by Stephanie Cameron.

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D

riving along I-10, between Las Cruces and the Texas border, you might find yourself holding your breath as you press your foot a little more firmly on the accelerator. The stretch of highway known as Dairy Row, which I’ll return to later, has inspired a handful of online reviews that confirm that your eyes and nose are working just fine: “THE STENCH IS TERRIBLE,” “Looks very inhumane,” and “disgusting and sad,” read three separate reviews of one of the nine dairies along the row. It’s such a relief when you’re past that stretch of highway and your nostrils no longer burn that you might quickly banish the experience from your memory. But what exactly is in that foul smell, and where does it go? These questions, which even small children might pose to their unsure parents along the highway, lead to an even bigger one: What is the relationship between our food and the sky above us?

As the deep connection between food production and climate change has grown clearer in recent years, the conversation on climate and food has focused, for very good reason, on carbon and agriculture’s ability to capture it in the soil to help offset fossil fuel emissions and mitigate global warming. But recently, a growing number of scientists and policymakers have been making the case that nitrogen, which is essential to agricultural production, also plays a significant role in global warming and, unlike carbon dioxide, ozone depletion.

As atmospheric carbon remains an imperative standard of measure for combating climate change, the upcoming decade, one group of scientists says, must also be the Nitrogen Decade.

good to be true: a process to turn the abundant and inert nitrogen that is found in air into a form of nitrogen—ammonia—that could be used as fertilizer. With the help of Carl Bosch, Haber invented the Haber-Bosch process that produced the world’s first synthetic fertilizer and enabled tired soils to produce prodigious yields. Haber earned a Nobel Prize in 1918 for the invention, widely believed, both then and now, to have prevented wide-scale famine. In fact, over 40 percent of the world’s population today would not be alive if not for that invention. In other words, as Thomas Hager explains in The Alchemy of the Air, if every inch of arable soil were farmed with today’s best available agricultural methods, but without synthetic fertilizer, the world would only be able to provide about 4.5 billion people an adequate, vegetarian diet. The remaining 3.3 billion presumably would starve, and far more if current rates of meat consumption remained constant. Synthetic fertilizer seemed, at first at least, to be as close as we might hope to get to a free lunch.

The Nitrogen Decade follows on the heels of a century defined by this exceedingly common but often-overlooked element. At the turn of the twentieth century, as soils were being depleted globally from centuries of overuse, and as traditional nitrogen reserves such as guano were becoming scarcer, concern began to grow among Western scientists and policymakers that the world would not be able to feed itself. Thomas Malthus had published a seminal text on overpopulation a century earlier, and one of the most compelling reasons for late nineteenth-century scientists to take his thesis to heart was the argument that there would simply be too many mouths and too little nitrogen in the soils to feed them.

It was also a Faustian bargain, and the true cost of the proverbial lunch is only growing. The root of the problem is that once inert (or nonreactive) nitrogen, which is the common form of nitrogen found in the air, is changed from its inert state to a reactive state, such as the ammonia in synthetic fertilizer and the ammonia formed by nitrogen-fixing bacteria in legumes, it can relatively easily continue to change states to become a lasting form of nitrogen pollution. (So, to answer the initial question in the intro: the foul stench of cows contains gases including ammonia, some of which eventually becomes nitrates and nitrous oxide.) Whereas nitrogen pollution from natural sources such as legumes or manure has always occurred to some extent with agriculture, the sheer scale of synthetic fertilizer created from previously unavailable nitrogen in the air has created unprecedented levels of nitrogen pollution. As a result, the past century has not only witnessed a twice-doubled population fueled largely by abundant and relatively cheap synthetic fertilizer—it has also quietly witnessed a host of growing nitrogen pollution problems, ranging from nitrate-induced oceanic dead zones to nitrate-contaminated drinking wells, including here in New Mexico, to the even less visible atmospheric warming and stratospheric ozone depletion caused by nitrous oxide.

Then, almost miraculously it seemed, a German chemical-warfare engineer named Fritz Haber developed a solution that seemed too

Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, is in reality a form of pollution worth taking very seriously. It is three hundred times more

“S

Seventy percent of your nitrogen footprint is probably due to the food system and your food choices. The other thirty percent is due to transport and energy. For ordinary citizens, the food system is the number-one thing in their personal nitrogen footprint.

— Dr. Mark Sutton WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and it also depletes stratospheric ozone, which all surface life depends on. It remains in the atmosphere for over one hundred years. Though we have made strides in curbing stratospheric ozone loss by banning chemicals such as CFCs and HFCs—a relatively rare and important example of how international agreements can successfully address environmental issues—nitrous oxide emissions could threaten this critical protection layer above us that humans and all other animals utterly depend on for immune system health and plant vitality. As Pieter Tans, a senior scientist at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, put it to me: when it comes to stratospheric ozone depletion, “We are not out of the woods yet.”

Enter Dr. Mark Sutton, an environmental physicist and honorary professor at the University of Edinburgh, who is a lead advocate for the Nitrogen Decade and who has been working with the United Nations (UN) on a global framework to tackle nitrogen pollution. To meet the challenge of nitrogen pollution, in 2019, member states of the UN met in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and adopted the most ambitious global target to date for nitrogen pollution. Adoptees of the Colombo Declaration aim to halve global nitrogen waste by 2030, a target that Sutton has called “frighteningly ambitious.”

But such ambitious goals, he explained to me, are desperately needed. Sutton and I spoke via video, while he was in his office in Edinburgh. He began by repeating a common mantra among nitrogen scientists that nitrogen is “everywhere and invisible,” explaining that for this reason, its reach, ironically, can be easily overlooked. “If you’re going to try to fix the climate, and ignore nitrogen, you’re not going to meet your goals,” he continued. “We breathe in nitrogen seventy-eight percent of every breath we take. We completely ignore it because it doesn’t do much in the atmosphere, but equally if you start thinking about all those nitrogen pollution forms—air pollution, water pollution, nitrous oxide—because it’s all fragmented between different people’s issues, it all gets forgotten.”

Much of Sutton’s work aims to get the public to understand how nitrogen is a common thread in many of the planet’s most pressing environmental issues. “So nitrogen is quite complicated, and you could say, ‘Oh, don’t put it in front of the public, it’s too complicated to put it there.’ And I think that would be wrong. And part of the reason that’s wrong is that in a democracy, you only get action when the people are shouting about something. If there’s nobody shouting for it, it’s not in the public domain, it’s not in the international agreements, so you really struggle to make progress. My contention is that the public is not stupid, and the public actually loves complexity if they decide it’s going to be interesting to them.”

Throughout the conversation, he discussed three interconnected levels of approaches to curbing nitrogen pollution by increasing nitrogen-use efficiency. The first level is passing robust international agreements; the second comes through agricultural reform on farms; and the third comes through consumer action and choices, specifically through voting for climate-concerned officials and being aware of one’s nitrogen footprint and eating less meat and dairy as a result.

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been increasing its work addressing nitrogen pollution, and global engagement, especially from the world’s four biggest nitrogen polluters—the United States, China, India, and Brazil—is critical. The goal of these international agreements, ultimately, is to halve global nitrogen pollution by 2030 by encouraging nitrogen-use efficiency.

I asked him specifically what the role of the United States should be in this effort. “The US has a massive opportunity now to have the halve-nitrogen-waste discussion, because it’s an amazingly ambitious goal,” he explained. “If you said, ‘could the world as a whole halve nitrogen waste, while India, China, the US, and Brazil didn’t bother,’ it’s clear that the goal would not be met. Brazil has aligned already with the Colombo Declaration. Clearly, the US, China, and India have got to come too.”

International agreements, Sutton made clear, are critical. Atmospheric pollutants cross borders and require cooperation at the highest levels to control. But the sources of these pollutants are local in nature too. Agriculture is by far the largest contributor of nitrogen pollution, so changing agricultural practices at all scales is an extremely important part of the conversation. Because livestock often feed on agricultural products grown with synthetic fertilizer, such as corn, and because their manure is also a source of various forms of nitrogen pollution, halving meat and dairy consumption in the global diet would significantly reduce nitrogen pollution. While not all meat and dairy carry the same nitrogen footprint, and sourcing meat from local ranchers and farmers who practice regenerative agriculture can help reduce the carbon and nitrogen footprints of the products, there is room for improvement in all agricultural systems, and reducing meat intake across the board will reduce nitrogen pollution.

“When you engage with farmers, they will often say, ‘Oh leave me alone, I have too many pressures, it would cost me to take action.’ But if you add up the value of all the air/land/water losses as a wasted form of nitrogen, you get this two hundred billion dollars a year. So halve nitrogen waste, save a hundred billion. It’s clear that there is actually an opportunity for profit in it if you’re smart, so it’s about learning to be smart and mobilizing the circular economy.”

I asked Sutton about the role of regenerative agriculture. While industrial farming is by far a larger contributor of nitrogen pollution, and thus a far more pressing concern in terms of nitrogen, he was quick to note that it is not only large-scale farmers and ranchers that need to pay attention to nitrogen pollution. “Whether you are an intensive-style farmer or a regenerative or organic farmer, there is something that you can do better in the system that you’ve got,” he began. The ways small-scale farmers and ranchers can improve are often highly technical, but the bottom line for Sutton is that tracking and managing any form of reactive nitrogen— whether it’s ammonia from synthetic fertilizer or from leguminous cover crops and in animal manure—will improve all types of farming systems. “One thing regenerative farmers will often tell you is that they don’t make pollution because they don’t have fertilizers, which is incorrect because if you, let’s say, make a green cover crop with legumes, and you want to have it as part of a good rotation to build the carbon and nitrogen in your soil, the moment you take a

legume that has fixed the nitrogen out of the atmosphere with its roots and plow it into the soil, suddenly you’re going to get a big pulse of mineralization and you risk nitrous oxide emissions and nitrate leaching.” In other words, while regenerative farming represents a positive and important step away from widespread overuse of synthetic fertilizers, even many farmers practicing forms of regenerative agriculture can often improve their yields and further reduce their nitrogen footprint by paying close attention to how nitrogen enters and leaves their fields.

Agriculture is driven in part by consumer choices, and so consumers play a large role, as well. For Sutton, this starts with education about nitrogen pollution in all its forms: “Seventy percent of your nitrogen footprint is probably due to the food system and your food choices. The other thirty percent is due to transport and energy. For ordinary citizens, the food system is the number-one thing in their personal nitrogen footprint. We’ve met peak engagement on nitrogen and food in Europe now, because they’ve got used to the conversation, whereas my guess is you’re still at the edge in the US with this extremely sensitive discussion, liable for polarization. But that is a massive opportunity for getting the message out. . . . The very sensitivity of the topic in the US means it’s still got plenty of media mileage.”

Reflecting on these issues, I turned my eye back toward what is likely one of the biggest sources of nitrogen pollution in the state: dairies. New Mexico is home to more than 130 dairies that ship their products out of state; in 2018, they produced more than eight billion pounds of milk. For nearly two decades, New Mexico dairies have had the largest average herd size in the country; a recent agricultural census tallied the average to be 3,187 cows per dairy. Most of these dairies are in the southern and eastern parts of the state, and perhaps the epicenter is along that short stretch of I-10 known as Dairy Row. New Mexico’s dairies have long been a source of jobs and a known source of nitrate-caused water pollution—and hence conflict. For many who live near the dairies, well water cannot be used safely for drinking or bathing, and groups such as the New Mexico Citizens Dairy Coalition (NMCDC) have challenged the dairies to provide

more oversight, monitoring, and remediation of groundwater pollution. It is a critical public health issue for those living nearby.

Given the immediate dangers of contaminated drinking water, it is little wonder that other forms of nitrogen pollution, both here in New Mexico and throughout the world, receive less attention in the localities hit hardest by nitrates.

Despite the lack of attention, New Mexico’s dairies are very likely contributing to atmospheric pollution. Manure management alone led to 5 percent of total nitrous oxide emissions in the United States in 2017. Large dairies also contribute to nitrous oxide emissions through their reliance on industrial corn to feed cows; fertilizer use and soil management accounts for 74 percent of total nitrous oxide emissions in the country. As Dan Lorimier of the NMCDC told me, “There is no sense of what the [local] dairy industry’s contribution to air pollution is here because we don’t monitor that at all.” But Lorimier has little doubt that the dairies, combined with methane flaring in our state’s oil fields, have contributed to global atmospheric pollution. How much is an open question. “I think that would be a great direction, to try to get public awareness of the dairy industry’s contributions to greenhouse and other air pollutants on the menu of things to be looking at.”

New Mexico’s dairies are just one of many ways that local agriculture affects our atmosphere. Farmers and ranchers of all scales can better incorporate nitrogen efficiency into their systems, reducing the nitrogen footprint of the food we rely on. Using tools such as N-Calculator at n-print.org, institutions and individual consumers can learn about and prioritize their footprint more.

But there are limits to local solutions. This is not a problem that can be solved simply by buying food from co-ops and farmers markets; it is also a global problem that requires engaging in global conversations and working toward international-level solutions. So while eating less meat, supporting regenerative ranching for the meat we do purchase, and prioritizing food with lower nitrogen footprints all play an important part of grappling with this issue, so too will more-thanlocal actions like urging elected officials to join critical international pacts to curb nitrogen waste. When it comes to stratospheric food problems, solutions must come in all links of the food chain.

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RETURNING TO RESTAURANTS AS MANY OF US RUSH BACK TO DINING IN, WHAT DOES THE “NEW NORMAL” LOOK LIKE FOR RESTAURATEURS?

By Ellie Duke · Photos by Douglas Merriam

Radish & Rye dining room.

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T

o say 2020 was a difficult year is an almost laughable understatement. The restaurant industry was one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic—the National Restaurant Association reported that 110,000 eateries closed in 2020, and those that did survive had to pivot quickly and creatively to operate under entirely different conditions than the ones one they had known before. Now, in the wake of a prolonged period of isolation, widespread access to vaccines signifies a newfound freedom. Over the last year and a half, many of us have reexamined our priorities and routines; we’ve experienced immense personal, professional, and global change. As the economy reopens, we have spent the recent months emerging into a new world.

One of the first freedoms that many were excited to exercise was, of course, dining in. After a year of to-go boxes and home-cooking experiments, we are eager to rush back to our favorite local eateries. But restaurants, like all public spaces, are finding their own version of a new normal. Uncertainty still hangs in the air, and staffing and sourcing continue to provide roadblocks for restaurant owners looking to return to their pre-pandemic pace. So, what does dining in look like in 2021?

“The new normal that we’ve adjusted to is [that] people are more in their own world,” says Camille Bremer, managing partner of Santa Fe’s Radish & Rye. “We have such a great bar, and such a great atmosphere where there [used to be] so much interaction happening between guests that don’t know each other. So that was a big change.” Bremer reflects that during the pandemic, people saw food more as a necessity than as an experience, and Radish & Rye prides itself on offering a unique, welcoming atmosphere, in addition to excellent food. But even though patrons might be keeping to themselves more, they are grateful to be able to once again experience dining in. “It’s amazing to see and to feel the support. . . . I can’t even tell you how many times a night I hear ‘I’m so glad you’re open, thank you so much for being here,’” Bremer adds.

While the lockdown was incredibly challenging for Radish & Rye, it did provide some opportunity to upgrade the space without cutting into the typical flow of operations. Bremer remodeled the bathrooms herself, “with lots of Googling how-tos,” and hung partitions that had been waiting in her garage for years. “It looks like it got a little facelift,” she observes. “I had the opportunity to do that without being rushed.”

Revel in Silver City also got some redecoration, thanks to a nationwide grant. “We applied for any and all aid,” says co-owner Kelsey Patterson, “and we were lucky to receive a little chunk of money that helped us finally afford a pergola awning top for our outdoor dining space. So we were finally able to make a major infrastructure update that we had been wanting to do for years.”

But for the folks at Revel, the pandemic provided more than time for a cosmetic upgrade. “We’ve done a lot of soul searching since this began that we hadn’t anticipated,” Patterson offers. And this reflection ultimately led to a significant change in business operations. “We’re going back to the core basic principles that got us started in this, which is honoring the local seasonal ingredients and having just beautifully plated elevated comfort food, just dialing back our model.”

Starting in September, Revel will be open three days a week, by reservation only. “We can really set the pace of the evening and deliver the best possible product. Reduced hours, reduced volume, so we can do more of the fun, creative food that got us started,” says Patterson. Indeed, the pandemic impelled many of us to be more discerning—about our schedules, our expenditures, who we spent our time with. An increased attention to quality over quantity seems a fitting takeaway from this era of quarantine.

Though Radish & Rye isn’t making quite as significant changes as Revel, Bremer echoes Patterson’s gratitude for the time off to reflect and reevaluate: “It was an opportunity to remember why we love this business, why we’re doing this.

And also an opportunity to miss it. I think it renewed our mission, and also it renewed my passion for hospitality.” In

“O

One of the first freedoms that many were excited to exercise was, of course, dining in. After a year of to-go boxes and home-cooking experiments, we are eager to rush back to our favorite local eateries.

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Radish & Rye upstairs bar.

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light of all the change and challenge of the past year, she says it’s “more important than ever to welcome people into our space and make them feel at home.” In the fast-paced environment of restaurants, the chance to take a step back from the daily grind and renew your enthusiasm for your work is rare. A change of perspective has been, for many, one upside to an incredibly challenging time.

Joe Powdrell, co-owner of Mr. Powdrell’s Barbeque House in Albuquerque, credits their survival throughout the pandemic to the restaurant’s loyal customers. Powdrell’s has been operating in Albuquerque for over fifty years, and Powdrell estimates that 70 percent of their clientele are repeat customers. “They stayed with us,” he says, “in terms of buying from us and knowing what we were up against.”

Powdrell’s has not yet reopened their indoor dining, due to staffing shortages. “I have a hard time telling [people] that our inside isn’t opened up,” Powdrell adds, “because they come not just as a customer, but as a friend.” As for when they might be able to reopen their in-person dining, Powdrell says he “really can’t predict it.”

Staffing shortages are a near-universal issue for restaurants in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Right now, our core staff is really burnt out,” says Patterson of Revel. “We just can’t find dependable extra help to fill in around the edges. People have decided to pursue other job opportunities.” The National Restaurant Association estimated that 2.5 million food service jobs were lost in 2020, and the majority of those positions have not been refilled. Nathan Mayes, executive chef and partner at Paloma in Santa Fe, reiterated Patterson’s theory about restaurant workers seeking new vocations. “It’s been tough getting enough staff to come back,” he said. “Some people that maybe wouldn’t have branched out to do something else maybe just had to because of necessity, whether that’s going back to school or whatever it may be.”

The demand is there: people are returning to restaurants in droves, and many establishments are sold out every night. But the pressure on the staff is intense, and many managers and owners don’t want to operate at a pace that will be too hard on their employees. “We’re not going to grow faster than what we can handle,” Bremer says of Radish & Rye. “We’re going to do it right, instead of hurrying and sacrificing the standard of our service.”

While sourcing food and other supplies were an issue for some, especially on a national level, Patterson feels that the pandemic reinforced her appreciation for her local network in the Silver City area. “We are a small, tight-knit community of restaurant people,” she remarks. For example, her farmers and vendors would keep her apprised of what would be available so she could plan her menu. It remains to be seen, but if national food-sourcing challenges prompt restaurants to look closer to home for their providers, that might be an additional upside of the pandemic.

Managers and front-of-house staff expressed their gratitude that, for the most part, restaurant goers have been gracious and respectful as they return to dining in. The Aspen Institute’s Food and Society Program has produced a set of guidelines to help restaurants navigate reopening safely (aspeninstitute.org/programs/food-and-society-program/safety-first/). Included was a Diner Code of Conduct, which highlights masking when required and, importantly, patience and kindness. While the risks for restaurant workers—and diners—is reduced by widespread access to vaccines, it is not zero, and patrons’ respect and appreciation of food service workers goes a long way in easing the transition back into normal operations.

While Powdrell credits his business’s resilience through the pandemic to its longevity, Mayes says he believes that Paloma survived, in part, because the restaurant is still in its adolescence. Having been open for four years, they are “lucky to be growing and to always be confronted with new sets of challenges. . . . We’re continually trying to figure out systems for our tiny space and make things more efficient; we’re constantly trying to adapt.” The constraints of the pandemic were simply a new hurdle to overcome, albeit a significant one.

Mayes also used the pandemic as an opportunity to regain perspective and “get nitty-gritty with a lot of the details,” he reflects. “It was really going down to zero, hitting rock bottom, counting every dollar . . . and being thankful for the people who stuck with us through all of it.”

A feeling of optimism seems to pervade the restaurant industry today, despite ongoing challenges. “People bring life situations to your establishment, they bring funerals, new jobs, retirements,” says Powdrell. “We knew it already, but it became even more clear that food service and hospitality has a lot to do with that socialization. Distancing made that silver lining clear . . . absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

Mayes agrees: “There’s a sense of camaraderie, there’s a sense of optimism.”

Alongside that optimism comes a new awareness that everything can change on a dime. For many restaurant owners, things are still in flux, and the most comfortable approach is to take things one day at a time. A reinvigorated love of hospitality; a deeper connection to our local network of purveyors, farmers, and general community; and increased flexibility all might be silver linings of an unexpected, difficult year, but the truth remains that the “new normal” may not become clear for a while, if ever. As Bremer articulates, “If we’ve learned anything from the last year, it’s that you never know.”

Radish & Rye, 505 Cerrillos, Santa Fe, radishandrye.com Paloma, 401 S Guadalupe, Santa Fe, palomasantafe.com Mr. Powdrell's Barbeque House, 5209 Fourth St NW and 11301 Central, Albuquerque, bbqandsoulfoodabq.com Revel, 304 N Bullard Street, Silver City, eatdrinkrevel.com WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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E A T. D R I N K . T H I N K .

On the following pages, we bring you the second in a series of thought leadership stories that span topics of sustainability, access to healthy foods and

local communities who are tireless champions in the battle against nutrition insecurity and hunger.

nutrition, restaurant revitalization and regenerative agriculture. These are

Dr. Frank says “the power of one can be huge,” and we could not agree

the values that Edible Communities, as an organization, has been devoted

more. One person, one organization, one community—each purpose driven,

to for the past two decades. Our work lends itself to the singular notion that

can massively impact our food system. We believe that every person should

excellent storytelling has the power to change lives, and that by exploring and

have access to a high-quality diet that is filled with nutritious foods that

elevating important conversations like these, we can effect everlasting change

are raised and grown using sustainable practices. As consumer advocates we

in our communities too.

all play a critical role in reshaping the demand for this, and we all must be

Please join us in supporting the work of our featured subjects—Michel

diligent in advancing this agenda if we are to ensure that no one is left behind.

Nischan, sustainable food advocate and co-founder of Wholesome Wave; and

Tracey Ryder

native food historian and chef, Dr. Lois Ellen Frank—two heroes from our

Co-Founder, Edible Communities

Chef Michel Nischan Photo courtesy of Wholesome Wave

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S E C T ION

R ET H I N K I N G H U N G E R Why Feeding Those in Need Must Focus on Nourishment

STORY

BY

Joy Manning

When anyone in a community struggles with food

equality. Communities of color and those living in poverty

insecurity, it’s everybody’s problem. In the United States

in the U.S. got sick from COVID-19 at a rate two to three

alone, an estimated $90 billion in excess healthcare costs

times higher than the rest of the country, according to the

annually are associated with food insecurity, according to

2020 Wholesome Wave impact report. The underlying rea-

research from the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation’s study

sons why aren’t specific to the pandemic. “Four of the Top

conducted by researchers affiliated with Harvard’s School

5 drivers of this disparity are obesity, diabetes, hyperten-

of Public Health, Brandeis University and Loyola Univer-

sion and heart disease,” says Nischan. These are all chronic

sity. The social and emotional toll hunger takes on commu-

conditions that can be prevented and often reversed by in-

nities is harder to quantify, but no less deeply felt.

creasing access to nutritious food.

But of course, for those personally experiencing food

Yet, when the foremost experts in hunger talk about

insecurity, the problems are impossible to ignore. For

hunger in terms of food security, it drives a cultural con-

those receiving SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance

versation that leads food banks to be well-stocked, but of-

Program) benefits, getting the most calories for their dollar

ten it’s with ultra-processed food. “It has to be about more

is likely at the forefront of their mind, and sometimes that

than getting meals on the table,” Nischan says.

means families eat more processed foods than they’d like.

To that end, Nischan and Wholesome Wave co-found-

Michel Nischan, a four-time James Beard Award-winning

er Gus Schumacher worked on a SNAP “doubling” pro-

chef and sustainable food movement leader, is working to

gram that makes every $1 a participant spends worth $2

change that. And for Wholesome Wave, the nonprofit he

when they buy produce. What began as a nascent pilot

founded in 2007, it is a primary goal.

program in Columbia, Md., in 2005 has since grown into

Wholesome Wave recently reset its priorities, in fact, and

a federally funded program started by Wholesome Wave

will now squarely focus on nutrition—not food—insecurity.

that helps more than 40 million people eat more greens

The goal is to change the way people think about hunger.

and less instant ramen.

The distinction between food security and nutrition

As part of Nischan’s shift to nutrition security, Whole-

security is a critical one, according to Nischan. Most

some Wave is also ramping up its Produce Prescription

North Americans have access to enough calories to avoid

Program. It’s an umbrella program that partners with lo-

hunger thanks to government programs, food banks and

cal organizations, such as hospitals and health clinics, to

hunger relief organizations. “This makes them technical-

empower doctors to write prescriptions for nutrient-dense

ly ‘food secure,’ but they’re still not getting the nutrition

fruits and vegetables, often local, that patients pick up

they need to be healthy,” says Nischan. “We aren’t solving

weekly, free of charge.

the real problem.

“It’s about people having the kind of diet that promotes good health and prevents disease,” he says. It’s also about

“Many people visit the doctor and hear, ‘If you don’t eat better, the next time I see you you’ll have type 2 diabetes,” says Nischan. His next big goal is securing Medicaid and

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Visit ediblecommunities.com for more photos and podcasts

Medicare funding for these programs so they become as common as prescriptions are for drugs. “Your insurance company will pay for a kidney transplant, but not the vegetables that can prevent the disease,” he says.

Piloted in 2010, the Produce Prescription Program is ambitious, but peer-reviewed research shows that it works. A 2017 study published in Preventive Medicine Reports showed that participation in the program helped

HUNGER BY THE NUMBERS The problem of food and nutrition insecurity across North America is incalculable, but these sobering statistics show that work still must be done to ensure everyone gets the nourishment they need to live a full life and prevent disease.

bring down participants’ A1C (a number that indicates one’s average blood sugar level). A 2012 study in the journal Public Health Nutrition showed produce prescriptions improve overall well-being.

I N T H E U N I T E D S TAT E S :

35 million Americans live in households that struggle with food and nutrition insecurity.

84 percent of households served by Feeding America, a network of food banks, say they buy cheap food instead of fresh food to ensure they’ll have enough to eat.

27.5 percent of households with kids are food and nutrition insecure.

19.1 percent of Black households and 15.6% of Hispanic households experience food and nutrition insecurity.

1 in 19 Americans relies on SNAP benefits.

Image courtesy of Wholesome Wave

This is not to say that Nischan believes Wholesome Wave has all the answers. From the beginning, Wholesome Wave has partnered with local organizations to bring ideas and funding to a collaboration that fits the specific needs of its community. “We don’t want to be the organization that rides into your town with our solution to your problem. Addressing nutrition insecurity is different in every community,” he says. And, as we know, paying attention to those differences is critical to finding solutions.

Continued...

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I N CA N A DA :

1 in 8 Canadian households faces food and nutrition insecurity.

1 in 6 Canadian children experiences food and nutrition insecurity.

In Ontario, 3,282,514 visits were made to food banks in 2019-2020.

Black and Indigenous people are 3 times more likely to be food and nutrition insecure than white people.

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Communities

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Dr. Lois Ellen Frank | Photo by Daphne Hougard

Indigenous communities, for example, live with some of

sauce. “These are ancestral foods that promote wellness,”

the highest rates of food and nutrition insecurity in North

she says. After the training, 32 families received the pre-

America. A study published in 2017 in the Journal of Hunger

pared dish, plus the recipe and the ingredients they’d need

& Environmental Nutrition found that from 2000 to 2010,

to make it themselves. “You think you aren’t teaching that

25% of American Indians and Alaska Natives were consis-

many people, but it’s a ripple effect,” she says. One family

tently food insecure. It’s a daunting statistic.

passes the information to another.

Dr. Lois Ellen Frank is a Santa Fe, N.M.-based chef

This passing of knowledge from one person to the next

and native food historian. She believes that the health and

can help keep food traditions alive. “It takes only one gen-

nutrition security of Indigenous communities (and all

eration for a recipe or a method of agriculture to disappear.”

communities for that matter) can best be served by put-

And preserving these recipes and traditions matters

ting attention and energy into solutions and not focusing

when it comes to solving the problem of food insecurity. A

on the problems. Frank would rather focus on concrete

2019 study published in the journal Food Security suggests

tasks she can do to help. “I’m a big advocate of the power

that tribal communities can achieve increased food secu-

of one person,” she says. She provides culinary training to

rity and better health outcomes if they have greater access

those who cook in community centers and schools to help

to their traditional foods and the ability to hunt, fish and

people reconnect with traditional foodways through native

preserve native foods.

plants and recipes.

Recently, she taught cooks in one school to make refried bean enchiladas with corn and zucchini in a red chili

For some, starting a nonprofit organization is a great way to make a difference. But, as Dr. Frank also reminds us, helping just one person can have an impact too. e

ediblecommunities.com

LOCAL PROVISIONS GUID E

PAPRIKASH at Dolina in Santa Fe.

ALBUQUERQUE RESTAURANTS

Seasons Rotisserie & Grill

Arroyo Vino

Rio Grande Valley cuisine rooted in seasonal organic ingredients from our own farm.

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

The Grove Café & Market

Cafecito

Campo at Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm

Cutbow Coffee

One of the nation's most accomplished artisan coffee roasters, Paul Gallegos.

1208 Rio Grande NW, 505-355-5563, cutbowcoffee.com

Debajo

Local Spanish-style tapas restaurant with fine wine and beer. 1025 Lomas NW, 505-503-8645

Oak-fired grill, local and seasonal ingredients, and the best patio dining in Old Town.

2031 Mountain NW, 505-766-5100, seasonsabq.com The Grove features a bustling café experience serving breakfast, brunch, and lunch.

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

The Shop Breakfast & Lunch

Serving breakfast and lunch Wednesday through Sunday. 2933 Monte Vista NE, 505-433-2795, theshopabq.com

Trifecta Coffee Company

Farm & Table

We roast coffee and brew it in unique ways utilizing some of the best methods available.

413 Montaño NE, 505-803-7579, trifectacoffeeco.com

Mata G Vegetarian Kitchen

Spanish and American wines celebrating the origins of the American wine experience.

315 Alameda NE, Albuquerque, 505-898-6280, varawines.com

Enjoy delectable seasonal dishes created from scratch, sourced from local farmers and our beautiful on-site farm. 8917 Fourth Street NW, 505-503-7124, farmandtablenm.com Unmistakably comforting, uncompromisingly fresh, and undeniably delicious.

116 Amherst SE, 505-266-6374, mata-g.com

Salt and Board

Salt and Board, a charcuterie-based cork and tap room in the heart of the Brick Light District. 115 Harvard SE, 505-219-2001, saltandboard.com

Savoy Bar & Grill

California wine country in the Northeast Heights. Farm-to-table dining and a casual patio. 10601 Montgomery NE, 505-294-9463, savoyabq.com

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Vara Winery & Distillery

SANTA FE RESTAURANTS Anasazi Restaurant & Bar

Contemporary American cuisine inspired by locally sourced seasonal ingredients.

113 Washington, 505-988-3030, innoftheanasazi.com

Arable

Inspired by the bounty of New Mexico, and the small community of Eldorado, Arable was born. 7 Avenida Vista Grande, 505-303-3816, arablesantafe.com

We serve progressive American fare inspired by our on-premise garden and local purveyors.

218 Camino La Tierra, 505-983-2100, arroyovino.com Cafecito is a family-owned business blending cultures to bring you a delicious menu in a beautiful gathering space. 922 Shoofly, Santa Fe, 505-310-0089, cafecitosantafe.com

Dolina

We serve modern American brunch with Eastern European influences. Open 7 days a week. 402 N Guadalupe, 505-982-9394, dolinasantafe.com

Iconik Coffee Roasters

Amazing food, unique coffees roasted on-site, and super fast high-speed internet.

314 S Guadalupe and 1600 Lena, 505-428-0996, iconikcoffee.com

Loyal Hound

Locally sourced modern comfort food paired with craft beer, cider, and wine.

730 St Michaels, 505-471-0440, loyalhoundpub.com

Ohori’s Coffee Roasters

The original source for locally roasted coffee beans, gifts, and gathering. 505 Cerrillos and 1098 St. Francis, 505-982-9692, ohoriscoffee.com

Paper Dosa

Bringing fresh, authentic homestyle South Indian dishes to your table. 551 W Cordova, 505-930-5521, paper-dosa.com

MARKET PLACE LOCAL FINDS

Me Mesa ats

“From our Table Top to Yours.”

Your local wholesale or retail supplier for meat!

Grass-fed or grain-fed beef, Wagyu beef, lamb, goat, and pork. All locally-raised, fed, and USDA processed.

6368 South HWY 55, Mountainair mesameat.com · 575-799-0770

LAWN SPRINKLER EXPERTS

Genuine Food & Drink Enchanting, Dusty...

Wild West Style 28 MAIN STREET LOS CERRILLOS 505.438.1821 Thursday - Sunday blackbirdsaloon.com

Barrio Brinery S

AN

Repairs/Installations Landscape Remodeling Fruit Tree Pruning and Removal

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i TA ex FE z New M

Santa Fe's source for fine fermented foods. Our lacto-fermented pickles, sauerkraut, and escabeche are hand-crafted in small batches.

1413-B West Alameda, Santa Fe www.barriobrinery.com ∙ 505-699-9812

505-319-5730

nmlawnsprinklerexperts.com Wholesale Specialty Cheese/Meats/Provisions 300+ Cheeses from around the World Est. 1984

SANTA FE Linking the pleasure of good food with local community. www.b-cow.com · 505-473-7911

HighGradeOrganicCBD.com

SLOWFOODSANTAFE.ORG

LOCAL PROVISIONS GUID E TRIFECTA COFFEE COMPANY

Creative Casual Cuisine

BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER & BRUNCH (505) 310-0089 | 922 Shoofly St. SF, NM

Radish & Rye

Farm-inspired cuisine: simple yet innovative food and drinks sourced locally whenever possible. 505 Cerrillos, 505-930-5325, radishandrye.com

Santa Fe Spirits

Artisan distillery. 7505 Mallard and 308 Read, 505-467-8892 and 505-780-5906, santafespirits.com

TerraCotta

Seasonally changing, globally inspired cuisine and an extensive, value-priced wine list.

304 Johnson, 505-989-1166, terracottawinebistro.com

The Compound Restaurant

Chef Mark Kiffin preserves a landmark tradition of elegant food and service at his Canyon Road institution. 653 Canyon Road, 505-982-4353, compoundrestaurant.com

413 Montano NE, Albuquerque 505-803-7579, trifectacoffeeco.com We roast coffee, and brew it in unique ways utilizing some of the best methods available. All of our baked goods, sweet, and savory are made in house.

Michael’s Kitchen Restaurant and Bakery

Regionally inspired eats with a tongue-incheek menu in a casual space decorated with knickknacks. 304-C N Pueblo, Taos, 575-758-4178, michaelskitchen.com

Pajarito Brewpub & Grill

Open for lunch Tuesday–Sunday. Open for dinner every day. 30 craft beers on tap.

614 Trinity Dr, Los Alamos, 505-662-8877, pajaritobrewpubandgrill.com

Parcht

/pärCHt/= the physical condition resulting from the need to drink wine, eat good food, and shop . . . in Taos. 103 E Plaza, 575-758-1994, parcht.com

Pig + Fig

Black Bird Saloon

Whether you're strictly vegan or strictly meat and potatoes, our goal is to create comfort food for everyone using high-quality, ethically sourced, seasonal ingredients.

11 Sherwood Blvd, White Rock, 505-672-2742, pigandfigcafe.com

Black Mesa Winery

Farm-to-table, elevated comfort food, in a fast-casual environment. 304 N Bullard St, Silver City, 575-388-4920, eatdrinkrevel.com

GREATER NEW MEXICO RESTAURANTS Genuine food and drink, Wild West style.

28 Main St, Los Cerrillos, 505-438-1821, blackbirdsaloon.com Black Mesa Winery is an award-winning winery using only New Mexican grapes.

1502 Hwy 68, Velarde, 505-852-2820, blackmesawinery.com

Blades' Bistro

Chef and owner Kevin Bladergroen brings together fine and fresh ingredients, artistic vision, and European flair in every dish.

221 Hwy 165, Placitas, 505-771-0695, bladesbistro.com

Charlie's Spic & Span Bakery & Café

Charlie’s offers New Mexican cuisine, breakfast, and classic pastries. 715 Douglas Ave, Las Vegas, 505-426-1921, charliesbakeryandcafe.com

Little Toad Creek Brewery & Distillery Taste Southwest New Mexico.

200 N Bullard St, Silver City, 575-956-6144, and 119 N Main St, Las Cruces, 575-556-9934, littletoadcreek.com

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Revel

The Gorge: Bar and Grill

Our menu is straightforward, yet eclectic, and chock-full of favorites made from scratch.

103 E Plaza, Taos, 575-758-8866, thegorgebarandgrill.com

The Skillet

American, Southwest, vegetarian friendly.

619 Twelfth Street, Las Vegas, 505-563-0477, giant-skillet.com

FOOD ARTISANS / RETAILERS Barrio Brinery

Bringing fine fermented foods to Santa Fe. We make our products by handcrafting small batches of flavorful goodness, using only the finest ingredients.1413-B W Alameda, Santa Fe, 505-699-9812, barriobrinery.com

Bountiful Cow Cheese Company Purveyors of fine cheese, meats, and

Chef and owner Kevin Bladergroen brings together fresh ingredients, artistic vision, and European flair in every dish. Award-winning wine list.

221 Highway 165, Placitas 505-771-0695, www.bladesbistro.com provisions from around the world.

505-473-7911, B-cow.com

Del Valle Pecans

Fresh and sweet organic pecans. From our southern New Mexico orchards to your kitchen. Order online. 575-524-1867, delvallepecans.com

Eldora Chocolate

Eldora crafts chocolate using natural, organic, and fair-trade ingredients.

1909 Bellamah NW and 8114 Edith NE, Albuquerque, 505-433-4076, eldorachocolate.com

Finches

Espresso-ground rooibos. Antioxidant-rich.

Coffee alternative. Caffeine-free or caffeinated. finchescafe.com

Heidi's Raspberry Farm

Sumptuous, organic raspberry jams available throughout New Mexico and online!

600 Andrews Ln, Corrales, 505-898-1784, heidisraspberryfarm.com

High Grade Organic CBD

Our hemp is grown from seed under the sun on our USDA Certified Organic farm in the Rio Grande River Valley of northern New Mexico. highgradeorganiccbd.com

KURE

We pride ourselves on providing a unique, friendly, and welcoming environment.

220 North Guadalupe, Santa Fe, 505-930-5339, kureforlife.com

La Montañita Co-op

La Montañita Co-op is New Mexico's largest community-owned natural and organic food market. Locations in Albuquerque, Gallup, and Santa Fe, lamontanita.coop

Mesa Meats

Bringing ranchers and consumers together with local quality beef, pork, and lamb.

6368 South Hwy 55, Mountainair, 575-799-0770, mesameat.com

Skarsgard Farms

Delivering fresh, local, and organically grown produce and natural groceries to doorsteps across New Mexico. 505-681-4060, skarsgardfarms.com

LOCAL PROVISIONS GUID E

Elevated Rooibos. Elevating Health.

Celebrating Café. Celebrating Community.

Espresso ground Rooibos. Antioxidant rich.

Coffee alternative. Caffeine-free or caffeinated.

Pure • Chai • Blossom • Earl finchescafe.com

Susan's Fine Wine & Spirits

Your local liquor store in Santa Fe. 632 Auga Fria, sfwineandspirits.com

Talin Market

88 Louisiana SE, Albuquerque, 505-268-0206, talinmarket.com

LODGING

Bishop's Lodge

Bishop's Lodge is a soulful retreat steeped in heritage. 1297 Bishops Lodge, Santa Fe, aubergeresorts.com/bishopslodge

Heritage Hotels and Resorts

Hotels in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, and Las Cruces. hhandr.com

Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm

4803 Rio Grande NW, Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, 505-344-9297, lospoblanos.com

Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi

Sophisticated modern aesthetic celebrating the southwestern spirit. 113 Washington, Santa Fe, 505-988-3030

Sarabande B & B

Comfort, elegance, and simplicity.

5637 Rio Grande NW, Albuquerque, 505-348-5593, sarabandebnb.com

The Parador

Our 200-year-old farmhouse, Santa Fe's oldest inn, is located in historic downtown Santa Fe. 220 W Manhattan, Santa Fe, 505988-1177, elparadero.com

NURSERIES & SERVICES Alameda Greenhouse

Located in the North Valley. 9515 Fourth Street NW, Albuquerque, 505-898-3562, alamedagreenhouseabq.com

gardening center, and landscaping company. 501 Osuna NE, Albuquerque, 505-345-6644, osunanursery.com

Kitchenality

Payne's North, 304 Camino Alire, 505-988-8011; Payne's South, 715 St Michaels, 505-988-9626; PAYNE'S ORGANIC Soil Yard, 6037 Agua Fria, 505-424-0336, paynes.com

Next Best Thing to Being There

ORGANIZATIONS & EDUCATION

We have a passion for finding the perfect gift. 4022 Rio Grande NW, Albuquerque, 505-344-1253, sarabandehome.com

Payne’s Nursery

Balloon Museum Foundation

Elevated Dining Experiences, October 2–10. balloonmuseum.com

Sarabande Home

October 23–24, in Eldorado at Santa Fe. eldoradoarts.org/studio-tour

Museum of New Mexico Foundation

Philanthropic support for our state's cultural heritage. museumfoundation.org

Rio Grande Credit Union

Multiple locations in Albuquerque. riograndecu.org

Slow Food Santa Fe

Slow Food is about enjoying food and the community it creates. Intrigued? Learn more at slowfoodsantafe.org.

RETAILERS

Flyby Provisions

Enjoy shopping for boutique local New Mexico gifts—thoughtfully selected and packaged with care. flybyprovisions.com

Found on 4th

The eclectic lifestyle store. Vintage home decor and unique gifts. 8909 Fourth Street NW, Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, 505-508-2207, foundon4th.com

Gallery Ethnica

Live globally! 1301 Cerrillos, Santa Fe, 505-557-6654, galleryethnica.com

Osuna Nursery

Thoughtfully sourced, carefully curated, natural fabric and fibers. 311 Montezuma, Santa Fe, hacersantafe.com

A family-owned and -operated nursery,

An eclectic shop for handmade products.

1315 Mountain NW, Albuquerque, 505-433-3204, beingthereabq.com

Eldorado Art Tour

deerBrooke

Irrigation and backflow prevention specialists. Repairs, installations, and consulting.

505-319-5730, nmlawnsprinklerexperts.com

Irresistible and gently used gourmet cooking and entertaining ware. 1222 Siler, Santa Fe, 505-471-7780, kitchenangels.org

Hacer Santa Fe

WAFFLES at The Shop Breakfast & Lunch

WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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LAST BITE

ALBUQUERQUE’S MILE-HI FARMERS’ MARKET Mile-Hi Farmers’ Market opened in 2014 and is creating a community around food.

The market, held in Alvarado Park near San Pedro and Indian School, is a collaborative effort between three different neighborhoods. It offers a mix of vendors serving up local produce and arts and crafts. The market welcomes backyard gardeners, features small-batch prepared foods, and supports local musicians. SNAP, Double Up, WIC, and Senior Supplement programs are all offered.

Mile-Hi Farmers’ Market is open Sundays from 10 am to 1 pm, June through the end of September, at Alvarado Park, 2000 Alvarado Drive NE in Albuquerque.

The Last Bite is brought to you by RIO GRANDE CREDIT UNION and highlights New Mexico’s food entrepreneurs and small businesses.

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Why Bank Local?

1. Put your money to work growing the local economy 2. Keep decision making local 3. Local institutions share a commitment to our community

We understand.

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