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The Children of My Corn
As I was preparing to move to New Mexico, a Blackfoot Indian woman came by to see about renting my house. She didn’t rent it, but we became friends. And before she left she gave me some bright red kernels of dried corn she got at a pow-wow. I forget her name so I’ll... »
New Mexico Green Chile
The annual green chile harvest has begun, which means the smell of roasting green chile will soon permeate the American southwest. The fragrance of chile smoke is sweet and earthy, like incense, but serious potency lurks in the pungent scent of those blackened skins. It’s the smell of chemical heat. Green chile comes from... »
green chile stew stuffed chicken
Last week I attempted in vain to present my recipe for green chile chicken. But I was unable to move the discussion past the dish’s main ingredient: green chile, that fragrant, smoky soul breath of New Mexico. I was going to explain how to make a very special green chile stew, and how a... »
Planting the fall garden
It’s the height of summer and the harvest has only just begun, but it’s already time to start over in the garden. Here in the northern hemisphere, the second growing season is on. The seeds we sow in summer will produce this autumn, after which they will hopefully linger a while into winter. Fall... »
The problem with grass fed beef
Arapaho Ranch produces the kind of beef your inner cowboy wants to eat. With 595,000 acres sprawling across Wyoming’s wild and rugged Owl Mountains, the ranch is home to native grasses, wolves, mountain lions, and grizzlies. The cattle are herded by Indian cowboys, each with his own fleet of seven horses — one for... »
The art of burying bones
Dogs bury bones. Squirrels hide acorns. Farmers make hay when the sun shines. Seasonal rhythms of scarcity and abundance are responsible for many such animal behaviors and human clichés, because stashing food when the stashing’s good is as natural as sleep, love, and running from wild animals. A stockpile of grub provides a sense... »
Meat Salad
Many restaurant salads these days seem designed for people who don’t like salad. They’re essentially meat entrées served on a bed of leaves, minus the baked potato. And if you watch a server removing plates from the table, you’ll see they usually aren’t empty. The cold cuts, cheese, croutons, shrimp or chicken is gone,... »
Terms of confusement
Whole Foods describes its non-organic chicken, produced in Pennsylvania by Bell & Evans, as “barn roaming.” This pretty term invokes images of frolicking chickens, but all we really know for sure is they’re stuck inside some kind of structure. According to a Bell & Evans representative, that company doesn’t use “barn roaming” to describe... »
Mangoneada = spicy thirst destruction
I ordered my first mangoneada, because I thought it sounded vaguely like mango lemonade, which seemed perfect on a hot day. Better Spanish speakers may realize mangoneada refers to unscrupulous use of power, like graft or bribery. With my first slurp I began to see why. Mangoneadas are powerful and desirable. On a hot... »
Spinach, meat of plants
Good spinach has a meaty vibe and can get you a little high, the way sushi can. I think this feeling is related to the extreme chlorophyll density in spinach, and because the plant’s tender, watery build makes this chlorophyll unusually accessible. Chlorophyll is considered a “blood building” nutrient because it’s freakishly similar in... »