SantaFe.com

“We may be looking at the dumbing down of organic standards, the watering down of standards to produce food on that scale....” Robin Seydel, of La Montanita Co-op.

Tucked between two houses on a back road in Bosque Farms, sits an organic oasis consisting of little more than an acre of farmland. Chickens cluck and strut in large areas fenced off by wire. Orange winter squash vibrate with color in uneven rows. Stands of brilliant yellow sunflowers spring unbidden to face the sun. Jesse Daves bends to lift a white sheet that shades green peppers from sunburn. When asked about Wal-Mart’s...

Wednesday, November 1, 2006
by Pari Noskin Taichert • localflavor magazine

Since its earliest inception, Santa Fe’s yoga community has evolved and expanded by leaps and bounds–or maybe we should say stretch by careful stretch, pausing to breathe into each increment. Rima Miller, of Yoga Moves, one of the originals on the scene, has personally witnessed its phenomenal growth.

“A lot of teachers have been around since the early ‘90s and before,” and she ticks off a litany of the names: “Steven Norvell, Gail Ackerman who founded White Iris Studio, Deborah Bristow, Michael Hopp who began the Community Yoga Center, David Riley, Dorothy Tanoux, Tias Little and myself.”

Wednesday, November 1, 2006
by Gail Snyder • localflavor magazine

Rick Kingsbury’s old ‘93 Ford pickup bounces along the primitive road that parallels the Pecos River. Shovels, rakes, and picks rattle in the back of the truck. His two Jack Russell Terriers, who go everywhere with him, keep us company in the front. He shows me a small dam on the river. Just upstream from the simple concrete barrier and the artificial waterfalls it creates, water is diverted into an irrigation ditch that winds its way for miles along the river, giving life to his ranch. Downstream, he stops in front of a sixty acre pasture, where the herd of cattle that belong to him and...

Monday, May 1, 2006
by Barry Fields • localflavor magazine

Steve Warshawer tosses around words like biodynamic agriculture, dual-purpose breeding, decentralized relationship systems and principles of transparency like the breeze tosses the feathers of his 500 chickens. As we traipse through coops, Steve collects eggs amid the gentle cacophony of chirps and squawks from his black, white and zebra striped hens, explaining the issues of concern to Mesa Top Farm. His egg, bird and vegetable farming enterprise is just eight miles from Santa Fe–eight miles and a world away over dirt roads and through numerically coded gates.

Monday, May 1, 2006
by Kelly Koepke • localflavor magazine

Working at a grocery store did not make 21-year-old Les Harrison happy.

“I saw that I needed to be self-employed,” he ruefully admits. “I’m not too good with authority figures.” It’s the only other job he’s ever had, and he only had it briefly, during one particular off-season at Sweetwoods Dairy. The goat farm is his parents’ creation. Started 14 years ago in rural Peña Blanca, today the 85-goat business produces cheese in ten or twelve varieties (they’re an experimental dairy, always adding some and dropping others). While Les’s mother still does the bulk of the dairy’s cheesemaking,...

Sunday, May 1, 2005
by Gail Snyder • localflavor magazine