NM Local Organic Chicken Feed

Raising hens for egg production has steadily become part of my daily routine over the past several years-- my current flock of 5 hens lay about 2 1/2 dozen eggs per week. But, i've always thought about the ethical compromises I make by buying my chicken feed from the great local guys at Navajo Feed and Seed on Gallup's north-side. The thing is, it's Purina brand Layena pellets ($18/50lbs)--50 lbs lasts about 4 weeks with green compost from the kitchen.  It's not produced locally, nor is it organic. And so I was really excited to see this advertisement in the August 09 edition of the La Montanita Co-op Newsletter.  

The Co-op's food-shed distribution system will pick up the feed in Northern NM and deliver it to the Gallup branch of La Montanita on the regular weekly truck. Whether your buying higher protein egg-layer feed or scratch feed, a mix of grains like corn, milo, rice, etc.-- candy to chickens -- the price is 80% higher than the Purina stuff. Damn. But it is local AND organic AND supports the Co-op. Triple whammy! I'll have to order some. And i'm really interested to see if any increases in the quality/efficiency of the feed --like buying good dog food; they eat/poop less-- make this local, planet-friendly alternative to Purina Layena any more attractive.

From My Garden: Summer Asparagus?

An August shoot of asparagus

Asparagus is one of the most time-sensitive crops in my garden. For 6 weeks in the late spring, muscular shoots draw moisture from the snow-melt still stored in the soil and force their way upward to find light. These pale white shoots, supple enough to eat raw, emerge through even the driest, crusty clay soil. When they do find sunlight, nutrients stored in the large perennial root force the shoots to green and grow rapidly. Each day, shoots can grow 6 inches or more, and the folded triangular bracts common at the tip of asparagus start to elongate into branches with the growing stalk. If you miss the harvest for a even a single day, the stalk turns woody, and unharvested, these shoots grow into a 3-5' fern-like plant.

Feathery 'leaves' and flowers of mature asparagus

Life cycle, meet farmer. Mature plants are usually harvested for 4-6 weeks starting in late April in my shadowy canyon. My most productive asparagus bed was planted 15 years ago by previous owners of this lot and still has enough vigor to indicate at least another few productive years. A couple of years ago I also planted 40 root-crowns in my waffle garden of perennials. I've yet to harvest any shoots, but interestingly, this bed of young root stock has continued to produce new shoots throughout the summer. In contrast, the older asparagus bed thrives on the original stalks that are allowed to mature after harvesting ends in late May.

Gallup's Bee Finder, Beekeeper: Karl Lohmann

Karl invited Racheal and I over this week for a tour of his permaculture garden and beehives in the juniper hills of Gallup's outskirts. We came away inspired and more determined than ever to start keeping our own hive. And after our peek into the hives, Karl predicted the first good honey harvest in three years.

In the midday heat-- a preferred time for opening a hive -- Racheal and Karl donned the light fabric suits, mesh veils, and gloves common to beekeeping.  After using pine-straw smoke to calm the bees, we looked at honeycomb in the top two supers, separated from the brood supers below by a queen excluder. Karl quickly shed his gloves as he started working the hive, Racheal forgot to put hers on, and I risked it without a suit or veil. I did fine until the camera drew me in close and I forgot to watch where I was exhaling-- inviting a bee into a predictable pattern: "First they buzz you; then they bump you; then they sting you." Karl's words echoed in my head as a bee repeatedly bumped my head while we closed the hives back up. I started dancing. Lucky, that bee only got to second base and we all came away without a sting.

Karl simulating a forest fire

Karl has been beekeeping in Gallup for 20+ years. First learning the craft as his father's beekeeper's assistant-- a smart prerequisite, it seems, to beekeeping-- he's provided Gallup the valuable community services of swarm removal (bee finder, bee keeper), apprenticing new beekeepers, and occasionally maintaining community hives that fall into disrepair.

A frame full of capped honeycomb

People need bees, and honeybees need people now more than ever.  The unexplained Colony collapse disorder continues to decimate honeybee populations worldwide.  Backyard apiaries like Karl's are a first step to countering this decline and helping maintain genetic diversity in wild honeybee populations, in addition to the more obvious pollinating and honey-producing benefits. 

The amazingly busy bee space between frames.

High Desert Leafy Greens

Maintaining a bed of leafy greens in the garden to pick from nightly, is one of the tasty convieniences of home gardening. They grow quickly, have simple feeding needs (nitrogen!), and are one of the first spring crops on the kitchen table. But, here high on the Colorado Plateau, our spring-greens growing season is limited by cold nights and hot days.

Mixed greens behind young leeks

This is how the broad diurnal shift in temperature (difference between daily high and low temp; 60+ degrees during spring in Gallup) really limits a long season for traditional leafy greens- when winter seems over, the days get hot. But clear nights, well into June, let the daytime heat stream into the atmosphere, even to the point of freezing. These frigid night-time temperatures delay the start of planting (without a cold-frame or greenhouse), only to see hot, windy, and dry days in May and June, push the greens to bolt and turn bitter. This year we had an unseasonably wet late-May and June, and so the farmers markets in Gallup and Ramah still had sweet greens of all varieties well into July. In my garden in Gallup, the lettuce greens usually quickly turn bitter, but I've had great luck in years' past maintaining a cold-frame of baby lettuce throughout the winter with nightly heating with an incandescent light-bulb and daily opening of the glass lid. This year I put my greens planting space into Red Chard and Bok Choy. Both great in stir-fry's when mature, but stay consistently sweet when young well into a hot summer. This interesting NPR article described a new study on the dramatic importance of consuming healthy fats when eating vegetables and greens to maximize nutrient uptake.

Home-grown baby chard-- with insect damage -- and local goat-cheese salad

This was my own recipe, but this huge NY Times food article, practically a cookbook, has 101 salad recipes to find a new twist on traditional favorites.

El Morro Valley Ranch: Local Organic Beef

Somebody que up Leonard Bernstein's rousing symphony Rodeo IV: Hoe-down. . . BEEF- it's what's for dinner! Aah, but tonight it's different. My main course wasn't crowded into a small feedlot as a teenager and fed yummy corn, followed by anti-biotics for it's upset tummy. No, corn and drugs didn't turn into bland fatty meat in this steer. See, tonight it's local range-fed beef. Healthy, lean, dry-aged beef, high in Omega-3's and ingrained with the natural flavors of the native blue-gramma and sage it was raised on, is on my grill tonight.

Photo of their brochure cover

I met the rancher, Charlie Mallory, selling his beef just a few miles from his ranch, at the Ramah Farmer's Market in early July. He and his wife cheerfully sold frozen cuts packaged at a licensed processing facility. Ground beef ($4/lb), Sirlion ($9/lb), and T-bones ($10) jumped into my basket. Quarter sections of an animal(about 60 lbs. of equally distributed cuts @ $6/lb = $360) will be available around August, but reserve ahead of time. This seems to be resonable pricing for local food produced on the small-scale that allows for humane and observant care of the animals and land. I'll try to post again later after visiting his ranch in person.

This interesting Wall Street Journal article describes how the down-turn in the economy has reduced demand in the high-end beef market, resulting in lower prices and more wide-spread availability of prime cuts and grass-fed beef. It's in market conditions like this that local producers like El Morro Valley Ranch need local customers more than ever.

So how did the sirloin taste? Perfect. Moist and smooth even when cut with the grain. Salt, pepper, and a searing hot grill for a couple minutes was all it took to have a great meal. Sauted home-grown brocolli and baby yukon potatoes, topped with rosemary chevre from the Windy Ridge Goat Dairy south of Ramah completed this all-local ranch dinner.

El Morro Valley Ranch

P.O. Box 250

Ramah, NM

(505) 783-4521

elmorrovalleyranch@gmail.com

Welcome to Black Diamond Canyon Kitchen

Welcome, to my blog! Black Diamond Canyon Kitchen; a local food blog. I've decided to start sharing what has for the past few years been my occasional Garden Log, photo folder, and sprawling binder of brochures, sketchings, and notes on regional food sources, growing techniques, and general experience. I enjoy writing, though I've written little without being required to, for fun I guess, up to this point in life. Among other close people, I'm inspired to share my thoughts in words and pictures by the eight-year olds I try to teach to love and understand the power of writing and ideas. And so, for many reasons I've decided that starting this local food blog is a good idea. I'll try to keep it up-to-date, interesting, and real for everyone. and maybe occasionally funny and hopefully inspiring. we'll see. Please read it with a light-heart, and liberal acceptance of my creative writing conventions- 2nd grade, remember. Also, with some un-hip Palin-esque twitter symbols.) enjoy.

Me, bikes, and the little Nikon Coolpix

So, this canyon, Black Diamond in the past but now called Wilson St., is where I live in Gallup and my garden is the local-est food I eat. It's still relatively small, an eighth of an acre, but it provides me with the conveniences of always having fresh or recently preserved cooking staples- herbs, onions, garlic, greens, squash, peppers- on hand, and more importantly, the health and timeless satisfaction I've felt with growing food on any scale. Though, with the harsh growing conditions and my lack of a barnyard of livestock and years of experience, I, like everyone, still need to buy food. This is my way of sharing my attempts to grow, buy, cook, and preserve seasonal local food- with an eye towards increasingly sustainable food choices when I can.

Local goat cheese and grass-fed beef

The foothills of the Zuni Mountains have sustained the Zuni, Acoma, and Navajo people for many, many centuries, and with a little planning and seasonal recipe-planning, locally sourced food can be a reality for the modern day residents of Gallup, Zuni, and Ramah. The open range of sage and blue-gramma still supports year-round goat-daires, grass-fed beef ranches, sheep herds, and plenty of back-yard poultry. Amongst all this protein are scattered garden-plots that produce a surprisingly diverse harvest that ranges from the first spring greens, asparagus, and garlic, to the squash blossoms, fresh herbs, and fruits of summer, that last well into the fall. I'll try to support these local growers with my purchases and by highlighting various seasonal recipes I make using majority local ingredients.

My first baby potatoes of the season

My current vegetable garden started in 2006 as a 3' x 6' patch of existing well amended rich soil amongst the scattered fruit and native trees of my recently purchased dream-house - the little 'cottage' at 322 Wilson St. Gallup's north-side. I've let the number of flower patches die back since I've bought the place, but in addition to the original 18 sq. foot plot, and a beautifully mature patch of asparagus I 'discovered' the first spring, my vegetable garden has grown to more than 600' of growing rows in a variety of designs. From my 1200 sq. foot roof, I can collect 1500 gallons of water in an above-ground plastic tank, and 400 gallons in my stock-tank/hot-tub cistern, yet unfortunately, my usage of the municipal ground-water, 'fossil-water', has grown each season. I'll post individual descriptions of each of my crops as I harvest and cook with each this summer and fall.

Again, welcome to Black Diamond Kitchen and please come back soon.