It was a treat to visit the well-known Santa Fe Farmers' Market. Many of us did our omiyage shopping there and wished we had more time and money to spend!
One of the unique treats was watching the process to roast fresh peppers. It's actually quite simple, but it certainly helps to have the right equipment. We met the charismatic Matt Romero who talked about his booming business and demonstrated the roasting process before our eyes.
We then drove a few minutes away to La Montanita Coop, which is much more than a grocery store. As membership director Robin Seydel explained, it's a community-owned and -building venture that supports local farmers and ranchers by buying their products as well as provides low interest loans to new ventures. With more than 20 years under its belt, the coop has developed a number of innovative practices that would be great to try in Hawai`i.
And after doing a bit more food shopping, we drove to Tesuque Pueblo to meet the staff and volunteers working hard to provide resources to the community and to build an underground seed bank to preserve important seeds from useful crops. Donna dove right into the work!
Some of the women took on the hard work of thrashing the wheat in a traditional way. They called it some sort of dancing. (Wish we had a video to show!)
Here's Matt trying something again . . . this time tobacco!
Another group worked on the seed bank made out of adobe. The project started earlier in the year and was getting close to completion by the time we got there. It felt really good to put our hands onto the cold adobe and make it smooth and solid. We all left part of ourselves there with good wishes for successful harvests for generations to come.
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