Late Summer 2024: Cross-Pollination

As we ready this issue to go to press, a gift of cool rain interrupts days of heat. Cottonwood fluff sticks between thyme leaves, collecting in gardens and ditches and fields, while overlooked elm saplings shoot forth new growth. Sunflowers open. A hummingbird runs its beak around the edge of its tiny nest. Bird mamas pass food off to their young, nestled in the cavity of a trunk or a cholla thicket. Piglets crowd and jostle for a spot at their mother’s belly. A goose couple guards their single gosling fiercely. Lettuce begins to bolt. Squash vines plunge outward; snap peas peak. Tomatoes steadily approach fruition.

How are things made? Few questions are more compelling than this one. Whether speaking of the universe or aglianico, heirloom corn or chile paste, a garden or an ecosystem, the question becomes more intriguing as it gains in specificity. In this issue of edible, we dive into the complexities of making and discover anew what is clear to anyone who studies the world closely: creation comes from relationships, connections, casual and concerted intersections and receptions. In a word, cross-pollination.

Is it any surprise, then, that these pages are packed with love stories? There is love for the Chimayó chile, love for the Rio Grande bosque, love for the Navajo-Churro sheep. There is love for the community in and around Abiquiú. There is love for thru-hiking and love for beer. There is love between people—love that sparks culinary inspiration, love that underpins the success of a business, love that feeds conversation and action oriented toward a livable future. There is love, too, for the multifaceted work of this year’s Local Heroes, announced in this issue.

These are not Hollywood love stories that end at the beginning. They are stories about long days and the long haul. In one feature, a local pig farmer considers climate-adapted animal husbandry. In another, longtime contributor (and now associate editor!) Robin Babb breaks down the consequences of crossing seeds. A third investigates the sometimes precarious crossing of wild and domesticated foodsheds. With material and inspiration drawn from sources as near as the Continental Divide Trail and as far as Friuli and the Carpathian Mountains, these are inevitably stories about adaptation. If a recipe is a set of suggestions, this issue is a recipe, still being tested, for the future of the unique, precious, and hardy state of New Mexico. We hope you love it as we do.

As we ready this issue to go to press, a gift of cool rain interrupts days of heat. Cottonwood fluff sticks between thyme leaves, collecting in gardens and ditches and fields, while overlooked elm saplings shoot forth new growth. Sunflowers open. A hummingbird runs its beak around the edge of its tiny nest. Bird mamas pass food off to their young, nestled in the cavity of a trunk or a cholla thicket. Piglets crowd and jostle for a spot at their mother’s belly. A goose couple guards their single gosling fiercely. Lettuce begins to bolt. Squash vines plunge outward; snap peas peak. Tomatoes steadily approach fruition.

How are things made? Few questions are more compelling than this one. Whether speaking of the universe or aglianico, heirloom corn or chile paste, a garden or an ecosystem, the question becomes more intriguing as it gains in specificity. In this issue of edible, we dive into the complexities of making and discover anew what is clear to anyone who studies the world closely: creation comes from relationships, connections, casual and concerted intersections and receptions. In a word, cross-pollination.

Is it any surprise, then, that these pages are packed with love stories? There is love for the Chimayó chile, love for the Rio Grande bosque, love for the Navajo-Churro sheep. There is love for the community in and around Abiquiú. There is love for thru-hiking and love for beer. There is love between people—love that sparks culinary inspiration, love that underpins the success of a business, love that feeds conversation and action oriented toward a livable future. There is love, too, for the multifaceted work of this year’s Local Heroes, announced in this issue.

These are not Hollywood love stories that end at the beginning. They are stories about long days and the long haul. In one feature, a local pig farmer considers climate-adapted animal husbandry. In another, longtime contributor (and now associate editor!) Robin Babb breaks down the consequences of crossing seeds. A third investigates the sometimes precarious crossing of wild and domesticated foodsheds. With material and inspiration drawn from sources as near as the Continental Divide Trail and as far as Friuli and the Carpathian Mountains, these are inevitably stories about adaptation. If a recipe is a set of suggestions, this issue is a recipe, still being tested, for the future of the unique, precious, and hardy state of New Mexico. We hope you love it as we do.

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