edible Announces Our 2015 Local Heroes

We recognize this group of amazing individuals and organizations for their work to create healthy, sustainable food systems in New Mexico. We determine these awards through reader nominations and a reader poll. The local food movement is a grassroots effort that often involves late nights, backbreaking work, dirty fingernails, and being a generally good sport. In an effort to showcase these individuals, organizations, and businesses for their work to build a stronger local economy and a robust local food system, each issue this year will spotlight several of the winners with interviews about the work they do.

Here, our readers share words on why these individuals and businesses should be nominated.

Andrew Cooper

Best Chef, Terra

“Andrew Cooper, executive chef of Terra at the Four Season’s Rancho Encantado, brings his own special brand of enthusiasm, passion, and culinary prowess to his cooking. His work at Terra and in the community radiate with an infectious love for local food.?

www.fourseasons.com

Second Street Brewery

Best Pub

Second Street Brewery opened in 1996, and since has provided top-notch craft beer to Santa Fe. They have brewed over three million pints of beer (over fifty pints for each person living in Santa Fe) with the bright, rich, complex, and satisfying flavors that you can only get from a handcrafted beverage.

www.secondstreetbrewery.com

Sage Bakehouse

Best Food Artisan

Andrée Falls and Amy Cox operate one of the longest running artisan bakeries in Santa Fe. They bake hundreds of exquisite loaves everyday that they sell through their store front on Cerrillos Road and through a variety of retail locations throughout the state.

www.sagebakehouse.com

RASA Juice Bar

Best Beverage Artisan, Non-Alcoholic

Wendy Borger is the owner of RASA Juice Bar in Santa Fe and is a clinical Ayurveda specialist. Her perspectives on food and wellness, as well as her amazing raw juices, are rooted in the long-term study of hatha yoga, Ayurveda, and the plant-based food movement.

www.rasajuice.com

Farm Shop @ Los Poblanos

Best Retailer - Specialty

The Farm Shop at Los Poblanos features their classic spa products crafted with lavender grown on site. Their commitment to local craftspeople show in their selection of artisan foods, gourmet kitchen and garden tools, New Mexican made gifts, books, and more.

www.farmshop.lospoblanos.com

Farm & Table

Best Restaurant

“Cherie Austin, Sean Sinclair, and Ric Murphy lead the collaborative team that makes Farm & Table both a sublime place to go for brunch or dinner and a shining example of community building.”

www.farmandtablenm.com

Camino de Paz School & Farm

Best Farm

Patricia Pantano and her dedicated teaching staff engage the intellects, spirits, hands, and bodies of seventh, eighth, and ninth graders on a working farm producing heirloom organic vegetables and a variety of delicious goat milk products.

www.caminodepaz.net

Marble Brewery

Best Beer / Wine / Spirits

A champion of the craft beer movement, Marble Brewery, took home from the Great American Beer Festival the Small Brewing Company of the Year and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year awards this year. Not to mention, they serve a rock-solid selection of craft beer in three locations in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

www.marblebrewery.com

Bang Bite

Best Food Truck

Bang Bite, a bright orange trailer with a shiny stainless interior, is owned and operated by Chef Enrique Guerrero. Guerrero has a love of food that’s been with him since he was a young boy eating his great-great grandmother’s cooking. He and his crew serve the very best food they can cook up and deliver it to longtime food lovers throughout Santa Fe.

La Montañita Co-op

Best Retailer - Grocery

La Montañita Co-op offers fresh, fair, local, and organic food to member-owners and the community at large through six retail locations and to wholesale customers through the Co-op Distribution Center.

www.lamontanita.coop

Bocadillos

Best Café

“Marie Yniguez and her team have transformed the lunch tray. Her catering feeds hundreds of Albuquerque school children, and her slow roasted meats make delicious sandwiches for any Burqueño.”

Cooking with Kids

Best Food Organization

The heart of Cooking with Kids is positive experience with healthy foods. Since Lynn Walters founded the organization in 1995, arguably, the culinary IQ of Santa Fe is significantly higher after two decades of Cooking with Kids.

www.cookingwithkids.org

Deborah Fleig, Izanami

Best Mixologist

As one of only thirty women in the world who is a certified sake sommelier, Deborah Fleig brings a unique lens to mixology. She serves her cocktail creations infused with love for Japanese cuisine at izanami.

www.tenthousandwaves.com

Justin de la Rosa

Best Food Writer

Since 2011 as a correspondent for the Local iQ, Justin de la Rosa has written current commentary on the restaurant industry in New Mexico by conducting interviews with chefs and restaurant owners, and by attending events, dinners, and restaurant openings.

Lynn Walters, Cooking with Kids

Olla Award - Local Food Hero

Lynn Walters set out in 1995 to empower children and youth to make healthy food choices through hands-on learning with fresh, affordable foods from diverse cultures with her Cooking with Kids program. She has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of children over the years through the classes the program offers. Her work has inspired chefs, teachers, politicians and other adults by bringing to the fore the connections between early positive experiences with food and life long health. The Olla Award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions in the realm of good food work in Northern New Mexico, and who are creating a more robust local food system. Thank you Lynn!