Spring 2026: Ingredients

“Food has a life,” chef Jonathan Perno tells local farm advocate Sarah Wentzel-Fisher in her story for this issue—by which he doesn’t mean that carrots go to a lot of parties. What he means is that ingredients have a beginning and an end, and whether plant or animal in origin, they are worthy of respect, care, and attention. Never is this more evident than in spring, the season of seedlings, the season of savoring.

This issue of edible New Mexico is an exploration of ingredients, the core components from which food and drink are made. One writer, a student of regional wine histories, talks with local growers and winemakers about the merits of hybrid grapes—and the challenges of working with them in a region long dominated by European vines. In a story that’s equal parts restaurant news and sustainable kitchen philosophy, Wentzel-Fisher revisits an old conversation with Perno about an underappreciated culinary technique: listening. There, and again in a story that peeks behind the curtain at Leo’s in Santa Fe, we’re reminded that on top of beautiful vegetables, top-shelf spices, good fish sauce, and local lamb, the key ingredients for the making of any solid restaurant include the people.

Also using local lamb in a not-quite-local dish is Brook Brooks, who offers the story behind their recipe for a uniquely New Mexican dolma—made so, first and foremost, by the use of grape leaves trimmed from a local vineyard. We share an ode to tulsi, an herb sacred to Indian and Ayurvedic tradition that has found its way to more than one high-desert garden. Route 66 takes us to Albuquerque’s Nob Hill, where smoked beets jazz up tostadas and the carne adovada chilaquiles never get old, and the latest edition of Cooking Fresh unabashedly celebrates an alternately loved and loathed ingredient: the mushroom. Rounding out the issue, Nina Katz tunes in to one of the newer trends in coffee and finds that co-fermentation, too, derives as much from human partnerships as from pairing honey with beans.

If there’s an ingredient common to all these recipes and stories, it’s passion. They are not about trying to please everyone; instead, the words and photos here prove that sometimes the most beautiful gifts are those given to the world by people bold enough to pursue what they love and value. As the growing season begins, we feel fortunate to be in the midst of such gifts.

“Food has a life,” chef Jonathan Perno tells local farm advocate Sarah Wentzel-Fisher in her story for this issue—by which he doesn’t mean that carrots go to a lot of parties. What he means is that ingredients have a beginning and an end, and whether plant or animal in origin, they are worthy of respect, care, and attention. Never is this more evident than in spring, the season of seedlings, the season of savoring.

This issue of edible New Mexico is an exploration of ingredients, the core components from which food and drink are made. One writer, a student of regional wine histories, talks with local growers and winemakers about the merits of hybrid grapes—and the challenges of working with them in a region long dominated by European vines. In a story that’s equal parts restaurant news and sustainable kitchen philosophy, Wentzel-Fisher revisits an old conversation with Perno about an underappreciated culinary technique: listening. There, and again in a story that peeks behind the curtain at Leo’s in Santa Fe, we’re reminded that on top of beautiful vegetables, top-shelf spices, good fish sauce, and local lamb, the key ingredients for the making of any solid restaurant include the people.

Also using local lamb in a not-quite-local dish is Brook Brooks, who offers the story behind their recipe for a uniquely New Mexican dolma—made so, first and foremost, by the use of grape leaves trimmed from a local vineyard. We share an ode to tulsi, an herb sacred to Indian and Ayurvedic tradition that has found its way to more than one high-desert garden. Route 66 takes us to Albuquerque’s Nob Hill, where smoked beets jazz up tostadas and the carne adovada chilaquiles never get old, and the latest edition of Cooking Fresh unabashedly celebrates an alternately loved and loathed ingredient: the mushroom. Rounding out the issue, Nina Katz tunes in to one of the newer trends in coffee and finds that co-fermentation, too, derives as much from human partnerships as from pairing honey with beans.

If there’s an ingredient common to all these recipes and stories, it’s passion. They are not about trying to please everyone; instead, the words and photos here prove that sometimes the most beautiful gifts are those given to the world by people bold enough to pursue what they love and value. As the growing season begins, we feel fortunate to be in the midst of such gifts.

Purchase Back Issues