Corrales, NM (Farmer's markets and goat milk yogurt)

I decided to go check out the Corrales Grower's market today.  It's held on Sunday mornings from 9-12.  This was my first visit to a Farmer's market in NM.  So I was excited to see what it was like.  I really miss the markets back home in SC & GA.  I have found really good local goat cheese here from the Old Windmill Dairy (I plan on trying to visit it soon!), but haven't found good local produce yet.

The Corrales Grower's market is located in the Village of Corrales - just northwest of Albuquerque, and east of the Rio Grande.  As you enter the Village limits, a sign is posted that reads: "Drive Slowly and see our Village.  Drive Fast and see our Judge.  Speed limits are strictly enforced."  I love it!  Tried to get an actual picture of it, but after driving back and forth a few times, the after church traffic was too heavy for me to slow down, and there was no where to pull off.

Corrales has been occupied since as early as 500 AD - with subsequent populations of Native American Indians, Hispanic, European and American settlers.  It is largely rural/agricultural and strives to maintain that.  I drove down a beautiful tree lined road with horse farms and vineyards off to either side as well as homes with large gardens, artist enclaves and historical buildings.  The majority of the buildings appear to be adobe.

Even the local veterinary clinic is quaint and rural.  It's an adobe building just off the road.  A few goats were in the fenced area nearest the road.  The actual entrance to the clinic is on the side of the building - under an arbor covered in vines.

One of the historic sites in Corrales (which unfortunately wasn't open when I was there) is Casa San Ysidro.  This is a reproduction 1870's adobe house or rancho, complete with chapel, and plaza.  The land and original house belonged to the Gutierrez family dating back to 1704.

As much as I was charmed by the Village of Corrales, and by the atmosphere in the Grower's Market, the market itself was a bit disappointing.  Everyone was very friendly, and many seemed to know each other.  It had the feeling of all the neighbors dropping by with their dogs and kids to shop and talk and visit.  At the back corner a band played hispanic style music, flanked by tents of tortillas, frybread and chiles.  There were several vendors selling plants - herbs, vegetables and flowers; a goat cheese vendor; one tent selling locally raised beef; several selling breads, baked goods and preserves and a few other selling vegetables.  But the vegetables were very slim - I picked up some turnips, and saw kale, apricots, cherries, peaches, onions, garlic, but very little else.  Certainly not the extent of what I would expect to find normally.  I guess the season here is just beginning for harvest??  Didn't see any tomatoes or corn or squash or beans..... hmmmmmm.  Makes me miss home all the more.  I was hoping for a good tomato for sandwiches or tomatoe pie.  Well, I'll just have to check out the other farmer's markets in the area as well.

On a good note, I had a nice conversation with the lady selling Goat cheese from South Mountain Dairy.  I bought some nice soft dill goat cheese from her; and then thought to ask her for tips on making yogurt from goat milk.  I can never get mine to set up no matter what I do (longer times, extra culture).  She explained that the proteins were different from cow milk and wouldn't set up properly.  You can make a drinkable yogurt from it - as it stays runny in texture.  She let me try their drinkable yogurt, which was quite good.  But she said that if I wanted it to set up, I would have to add tapioca or gelatin to it.  Sure enough, when I check the goat milk yogurt in the grocery store, it has added tapioca!  So I bought some tapioca flour/starch and tried adding it to my yogurt.  Keep your fingers crossed and I'll edit this tomorrow to update you.  I may have to experiment a little with the correct amount to add.

***ADDENDUM:  The yogurt is still runny.  Either I need more tapioca, or a different kind.  Ah well, it's an adventure, right? ;)*****

Happy marketing to you!
Jules

Festival Flamenco

Festival Flamenco Internacional De Albuquerque has been held for 25 years from 1987 to 2012.  It was born from the National Institute of Flamenco, and supported by the University of New Mexico, College of Fine Arts, the Department of Theatre and Dance.  It is the largest Flamenco festival in the United States; and has been said to be world-class; the finest Flamenco outside of Seville, Spain.

Flamenco is a genre of Spanish dance, song and music originating in Andalusia, Spain in the 18th century.  It has its roots in gypsy tradition and Romani culture.  The principle facets are singing (cante), dancing (baile), guitar playing (toque) and hand clapping (palmas).  However, this dry explanation does not begin to explain the Flamenco experience.

I had the pleasure of seeing Flamenco live for the first time in Atlanta, Georgia.  First at the concert of Vicente Amigo (see a video clip here); and then again in concert with Paco de Lucia (see video clip here).  And I fell in love -with the simplicity of guitar, cajones (drum boxes), and hand clapping; the plaintive, soulful, passionate voices of the singer, and the bright, colorful, passionate, stacatto dancing.

The Fiesta Flamenco, which is the culmination of the week long Festival Flamenco, is a compilation of all the performers.  It is held at the National Hispanic Cultural Center here in Albuquerque. Happily I was able to score a ticket at the beginning of the week, since both Friday and Saturday performances were sold out!

So imagine being in a dark theater.....  the lonely sounds of a guitar begin to play.  As the lights start to rise on the stage, you see the guitar player, perhaps one or two cajones with players seated upon them, and one to three singers.  A spotlight begins to glow - and within that glow is a beautiful spanish woman, slender, dressed in vivid red, her hair in a bun with a spanish mantilla comb, and draped in a brilliant yellow fringed shawl.  The cajones take up the beat of the guitar.  The singer beings to sound and as one, hand clapping keeps time to the staccatto beat of the her heels.  As the singer pours out his passion and soul, the woman becomes in turn fiery, soulful, passionate, exuberant, commanding - twirling and pounding the stage.  She whirls with the shawl spread out like wings and masterfully returns it to her shoulders secure for the next move.  Her hands curl and turn elegantly through the air.  The passion and fire just take your breath away! The singers call to her - commanding, entreating, encouraging. The audience shouts "Ole!"

While I could not tape or photograph the live performance, here are some examples of Flamenco that I found online.  I encourage you to experience it for yourself - live and in person.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqxJMCQxb_Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTRPi1pwjfc

And here is Olga Pericet, whom I saw perform - she was outstanding!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5mKmgvclqw

Linda, Angela & Julie's Excellent Adventure

The last week of May, 2012, my good friends, Linda and Angela, visited me in Albuquerque.  It was soooo very good to hear and see someone from "home"!!!  We had an absolute blast.  They arrived late Saturday night - tired from running to catch planes - to a smoky, windy city.  There was a major fire in the Gila National area south of ABQ that was sending smoke up to cover the city.  Fortunately the weather here changes almost hourly.  So by the next day, while still a little windy, it was sunny and clear.

The first full day of their visit, we went on a 6 hour Jeep tour!  You can check out my previous blog on that event.  It was a great time!  Plus, we made it to the Sandia Resort & Casino - for their gambling pleasure and my first experience at a Casino.

The second day, we spent in Old Town Albuquerque shopping and enjoying the sights.  We drove down through Nob Hill, passed the University of New Mexico and had breakfast at The Flying Star cafe.  I showed them where I work at The New Mexico Heart Institute.  Once in Old Town, I took them to my favorite stores, Gowan Arts and Indian Treasures jewelry shop, as well as several other wonderful shops.  We had quite the time in another shop that I've been in several times.  As Linda put it, they had more stuff packed in per square inch than any other place she's ever been!  We had lots of laughs and made jokes about how dry it is here. That evening we went to a great restaurant recommended by Roch, our tour guide from the Jeep tour - Vernon's Hidden Valley Steak house.  What fun!  When you make a reservation they give you a password.  It's based on the old speakeasy style places - so you have to find the restaurant based on the directions they give you (there's no sign, only a black door with a red light over it) and knock on the door.  When the slot in the door opens they ask you for the password so you can enter - they also ask you if you're a copper and whether you're wearing a wire!  I was hoping for a frisking myself!! LOL! ;)  Anyway, it's pricey, but well worth it!  What a fun place!

On the Tuesday, after sighting some prairie dogs near my apartment, we headed up the Turqoise Trail, to Madrid.  More fun shopping and gorgeous scenery driving through the Sandia Mountains on the way to Santa Fe.  In Santa Fe, our first stop was at the Georgia O'Keefe museum.  It was great to see her work displayed, but we were all a bit disappointed that it wasn't bigger - more paintings, more about her life, etc.  But it was still great to visit.  On the whole, Santa Fe was more of a disappointment.  It's been on my bucket list for a long time.  But we all agreed that we had more fun in Albuquerque.

On Wednesday, instead of making the long drive to Taos, we decided to hike the Tent Rocks National Monument.  And that turned out to be a fantastic decsion!  What a gorgeous, incredible place!  And thanks to Borock personal training (shout out to Jeff!), Linda made it almost the whole way!  You should have seen her climbing over boulders!  And Angela as well! It was awesome!!  (See Tent Rocks blog for photos) After Tent Rocks, we visited the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center for a Tewa Taco on Indian Frybread, finished up some shopping at the Palms Trading Post and Old Town, then finished up the evening with a visit to the Route 66 Casino.

All in all, it was an excellent adventure and I was sorry to see them go!

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument

On Wednesday, May 30th - the last full day of Angela & Linda's adventure trip to New Mexico, we decided to hike the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument.  It is located on the Pajarito Plateau in north-central New Mexico - roughly 50 miles north of Albuquerque, near the Pueblo de Cochiti.  "Kasha-Katuwe" means white cliffs in the traditional Keresan language of the pueblo.  It is "a remarkable outdoor laboratory, offering an opportunity to observe, study and experience the geological processes that shape natural landscapes.  The elevation of the monument ranges from 5,570 to 6,760 feet above sea level".  For someone from near Rock Hill, SC - which sits at 676 ft above sea level - it can make for quite a challenging hike!  We had to stop frequently to catch our breath and slow our racing hearts.

It was a gorgeous day - hot and dry!  Would have been smarter if we'd remembered to bring water - but since it was only a 3 mile hike total - we figured we'd be just fine.  Except that it got hotter as we went - and by the time we were done, Angela was almost running back to the car to get to water.  Any minute we expected to just see puffs of dust as she sprinted ahead! LOL!  But like the good hikers we were, we kept to a pack and helped each other over rocks and crevices and made it back all in one piece, if a little dehydrated and sunburned. LOL!

The cone-shaped rock formations look like tents (hence the name), and are the products of volcanic eruptions that occurred 6-7 million years ago and left pumice, ash and tuff deposits over 1,000 feet thick..  As a result of uniform layering of volcanic material, bands of grey are interspersed with beige and pink colored rock along the cliff face.

We hiked up the trail toward the base of the cliffs and then entered the canyon - enjoying the views and the brief blissful areas of shade.  The trail winds 1.5 miles through the canyon, up the side of the cliff (630 ft ) and to the mesa top for excellent views of the Sangre de Cristo, Jemez and Sandia mountains.

As we got toward the top, Linda opted to stop in the shade and rest while Angela and I continued to the top.  The views were just incredible!  We were all but jumping and yelling about how beautiful it was!  Of course, it could have been the lack of oxygen and water... But it was truly an amazing experience and well worth the climb.  I highly recommend a visit if you ever get out this way!