New Mexico Products – Buy Local

Over the past few years I’ve tried harder and harder to buy from local suppliers. It’s always been pretty easy here to buy local produce, but through the years I have found more and more New Mexico products that we enjoy. So this month I thought I would share with you some of my favorites, the ones I buy regularly. Nowadays I can find just about anything from cheese to chocolate.

So let’s get started. I’m not featuring any fresh chile this month even though chile season has begun here in New Mexico. I usually get my chile in September, so be sure to come back then.

Let’s start with cheese. One can’t open my refrigerator without seeing a container of Tucumcari Feta. This feta is made by Tucumcari Mountain Cheese, just north of Route 66 in eastern New Mexico. The milk is sourced from a local ranch. This feta is not as salty as many that I’ve tried and comes in a brine that keeps it from drying out. It would last a long time in the refrigerator if I could just keep from eating it.

Silver Leaf Farms is a small farm in the village of Corrales, NM, northwest of Albuquerque, just on the west side of the Rio Grande. They sell at local growers’ markets but also a couple of local grocers and several restaurants. Because the farm is so close, the produce is about as fresh as you can get. It’s like we picked it from our garden. We especially love the butter crunch lettuce, cucumbers, spring onions, and just pretty much all of their produce.

I go through 3 – 4 quarts of honey a year and I buy all of my honey from Montoya’s Farm in southwest Albuquerque. They sell through the growers’ markets, but last year, since they didn’t have the markets, I called them to ask how I could get some honey. They delivered me 3 quarts!!! Their bees hives feed from the flowers and brush along the Rio Grande and in the valley. It’s excellent wild flower honey. I also like their green chile powder and apples. They have a “no name” apple, which only THEY grow and they are the best apples I’ve every had in my life. Unfortunately, they are only available about 2 weeks in the fall, so they are easy to miss.

So how do I use all that honey? I drink a lot tea. 🙂 I purchase my teas from the diverse and huge selection at the the NM Tea Co. in Albuquerque. Bobby is a coffee drinker, so he gets his coffee from Michael Thomas Coffee Roaster. One of the shops where they roast their coffee is within walking distance from our house. Sometimes on roasting days, we can smell the coffee roasting.

One of my favorite breads is the sourdough bread from Sage Bakehouse in Santa Fe, NM. They also have a killer Kalamata Olive. For a good old sandwich bread, we get the 9 Grain or Honey Whole Wheat Bread from Fano Bakery in Albuquerque as well as their brioche hamburger buns.

However, as much as I love Sage and Fano, my all time favorite bread is made by a dear friend of mine who has a passion for making beautiful Artisan breads. He makes A LOT of bread, puts it in his freezer, then shares with friends and family. Lucky me! 🙂 As you can see from this photograph his sent me, he makes a gorgeous loaf of bread. It’s normally sourdough, but he changes up the grains at times and they are ALL good.

For tacos I make my own corn tortillas, but for enchiladas and chips, I buy corn tortillas from Sabroso Foods in Albuquerque. These not only make great enchiladas, but they also fry up to really crispy chips. Like most of the New Mexico products in this post, I can purchase them from the La Montanita Coop, a cooperative grocer that we’ve been members of for many, many years.

I know I’ve said this in several of my previous posts, but I’m going to say it again. Chimayo Red Chile from the Chimayo Chile Brothers is my all time favorite red chile powder. It’s not cheap because they don’t make very much of it, but it’s worth every penny.

Needless to say, we eat A LOT of salsa. In this house, salsa is like toilet paper – you better not run out of it. There are three brands that I stick with, but switch up because I love them all. Cervantes Salsa and Sadie’s Salsa are both restaurant style jalapeno salsas. We also like El Pinto Green Chile salsa which is chunky and great from taco salads and nachos. All three of these salsas are made in Albuquerque and all three brands are restaurants. Cervantes is actually our favorite local New Mexico restaurant – great atmosphere, service and food.

A few years ago I took a mole class from Chef Fernando Olea. I learned so much that I created a Red Mole that I shared with you back in 2015. Since then Chef Olea has opened a Mexican restaurant in Santa Fe called Sazón. Unfortunately, it temporarily closed during the pandemic, but you could still buy its moles online. I purchased several jars and have been enjoying them in a variety of ways. They are all excellent!

A couple of years ago we discovered Talus Wind Ranch products at the coop. Talus Wind is a small ranch in Galisteo, NM, that raises pork and lamb with “compassion and respect”. We haven’t tried the lamb yet, but we love most of the sausages and the pork tenderloin. We especially love the green chile sausage and brats.

After years of trying to find a jerky that both of us like, we finally found one. Neither Bobby nor I like the softer, sweet and salty jerky. We prefer a more simple and traditional dry jerky with just a little salt and seasoning, like the jerky I used to make during our backpacking days. Therefore, I now order our jerky by the pound from Casa Blanca Beef Jerky in Santa Fe, NM. We both love the “plain”, and I like the “salsa” flavored. However, last month I bought a pound of the Green Chile Jerky and have decided that it’s my favorite. 🙂

Last, but certainly not the least, is our favorite local chocolate – Elixir Boutique Chocolates in Albuquerque, NM. It would be embarrassing to admit how much of their chocolate we’ve eaten. They make a wide variety of products, but our favorites are the dark chocolate salted caramels (lower right), dark chocolate turtles (upper left) and the truffles of which they have a wide variety. You can mix and match a box of truffles to your mood, like I did with the box in the lower left. I kept it simple this time and just got two types – the dark chocolate signature ganche and the milk chocolate cherry. The other item in the picture is a bag of Timmy Krack Korn Puffs. These are dangerous because once you open the bag, you can’t stop eating it. I’ve never had anything more addicting in my life.

In previous posts I have mentioned other New Mexico products that I use: Pecans and pistachios from the New Mexico Pecan Company, organic chile from Mi Abuelo, roasted red and green chile from the Hatch Chile Store, fresh chile and beans from Sichler’s Farms, and oils and vinegars from the Santa Fe Olive Oil & Balsamic Co. I’m sure I’ve missed some products and I know I’ll discover more in years to come.

Many of these products can be purchased online and shipped. So take a look at those you find interesting. Whatever you buy, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as we do.

Here’s a few recipe that use some of these New Mexico Products.