The beauty of the high desert Northern New Mexico is not unlike the people that have inhabited it and that have generated the culture that we all love. The terrain though sparse and rugged, offers up sweet abundance to those of us willing to put in the work. 

At the turn of the last century Northern New Mexico was still a largely rural territory, and many communities were still fully self-sufficient, with families cooperating during harvest time. One of my neighbors once told me in our conversations; “We were poor, but we didn’t know it”.

I was born before the turn of this century, and growing up I could still catch glimpses of this old way of life. My paternal grandfather's house on Taos Pueblo, had a dirt roof where grasses and cactus grew and when it would rain we would have to catch the drips inside. The house was modest, a place to rest between al...