Featured Article - September 2009
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| The Juicy News: Raspberries can top off a variety of dishes, from healthy salads to this scrumptious Crème Brûlée. They'll taste even better when you've hand picked them during a road trip to Salman Raspberry Ranch, in La Cueva, or Heidi's Raspberry Farm, in Corrales. |
SOUTHWEST FLAVOR
Raspberry Fields Forever
Delight in the berry harvest with a day trip to a local Farm
Story by Wendy Gist, Photography by Douglas Merriam
New Mexico’s Indian summer brings succulent raspberries, ripe and ready to pick straight from the cane. In central and northern New Mexico, plucking vine-ripe raspberries is an annual family tradition for visitors to Heidi’s Raspberry Farm, in Corrales, and Salman Raspberry Ranch, in La Cueva, near Mora. Kids of all ages, while frolicking afield, enjoy sneaking juicy samplings of this late-summer staple before plopping berries into their pails. Come for a day of teeming baskets and generate some sweet memories.
Raspberries, rich in vitamin C, can top off dishes from breakfast cereals to dinner salads. The sprightly flavor of raw, sun-sweetened raspberries swirled into yogurt with a hint of New Mexico wildflower honey always jazzes my appetite. The versatile berry creates lively beverages, desserts, salsas, and more.
The owners of Heidi’s Raspberry Farm, on the western bank of the Río Grande in the small farming village of Corrales, on the outskirts of Albuquerque, are proud of their berries. “Our farm has been certified organic by the New Mexico Organic Commodity Commission,” explains Heidi Eleftheriou, who created her recipe for natural low-sugar raspberry jam in her kitchen at home. “My brother, Doug Findley, and I have been growing raspberries for about eight years.” Nowadays, Eleftheriou makes her dazzling jams in a commercial kitchen in Albuquerque.
Corrales was farmed by the ancestors of the present-day Pueblo Indians as early as a.d. 500. Heidi’s farm, near the river, has heavy clay soil, which they supplement with organic feeding to make for a tastier crop. “We’ve been growing a cover crop between the raspberries to help add nitrogen to the soil,” explains Eleftheriou. Evidence of Farmer Doug’s green thumb is plentiful: Lush green raspberry canes dappled with pinkish-red clusters of luscious fruit grow under a brilliant blue sky. Along the irrigation ditch, or acequia, are old cottonwood trees, with a backdrop of the striking Sandía Mountains.
Heidi grows four varieties of raspberries. “Our berries are very special because we’ve chosen berries that do well in the Río Grande Valley,” Eleftheriou makes clear. “They are very sweet and flavorful. We feel this is a very unique new crop for Corrales, after the traditional crops of chile, corn, and grapes. We pick our raspberries fully ripened by the sun for natural sweetness.”
IF YOU GO: • Heidi's Raspberry Farm hosts U-Pick days Saturdays and Sundays in August and September, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Check their website for the exact opening date. The farm is located in Corrales, off Corrales Road. Turn east on East La Entrada Road and follow the signs. For info: (505) 898-1784,
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You can visit Heidi’s Farm on Saturdays in August and September to pick your own organic berries, walking the fragrant fields and filling your baskets to the brim. (The farm provides one-pint, paper-pulp berry baskets to fill for $4 each.) Bicyclists, horseback riders, runners, and walkers enjoy the road that runs along the east end of the field, near the acequia. Regrettably, dogs are not allowed. “I love dogs and have five of my own,” admits Eleftheriou, “but we have wild turkeys loose on the land, and barking dogs won’t work, even with leashes!”
Once you’ve picked your berries, freezing is an excellent way to keep them for smoothies and other recipes. “Just spill them out onto a cookie sheet and freeze them,” recommends Eleftheriou. “Once they’re frozen, bag up the individually frozen berries, and you can use as many or few as you need.”
The farm also sells jams and lustrous honeys. Visitors are lured by Heidi’s hot-selling, red-chile raspberry jams, which put a Southwestern spin on raspberries for a sensationally spicy, sweet flavor. “Originally, I made only the plain low-sugar raspberry jam,” explains Eleftheriou, “but after selling for a few years in New Mexico, we noticed how many people asked for jam with chile, and decided to do just that.” It’s a superb snack; eat it on crackers with fresh goat cheese from local farmers.
Salman Raspberry Ranch, about six miles east of Mora and 94 miles north of Santa Fe, in the La Cueva Historic District of northern New Mexico, is nestled in the eastern foothills of the beautiful Sangre de Cristo Mountains. (See “Mora Valley Road Trip” on page 52.) Legend has it that when Vicente Romero came to the area in the 1850s to farm, he named the area La Cueva de los Pescaderos (The Cave of the Fishmongers). In 1950, Colonel William Salman restored the original Romero Ranch.
The Salman family planted their first raspberries in 1982, and in 1993 opened the farm for visitors to pick their own berries. “What makes our berries special is the climate in which they are grown, the soil that anchors them, and the care they are given,” says Frances Salman Koenig, the ranch’s managing general partner. “The cold nights through their growing season cause the canes to work more vigorously, thereby increasing the sugar content of the berry, and their flavor.”
The rich valley soil of Mora County grows delicate berries. “We spend a lot of time taking care of them,” explains Koenig. “We fertilize based on soil readings, water based on moisture readings, and hand-weed six acres. We disk and till and say kind things to the plants.” Kind care, they say, creates sweet raspberries, and the ranch uses no pesticides or herbicides in growing their five varieties: Heritage, Carolina, Autumn Britten, Autumn Bliss, and Polenta.
The varieties mature at different times, Koenig told me, and have slightly different shapes and subtly different flavors. But beautiful raspberries are not the Salman Ranch’s only attraction. The
La Cueva Historic District’s past lives on in the forms of the mid-19th-century San Rafael Mission Church, the mercantile building, the Romero-Salman Hacienda, and the historic acequia. Guests can picnic beside the acequia near the historic roller mill.
GETTING SAUCY:
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Picking the fragile red fruits under the golden New Mexico sun reconnects human hands with Mother Earth. “For people who live in the city,” Koenig observes, “a trip to the ranch is a wonderful outing. Visitors have the opportunity to rejoin with nature in a way that is wonderfully satisfying.”
You get a sense of serenity. Day-trippers experience stillness in the scent of fresh-cut hay and the sound of bees buzzing through the canes. For $5 a pound, you can gather your very own basket of sunshine. The fields drip with fruit from early August until the first frost, usually in mid-October. You know a berry is ripe when it’s a deep red color and is easily detached from the cane. “We ask people not to wash the raspberries,” says Koenig, “because they tend to get mushy when washed, and [anyway] are cleansed by the rain. Eat them as they are; use them in your favorite recipes.”
A cornucopia of locally made farm goods can be found across the road in the enchanting 1860s Salman Ranch Store, where moist raspberries are sold for $3.95 a pint. The store brims with seasonal ranch-grown garden delights, from apples and plums to sweet corn and squash, farm-fresh organic eggs with multicolored shells, and heavenly honey from hives in the berry fields. Browse some more and you’ll find local photography and Southwest raspberry condiments with flare. Dried bouquets of larkspur, statice (sea lavender), and straw flowers—all grown at the ranch— can give your casa a country ambiance. At the adjacent Ranch Café, my oasis on an arid afternoon, is soft ice cream buried in berries and covered in a scrumptious signature raspberry topping.
So what are you waiting for? Go get ’em.
Raspberry Crème Brûlée Hacienda Style
Here’s a New Mexican take on a classic French custard. This blissful dessert is made with sweet and tart fresh raspberries and is sure to impress.
fresh raspberries
2½ cups heavy cream
8 egg yolks
⅓ cup sugar
pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons brown sugar
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Place 7–8 raspberries in each of 6 ramekins.
Bring cream to simmer. In bowl, whisk together egg yolks, sugar, and salt until blended. Slowly whisk in warm cream, then stir in vanilla extract. Divide mixture among ramekins. Set ramekins in baking pan, then pour boiling water in pan until water is halfway up sides of ramekins. Bake 35–40 minutes, until set. Remove ramekins from pan, let cool, then chill thoroughly.
Before serving, sprinkle brown sugar over each custard. Use kitchen blowtorch to heat and carmelize sugar. Garnish with more fresh raspberries.
Serves 6.
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| Sweet Tart: Topped with zesty lemon curd and luscious raspberries, these Enchanting Ranch Raspberry Cookies are perfect for your Indian Summer picnic. |
Enchanting Ranch Raspberry Cookies
Prepare these cookies up to two days ahead, then assemble as desired for your late-summer picnic or autumn-evening after-dinner fix. They take about 35 minutes to make, plus 1 hour for chilling. Use cookie-cutters with decorative shapes.
¾ cup shredded sweetened coconut
2/3 cup unsalted butter, at room
temperature
¾ cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon milk
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
lemon or lime curd
fresh raspberries
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Spread coconut evenly on a baking sheet and bake until golden brown, 3–5 minutes.Turn oven up to 350 degrees F.
In bowl, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in browned coconut, egg, and milk until well blended. In second bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat into butter mixture, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for 1 hour.
Unwrap dough, place on lightly floured surface, roll to 1/8-inch thickness, and cut into chosen shape(s). Place cookies slightly apart on buttered baking sheet and bake 10–14 minutes. Cool cookies and top with dollop of lemon or lime curd and several raspberries.
Makes 24 cookies.
Raspberry Piña Colada
This Piña Colada will dazzle at your celebration.
1 ounce Chambord liqueur
3–4 ounces coconut rum
½ cup pineapple juice
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
1 ounce coconut syrup
1 cup crushed ice
Blend all ingredients. Serve.
Serves 4.
Recipes reprinted, with permission,
from Salman Ranch Collected Raspberry Dessert Recipes, a collection of favorite recipes shared by the Ranch’s U-Pick raspberry-field customers.
While writing this story, Deming-based food writer Wendy Gist thinks she may have turned into a raspberry.
