Welcome to our summer issue! This season, we are excited to visit with tomato grower extraordinaire and innovative thinker Paul Cross of Charybda Farms in Arroyo Hondo. He'll make you re-think your old ideas about growing anything in New Mexico. Although he sits on five acres, he produces gorgeous tomatoes, flowers, herbs and his hugely successful line of Chef's Edition microgreens on only a tenth of that. But the most inspired thing is that he does it all without a well or access to an acequia. When we toured his greenhouse in the spring, the regional buyer from Whole Foods had just visited, offering to buy all of his tomatoes in addition to his flowers and herbs. Lucky for us, Paul declined to sell his tomatoes--meaning you'll still find them at the Santa Fe Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. But in order to enjoy these wonderful fruits you must get there early; Paul's tomatoes are in such demand that he is generally sold out before 9:30 am!

Deborah Madison, Jennifer Esperanza and I spent an extraordinary day at Camino de Paz farm school a few weeks ago. I was struck by how tidy and organized the farm is, and how articulate, thoughtful and centered the students are. Visiting the school made me wish I had attended a school like this as a child. I realized how rare it is for kids to have the kind of everyday responsibilities and experiences that make up a school day at Camino de Paz. I urge you to stop and see the students (and the fruits of their labor) each week at the Santa Fe Farmers Market, and to support their school. Our story about MFK Fisher is very special to me; I grew up reading Fisher's musings on everything from food to marriage. This July would have marked her 100th birthday, and we bring you one of her last interviews.

If you have a free day or guests to entertain, spend an afternoon driving through Northern New Mexico. Judith Post has done a great job of putting together a tour of wineries with a couple of delicious food stops along the way. And if you find yourself with too much bounty from the garden, take a tip from Kristen Davenport and try your hand at fermenting; it's almost foolproof and much cooler than canning. Author and edible East End, Brooklyn, and Manhattan publisher Brian Halweil has written a piece on what promises to be one of the biggest calls to arms our country has seen in recent years; Gary Nabhan calls it our "first continental culinary congress." Slow Food Nation takes place this summer in San Francisco, and we are urged to grab our forks and take a seat at the table with thousands of others for a "heavenly overwhelming display of what it means to eat and live well."

You may also notice we have trimmed down a bit, and some of our regular pages (seasonal farmers markets and advertisers directory) will now be found on our website. I invite you to visit us on the web for more recipes, resources, and to listen to our Kitchensync Podcast. I hope you enjoy the summer and visit with some of the people between these pages--both the folks in our stories and the advertisers, too--and be sure to tell them you saw them in edible Santa Fe .

Kate Manchester

click here for the Summer 2008 table of contents