Goats and Chickens

by Wolf Schneider

“Acting the giddy goat” is an expression meaning to behave foolishly, but goats aren’t really foolish, I found out when I recently visited some in Santa Fe. They are curious and intelligent. Goats can be trained to pull carts. They are sometimes escape artists when it comes to fleeing their pens. They tend to be picky eaters, fast runners, and agile climbers. They are closely related to sheep and antelope. Female goats, called does or nannies, make milk that is ideal for cheese, ice cream, and soap. All-natural moisturizing goat soap is what the Santa Fe-based company Milk and Honey (www.milkandhoneysoap.com) makes from its two goats.

A Santa Fe goat Survives winter

These goats live near a rooster pen inside Santa Fe city limits. Back-yard poultry are somewhat popular in Santa Fe. The Feed Bin on West Alameda sells chicks like the Rhode Island Reds for less than $10 each. But back to the goats--they were super friendly, coming right up to be petted. The goats smelled just fine, although un-castrated male goats—called bucks—can be stinky. It’s a hormonal thing. This corral smelled like the earthy alfalfa the goats were noshing, reminding me of horses. Goats are often friendly with horses. A goat is a good companion for a solo horse since a goat tends to be cheaper to care for than a second horse. Both horses and goats like the companionship of other farm animals since they are herd animals. You know: safety in numbers. It was comforting to pet the goats and enter their nature-ruled world.

                     

Santa Fe-based Wolf Schneider has been editor in chief of the Santa Fean, editor of Living West, and consulting editor of Southwest Art. She also blogs at www.wolfschneiderusa.com. 

Photographer: David Alfaya, Taken in artist Gregory Lomayesva's Studio

Santa Fe's Canyon Road Galleries Become a Force

The Canyon Road Area Merchants have banded together to support and promote one the most historic roads in America Canyon Road. With a hundred galleries located in distance of just less than a mile, it has to be one of the great confluences of artwork in America. The newly formed Canyon Road gallery associations mission is to promote knowledge of the road, its art and history.

Selby Fleetwood Gallery

The artwork is as varied as the people who visit. Over Christmas I did a television interview in my Canyon Road Gallery for a Japanese television program which was focused on Canyon Road. There are numerous wonderful contemporary art galleries such as Selby Fleetwood and McLarry Modern, which can be found on the road intermixed with more traditional galleries like Medicine Man Gallery and Tresa Vorenberg Goldsmiths.

McLarry Modern, Photograph by nadelbachphoto.com

Many of the galleries are in historic residences one occupied by local artists, and other prominent Santa Feans. Surviving farmhouses from the Spanish period include the Juan Jose Prada home (519 Canyon Road, now a private residence), which was built as early as 1768. El Zaguan, at 545 Canyon Road, was originally a two or three-room house with adobe walls four feet thick. It was enlarged in the mid-nineteenth century by James L. Johnson, a prominent merchant of the old Santa Fe Trail, to contain 19 rooms and courtyard gardens. Now home of the Historic Santa Fe Foundation, several rooms of El Zaguan are open to the public.

The Canyon Road Merchants will be bringing together varied arts, restaurants, and historic residences to celebrate this most unique place in America. To follow the activities of Canyon Road you can visit www.canyonroadarts.com, the one stop website for activities on Canyon Road and Santa Fe.

Cold Snap

by Wolf Schneider

Santa Fe in Winter

Santa Fe is one big sheet of ice right now. You don’t only need a hat—you want a facemask too. Our coldest spell of the winter is here, along with snowstorms that brought a few inches in town but more than a foot to nearby Chupadero and Glorieta. Tuesday night: -4. Wednesday night: -14. Daytime highs? Try 5 today. So much for that Santa Fe saying: “Oh, it snows here but it’s all melted by noon.” Yeah, in March or April, that is. As of Wednesday morning, there were more than 291 weather-related crashes in New Mexico. The Albuquerque Sunport website (http://www.cabq.gov/airport/) is tracking flight cancellations and delays, as are individual airlines like Southwest Airlines (http://www.southwest.com/).

A friend did manage to get off yesterday on the small American Airlines jet leaving Santa Fe Airport for LA.Wish the “TODAY Show” would include New Mexico as they report about the monster storm swath from Texas to Maine! We’ve all got our faucets dripping and cabinet drawers open so the pipes don’t freeze. The sub-zero temps can destroy young trees--adding a bed of pecan shells, bark, straw, and wood shavings to their roots can help. Now’s the time to give horses extra feed!

The forecast is better for this weekend, when the Terra Bar at Encantado will be serving Truffle Pommes Frites, Howlin’ Beef Sliders, and Red Chile Wild Boar Stew with Gouda Polenta for the Super Bowl.

                   

Santa Fe-based Wolf Schneider has been editor in chief of the Santa Fean, editor of Living West, and consulting editor of Southwest Art. She also blogs at www.wolfschneiderusa.com. 

Photographer: David Alfaya, Taken in Artist Studio: Gregory Lomayesva

Santa Fe Restaurant Roulette

by Wolf Schneider

Latte at New York Dell

Wintertime lunch is when the locals circulate—at least we do when the temperatures aren’t sub-zero like we’ve been having! Everyone has been talking about the Caribbean-African themed Jambo Café (www.jambocafe.net), which won the Souper Bowl XVII competition recently for the second year in a row, so I finally popped in, opting for a sweet potato-taro root soup and spicy grilled salmon salad. Good and very different. The unprepossessing Mangiamo Pronto (http://www.mangiamopronto.com) at 228 Old Santa Fe Trail has more traditional continental fare, including a great little antipasto salad and white bean hummus plate. I’ve run into realtor friends at New York Deli, which took over Bagelmania and added lattes. Vinaigrette (https://vinaigretteonline.com) has the most inventive salads in Santa Fe, and is where the art crowd flocks.

Recently opened restaurants? Slurp is serving soups like Curried Cauliflower and Fennel until 3pm weekdays from an Airstream trailer on Galisteo Street near the state capitol. Nile Café just began dishing up falafels from a food truck on Rodeo Road. And the Pink Adobe is re-opened.

Closed or closing? Los Mayas, The Plaza Café Downtown, A La Mesa, Railyard Restaurant, Celebrations, El Nido (with plans to re-open), Ore House (merging with Milagro 139), and Café Paris (with plans to re-open where Mission Café was).

                         

Santa Fe-based Wolf Schneider has been editor in chief of the Santa Fean, editor of Living West, and consulting editor of Southwest Art. She also blogs at www.wolfschneiderusa.com. 

Photographer: David Alfaya, Taken in Artist Studio: Gregory Lomayesva

Where is Michael Herzenberg?

Michael Herzenberg

Now that the winter snowstorms are lining up to sock it to Santa Fe, I’ve been watching the 9pm TV news more and missing Michael Herzenberg. Herzenberg was the main male anchor for KASA Fox 2 TV and special assignment/legislative reporter for KRQE CBS 13 TV, and I worked with him when he covered the “Crash” TV series with friendly professionalism and aplomb. After four years in Albuquerque, he left last August, moving back to New York.

Why did he go? “I figured if not now, then when,” says Herzenberg, 39. “I moved to Manhattan without a job, but my agent quickly landed me a dream job. Unfortunately, it’s only freelance. I am a freelance correspondent for CBS Newspath,” Herzenberg recaps. The service feeds CBS TV affiliates around the country, so you may have seen Herzenberg on TV recently from snowy Times Square covering the big blizzard that hit the Northeast.

Does he miss New Mexico? “The list is long,” he responds. Specifically, he mentions missing Dick Knipfing, Larry Barker, Jessica Garate, his TV crew, mountain biking, skiing, and covering our legislative session. “With a new governor and a new party on the 4^th floor of the roundhouse, I am now deprived of the front-row seat my job afforded me to the most dynamic and the most important game in town,” Herzenberg laments. We’re thinking of you and missing you too, Michael Herzenberg!

                  

Santa Fe-based Wolf Schneider has been editor in chief of the Santa Fean, editor of Living West, and consulting editor of Southwest Art. She also blogs at www.wolfschneiderusa.com. 

Photographer: David Alfaya, Taken in Artist Studio: Gregory Lomayesva