Gratitude

We're mostly unpacked and starting to venture out into the community here. The sense of grace is palpable, which in my case is saying something since I'm one of those people who's usually so caught up in his personal soap opera that the obvious often eludes me.

We overslept but got out for a short hike on Boston Hill, accessing it for the first time from the south end of town:

Silver is as green as we've ever seen it, thanks to the daily monsoon rains we've been relishing ever since we arrived.

After our hike, we did our errands downtown, following our noses to parking lot in front of the fabulous Silver City Food Co-op (established 1974!) where this lovely young lady was roasting the famous chiles from Hatch, NM - chile capital of the world and only 45 minutes from us:

Next into the co-op itself for some shopping. The quality of the produce and the strong emphasis on supporting local farms is almost as inspiring as the soul and kindness of the people who work there:

Then on to our local tortilleria - something every town should have, but too few do (unless you live in Mexico!):

They have fresh corn tortillas daily, classic New Mexican blue corn on Fridays, tamales and enchiladas and respectable barbacoa (long-stewed beef for tacos).

By then it was time for lunch, so we headed off to The Curious Kumquat (http://curiouskumquat.com/), an astonishing store and restaurant run by our old friends Rob and Tyler. Part of the store is a phenomenal specialty foods grocery, while the other is a world-class (and I don't bandy that over-used phrase about lightly) restaurant. Rob Connoley, the chef here, is the rarest of rare birds in the food world, combining boundless passion and energy with creativity and (rarest of all) humility, kindness and humor. He's turning out food that would be the talk of the town in Berkeley or Chicago - in a tiny burg of less than 10,000, in the high desert, 3 hours from the nearest big city.

Here's the al fresco lunch we had today, thanks to Chef Rob and the farmers who showed up at Saturday's farmer's market (where we joyfully spent over $100 - a personal farmer's market record by a factor of 4 - on local, pastured pork, beef, chicken [heirloom poulet rouge!]) and veggies:

In the foreground are "dragon" green beans from the market dressed with olive oil, lemon and smoked almonds. Center of the table are Chef Rob's baguette - the best bread between Chicago and Berkeley (I kid you not) - with wonderfully stinky French Delice de Jura cheese, Reggiano Parmigiano and slivers of Beretta brand bocconcini salame, a few superb (and dirt cheap!) dry-cured black olives (both also from the Kumquat), and a couple of glasses of good Spanish red wine.

You might find cheese this well-selected (might is the operative word) at double the price at your local Whole Paycheck (Whole Foods) if you live in Albuquerque or Boulder, but forget about finding bread good enough to go with it. Even if you do, what are your chances of having something good enough for dessert to conclude a meal like this? We shared one of Chef Rob's chocolate chip cookies, which, like all of the pastries and baked goods we've sampled from the Curious Kumquat, so thoroughly French (and so delightfully un-American) in style that they brought tears to our eyes. Instead of sugar you notice the smell of good butter, and as you taste there's the richness of not chips but rather a pain de chocolate-like layer of high-quality bittersweet chocolate. To be able to have bread, cheese and baked goods of this quality without flying to San Francisco or Paris is amazing.

Erin and I both commented that there is no food business (retail or restaurant) anywhere we've lived (including decades in Seattle and Boulder) where we've had the experience we have every time we shop in or dine at The Curious Kumquat: total trust that anything we choose will taste great and be a phenomenal value. We're both quite frankly in awe of what Rob and his partner Tyler have done to create and build community here in Silver and can only hope to follow in their footsteps in some small way. We are so blessed to be here.