↓ LINKS
→ Conversations with Ron Boyd // Passcode: SBC-CFE2021
↓ THOUGHTS:
I honestly can’t remember the first time I met Ron, he is the type of person I feel has always been in my life. That a kin to a tio, but also at the same time a peer. I feel our paths are parallel and that anything I am interested in at the moment, Ron has knowledge pertaining to it. I’m grateful for him in my life, and all that he shares with me, but also with the world.
Each year we gather apples for naturally fermented hard cider for / shed dinners. Our goal is to find landrace apples planted by the Spanish that have no names but are unique and that have a character that can’t be found anywhere else, and we press them at Rons. Ron also presses his own apples and makes his own hard cider. I long for the day we’ll have our own press, but I cherish the days spent pressing at his farm.
Last year Ron and his wife Debra took over Debra’s mothers horse ranch and are expanding their beautiful touch onto 100 acres. ( You can now stay at their farm, La Vallita Farms.
Each year when I get to see Ron there tends to be an underlying theme, this year it was corn. Each day this past fall, when we finished pressing at his farm, we’d cheers with some cups of cider he had pressed from the year before, and after wed’ sipped and talked a bit, he’d get back to listening to the radio, shucking and cleaning corn, piles of blue all around him, humbly sitting as if on a throne with beautiful corn mother encouraging him along the way. He told us this is a nightly activity for him through fall, time consuming - but like everything Ron does on the farm, he treats as a gift and blessing and often mentions how lucky he is to live a life doing work he loves and feels honored to do.
Growing up on Taos Pueblo, corn has always been a big importance in my life, and it keeps becoming more so. It is the main thing we grow on our farm and it is something Ron is growing more of on his and something we are working on together. We recently had a recuerdo about corn + ash, and the corn we have been using was Ron’s glass gem flint corn from a couple seasons ago.
I’m glad to have so many beautiful humans in my life, and Ron is one of those humans. I was honored to carry on our conversations while at my Chef in residence program at Stone Barns Center. The link above is that conversation, and if you are interested in the others you can access them all at:
LINK → talks
Ron’s rio grande turquoise corn // 2022
Our “Taos Pueblo blue corn” // 2021
Ron’s rio grande turquoise corn // 2022
Corn mother bowl // fired full moon of 3.18.22