Heart of the Desert Pistachios

I usually discuss food recalls at Conkey's Tavern. However, I got so disgusted with the Peanut Corporation of America scandal that, when pistachios began to be recalled, I referred readers to blogs such as Bill Marler's.

If you want to keep up with the pistachio recalls, go to the FDA's recall page. You can even sign-up for their emailed updates. Even better is to join Twitter and then follow the tweets at foodrecalls. (While you are at it, sign-up for the tweets at elpasonaturally as well.)

I get FDA's emailed updates and tweets daily. What caught my eye recently was a voluntary recall of raw, shelled pistachios by an El Paso nut distributor: Azar's which gets its pistachios from California.

Every time there are food recalls, consumers suspect anything that has to do with the product recalled. The fact is that there are some excellent pistachios grown locally in Alamogordo, New Mexico that are not contaminated with salmonella or anything else. I'm talking about Heart of the Desert Pistachios from Eagle Ranch.

At the top of their home page you will find this reassuring statement:

"We are aware of the problem that has occurred with a California pistachio company. Contrary to national news reports, Heart of the Desert Pistachios are NOT involved in the recall of pistachio products. Our family farm is self contained, meaning that we grow, harvest, process and market from our premises in Alamogordo, NM. We have complete control over the cleanliness and processing at our facility. We do not have farm animals. Our entire acreage is devoted to crop production. We guarantee the safety of our pistachio products."

You will also find links to news stories about the safety of their products.

I've been to their facilities where they do their own processing. They have the most modern of equipment and the friendliest people who each and all make it their business to bring a quality nut to the rest of us.

I called them and asked where in El Paso I could buy their products. Their Associate, Lily J. Ayers, immediately emailed me the following list:

Charlotte’s – 5411 N. Mesa St.
Coffee Emporium – 5817 N. Mesa St.
Collectibles – 1530 Loma Land Sr.
Advant-Edge – 1576 Lomaland Dr.
Quick Silver 66 – 14421 Montana Ave.
Montana Vista Grocery – 14700 Montana Ave.
Horizon 66 – 14501 Horizon Blvd.
Freeway Exxon – 7450 Gateway Blvd. East
Food City #1 – 5400 Alameda Ave.
Food City #5 – 3200 Alameda Ave.
Food City #2 – 7444 Gateway Blvd. East
Lowes #95 – 5300 Doniphan Dr.
Cassidy Shoppette – Ft. Bliss Bldg. 1333
Lowe’s #69 (Big 8) – 9817 Dyer St.
Lowe’s Super Save #97 – 9120 Dyer St.
Lowes #71 (Big 8) – 3333 N. Yarbrough Dr.
Lowes #73 (Big 8) – 1480 George Dieter Dr.
Lowes #77 (Big 8) – 104720 N. Loop
Lowes #96 (Big 8) – 1025 N. Carolina Dr.
Lowes #75 (Big 8) – 425 N. Yarbrough Dr.
Lowes #83 (Big 8) – 6021 N. Mesa St.
Lowes #68 – 3618 Montana
El Paso Chile Company – 909 Texas Ave.

You can, of course, take your chances and buy California pistachios shipped to New Jersey for processing and then shipped to Phoenix for distribution and then shipped to the Albertson's nearest your home. Or you can enjoy quality, uncontaminated and nutritious pistachios right here on the frontera that are locally-grown. Eagle Ranch in Alamogordo is just up the road from El Paso and over the hill from Las Cruces.

Why Locally-Grown Food?

Elpasonaturally promotes buying and eating more locally grown foods. There are a variety of reasons for doing so. First, locally grown food is better tasting and more nutritious food. Food loses some of its nutritional value as it travels. The hot house tomato grown in California doesn’t have as much oomph to it by the time it has been shipped across country to be packaged and distributed to a warehouse in Phoenix and then shipped to El Paso. If you have ever eaten a locally-grown heirloom tomato, you will know the depth of the taste of a real love apple. Your body will thank you for all the additional vitamins and minerals.

Buying locally grown food means energy independence. You can buy blueberries now in grocery stores that were grown in Chile, shipped to New York and shipped out to different food distribution centers in the country before they make it to your local grocery store that may be miles away from where you live because the design of our cities and neighborhoods are still predicated on cheap energy.

Using more organic and sustainable farming practices means once again relying on the sun and not on petroleum. Tons of food is currently raised on corporate farms because of insecticides and herbicides that are produced by the petroleum industry. (All of those noxious chemicals make their way into our food and water.)

Locally grown food is demonstrably safer food. There is a reason for the widespread havoc wreaked by food contaminated by E coli or salmonella. There are only a few points of distribution and mega farms, thanks to federal subsidies, along with a very few super markets and big box stores rule our food chain. If contamination starts on the large corporate farm or at the food distributor, it quickly spreads nationally. Imagine a terrorist strike on our food system!

El Pasoans would be wise to encourage their governments to offer incentives for more small farmers raising food crops. Urban sprawl that does not have a policy for maintaining land for agriculture is a policy for eventual unsustainability of the human culture and community.

We need a return to more locally grown food with more places for that food to be sold especially in neighborhood farmers markets. We need to learn again about our indigenous foods besides just pecans. Many know about diabetes-fighting nopal (and many El Pasoans grow and harvest their own nopalitos and tunas.) But there is also the high protein mesquite bean and ubiquitous amaranth. Local churches and schools with commercial kitchens could become neighborhood canning facilities. Each neighborhood park could have just a patch for a community garden and neighbors can also join together for yardsharing.

With the economy in the tank, with the need for energy independence (can you imagine small wind mills generating electricity at each neighborhood facility?), with the need to eat more nutritious food and be free of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, strokes and cancer, the value for locally-grown and eaten food could certainly come to be shared by more people in the El Paso region.

Elpasonaturally is dedicated to the promotion of this value.