With its cattle ranches, hay farms and a long history of eating meat and potatoes, Montezuma County might not be the first place that springs to mind when you think of healthy eating.
But you’ll be surprised when you enter Olio, Jason Blankenship’s Mancos restaurant, where he sources much of his French-inspired cuisine from local farms and his menu is loaded with items marked by a radish (or maybe a turnip), signifying they meet the standards of the Montezuma County Eat Local Eat Healthy program.
And they don’t demarcate just greens and salads, although there are plenty of them on the menu. The artichoke pate with local arugula pesto and chickpea blinis are a gluten-free vegetarian’s delight, with crisp pancakes tender in the center and topped with a rich, artichoke puree imbued with extra-virgin olive oil. The meat-inclined can feast on pepper-crusted venison over sauteed leeks and fennel with local rhubarb and tomato jam.
We’re not sure if the statewide program had such luxurious food in mind when it set out to help reduce obesity and beef up residents’ intake of healthy vegetables, but it works for Blankenship.
“People come here for this kind of healthy, fresh food,” he said. “That’s what I’m known for.”
With the help of the program’s local coordinator, Gretchen Groenke, more restaurants and businesses are catching on. She pitches the notion that eating more fruits and vegetables is a better way to live by connecting it to Montezuma County’s agricultural community.
“We don’t talk about just eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, we talk about getting those servings from your neighbor,” she said.
When health food store f/b organics opened this year in the first block of West Main Street in Cortez, they made sure to offer fresh vegetables from local farms and to provide aisles of gluten-free options, low-sugar snacks and nutritional supplements.
“People really want a large selection of local produce,” said co-owner Darrin Dennison. “They want to eat healthy.”
phasterok@durangoherald.com
