Back at the Ranch

Eugenia Bone enjoyed life as a New York City food writer but she knew that her husband, a transplanted Westerner, longed for wide-open spaces. So she was not surprised when he returned from a fishing trip in the Rockies and announced that he wanted to buy a derelict 45-acre ranch in Crawford, Colorado (population 386). She reluctantly agreed. Then she loaded imported dried pasta, cured Italian salami and a wheel of Parmesan cheese (all bought on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx) into suitcases and headed west with her two young children. “I expected a single grocery store with only frozen and canned stuff,” she says. Over time, however, she discovered the bounty of the area. “It started when a rancher invited me to lunch and served elk tenderloin with local wild mushrooms and veggies from her garden,” says Eugenia.

Her new cookbook and memoir, At Mesa’s Edge: Cooking and Ranching in Colorado’s North Fork Valley, chronicles her adventures and includes 100 of her favorite recipes.