The 55 mph, two-lane road west of Socorro may appear barren and dusty, but for those who keep their eyes on the pie, there is no richer turf in New Mexico.

Along this 102-mile stretch of U.S. 60 that unfurls across the wide Plains of San Augustin toward distant mountains and the Arizona border, home cooking is all you will find. Punctuating this stretch of the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, the nation's first transcontinental road, are mom-and-pop cafes diligently dishing out authentic fare to locals, truckers and tourists who meander through.

A fractured history of New Mexico may be pieced together from the haunted ruins of the Kelly Mine, Magdalena's deserted stockyards and Charles Ilfeld warehouse, the Very Large Array radio telescope with its 27 moveable giant dish antennas and the 20th-century homesteading community of Pie Town, documented by Russell Lee's Depression-era photographs.

The Magdalena Old Timers Reunion — which features a rodeo, parade, pancake breakfast, arts and crafts fair, barbecue and music — takes place this year July 11-13. Among the rules: the woman chosen reunion queen must be at least 75 years old.

The festival started in the early 1970s, when cowboys would come back to town and tell tales about the old days along the "Hoof Highway." It's still a time when people who once lived in the area return, even though Magdalena is now better known for its growing arts community than for its cattle drives. (A fall studio tour is held in November.)

To sample the goods along U.S. Pieway 60, start in Magdalena by heading for the Magdalena Café & Steakhouse in the former Masonic Lodge on South Main Street, where breakfast and lunch are served Monday through Saturday and dinner is available Thursday and Saturday. Go for the fruit pie — peach is swell — over the chocolate, unless you prefer your pie super-sweet.

Back on the corner of U.S. 60 and North Main Street, in the old bank building that refuses to burn down, is Evett's Café & Fountain — a mother lode of nostalgia — where you can find a more savory treat, the Frito pie. Evett's version, smothered in homemade red or green chile, compares favorably with those served in the school gymnasiums of Northern New Mexico. You can savor your bowl of chile-saturated chips with a float, malt or shake at the original soda counter.

A little further down the road, at the junction of U.S. 60 and N.M. 12, is the Eagle Guest Ranch in Datil. Here, you've entered the wild west of Catron County. The opinions of outsiders, particularly environmentalists and wolf-lovers, are most definitely not appreciated here, so check yours at the door.

The Eagle has been in the family since 1920, when it started as a store and post office, then added gas pumps. Hunters, cowboys and curmudgeons frequent this establishment, and Loretta Kitchen has been baking pies here for 20 years.

Her towering creations are on display in the glass pie safe. If the fluffy coconut cream does not leave you quivering, check your pulse. Selection among the many varieties of pie may be challenging, so a consultation with Kitchen may be in order. Note: This burger and steakhouse serves blazing hot Mexican food on Fridays, itself worth the drive.


Some say the Eagle Guest Ranch serves better pie, at a better price, than neighboring Pie Town establishments. You be the judge.

The two operating Pie Town establishments, Daily Pie and the Pie-o-Neer Café, continue the tradition that legend says began with locals baking and selling pies to cowboys moving herds along the "Hoof Highway" from Springerville, Arizona to "Trail's End" at the Magdalena shipping point 80 years ago.

Kathy Knapp, the proprietor of the Pie-o-Neer for the past dozen years, understands the pie mystique. "Homemade pie is part of the journey," she said. "It evokes a good feeling, it's reminiscent of Mom and Grandma in the kitchen, with family gathered around. It's the last vestige of home. There's such an appreciation for something made by hand with love."

She opened the café in 1995 with her mother, when, during a vacation, they found this 1940s-era building vacant. "If you buy it," she reports her mother said, "I'll bake 'em and they'll come." (Knapp's mother and grandmother had run a café in Rochelle, Ill.)

Among the Pie-o-Neer's most popular offerings are Knapp's sour cherry pie ("It goes fast"); a recipe from her grandmother, Rosie Shook, for coconut-cream pie, which won a Sunset magazine recipe contest in 2001, and Knapp's own New Mexico green chile-apple piñon pie, which inspired Scott and Paula Merrow's short film, A Piece of Pie. (The film, which premiered at the Santa Fe Film Festival in 2006, is a comedy about the last piece of pie in Pie Town. It won the Governor's Cup at the festival and will soon be available on DVD.)

The Pie-o-Neer is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday to Sunday, and sometimes on Thursdays. If Knapp sells out, she will close early.

I am a fan of the Daily Pie Café. Crusts are tender and fillings achieve the right balance of tart-sweet fruitiness. Daily Pie displays a "pie chart," which on any given day could feature cherry, peach, or strawberry-rhubarb; the best seller, New Mexico apple pie; and the special "Primo," a blackberry-blueberry combo. Open from
7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, Daily Pie also serves burgers and fries, soups, a barbecue pulled-pork basket and all-around tasty lunches.

Pie Town hosts a festival of its own the second Saturday in September, when residents bake and sell pies to raise funds for the town. There's an early-morning pancake breakfast, games for the kids, an arts and crafts fair and a big dance in the evening. There's also a pie-eating and pie-baking contest. If you want to enter the baking contest, bring two identical pies to the festival — one for the judges to sample and one to be raffled at the dance.


Last stop on the Pieway 60 tour is the Largo Café in Quemado. Pies here are beautiful, with perfect toasty-brown crusts — although the fillings are a bit lacking in texture, more on the preserve side than I like. The sign out front says, "We think we have New Mexico's best green-chile cheeseburger," a gauntlet thrown down if there ever was one. You may need some protein to balance the sugar at this point, so perhaps you should put that claim to the test.


This is the pie crust recipe we use at home. It was given to us by my husband's mother, and it has never let us down.


(Makes two 9-inch piecrusts)

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2-cup oil

1/4-cup cold milk

Sift flour and salt together. Pour milk and oil together, add to flour and mix. Form into a ball and roll out between two sheets of wax paper. Bake at
450 for 15 minutes.

* * *

This recipe makes five crusts. Wrap what you don't use immediately in plastic wrap and aluminum foil and freeze it.


5 cups flour

1/2-teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons salt

1 cup cold butter, cubed

1 cup lard

1 teaspoon vinegar (preferably apple cider)

1 cup cold water (more/less)

1 egg

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder into large bowl. Using either a pastry cutter or a food processor, cut in butter and lard without overworking mixture. (If using a food processor, just a few pulses should do.)

Crack an egg into a 1-cup measuring cup. Add vinegar and beat slightly with a fork. Add cold water to measure just over 1 cup. Slowly add liquid mixture to dry mixture, making sure fork tines bring up dry mix on bottom of bowl. After using all liquid, dough should start holding together. If it looks a little dry, add more of cold water.

Spread small amount of flour on work surface. Gently make 5 patties. Wrap in Saran and chill for at least an hour. For one 2-crust pie, roll out two patties on floured surface. Place one in a pie pan and keep the other covered till ready to use. The less you touch the dough, the flakier the crust will be.

* * *


(Makes one 9-inch pie)

5-6 Large or 6-8 medium sized apples (1/2-Granny Smiths and 1/2-any other kind except Delicious)

1/2-cup sugar (more/less to taste)

Cinnamon to taste

1 tablespoon cornstarch (or any thickener you prefer)

1 cup roasted and chopped green chiles, hot as you like. (If using canned, drain well)

1 cup unsalted piñon nuts, roasted

Pats of butter

2 pie crusts, 1 in pan, 1 ready to top pie

Slice apples thin to medium. Mix sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch in a bowl and combine with apples. Stir in green chiles and pine nuts. Mound into pie shell. Dot with butter. Put top crust on, sealing edges and brushing top with egg wash (egg white and water). Decorate top with leftover crust scraps shaped like chiles. Using a knife, slice small steam vents in top of crust.

Bake at 425-450 degrees for 15-20 minutes, then turn oven down to 350 and finish baking for another 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbling.

* * *

When pears are in season, Kathy Knapp is inspired to make this pie. She suggests making her pie crust with half whole wheat flour to contain the juicy filling.


(Makes one 9-inch pie)

5 large Bartlett pears

3 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate (or marmalade)

1/2-teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger

3/4-cup flour

1/2-cup sugar

1/8-teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2-teaspoon ground ginger

1/3-cup butter

1 pie crust in pan

Peel, core and slice pears into a bowl. Add orange juice or marmalade, zest and fresh ginger. Arrange in unbaked pie shell. In separate bowl, mix all other ingredients, cutting butter in last to make crumbly topping. Spread topping over pears evenly, patting gently. Bake at 400 for 40-45 minutes.

Sharon Niederman's next book is the Explorer's Guide to New Mexico, with photographs by the author, due September 2008.


What: Magdalena Old Timers Reunion, featuring a rodeo, parade, pancake breakfast, arts and crafts, barbecue, music

Where: To get from Santa Fe to Magdalena, take Interstate 25 south to Socorro (about a
2-1/2-hour drive). Turn west out of Socorro onto U.S. 60. Magdalena is 25 miles down the road. Quemado (the last stop on the pie tour) is about 75 miles east of Magdalena. To return to Santa Fe, take N.M. 36 (north of Quemado) to N.M. 117, which will take you to Interstate 40 at Grants. Go east on I-40 to I-25, and follow I-25 north to Santa Fe. (The return trip will take about 3 to 3-1/2 hours.)

When: July 11-13, 2008

For more information: Visit www.magdalenanm.com or call 1-866-854-3217.

* * *

What: The annual Pie Town Pie Festival, featuring a pancake breakfast, games, arts
and crafts and an evening dance. Residents sell pies to raise funds for the town and there’s also a pie-eating and pie-baking contest. Best to arrive early!

Where: Pie Town

When: Sept. 13, 2008

For more information: Call 575-418-7497.

• Magdalena Café & Steakhouse, 109 S. Main St., (575) 854-2696. Breakfast and lunch served 7 a.m.- 1:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday; dinner from 5-7 p.m. Thursday and Saturday only
• Evett’s Café & Fountain, corner of North Main Street and U.S. 60, (575) 854-2449.Open daily, 11 a.m.-8 p.m.
• Eagle Guest Ranch, Datil, junction of U.S. 60 and N.M. 12, (575) 772-5612. Open 6 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Closed July 4-6; reopens July 7
• Pie-o-Neer Café, PieTown, U.S. 60, (575) 722-2711. Open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday-Sunday (and sometimes on Thursday); if pies sell out, it closes early
• Daily Pie Café, PieTown, U.S. 60, (575) 772-2700. Open 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday
• Largo Café, Quemado, U.S. 60, (575) 773-4686. Open 6 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday