PICURIS PUEBLO’S FORESTRY department is on a mission to make cookouts more environmentally responsible. The pueblo offers all-natural wood charcoal made from piñon, juniper, ponderosa pine, cedar, and blue spruce biomass gathered from Taos County forests during thinning to prevent wildfires. “We’re not supposed to be wasting stuff from Mother Nature,” says Luther Martinez, head of the pueblo’s fire and forestry department. “That’s what I was taught when I was growing up.” To create the coals, small sticks and twigs, known as slash, are burned slowly in charcoal ovens, then hand-sifted and broken into briquette-size pieces. “We’re using the smoke and heat from the ovens to pressure-treat the dry rough-cut lumber, instead of chemicals,” Martinez says. The result is no-waste charcoal that burns longer and hotter than commercial briquettes, imparting a rich flavor to foods like mushrooms and shellfish. By transforming forest byproducts into high quality fuel, Picuris Pueblo is proving sustainability can taste as good as it feels.
Picuris Pueblo Natural Charcoal is available seasonally in eight-pound bags at La Montañita Co-op in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Gallup.