Study and Volunteeering

General Education

Look first into the art, music, and outdoors programs at Ghost Ranch [4] (877/804-4678, www.ghostranch.org [5]), both at the beautiful property in Abiquiu [6] and at the Santa Fe [1] campus; of particular interest is Zoukfest (www.zoukfest.com [7]), a world folk-music workshop, in November. The El Rito campus of Northern New Mexico College (575/581-4115, www.nnmc.edu [8]), north of Abiquiu [6], runs the Heritage Retreat Center, offering Spanish immersion classes and short-term workshops in traditional crafts.

Cooking Classes

Santa Fe School of Cooking (116 W. San Francisco St., 505/983-4511, www.santafeschoolofcooking.com [9]) offers day classes not only in contemporary Southwestern cuisine, but also in traditional Native American cooking (author Lois Ellen Frank instructs) and New Mexican standards; nice farmers market trips are offered too.

In Albuquerque [2], learn to fry the perfect sopaipillas at Jane Butel Cooking School (2655 Pan American Hwy. NE, 800/473-8226, www.janebutel.com [10]), presided over by a Tex-Mex maven who has written numerous cookbooks; day, weekend, and weeklong classes are available.

For a more rural experience, Comida de Campos (877/552-4452, www.comidadecampos.com [11]) is based in Dixon [12], north of Santa Fe [1]—a stay at this school involves learning about the working farm it’s set on. Day classes cover basic dishes such as tamales and lessons in how to bake in a traditional horno.

Permaculture and Alternative Construction

At Santa Fe’s Ecoversity (2639 Agua Fria St., 505/424-9797, www.ecoversity.org [13]), you can dip in with daylong sessions topics such as making your own biodiesel or buying a goat, or stay for a semester and get a certificate in permaculture or beekeeping. Lama Foundation (575/586-1269, www.lamafoundation.org [14]) in San Cristobal, north of Taos [15], hosts a weeklong permaculture get-together, with hundreds of people swapping tips on solar design, organic gardening, and water catchment. You can also be a summer steward at the foundation, for two weeks or the full season, and learn organic gardening and land-preservation techniques this way, along with plenty of yoga and quiet time.

In the same vein, you can take a three-day Earthship Seminar (575/751-0462, www.earthship.org [16]), a crash course in building the off-the-grid rammed-earth houses that are springing up around Taos [15]. The Earthship Biotecture organization also accepts volunteers. If you’re very interested in local building styles, look into the intensive semester-long classes in adobe construction at Northern New Mexico College (575/581-4115, www.nnmc.edu [8]).

Seeds of Change (888/762-7333, www.seedsofchange.com [17]) is an organization dedicated to preserving biodiversity in agricultural products and promoting organic farming practices; the group occasionally calls for volunteers on its six-acre research farm in El Guique, just outside of Santa Fe [1] near Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo).