EAT LIKE A LOCAL IN LOS CABOS
Help prepare a meal from scratch during a visit to a Mexican organic farm and ranch
If you are a foodie, you are likely already eating where the locals eat on your travels. But the best way to better understand a country through its culinary traditions is by taking a cooking class.
In Los Cabos, Mexico, one of my best dining experiences (and there were many) was a meal I helped prepare at Flora’s Farms — rated one of the World’s Best Farmstead Restaurant Experiences, according to The Daily Meal: All Things Food and Drink and USA Today.
Conveniently located between Los Cabos’ two main communities, Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, Flora’s Farms is like entering a different word.
Travelling down a bumpy dirt road, passing straw-thatched cottages along the way, I couldn’t help wondering how an organic farm is able to prosper out in this desert landscape.
Everything you will eat at Flora’s Farms is either grown on the 14-hectare farm or raised at the nearby 60-hectare ranch to ensure all their products are organic and hormone-free.
I soon learn from our cooking instructor, Azalia Nelson, that the farm exists thanks to a 21-metre-deep well on the property, which used to be a pig farm when its owners, U.S. expats Patrick and Gloria Greene, bought the property in 1996.
“Gloria never expected it to become what it is since she picked the land in the middle of nowhere,” says Nelson, adding the well was the main reason the couple chose this location.
Initially, they planned to just grow organic vegetables and fruit, which they sell at a shop on site called Flora Grocery. But their small business expanded to now include cottages for rent, a full-service spa, an alfresco restaurant, and a bar serving their signature fruit and vegetable cocktails (like the popular Farmarita, a fresh take on the classic Margarita using heirloom carrots seasoned with chili).
Today, the farm and the ranch has about 350 employees, from farmers who till the fields to the kitchen staff who cook authentic Mexican food from scratch using simple, fresh ingredients.
The heart of Flora’s Farms is Flora’s Field Kitchen, where cooking classes are offered three times a week, just a stone’s throw from where fresh herbs and edible flowers are harvested.
Our class begins with a tour of the farm, where we pass the baker busy making corn bread in a wood-burning oven, and the smokehouse, where six to 10 chickens are prepared daily. Three of the farmers are seen bringing in fresh produce to clean, and out in the fields we watch other farmers harvesting still more produce. Harvesting and cooking go hand in hand here.
We don our aprons in preparation of learning how to make corn tortillas the old-fashioned way, roasted tomato salsa and rosemary guacamole, to name just a few of the foods that we will soon enjoy at a bountiful lunch enjoyed outdoors.
Nelson says nothing goes to waste here. The day-old tortillas are cut up to make corn chips, and even the rosemary stems are kept to be used as spears on the grill to add flavour.
The three-hour cooking classes are offered Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays and cost $130. The class includes a farm tour, a craft cocktail, lunch and a takeaway recipe book. Reservations are recommended both for the cooking class and the restaurant. Visit flora-farms.com.
My two other favourite dining experiences in Los Cabos include Sunset Monalisa Restaurant (sunsetmonalisa.com) and La Lupita Taco and Mescal (lalupitatym. com). The former is one of the most romantic dining experiences in Los Cabos thanks to its spectacular setting over the Sea of Cortes. Seafood is a specialty here and the restaurant even has its own fishing boats. For something more informal, La Lupita Taco and Mescal is where discerning locals go to enjoy Mexico’s famous comfort food — a creative variety of tacos. Often crowded, the place has the feel of an outdoor backyard party, even more so when you order a flight of mescal.
Need to know: A great place to stay in Los Cabos is the centrally located Le Blanc Spa Resort (leblancsparesort.com), which opened last March. This luxury, adult-only all-inclusive hotel, overlooking the Sea of Cortez, distinguishes itself by giving all guests the VIP treatment, including their own butler. The hotel has four buildings that curve towards the ocean, ensuring most guests have an ocean view, but the contemporary decor inside is equally amazing. The hotel also features seven gourmet restaurants, including an unexpected but outstanding Lebanese restaurant.