The Feasting Place

a hands-on adventure in traditional foods

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Norma Naranjo, founder of The Feasting Place (photo by Maia Duerr)

When you walk into the Feasting Place, you’ll feel like you’re being warmly welcomed into the home of a friend – because you are.

Even if you haven’t met Norma Naranjo before, you’ll discover she treats every guest like a treasured friend and you’ll be in for an amazing experience of food and culture inside her sweet home on Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo (about 40 minutes north of Santa Fe).

Norma founded The Feasting Place in 2000 as a way to share Pueblo culture and history with anyone who wishes to learn. She’s a wonderful cultural ambassador, a role that has its roots in her experiences as a Vietnam vet as well as a social worker. Norma recalls that when she was in the military, she met and worked alongside people from many backgrounds who were curious about her ethnicity as a Native woman from Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo (called San Juan Pueblo in those days). They were often surprised that Native Americans still existed and wondered if she lived in a tipi. It worked the other way around too – Norma discovered there was so much for her to learn about people from other backgrounds.

The Feasting Place grew out of Norma’s desire for people to have an opportunity to learn about Native life. In Pueblo culture and tradition, feast days are times when tribes come together to honor and practice spiritual traditions, and to open up their homes to welcome and feed anyone who enters, with a generous heart. The Feasting Place carries on this same tradition in an innovative way. Even though Norma established it as a business, you can feel the spirit of generosity that’s at the heart of it.

A typical class at The Feasting Place begins with Norma’s welcome and introduction to her family members who are on hand to help out – her husband Hutch, her sister Tomasita, her brother-in-law Kevin.

Then participants get a history lesson. Norma talks about the arrival of the Spaniards in the 1600s and how the Pueblo people welcomed them, as is their custom. There was a blending of the two cultures. As Norma often says, “We’re farmers and ranchers.” Pueblo people cultivated and harvested corn (and still do), and planted the “three sisters” – corn, beans, and squash. Along with berries and game such as rabbits and deer, this was a central part of their cuisine. Wheat didn’t arrive until the Spanish did. The Spaniards taught Pueblo women how to build and maintain hornos – a traditional adobe oven – and how to bake bread, pies, and cookies. These foods were then integrated into their feast days, and continue to be a central part of their cuisine to the present day.

After the history lesson, participants have a chance to learn how to make two traditional foods from both Spanish and Pueblo cooking: empanadas (the day I was there, these were filled with peaches and prunes) and tamales. The group is split into two and after Norma gives instructions, each group works on their contribution to the meal that we’ll eventually share. When the empanadas are ready, they go outside to be baked in the horno that Hutch built in their backyard.

Every Feasting Place class involves lots of conversation and laughter as everyone gets their hands in the dough and fillings, with varying degrees of success. Norma is a patient teacher and enjoys gently teasing her students now and then.

Alongside the empanadas and tamales, Norma’s family has also cooked up delicious chicken enchiladas, rice, beans, and salad. Somehow in the middle of all this Norma found time to make up some pizzas which were also baked in the horno, with Hutch helping to make sure the fire is going strong.

After a couple of hours of learning and food preparation, we all sit down to a magnificent feast – and more laughter and good conversation. Norma has done an extraordinary job of building bridges across differences, as we feel like we’re all part of the same family at the big dining room table.

The class I sat in on was a Road Scholar tour group (for a few years pre-pandemic, I worked as a Road Scholar guide, so this brought back lots of memories!). Norma also offers this experience to hotel guests, local school children, and university students from around the world. In addition to classes, The Feasting Place also caters events. Norma is in growing demand as a food and culture educator and recently was a featured speaker (and chef) at the AfroMundo Festival in Albuquerque In 2024, Norma and Hutch were named in the “Top 12 Food Changemakers of the Year” by Modern Farmer, honoring people who work to make the food system better for their local communities.

How to experience The Feasting Place

If you’re planning a visit to Northern New Mexico, you can contact Norma here and find out if it’s possible to schedule a class or to join one that’s already on her calendar.

You can order Norma’s cookbook, The Four Sisters: Keeping Family Traditions Alive/Recipes from The Pueblo, and she’ll send you a signed copy.

Finally, enjoy this short film about The Feasting Place made by New Mexico True (a project of the New Mexico Tourism Department):

Wish you were here!

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