Roasted Walnut Pecan Caramel Marshmallows

Sally Harper, a paragon who spread the gospel of organic farming methods bought a young pecan farm in the Mesilla Valley in southern New Mexico with her husband Wilmer in 1986. In the early years, the family worked the farm with one old tractor and a lot of manual labor. As they became more proficient, they found that chemical fertilizers and pesticides were not necessary to produce a good pecan crop. In 1994, the orchard was certified organic, one of only two such pecan orchards in New Mexico at the time. As demand for organic pecans grew, Sally began working with other like-minded pecan growers in the valley to encourage them to transition their pecan orchards to organic. The family farm is now into its second generation as the Harper children have assumed responsibility for the daily farm and business operations.