A modern pioneer's Passover

At Passover, we should retell the stories of our family's experiences. In some cases, these stories involve real pioneers, those who went west in wagon trains long ago.

But sometimes, the western pioneers are very contemporary. Here's one of those stories which will likely become part of the author's life-long traditions.

Preparing Passover in rural America isn't easy.

"But in Alamosa (population 8,000), which serves as the metropolitan center for the entire valley in which it sits, flanked by three mountain ranges of 14,000-foot peaks and the New Mexican border, any form of a traditional Passover seemed hopeless."

The author had never realized that it might include consuming meat that came from animals she had known personally.

"The cooking felt familiar, with the usual aromas of matzo ball soup and roast chicken. But the food all came from within spitting distance: The chickens had been bartered for steaks from the ranch where I was staying; the tomatoes came from a nearby greenhouse; the eggs were from a farm just to the south; the potatoes from practically under my feet and the wine from just over the mountains, and the beef was the product of a herd of cattle all named George that I had seen roaming the pasture a few months earlier."

"Last year in the Wild West, this year in civilization, next year in Jerusalem."