Edible Baja Arizona - March/April 2015

edible

March/April 2015 • Issue No. 11 • GRATIS

edible BAJA ARIZONA

BAJA A RIZONA

Celebrating the foodways of Tucson and the borderlands.

INGRAINING HERITAGE WHEAT No. 11 March/April 2015

Ingraining Heritage Wheat • A Community's Baker Bringing Back the Backyard Oven • Brewing Nano

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Features

Contents

6 COYOTE TALKING

10 VOICES We asked five tortillerias: What makes your tortilla the best in town?

14 GLEANINGS 20 THE HUNGRIEST FOODIE 25 THE PLATE 29 KIDS’ MENU Haile’s Healthy Swaps 33 EDIBLE HOMESTEAD 90 THE FIRE OUTSIDE By sun, coals, or fire, the great outdoors is the place to make your next great meal.

46 FARM REPORT 52 IN THE BUSINESS Celeste Wisdom, owner of Tumacacori’s Wisdom’s Café dishes on family, border food, and the appeal of quirky décor.

58 TABLE At 5 Points Market & Restaurant, Jasper Ludwig and Brian Haskins are building a delicious, locally sourced menu and a “conscious convenience store” for their community.

68 PURVEYORS Whether you’re trying new flavors or savoring old ones, there’s something for everyone in Tucson’s many ethnic markets.

80 MEET YOUR FARMER From planting stick to precision farming: After 65 years, Ramona Farms has become a modern operation focused on heritage crops.

110 INGRAINING Bringing White Sonora wheat back to the Sonoran Desert.

144 BUZZ Nanobreweries are on the rise in the Old Pueblo—and there’s no shortage of thirsty customers.

160 BUZZ A local chapter of the national Girls Pint Out brings women into the Tucson craft brewing scene.

164 BOOZE NEWS 172 INK 174 SABORES DE SONORA A photo essay on the forgotten grain mills of Baja Arizona.

182 SOURCE GUIDE 196 LAST BITE Francisco Cantú recounts the story of an immigrant’s bottle of mezcal that doesn’t go to waste.

132 IT’S NOT ABOUT THE BREAD Barrio Bread’s Don Guerra does more than bake slow-fermented, heritagegrain artisan breads — he also cultivates “belongingness.”

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“THEN LIFE ITSELF WILL HAVE THE SHAPE OF BREAD ….” —NERUDA

COYOTE TALKING

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connecting strand that weaves through this issue, a subtext of sorts that ties one grand subject—the reintroduction of a nearly lost local heritage grain—to a diverse group of committed individuals, to a gorgeous loaf of slow-fermented bread, to a fresh pint of local beer brewed from barley and wheat grown in Marana and hops from Cochise County. That resonance speaks plainly to the notion that food is a powerful force that coheres community and fosters collaboration. It’s a remarkable time to be eating and drinking in Baja Arizona.

The disappearance of a plant variety can happen suddenly, when no one is paying attention.

And when it comes to an important food crop like wheat, it can mean a diminishment of critical biodiversity with far-reaching ramifications for our food supply, as well as a cultural loss. In the case of the heritage grain known as White Sonora wheat, a fortuitous group of collaborators came together in 2012 to bring the crop back to the local foodshed, as chronicled by Lisa O’Neill. For more than 300 years, White Sonora wheat was one of the principal crops grown in the Sonoran desert, “integrated into the social fabric of communities that grew it, harvested it, and consumed it,” says Maribel Alvarez, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona’s Southwest Center, who has written extensively on the heritage grain. Its triumphant return over the last three years—as a result of excitement and hard work by farmers, millers, bakers, brewers, and seed savers—has also helped to create a model for bringing back other wheat varieties that were near extinction.

The value of cultivating true community around these foods is obvious in Megan Kimble’s profile of “community-supported baker” Don Guerra.

As Matt Mars, an assistant professor in the UA’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, points out, Guerra is “someone who can transcend their own business to understand that the local system is stronger when competition is put aside.” Guerra says that his coveted loaves are a vehicle to connect community. We just think his bread is awesome.

Kati Standefer explores the exploding nanobrewing community, a cohort of collaborators who celebrate and actively support one another in pursuit of excellent beer made in small (nano) batches. The connecting strand runs through this story, as well: BKW Farms in Marana, who played an important role in the reintroduction of White Sonora wheat, is now growing barley for local breweries and distilleries, as well as providing wheat for beer.

And regular contributor Bill Steen’s photo essay is a glimpse of the past when grain mills numbered more than 44 in Arizona territory and more than 60 in the state of Sonora at the end of the 19th century.

As always, there is much more to discover in this issue. Enjoy!

Speaking of collaboration, Edible Baja Arizona is the result of the diligent efforts of many, many people, not the least of who are the full time staff. This eleventh issue marks the one-year anniversary of Steve McMackin joining the team as art director, and we just have to give him a hearty and appreciative shout-out. Steve’s combination of graphic design brilliance, organizational obsession, geeky technological prowess, positive professionalism, and a nonstop commitment to excellence has contributed immensely to the magazine’s development in the last 12 months. Thanks, Steve, for all you do! And if you haven’t yet, you should visit our website (EdibleBajaArizona.com) and see Steve’s work there (in collaboration with Lyric Peate at Impulse Nine Media). It’s another way to experience the magazine and share it with friends.

We’ll see you around the table. ¡Salud!

HER E IS A

The disappearance of a plant variety can happen suddenly, when no one is paying attention.

—Douglas Biggers, editor and publisher

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Editor and Publisher Douglas Biggers Associate Publisher Jared R. McKinley Managing Editor Megan Kimble Art Director

Steve McMackin

Senior Contributing Editor Gary Paul Nabhan Designer

Lyric Peate

Copy Editor

Ford Burkhart

Proofreader

Charity Whiting

Account Manager Katy Gierlach Advertising Consultants

Dhyana Wasson, Kenny Stewart

Interns

Elizabeth Eaton, Bradford Hill

Contributors

Renée Bidegain, Martha Burgess, Francisco Cantú, Dena Cowan, Renée Downing, Emily Gindlesparger, Sara Jones, Molly Kincaid, Anna Mirocha, Lisa O’Neill, Mary Paganelli, Molly Patrick, Linda Ray, Kati Standefer, Bill Steen, Haile Thomas, Suzanne Wright

Photographers & Artists

Jackie Alpers, Dominic AZ Bonuccelli, Michael Falconer, Liora K, Danny Martin, Steven Meckler, Molly Patrick, Bridget Shanahan, Jeff Smith, Bill Steen, Grace Stufkosky

On the cover: Barrio Bread’s Heritage Grain Bread, branded with the Arizona flag. Photo by Steven Meckler.

Above: Mature White Sonora wheat seedhead.

Photo by Martha Burgess.

Distribution

Carson Davenport, Royce Davenport, Mel Meijas, Shiloh Thread-Waist Walkosak, Steve & Anne Bell Anderson

We’d love to hear from you.

307 S. Convent Ave., Barrio Viejo Tucson, Arizona 85701 520.373.5196 info@edibleBajaArizona.com EdibleBajaArizona.com

Say hello on social media

V olume 2, I ssue 5.

Edible Baja Arizona (ISSN 2374-345X) is published six times annually

by Coyote Talking, LLC. Subscriptions are available for $36 annually by phone or at EdibleBajaArizona.com. Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used without the express written permission of the Publisher. Member of the Association of Edible Publishers (AEP).

facebook.com/EdibleBajaArizona twitter.com/EdibleBajaAZ flickr.com/ediblebajaarizona instagram.com/ediblebajaaz pinterest.com/edibleba

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VOICES

What makes your tortillas the best in town?

Photography by Dominic AZ Bonuccelli

Alejandro’s Tortilla Factory 5330 S. 12th Ave.

We’ve been open since 1980.

We’ve kept the recipe the same as much as we can. The production through the years has been growing, so we’ve made some changes, but we try to keep it as close to the homemade recipe.

I think it has to do with the environment, the place where you’re at, the water where you’re at, the flour you buy—it all makes a big difference on your recipe. We service all major grocery stores, and we also do a lot of restaurants. Hopefully, we’re going to start selling our all-natural, no-preservative tortillas in stores. We cook our tortillas in ovens. It’s nice to make your tortillas by hand, it’s a good tortilla, but you can only make so many that way.

— Ricardo Cazares

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We've been in business 30 years. It’s family owned—I'm the grandson here. We still cook and stretch our tortillas by hand. We do it over an open fire, with fresh ingredients—no preservatives, no lard. They’re very thin, so you're not getting too much tortilla—the ratio is perfect with foods.

Made fresh daily, that's definitely the upper hand.

People can come in and get a tortilla that's fresh off the stove.

— Omar Verdugo

Anita Street Market 849 N. Anita Ave.

We've been here for two years—we started by selling out of our house. Our tortillas are different than everyone else's because we use all natural ingredients. We don't use preservatives. We don't use butter; we use oils. We try to make everything all natural.

We wanted to make a healthier tortilla. Our family had a problem with one of our kids; the preservatives were making him sick. We realized it and we said, “We should do something about this, to help other people learn how to eat healthy.” It seems like it's working.

— Francisco Moreno

La Tauna Tortillas 5650 S. 12th Ave.

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We’ve been open since 1968. My grandmother and grandfather came here from a small town in Sonora called La Mesa.

We still make our tortillas by hand. The only thing that isn’t done by hand is the actual mixing, but up until 1983, my father was mixing it by hand.

He was up early, taking 100 pound sacks of flour to mix the masa for my mom. They are a different consistency when you make them by hand. They’re not pressed; they’re stretched, which changes the consistency of the tortilla. They won’t tear as easily. We cook them on a 350-degree open grill—we’re placing the tortilla on the grill by hand, flipping it by hand, and removing it by hand.

That’s the old way.

— Luis A. Salazar

St. Mary’s Mexican Food 1030 W. St. Mary’s Road

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Our tortillas are the best because they're handmade.

We make them fresh every day. We use vegetable oil instead of lard, because we cater to vegetarians, too.

We don't use preservatives.

They are 100 percent how your grandmother used to make them. These are big tortillas. We make extralarge burritos. They are thin but they don't break. I have a tortilla every day with butter and beans—they’re so good.

— Diva Gutierrez

Tania’s 33 Flour Tortillas and Mexican Food 2856 W. Drexel Road

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gleanings

Adela Durazo—a.k.a. The Salsa Lady—found her niche at Tucson’s many farmers’ markets.

Un Poco Loco

Don’t come without the salsa.

By Shelley Littin | Photography by Liora K

F

or years ,

whenever Adela Durazo and her family traveled, she brought a jar of homemade salsa as a gift for their host. A native Tucsonan, Durazo had managed her father’s architectural business for 26 years—but her passion was always salsa.

“People would say: ‘Don’t come without the salsa!’” Durazo said, laughing. “I thought: I may have something here.”

Taking a life-changing leap, Durazo started her Poco Loco Specialty Salsas, crafted with love and the desire to improve peoples’ diets, health, and nutrition awareness. “I want people to eat something that isn’t processed, is chemical and pesticide-free, and organic,” she said.

Durazo found her niche among Tucson’s abundant, varied, flavorful, and lively farmers’ markets. “I realized that I was now involved with a food movement, an educational venue for people to learn to eat better,” she said. “I’m so proud to be a part of this major food movement.”

Durazo has expanded her products to include crab and shrimp dip, guacamole, and other items. Her fruity and spicy salsas have three levels of heat, not unlike Tucson, she said. “They are mild, hot, and stupid hot. I use ten different chilis for the last one.”

While she’s delighted to share her salsa and chat about cooking, no customer has yet managed to wangle a recipe out of Durazo. “I won’t reveal anything, unless someone has an allergy,” she said. “I have one customer who has asked for my recipe for years. I finally told him: ‘When you have five million dollars,

I’ll give you this recipe.’ He says one day he’ll come with that check,” she said, laughing. “We’re still waiting for that day.”

For now, the ingredients in Durazo’s salsa, and other products, remain secret.

And after 19 years selling her salsas, Durazo has still managed to stay small. “It was important to me to do this by myself.

When I had the opportunity to grow bigger I knew that’s not what I wanted to do. It would take me away from the customer.”

Interacting with her customers is essential for Durazo. “I want people to meet me, the producer. I want to hear their comments, what they are eating, and talk about how to eat better.”

Over time, Durazo has watched her customers raise children into adults. “The kids grow up and bring their own families to the farmers’ market, learn how to eat well, and know me,” she said. “It’s why I do what I do. I can’t tell you the good things it does for my heart.”

Otherwise, Durazo said, “You gotta be crazy to do this. It takes a lot of work, discipline, and sacrifice to give up weekends and weekdays.”

You’ve got to be un poco loco, she said.

Find Durazo at the Trail Dust Town Farmers’ Market, Fridays 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.; the Oro Valley Farmers’ Market, Saturdays 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.; and Rillito Park, Sundays 8 a.m. – noon (She won’t come without the salsa.)

Facebook.com/DurazosPocoLocoSalsa

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Esperanza Arevalo started making mesquite tortillas at the suggestion of Gary Nabhan; now, it’s the core of her business.

Unique Mesquite

Tortilleria Arevalo knows the art of the mesquite tortilla.

By Shelley Littin | Photography by Liora K

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oday , Esperanza Arevalo sells popular mesquite tortillas to a devoted clientele at farmers’ markets throughout Tucson. But she started at the corner of Ajo Way and Highway 85, standing alongside her father under the Tucson sun.

“It was just after 9/11,” Arevalo said. “When I lost my job, and my dad and I started selling tortillas.” They made flour tortillas in those days, until one day a University of Arizona ethnobiologist, Gary Nabhan, came to their table with a life-changing question. “He stopped to buy flour tortillas,” said Arevalo. “And he asked us if we could make him some mesquite tortillas. My dad said ‘We’ll try and see what we can do.’”

“Mesquite is very unique,” she continued. “It’s native to this region, and we have lost touch with so many native things.

People have tried to make tortillas from mesquite flour, but it’s so hard, and they have often forgotten the formula.” Arevalo’s father, Javier, invented a mesquite recipe, and the family started making tortillas for Nabhan. “It just took off,” she said. Her father founded Tortilleria Arevalo, which specializes in mesquite tortillas. They use mesquite flour from Peru because it’s smoother than wild Sonoran mesquite.

“We mix in wheat flour and olive oil. It’s high-protein and high-fiber—great for people who are diabetic,” said Arevalo.

She also makes a gluten-free mesquite tortilla, as well as two different kinds of mesquite cookies. “The gluten-free, chocolate chip walnut cookies are best,” she said. Arevalo’s favorite

mesquite meal is a tostada with mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, avocados, and salt and pepper.

“It’s an art, to make a mesquite tortilla,” Arevalo said. “If you don’t feel like making them, they don’t come out right. The mesquite flour is gooey, and you have to put in just the right amount of oil. It has to be just perfect.” The tortillas change with the weather, too, she said. “If it’s very moist, or very cold, you’re going to be in trouble making them. It’s funny, but it’s true.”

Since her father developed cancer, Arevalo runs her family’s business with help of friends and family. “My dad, my mom, and I used to work long hours. Now that I have help it’s not as heavy.” She still makes mesquite tortillas for Nabhan. “He is a very nice man and a good friend.”

Arevalo awakens at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning to begin baking. It takes her about five hours to prepare 40 packages of mesquite tortillas in the commercial kitchen she uses in Three Points, “in the middle of nowhere!” she said, laughing. “I have a window there, and the beautiful rising sun,” she said. “It makes everything good for the market.”

You can find Tortilleria Arevalo at Trail Dust Town Farmers’ Market, Fridays 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.; Oro Valley Farmers’ Market, Saturday 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., and Rillito Park, Sundays 8 a.m. – noon. Arevalo’s tortillas are also for sale at New Life Health Center, with two locations on Speedway Boulevard and Broadway Boulevard, and Aqua Vita at Country Club and Glenn.

TortilleriaArevalo.com

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Rusty Truck co-owner Jake Walker started making barbecue for friends when he was in high school.

Smoke and Rust

Rusty Truck Barbecue offers smoked meats with a Southwestern flare.

By Shelley Littin | Photography by Steve McMackin

T

heir venue : Tucson meat-lovers. Their vehicle: an old rusty truck. Their business: barbecue.

With their Rusty Truck Barbecue food truck, Jake and Amy Walker are making a splash—or rather, a plume— throughout the Tucson community, bringing their popular home-bottled barbecue sauces, meat-flavoring knowledge, and old rusty smoker to home gatherings, tailgate parties, and any place where folks love food with a fiery flavor.

From high school, barbecue was just something Jake Walker always did. “I cooked for friends and for parties,” he said. (Jake owned a barbecue restaurant while in college). “I especially enjoyed smoking meats and sauces. People asked me to cook, and I enjoyed doing it.”

Jake met Amy, a Tucson native, while in college in Kansas.

Six years ago the husband-and-wife team relocated to the Southwest with their skill with barbecue sauces and their passion for sharing good fun and smoked food.

The couple now offers two types of catering. They will smoke meats and deliver finished goods, or offer their more popular option: “We drive the smoker to the house or party location and cook and serve on site. People really enjoy that because they can see how it’s done and ask questions,” Walker said. The Walkers love interacting with their clients, encouraging experimentation and sharing ideas.

But their smoker? “It’s a big, rusted water tank we found,” Walker said.

Walker built the smoker so that they could pull it behind their truck, primarily for tailgate season. The old water tank

billowing crispy-scented clouds across the University of Arizona mall captured attention and soon became iconic, inspiring the Walkers’ brand.

And whether because of the skill of the two chefs, flavorful foods, community-based nature of the endeavor, or sheer innovation and inherent character of the old smoker, Rusty Truck Barbecue exploded in popularity. Their hats and T-shirts sell almost as well as the barbecue sauces, Walker said.

The pair gathers with friends and fans of the rusted smoker— known collectively as “rusty truckers” —for what they call Rusty Truck Jam Sessions. “Everybody will bring meats, apple pies, fish, mac and cheese, all kinds of things. We’ve smoked brownies, cookies, anything you can imagine. Some are huge successes and some are failures,” Walker said. “The successes we take on to our catering events. The failures we just pretend didn’t happen.”

“We’re always experimenting with flavors, meats, and recipes to try to create the barbecue of the Southwest,” Walker said. “Looking for that Southwest flare.”

Their favorite aspect of Tucson? “Gotta be the weather,” Walker said. “At the end of the day, you can’t beat the weather for outdoor cooking.”

Keep an eye out for their soon-to-be-launched website—and look for the plume of sweet-smelling smoke, emanating from the rusty truck into the Southwest skies. ✜ Facebook.com/RustyTruckBBQ Shelley Littin is a science journalist and anthropologist. She spends her free time running unreasonable distances in beautiful places.

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Breakfast • Lunch Bakery • Friday Dinner

HEN I MOVED to Tucson, I was obsessed with getting across the border and into Sonora. Every little bit of extra time and money I had went to getting myself to the place where the tropics and the desert intermingle—which for a young, budding botanist, was the very definition of heaven. It was where I had my first real taco and my first sip of bacanora.

My life these days is focused on another obsession—the place I live. Because I spent so much time learning about Sonora, I didn’t spend much time in my own state. This is something I am making up for these days, as my job takes me all over Tucson and Arizona. I am learning what an incredible place my home is.

My obsession with eating is about more than just food.

Let’s face it. A chimichanga might have a few forms. But it’s basically a chimichanga. It is the associated culture—the people, the landscape, and the shared moment—that make eating around Baja Arizona so much fun.

Downtown Tucson

During Tucson’s first jazz festival in January, I finally got the chance to have dinner at Caffe Milano (46 W. Congress St.). Tucked in a small but hopping downtown location, the restaurant is run by the Italian owners who purchased the restaurant a couple of years ago, and they still work in the hustle and bustle every night. I respect owners who work in the trenches.

Carbonara

French Caffe & Bistro 1803 E. Prince at Campbell | www.ghiniscafe.com | 326.9095 Friday Night Bistro, 3-9pm • Friday Happy Hour, 4-7pm $3 House Made Cocktails • $5 Amazing Appetizers

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Katy, my girlfriend, had been to Italy just a few months earlier, and guided me toward the carbonara. What a perfect food: pasta with bacon, cheese, eggs, and black pepper.

Washing that down with a glass of Umberto Cesari MOMA Rosso I thought: If I died right now, it’d be just fine. And to think we followed that up with some authentic jazz music? Is this Tucson?

Proper (300 E. Congress St.) has been offering something special on the first Monday night of every month. You can find them the day before, combing the booths at Heirloom Farmers’ Market at Rillito Park.

Market Monday is their attempt to serve a restaurant dinner with as much food sourced locally as possible. Reservations are only $35 Braised Chuck, for a three-course meal. The night Potatoes & Greens we went, we started with roasted baby beets with cotija, red quinoa, aged balsamic, and smoked maldon salt. That was followed by braised Walking J Ranch chuck with whipped Yukon potatoes, sautéed greens, broccolini, and rosemary jus. We finished off with honey panna cotta topped with a cookie flavored with Maya Tea black tea. The restaurant was packed; some of the patrons were those people who produced the food on the menu. This happens once a month and I hope Proper keeps this community-building event going.

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Benson is exactly the distance from Tucson where I need to stop and eat. From the freeway one might think that all Benson has to offer is Walmart and Circle K. But there are some great little places tucked in that town. And sometimes when you are on the road, all you really want is a simple hot dog. Wild Dogs (705 W. Fourth St.) is not a pretentious place. They just make great dogs. One afternoon on our way to Bisbee, we devoured a Reuben dog, a slaw dog, and some garlic fries. The food came fast and disappeared fast, and on the road, this simple offering makes you wonder why anyone would ever stop at a Circle K for anything besides gas. As an aside, they almost always have old movies playing on the television in the dining room—if you are going to only watch a minute of a movie, it might as well be one you’ve seen.

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Slaw Dog & Reuben Dog

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South of Tucson I have to admit; until very recently I thought South Tucson included a lot more than the 1.2 square miles it actually occupies (it is completely surrounded by the city of Tucson). For example, I thought Perfecto’s Mexican Restaurant (5404 S. 12th Ave.) was within the “Pueblo within a City.” Indeed it is not. But city lines aren’t going to alter the esteem I have for this part of the Hispanic corridor of Tucson, populated by carnicerias, restaurants, and shops that make you think you might be in Nogales, Sonora.

I made my way down to Perfecto’s for lunch recently—I had shrimp ceviche tostada, a birria chimichanga, and posole.

It is one of many small, famiCeviche Tostada ly-run businesses in the region.

If you are looking for new lunch options, add just a few more minutes to your travel time and explore south.

On the corner of 4th ave. & 9th st.

520.222.9889 • www.cafecoronet.com

In My Home I love to enjoy the food of Baja Arizona in my own kitchen, assembled from ingredients I have procured from wandering about. One of my recent favorites was a tostada we made from corn tortillas from Anita Street Market, bratwurst from The Jojoba Beef Company in Kearny, beans from Arevalos Farm in McNeal, paprika queso fresco from Chiva Risa in Hereford, tomatoes from Sunizona Family Farms, and of course our own chicken eggs. If you think that is a lot of miles between ingredients, it pales to the number of miles that all those same ingredients would add up to from a normal grocery store. And I love it that I know all those people who provided those ingredients. ✜

MESQUITE-SMOKED SINGLE MALT - CL ASSIC UNSMOKED - MESQUITE-SMOKED CLEAR

Jared McKinley is the associate publisher of Edible Baja Arizona.

HAMILTON DISTILLERS HANDCRAFTED IN THE SONORAN DESERT www.hamiltondistillers.com

Locally-Sourced Breakfast

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Vegan Gluten Free Cooking Classes Non GMO Gluten Free Menu Catering 20~100 People Weekly Meal Program Evening Dining

Modern Vegetarian Cuisine Evening Dining BYOB Catering Cooking Classes Weekly Meal Program

Tue~Sat 5~9 | Reservations 520 250 9600 722 N Stone Avenue | Park free at rear entrance www.thetastefulkitchen.com

BOCA !

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3Gourmet Tacos 4 !"#$ !$%%& Fresh salsas by the jar Exotic Taco Wednesday 828 E. Speedway Blvd (520) 777-8134 24 March - April 2015

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1

2

The Plate Plate the

4

3

That one thing they should never take off the menu.

1234 Photography by Michael Falconer

Birria Tacos Taqueria Pico de Gallo The meat is slow-cooked, the torillas are thick, and the tacos are hot. It’s the perfect grab and go snack for Tucson. Don’t miss the chile-dusted fruit spears, either. $1.25 2618 S. 6th Ave.

Portobello Sandwich Time Market The bread is baked fresh daily, the arugula is crisp; the Portobello, perfectly cooked.

Oh, and the mayo is amazing.

Call it your perfect Wednesday night comfort food. $8.99 444 E. University Blvd.

Kale Salad Falora This is the kale salad to end all kale salads. The green curly kale comes massaged with extra virgin olive oil and a secret cashew dressing; Kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, and sun dried tomatoes top it off. , $9.50 3000 E. Broadway Blvd.

Green Eggs and Ham Café a la C’arte You won’t be able to recite Dr. Suess after this one. Over medium eggs, plus pesto, feta cheese, Black Forest ham, oven cured tomatoes, sandwiched between ciabatta bread. $9.00 150 N. Main Ave.

edible

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a tradition of inspiring excellence

f OR OVER 30 YEARS, The Gregory School has provided an unparalleled educational experience that goes beyond strong academics. The school creates a supportive community where pursuing individual passion is encouraged and a love for learning is fostered. Our students graduate with the confidence to succeed in college and beyond.

Please Call for a tour. (520) 327-6395

Formerly St. Gregory College Preparatory School 3231 N. Craycroft Road, Tucson, Arizona www.GregorySchool.org

28 March - April 2015

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KIDS’ MENU

Haile’s Healthy Swaps

by Haile Thomas | Photography by Jackie Alpers

I

TRY TO EAT foods that nourish my body and help sustain good health, so I’ve decided to do my best to limit fried foods, as well as nutrient-deficient white rice and potatoes, when possible. But I still had to find a way to satisfy my occasional cravings for crispy, crunchy, creamy, and just plain decadent food items. These three swaps are some of my top favorites!

For something crunchy and with an Asian flair, my Vietnamese Veggie Wraps with Ginger Tamari Sauce are a great swap for fried egg rolls. These can be customized with your favorite fresh crisp ingredients, which will offer more nutritional value than overcooked vegetables, unhealthy fats, and grease. The sauce pulls it all together with delicious Asian flavors.

My Cauliflower Tabouli is a fantastic swap for those who enjoy the traditional flavors of Tabouli, but need a gluten-free option; it’s also a delicious and nutritious option that can be

served for either lunch or dinner in place of rice or potatoes. It’s super easy to prepare, and I promise it’s yummy, too.

To satisfy my cravings for something creamy, or to take a break from typically processed lunchmeat sandwiches, consider my Chickpea & the Sea Sandwich. It’s especially a fantastic swap for typical tuna fish sandwiches. My star ingredient chickpea (or garbanzo bean) is rich in dietary fiber, a good source of protein, high in iron, and energy-producing manganese. So it packs a powerfully nutritious punch, and mixed with the other ingredients in this recipe, it’s also super yummy! And, if you just really love the taste of tuna, the added (and very nutritious) seaweed seasoning has you covered.

I hope you enjoy these healthy swaps, and as always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Subscribe to my Teen Vegan YouTube channel for more recipes. ✜

Cauliflower Tabouli Dressing: ¼ cup grape seed oil juice of 1 lemon 1½ teaspoons cumin 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon of Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute 1½ teaspoons salt 2 tablespoons rice vinegar

Tabouli: 4 cups cauliflower, chopped 1½ cups finely chopped parsley ¼ cup mint 2 cups chopped cucumber 2-3 cups cherry tomatoes, diced 1 cup finely diced red onions

Mix together all dressing ingredients until well incorporated. Set aside. Incorporate all tabouli ingredients and mix with dressing. Allow the tabouli to sit for at least 10 minutes to absorb the flavors in the dressing before serving. Enjoy!

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Chickpea & the Sea Sandwich Ingredients: 2 cans chickpeas, drained & rinsed ¼ cup chopped red onion ¼ cup diced celery ¼ cup vegan mayo (I use “Just Mayo,” sold at Whole Foods) 2 tablespoons gourmet seaweed seasoning (mine is the “Selina Naturally” brand) bread of your choice butter lettuce optional: avocado and tomato Instructions:

Chop onions and celery. Mash chickpeas, and then add the onions, celery, seaweed blend, and mayo. Mix well, and build your sandwich.

Vietnamese Veggie Spring Roll Wraps with Ginger Tamari Sauce Ingredients: 1 cup sliced cucumbers ½ cup sliced bell peppers (I had green on hand, but use any color you like) ¼ cup sliced radishes ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro 3 stalks scallions, chopped ½ cup shredded carrots ½ cup white and purple peacock kale (or regular kale or cabbage), julienne 1 tablespoon grated ginger ¼-½ cup Tamari ¾ teaspoon grated garlic 6” Vietnamese Roll rice wrappers

Mix Tamari, ginger, garlic, and your favorite spice blend — I used Rub with Love’s Spicy Tokyo Rub. Prepare all your veggies. Prepare rice wrappers according to package instructions. Fill wrappers, roll up, dip in sauces, and enjoy.

Haile Thomas is an eighth grader at The Gregory School, a motivational speaker, young chef, and the founder of the HAPPY Organization. Follow along at YouTube.com/user/ haileteenvegan.

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New & Used Bikes Repairs & Custom Design

311 E. 7th St. 520.622.6487 OrdinaryBikeShop.com

Photography by Jade Beall | www. jadebeall.com

yogaoasis.com

stretch away

stress

Beth Daunis in Warrior 3

downtown | central | east

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[E DIBLE H OMESTEAD ]

For the Sake of Refuge and Joy

By Jared R. McKinley | Illustrations by Danny Martin

“As for marigolds, poppies, hollyhocks, and valorous sunflowers, we shall never have a garden without them, both for their own sake, and for the sake of old-fashioned folks who used to love them.”

— Ward Beecher

Sunflower in full bloom Helianthus annuus

A

n early memory of mine involves tramping around

a neighbor’s garden. I used to have poor boundaries as a kid, at least when it came to property lines. But the gardener on the block was growing sunflowers, the really tall kind. And I found myself nestling in their dappled light shelter on balmy spring days. Even today when I encounter a large row of tall sunflowers, my inclination is to take refuge beneath their nodding heads.

I have mentioned before the benefits of the tidy cool-season garden. There’s predictability of space usage and

production volume is high, given that almost the entire plant of most cool-season crops is edible. But this point misses what I consider an important and vastly overlooked value to the sprawling, towering nature of warm season crops, which has no real measured economic value. It is a quality that children instinctively understand—or it is an instinct that they don’t squelch. I still have this instinct and, on occasion, I indulge.

Go plant some gigantic sunflowers. Because they are awesome. They also make great climbing structures for beans, so plant those too. It’s spring—it’s time.

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[E.H.]

Russian black-seeded sunflower in seed Helianthus annuus

WHAT TO PLANT? EVERYTHING. SORT OF.

I

always get drunk with enthusiasm at this time of year. The garden looks its best and you can plant almost anything. You’ll probably want to plant the warm season stuff right now. But perhaps you didn’t get a chance to plant arugula or carrots yet. Well, there is time. But pay attention to seasonality when selecting cool or warm season crops. For greens, root vegetables, and winter herbs like cilantro, dill, and parsley, you really want to select shorter season varieties now. If you look at seed packets, you will see something like “60 days” in the text. What that generally means is that it takes about 60 days from seed to harvest. For cool season crops, May is about as long as you’ve got. So if you still have 60 days between now and then, you can generally plant that crop.

You can also look for monikers like “slow bolting” and “heat tolerant.” These two terms generally mean that the

plant will be slow to let the heat inspire it to go to seed (which for your greens and herbs and root crops is the end of the line).

The good news is, if you are sick of root vegetables and greens, you can start tomatoes, peppers, and lovely delicious basil. And paying attention to how many days it takes a plant to go from seed to harvest is also important for warm season crops. The main difference is that it is often the fruit (and not the leaves or plant) that you are harvesting, so the duration listed is about how long it’ll be before you get your first fruits. Some crops come from the tropics and require many months before you can harvest that first fruit. Make sure you have enough time between now and the first frost before that first fruit appears—and hopefully another month or so to give you time for more harvests.

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[E.H.]

Chiltepin Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum

E

Refresh the Soil, Organically ven though our winter has not been very cold, the

soil is somewhat less active during that time. As that cool earth wakes up, it is going to be hungry. It is time to feed your soil. If you have been reading this column for some time, then you will know I only encourage organic methods of raising food. Therefore it is time to be making or purchasing compost and aged manure and working it into the soil. If you are switching out crops, this is a good time to dig things up and work that organic material into the soil.

If you have growing plants that you don’t want to disturb, work the organic material in around them and consider using a water-soluble organic fertilizer like kelp powder.

With organic gardening, you aren’t really feeding plants.

You are keeping the microbes in the soil fed and happy. The results of happy, well-fed microbes in your garden soil are nutrients for your plants. As microbes eat, poop, procreate, and die they yield just about everything a plant needs. And this is why I am so adamant about not cheating by using a synthetic fertilizer: synthetic fertilizers (and also pesticides) actually do the opposite. They kill microbes.

Microbes cannot tolerate the heavy salts in fertilizers— they become dehydrated and die. Your plant might get a chance to soak up some of the nutrients in water-soluble synthetic fertilizers before they either wash into the water supply, or collect in extremely unhealthy concentrations just below the root zone of your plants forming a dead, salty zone. But it is something akin to drinking soda pop: a quick dose of energy before and nothing left afterward. Organic soil foods and compost make a soil alive and healthy because they work with the cycles of nature and feed the plant steadily. The point is, you can’t force-feed the soil. And you cannot ignore the microbes.

Tomatillo Physalis ixocarpa

FREE G ARDENING CLASSES at Green Things Nursery with Jared R. McKinley 3235 E. Allen Road

March 7, 10 a.m.

How to manage organic garden soil.

March 21, 10 a.m.

Experimenting with heirlooms.

April 4, 10 a.m.

Learning the edible growing seasons.

Call for more information: 520.299.9471

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[E.H.] C ROP FEATURES Tohono O’odham “Ha:l” Squash (Cucurbita argyrosperma)

A

common misconception

is that a “winter squash” is one that you plant in winter. The fact is that no squash should be planted in the winter. The term winter squash is used to designate types of squash that store well, providing you with fruit into the winter. We’ve written before about Tohono O’odham Ha:l squash—an amazing variety, delicious and rare in that it is a winter squash, but can also be used as a “summer squash.”

That is, the young, immature fruits are picked and used much like a zucchini. Plants are tough, heat tolerant, and fairly quick to mature. Seeds can be obtained from Native Seeds/SEARCH (NativeSeeds.org).

Mexican Sour Gherkin (Melothria scabra) I like this plant—not only it is a great edible for the garden, but it also looks cool. An old heirloom that has experienced a resurgence in popularity, Mexican sour gherkins look like tiny watermelons (in Mexico they are called sandíita which translates to little watermelon).

They are delicious eaten raw, cooked, or pickled.

Plants are highly productive, vigorous, vining plants so give them some place to attach and grow, like a fence. Mulching or shading roots will keep them healthy when the heat picks up. Seeds available from Territorial Seeds (TerritorialSeed.com) or Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (RareSeeds.com). ✜ Jared R. McKinley is the associate publisher of Edible Baja Arizona.

PLANT NOW Cool Season: Shorter season or slow bolting greens, root crops, and cool-season herbs like cilantro, parsley, chervil, and dill.

Warm Season: Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, tomatillo, beans, basil, sunflower, potato, artichoke and cardoon, Jerusalem artichoke, chichiquelite, winter and summer squash, luffa, melon, pumpkin, amaranth, cucumber, gourd, sorghum, sesame, devil’s claw, cotton, horseradish, epazote, burdock, Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, roselle, sweet potato.

Perennial Herbs & Fruit Trees: You can plant most types of perennial plants now.

Oregano, marjoram, lemon grass, thyme, tarragon, asparagus, mints, sage, citrus, stone fruits, grapes, fig, quince.

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THOUGHTFUL DESIGN FOR THE DESERT DR. ANDREW WEIL RESIDENCE

Rob Paulus Architects www.robpaulus.com

Why Choose ARBICO Organics™?

• Beneficial Insects & Nematodes • Natural Insecticides • Tools • Seed Care & Propagation • Fertilizers & Amendments • Weed, Disease & Animal/Bird Control

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Pests are our expertise.

We specialize in fertilityespecially caliche and alkaline soils!

Our full line of products will help you prevent and control pests of all types.

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Our consultations are always FREE. Your phone call is always answered by a live specialist during business hours.

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Providing Organic Solutions for Growers since 1979

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[E.H.]

The Coop Scoop

By Renée Bidegain | Illustrations by Danny Martin

H

aving grown up rural, I can’t remember a time without poultry. The soft peep-peep of hatchlings coming from the brooder box in our mudroom and the watchdog call of buck-wheat, buck-wheat; put-rock, put-rock from my father’s flock of guineas are what started me down what some might say a fowl path. My first show hen, CC, a silver-laced Sebright Banty, let me paint her toenails, and I was hooked. Being a poultry fanatic, I often have friends, family, and community members ask me: What is the best breed of chicken? With hundreds of breeds and varieties to choose from, there is no wrong answer, but these five breeds will not disappoint. ✜

Renée and her husband, Aaron, are “do-it-yourself” homeowners in Armory Park. Contact her at reneebidegain@gmail.com.

AMERAUCANA This relatively new breed has a long heritage.

It was first admitted to the American Poultry Association in 1984 and comes from the unique Araucana breed, which was developed in Chile in the early 1900s, and also comes from the Collonca and the Quetero, which some say were pre-Columbian chickens. These hens lay beautifully colored eggs that range from blue to turquoise to deep olive to pink. Their feathers can also vary in color, but they always have muffs and pea combs.

A hit with families, it is hard to deny the joy of having such a range of color each morning in your nest box.

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BLUE

ANDALUSIAN These graceful, hardy, talkative, robust birds hail from Spain. Hens produce large white eggs and they enjoy the great outdoors.

Their blue-gray feathers remind me of velvet; if you decide to breed them, their offspring will be blue, black, and splash colored. Breed two blacks or two splash and you will get 100 percent blue!

ANCONA If you live outside the city limits, then this Mediterranean white egg layer might be a great breed for you. The dark feather pattern with white speckling on the tips creates a natural camouflage; its observant temperament alerts the rest of the flock when birds of prey pose a threat. They are good foragers, making them a great addition to any country flock, and rarely sit on a clutch of eggs.

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[E.H.] NAKED NECK (TURKEN) My brother-in-law Luke swears that these chickens have the best personality; perhaps it is to make up for their odd appearance.

One urban legend is that they are half turkey, half chicken, but really these birds just have 40-50 percent less feathers than other breeds. With fewer feathers, they need less protein to thrive; fewer feathers also means less plucking.

Hens lay large brown eggs and do very well in the heat; why not add a few of these strange, friendly, multipurpose birds to your coop?

BLACK AUSTRALORP Iridescent in our Arizona sunshine, these black beauties come from Australia and won’t disappoint. If you are looking for a dual-purpose bird for egg and meat production that does well in the heat, then this docile, fluffy large English breed will do the trick. Their pinkish white skin is pleasant to look at on the dinner table, and they are excellent producers of light brown eggs.

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[E.H.]

Kitchen 101

Text and photography by Molly Patrick

ASPARAGUS THREE WAYS

A

sparagus is a sure sign that spring is right around the

corner. The muted color of root veggies is replaced with bunches of bright green asparagus that you can’t help but notice. You have no idea what you will do with them, but you pick up a few bunches because you want that color in your fridge. Here are three simple ways to prepare one of spring’s most vibrant veggies.

Minty Asparagus Spinach Salad with Toasted Walnuts

Eating raw asparagus is one of the best ways to eat it. You just have to do it right. Take a half of a bunch of asparagus and peel it into thin strips with a vegetable peeler. Place some fresh spinach in a large salad bowl and top it with radish rounds, chopped mint, and the asparagus strips. Drizzle olive oil and lemon juice over the salad and top with toasted walnuts and salt and pepper.

Asparagus Soup with Leeks You won’t believe how easy this is. And when the first taste of velvety soup reaches your tongue, you will be hooked, making this a spring staple for years to come.

Take 1 large bunch of asparagus and cut an inch from the ends. Cut the remaining asparagus into thirds. Chop the bottom white portions of two leeks into thin rounds, making sure to clean any dirt in between the layers. Heat some olive oil in a soup pot and sauté the leeks, a few cloves of chopped garlic, and some lemon zest for several minutes. Add the asparagus and 3 cups of veggie broth and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Allow the soup to cool for 15 minutes—unless using an immersion blender—and then blend it until creamy and smooth.

(If you try to blend the soup before it cools, the pressure from the heat will make a soup explosion from the top of your blender.) Serve with lots of cracked pepper on top.

Roasted Balsamic Asparagus Few things are easier in the kitchen than this. Take 1 bunch of asparagus and lay it flat on a baking dish. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, chopped garlic, and a touch of sea salt, and pour it over the asparagus. Top with a few generous turns of cracked black pepper and bake it at 350° for 15 minutes. This is the perfect side for any spring brunch.

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Arid Lands Greenhouses

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Conservation through Cultivation Mention this ad, get 10% off any purchase at our nursery

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We offer one of the largest selections of succulent plants and cacti in the world, including Adenium, Euphorbia, Pachypodium, Haworthia, Aloe, mesembs, Agave, Hoodia, pachycaul trees, geophytes, and bulbs.

www.aridlands.com 520-883-9404, 520-883-8874 fax

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E ASY BEAN COOKING G UIDE

T

here are lots of benefits to cooking your own

beans. Freshly cooked beans have a better taste and texture; they’re cheaper to buy; and often they’re easier to digest. Also, many canned bean manufacturers use BPA (bisphenol A) lining in their cans.

There are a few basic steps before you get to cooking.

Most beans are easier to digest and cook faster if you soak them in water for at least eight hours. The beans will expand up to three times in size as they soak, so make sure you cover them with plenty of water. After eight hours, drain the water from the beans and rinse well.

Add the beans to a large pot and add enough water to cover them by at least a few inches. Bring them to a boil, turn down the heat, and bring to a hard simmer. Cook the beans until they are totally soft. Place a lid over the pot at an angle so the water doesn’t evaporate as fast. If the water evaporates before they are soft, add more water. You can also add kombu or kelp to your beans as they are cooking. This will add minerals and make them even easier to digest. Do not add salt or any acidic ingredient, which will make the beans harder to cook and digest.

Here are the cooking times for some of the most common beans.

Need Soaking?

Cooking Time

Anasazi Beans

Yes

1½ hours

Tepary Bean

Yes

1½ hours

Black-Eyed Peas

Yes

1 hour

Black Beans

Yes

1-1½ hours

Garbanzo Beans

Yes

1½-2 hours

Lentils

No

30-45 minutes

Pinto Beans

Yes

1½-2 hours

Split Peas

No

30-50 minutes

Store cooked beans in your fridge for up to four days, or freeze them so you always have some on hand.

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T

HOW TO S TORE PRODUCE

ossing out produce because you didn’t eat it in time is the worst. With these simple tweaks, your produce will stay fresh and yummy until you get to it. No tossing out required.

Greens: The most important thing to remember when

storing greens is that they should not be damp or wet when being stored. If there is moisture on the greens, they will become slimy within a day or two of bringing them home.

When you first bring your greens home, soak them in a bowl of water and hydrate for 5-10 minutes. Take them out of the water and spin them in a salad spinner until they are dry.

Place them in a plastic bag and make sure there is a little air in the bag and then tie the bag closed. Alternatively, you can store them in plastic or glass containers; put them front and center in your fridge so you don’t forget about them.

Fruits: Store lemons and other citrus on a counter out of direct sunlight to give them the most shelf life. Take strawberries out of the package and place them on a paper towel in a container with a lid. Only when you’re ready to eat them should they be washed. If you store them after you wash them, the bottom berries will become mushy and slimy because of the moisture.

Asparagus: Cut an inch off from the bottom, place a rubber band around the bunch, and set them in a container in an inch or two of water. Place a plastic bag loosely around the asparagus and tuck it under the container. Place in the fridge.

Carrots: Cut the greens off from the top of the carrots.

Place the carrots in plastic and store in the fridge. Wash just before eating.

Celery: Place the root end of the celery in a dry paper towel and place the celery in a plastic bag. ✜ Molly Patrick blogs at CleanFoodDirtyGirl.com. She received a certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies.

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[E.H.]

Farm Report W HAT’S IN SEASON IN BAJA ARIZONA

By Sara Jones | Photography by Liora K

S

pring in the desert is to bud and bloom, farmers have usually a fleeting season to be vigilant about protecting between winter and summer. them from freezing temperatures.

Frosty nights can quickly turn into Luckily, there are a few options that hot days. Swings in temperature are farmers can use, the simplest being hard on plants, so farmers spend either ground or aerial sprinklers. lots of energy protecting crops Most orchards are also equipped during this season. with large wind machines that keep Sensitive crops that prefer mild, colder air from settling around moderate weather have a short trees. Combined with strategically season here. When vegetables like located heaters, this method can be snow peas, asparagus, spring onions, very effective. But it still requires fennel, cauliflower, and cabbage monitoring until the danger is show up at the market, be grateful passed and that can mean many a and appreciate them while they last. sleepless night for farmers.

As hotter temperatures arrive, they Besides fluctuating temperatures, quickly disappear. another difficulty farmers face in Spring onions are a special treat the springtime is insect infestations. this time of year. Some are onions While cold winter temperatures specifically bred to be picked in the eliminate many farm pests, warmer green stage and others are bulbing spring weather usually means an onions that are picked early. Either increase in bug activity. Many farmway, they are delicious with a ers let some of their winter crops sweeter, less sulfuric flavor than flower and go to seed to provide a mature onions. Eat the greens as habitat for beneficial insects that well as the bulb. Left whole or cut prey on the bugs that damage crops. in half lengthwise, these onions are Aphids love cruciferous vegetables delicious rubbed with oil and grilled like cabbage, kale, and turnips, and or broiled to bring out their sugars. you may see evidence of the little They make a great accompaniment bugs on your produce. Don’t worry.

Cauliflower from La Oesta. to grilled meats, are tasty tucked Giving your veggies a bath in a large into tacos, and can be sliced and added to hearty salads or bowl of water spiked with a few teaspoons of vinegar will stir fries. usually rid the vegetables of unwanted guests.

Herbs like dill, parsley, and cilantro grow well in our Sometime in March, we start seeing the brilliant yellow spring weather. When they show up in abundance, use them of blooming mesquite and palo verde trees all over town. “In with abandon in soups and salads, or add to dips and pesto spring, honeybees forage on native legume trees; mesquite, dishes. While dill makes a great dried herb, parsley and acacia, palo verde, and ironwood,” says Jaime de Zubeldia cilantro will quickly loose their flavor. Instead, chop these from ReZoNation Farm. “These trees provide an important herbs finely and mix with a bit of lemon juice, a heavy dose supply of nectar and pollen for honey bees preparing to of olive oil, minced garlic, and red chile flakes to make a build up their colonies from lower winter numbers.” It is not chimichurri sauce that is delicious as a marinade or finishing unusual to see a swarm of bees this time of year, in search sauce for meat and vegetables. You can freeze this mixture in of a new home. While they are swarming they are mostly an ice cube tray for easy access later. harmless, but if you see them settle anywhere, contact a Even though their crops won’t be ready for harvest until beekeeper who can come and harvest the bees. ReZoNation summer or even fall, fruit farmers in the region are busy Farm provides fee-based bee relocation services as well as in the spring. In winter, trees are dormant and don’t need beekeeping workshops. protection, but as sap starts flowing again and trees begin Visit ReZoNationFarm.com for more information.

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S PRING PICNIC S ALAD

Y

ou can use pasta, potatoes, or whole grains as a

base for this salad. Served warm or cool, this is a refreshing, yet filling dish.

• 3-4 cups cooked pasta, potatoes, or whole grains • 1 pound asparagus, cleaned with tough bottoms removed • 1 large head fennel, cleaned & cut into ¼-inch thick slices • A few handfuls of snow peas or snap peas, stems removed • 2-3 spring onions, cleaned and cut in half lengthwise • 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for cooking • 2 tablespoons lemon juice • 1 teaspoon whole grain mustard • 2 cloves garlic, minced • 1 handful mixed fresh herbs, including fennel fronds • Several black olives, sliced • 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese • Salt and pepper to taste Toss vegetables with a generous splash of oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, lay in a single layer on a baking pan and roast at 425º. Cook for about 12-15 minutes, flipping veggies halfway through, until almost tender.

Turn on broiler and cook for an additional couple of minutes to caramelize and brown the veggies slightly.

While vegetables are cooking, mix together oil, juice, and mustard. Remove vegetables from oven and roughly chop into bite-size pieces. Toss with dressing while still warm.

Add the remaining ingredients, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

ASPARAGUS Looking for local asparagus? Big D Farms is the place to get it. Forrest and Neil Dunaetz have two crops on about 1½ acres on their property outside Dragoon.

Asparagus takes a few years to establish, but comes back year after year. This will be the fifth and third year for the two crops of Purple Passion asparagus. “The crop generally starts to produce around mid to late March, depending on how warm the weather is,” says Forrest Dunaetz. Spring is the best time to get this local delicacy but “occasionally we will get a smaller summer crop, triggered by the monsoon rain,” he says. After taking some time off for the winter, farmers’ market customers will be glad to see them back at the market when asparagus season starts.

The brothers are looking for a buyer for the property, which they purchased with their father, Leo Dunaetz, who passed away last year. The farm boasts a variety of well-established trees and bushes, including raspberries, peaches, and apricots. Facebook.com/DunaetzFarm.

Radishes from Southern Comfort Farm.

Sara Jones is a longtime employee of the Tucson CSA.

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IN THE BUSINESS

A Dash of Wisdom Celeste Wisdom, owner of Tumacacori’s Wisdom’s Café and Tubac’s Wisdom’s ¡DOS!, dishes on family, border food, and the appeal of quirky décor.

By Suzanne Wright | Photography by Michael Falconer

Wisdom’s Cafe has been a Baja Arizona culinary way station for decades, serving Mexican and border food to generations of visitors and residents. How’d you get involved?

I married into the family. Grandparents of my husband, Cliff, started Wisdom’s in 1944. In 1980, my in-laws grew it with clientele from Green Valley. Cliff and I took it over about 10 years ago.

Wisdom is a pretty cool family name.

I’m told it is of Dutch Cherokee origin. My maiden name was Martin.

Nice upgrade! The café has been run by five generations of family members.

This has always been a family place, with my mother-in-law cashiering and my father-in-law bartending. Cousins and aunts, nieces and nephews work with us. Clientele really care about our family and want to see us when they come in. When I was pregnant with Sasha we had a “Guess the Due Date” game. It was really beautiful, like having thousands of grandparents who care about you and watch your kids grow up. And we’re excited when they bring in their kids and grandkids. We get a lot of love from the restaurant.

What’s changed?

Looking at our menus, you can see how we’ve evolved.

Now you have gluten-free, vegan, and vegetarian offerings.

We still have the chimichanga, relleno, tamale, and fruta burro, and they are still super popular. We make everything in-house.

I don’t cook and I got a bit bored with our small little menu, so I figured if we wanted variety and different things, so would other people. Gluten-free and vegetarian is not a big part of our customer base, but we try to do something for everyone. Cliff is a meat eater. So if he likes the vegan or vegetarian stuff, we know it’s a winner.

Wait a minute … You run a restaurant and you don’t cook?

Yes. It’s a joke in our family. But I do know what I love to eat.

And over the last year, the two incredible women chefs we hired for Wisdom’s ¡DOS! have taken us to the next level. I say, “This is what I want,” and they translate it into delicious dishes. Every morning we have tastings of the proteins, the guacamole, and sauces.

Tell us about the genesis of the fruit burro. That’s not a traditionally Mexican dish.

A fruit burro, like a chimichanga, is totally a border food.

You’re not going to find a Sonoran hot dog in Mexico, either.

But the point is they taste good! Border food is what it is.

We’re proud of it.

Decades ago, my father-in-law’s mother made something sweet and it was delicious. It’s a flour tortilla, deep fried until it’s

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Celeste Wisdom says that Wisdom Café’s famous fruit burro is “totally a border food.”

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The décor at Wisdom’s Café evolved over the years, as customers brought in decorations and family heirlooms emerged.

crispy, rolled in cinnamon sugar and filled with cherry, apple, blueberry, or coconut crème. You order it at the same time you order your meal.

I’m salivating! Let’s talk tamales. In my opinion, a good tamale is transcendent.

Tamales are truly a Mexican tradition; they are all the way Mexican, eaten at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Everybody makes them at Christmas and New Year’s, from 2-year-olds to 80-year-old matriarchs. There’s a lot of laughing and singing, but they are very labor-intensive. We had someone who made our tamales and then she left. So we used Tucson Tamale Company, which we loved. They’d deliver to us, but when that stopped we couldn’t be chasing tamales.

Now that we have Maria (Malu) Orrantia and Maria (Mary) Diaz, we are making our own. We’ve got green corn, calabacitas, Cliff ’s with turkey, black bean and red peppers, and red with shredded beef and jalapeño tamales. The green corn, calabacitas and Cliff ’s come in a vegan version and all are lard-free and gluten-free except for the red. We also offer a dessert tamale, a sweet pineapple coconut with pecans. We think that snowbirds will want us to ship them [back home].

One thing that makes Wisdom’s Café so memorable is the décor, chock full of personal artifacts.

Nothing is contrived or planned about the décor: it’s eclectic.

Over the years, our customers have brought us a lot of stuff, and there are a lot of family heirlooms. We’ve got antique and cowboy items, Little League baseball mitts from the 1950s, a bear trap, and a sombrero from the 1940s. One entire wall is made up of murals.

There used to be this patchwork carpet in one of the rooms.

People were tripping on it, so we ripped it out and replaced it with a concrete floor; that was a really big deal. People said they couldn’t believe we took it out. We got a lot of flak for that. I guess it’s generational.

When I first walked in, I was like, “What is this?” Now I’ve developed an appreciation. You name it, we’ve got it. It’s like a museum.

Tell us about Wisdom’s ¡DOS! in the Village of Tubac. How do the food and decor differ from the Café?

They are like apples and oranges. ¡DOS! is our little baby, where we do more traditional Mexican food like street tacos, menudo, posole, ceviche, and fish soup. We didn’t know how it would go over, but much to our happiness, it’s been great.

We’ve decorated with things from off our own walls and pulled things out of boxes all with the theme of Dia de los Muertos. We even designed special tables. We wanted it to have its own identity.

I think you’ve tapped into an authenticity that people are really responding to. ¡DOS! is quick casual—we give 10 percent off to all Tubac employees. We do a big lunch business. At the Café, we can’t make anything too spicy; at ¡DOS!, we have three salsas and people want super hot. We’ve got beer and wine, but we plan to bring in delicious white sangria. And ¡DOS! is going to get its own margarita.

Where do you and Cliff go for culinary inspiration?

We love Caruso’s Italian Restaurant on Fourth Avenue. I worked there in college; it’s an Arizona business. We have a lot of family celebrations there. I adore the shrimp cakes and Caesar salad at Kingfisher. And Reilly Craft Pizza and Drink on Pennington has great pizza and a really good mixologist. And of course, Café Poca Cosa with Chef Suzana Davila. I’d love to have a loft downtown. The food in Tucson is amazing!

Southern Arizona is truly a place apart.

I’m not knocking the chains, but there’s flavor here, there’s discovery. Tubac Olive Oil Company, Santa Cruz Chili & Spice, Tumacookery—you’re not going to find those places anywhere else. ✜ Wisdom’s Café. 1931 E. Frontage Road, Tumacacori.

520.398.2397. WisdomsCafe.com.

Suzanne Wright is a Cave Creek-based freelance writer who can’t wait to try a dessert tamale on her next trip south.

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TABLE

Five Points about Brunch At 5 Points Market & Restaurant, Jasper Ludwig and Brian Haskins are building a delicious, locally sourced menu and a “conscious convenience store” for their community.

By Linda Ray | Photography by Steven Meckler

T

he place to begin the story of Jasper Ludwig and Brian Haskins, and the serial serendipities that lead to their thriving 5 Points Market & Restaurant, is probably with the dog.

“We wanted to adopt this dog that my friend found in a dumpster on 22nd Street,” Ludwig begins. “So,” Haskins says, “we couldn’t have a dog in our apartment in Barrio Presidio, so we decided to buy a house.”

Looking at houses took weeks because the couple rarely had the same time available. Both had demanding management jobs in restaurants—Ludwig was at Fourth Avenue’s Café Passe; Haskins was around the corner at Time Market.

Eventually, the perfect home was found. A cottage on a 7,000-square-foot lot was ideal for living small and one day growing food, a passion the couple shared from their years in the Pacific Northwest, where they met working in an after-school program. Haskins, 37, was the director; Ludwig, 28, signed on as the at-risk youth coordinator.

“There was a food movement,” Haskins said. “We had a really great co-op. And food became interesting, and food politics became interesting to me, and cooking good, healthy food was interesting to both of us.”

They shared those passions with their charges. “I would teach the kids how to cook food from scratch using food from farms,” Haskins says. “And we’d go visit farms and we’d work on farms.” Haskins adds, “We had them raise a garden, like a tiny one, that failed.” Ultimately, Ludwig says, “The politics of it weren’t working in our favor. Some of the people in charge

weren’t appreciative of my efforts to connect people to their food. They wanted sports or laser tag.”

One day, in 2006, as Haskins and a friend were having breakfast at a neighborhood place they frequented, “Sage, the owner, came out and said, ‘I need someone dynamic to work for me.

Will you work for me?’ I was like, ‘I’m not that dynamic but I know somebody who is.” He suggested that Ludwig apply, and she got the job.

“I was managing the floor, but also spending a lot of time with my boss,” Ludwig says. “It was pretty much just she and I running the show. She was great. I worked for her for two years and that was kind of my background in the business.”

Meanwhile, Ludwig had gone back to college to pursue a double major in feminist theory and film photography. While running the photography lab, she became friends with Julia DeConcini, and the two hatched a dream to start a nonprofit community darkroom together. The idea died for a time, but came back to life in both of them almost simultaneously. DeConcini had settled in Tucson and, Ludwig says that by the time she finished school in 2010, “I was so sick of the rain. I took [Brian] down here on a road trip … and he was down to move here with me.” Haskins says, “I moved here basically to eat tacos and get warm.”

Jasper Ludwig and Brian Haskins opened 5 Points Market & Restaurant after a series of serendipities led them to Tucson and, eventually, to the space next door to Café Desta.

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The darkroom project worked for a while, but “We didn’t make any money and it became too much,” said Ludwig. She had been managing Café Passé for more than a year when DeConcini found the dog in the dumpster. DeConcini suggested naming it Rue for the character in The Hunger Games. Ludwig named it Rue for the powerful herb, in tribute to her survival skills.

To find a suitable home for the dog, the couple worked with real estate agent Beth Jones. As it happened, Jones’ sister, Brooke Moeller of Café Desta, was looking for someone to open a restaurant and market next door. Knowing the couple’s work and work ethic, Jones set up a meeting; everyone clicked. On Jan. 6, 2014, their fantasy of owning a restaurant one day came, in a rush, to be true.

Staffing came easily.

“Everyone here is someone we knew, or someone who’d worked with someone we knew,” says Haskins. What’s more, Ludwig had been accumulating her brunch menu ideas for more than a decade.

The 5 Points location put everything into place. Haskins says, “It’s a gateway to downtown. It’s on the verge of all these awesome neighborhoods—Armory Park, Barrio Viejo, Santa Rosa. And it’s an underserved community.”

These days 5 Points has the unmistakable feel of a small-town community coffee shop, albeit with qualitative and stylistic differences.

Ludwig says, “There are a lot of artists and musicians that live in these ‘hoods that are here all the time.” Regulars include Howe Gelb, Tom Walbank, and Gabriel Sullivan, but also Corky Poster, Steve Leal, and the owners of M.A.S.T. and Bon boutiques.

Nestled in between Armory Park and Barrio Viejo, 5 Points has the feel of a small-town community coffee shop.

“The ambiance is casual. The food is made from scratch, but it’s not expensive. People don’t have to feel uncomfortable or that they’re in a part of culture that they don’t know how to behave in.”

Haskins enjoys the “social hour” aspect of hanging out talking to the clientele, but Ludwig’s community-mindedness may be more native.

“I grew up in rural Maine and there was a Grange Hall.

There were a lot of people growing food, but everything about it was community. We had baked bean suppers.”

How to create a Grange Hall Feel in an urban neighborhood? “I think our service is casual and friendly. It’s not formal or rehearsed,” Ludwig says. “I think the ambiance is also really casual. The food is made from scratch, but it’s not expensive. People don’t have to feel uncomfortable or that they’re in a part of culture that they don’t know how to behave in.”

Sourcing takes Ludwig and Haskins back to the most formative time of their relationship. Affection mixes with admiration in Ludwig’s voice when she talks about buying produce from Taylor Moore, a local grower with plots in several community gardens. Here is her own after-school dream fulfilled. “This wonderful man brings in these kids who learn how to grow and tend the garden, clean and then present their produce, and they also get to keep money from the sales.

“They come and spread out their produce on a front table every Sunday. I’ll get Eric or Conor in the kitchen to come out and choose what the special is. They’ll buy what we use on the menu. We get as much arugula as we can and a lot of staples—beets, carrots, Swiss chard, kale, bok choy.”

The produce needed for the kitchen also goes into the market so there’s no waste.

What waste is generated from the restaurant goes to the Pio Decimo Community Garden around the corner where, Ludwig says, it’s turned into “black

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ne

Sto ue

en Av

South Sixth Avenue

uth

So

West 18th Street

Clockwise, from top left: 5 Points Market is located at the 5 Points intersection, where Stone and Sixth Avenues meet. The bright restaurant bustles for weekend brunch. 5 Points regulars say that the huevos rancheros, smothered in spicy sauce, are some of the best in town. A cook lines up the next order. An outdoor patio provides overflow seating on warm Tucson mornings.

gold” compost.

Ludwig and Haskins source as much as they can locally, including beef and pork. Their coffee is roasted at Café Aqui, six blocks away. Organic local citrus comes from Patagonia Orchards, but Haskins still likes to get Washington apples.

Many 5 Points dishes use conventionally raised eggs to help keep prices down. (Ludwig says the rising expense of organic

feed has made the cost of organic eggs prohibitive.)

For pricing, “We use the same formula every restaurant uses,” Ludwig says. But they tinker with ingredients to keep prices affordable. For example, she says, “We put the Eggleston on the menu. We call it a breakfast sandwich.

You can add proteins if you want and make it more decadent, but we added that knowing that there are people who

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Located at the gateway to downtown, 5 Points draws a diverse crowd of artists, musicians, lawyers, writers—and bikers.

might want something under nine bucks. Chia pudding, likewise. It’s $5 and super filling. And I think presentation is a big part.”

The restaurant’s market is a work in progress. Ludwig and Haskins expect it to expand and take on a different character once they begin serving beer and wine on tap and to go, and expand their menu to include dinner. Those developments are imminent, pending city approval.

Meanwhile, Haskins feels he’s still learning what people want to find there. “I see our spot as being like a conscious convenience store. The things that you need are going to be here, but not much else. And they’re going to be good versions of those things.” Your mac and cheese, for instance, will be organic pasta shells and real white cheddar cheese. Your bread will be from Small Planet Bakery.

The story almost begs a movie. You may laugh, you may cry,

but there’s a good chance you’ll cheer as a close-knit community surrounds the charming couple and their valiant pup with camaraderie while the credits roll.

But Ludwig keeps it real with a reflection on how her romance with Haskins began—in community service, around growing food. “I think when you meet somebody in that capacity, you really see them at their best, you know? Like doing their best and being really selfless, being energetic and engaging.”

Like the kind of person anyone would want to visit with over one of her blueberry scones. ✜ 5 Points Market & Restaurant. 756 S. Stone Ave. 520.623.3888. 5PointsTucson.com.

Linda Ray has written for the Tucson Weekly, the Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Reader. She and her valiant pup, Gozo, live in an unmanageable landscape in Central Tucson.

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Meet the Producers Farms & Ranches in Baja Arizona Please use this section of the magazine to familiarize yourself with the people who produce vegetables, meat, dairy and honey from Arizona. These are true, local sources for your restaurant or home.

Please refer to page 187 in the Source Guide for more information on these businesses.

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Support Local Agriculture

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PURVEYORS

A Market for Wanderlust Whether you’re trying new flavors or savoring old ones, there’s something for everyone in Tucson’s many ethnic markets.

By Emily Gindlesparger | Photography by Jeff Smith

S

of us are born with an itch in our shoes, an innate need to travel out of reach of our normal lives and experience something new. But when you’ve been far from home for a long time, there is nothing more comforting than stopping in a market and seeing a label in your own language. Food is the locus where our wanderlust clashes with our sense of comfort and of home.

Tucson’s diverse immigrant population has sprouted many choice ethnic markets around town, which have simultaneously become hubs for native Tucsonans to sample ome

Above: Star projection map by Hermann Berghaus, 1880

something new, and for expats to find comfort in the familiar.

Some of them are well known and established: Lee Lee International Supermarket has been serving the northwest side for more than 20 years, while Grantstone Supermarket has proffered Asian goods in Balboa Heights for more than 30. The amazing Mexican markets around town deserve a roundup of their own. But the five on this list are centrally located gems you may not have visited yet—and should soon on your next culinary adventure.

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Roma Imports

Yogi’s Indian Market

Sandyi Oriental

European Market & Deli

Caravan Mideastern Foods

Roma Imports 627 S. Vine Ave. · 520.792.3173 · romaimports.com · Year opened: 1984

T

of Roma Imports is so boldly decorated that you’ll be surprised you missed it. Tucked away among unassuming warehouses on South Vine Street, the tricolored awning calls out the colors of the Italian flag.

Stepping inside, it’s immediately apparent that this is the kind of place that knows the importance of proper ingredients. Like the necessity of the exact pasta shape to pair with a Bolognese versus a marinara sauce, there’s a luxury of specificity here that takes precedence over the functionality of making-do. It’s comforting to be so precise. Even the names— the “little thimble” pasta ditali and “little ears” of orichiette piccoli—sound sweetly domestic.

Roma is as much an echo of Italy as it is a reflection of Tucsonans. “I think that when you run a little family business, the customers become like part of the family or like friends,” says Lilian Spieth, who took over the business from a Sicilian family 15 years ago. Her children went off to college, she explains, and she needed something to do, so she bought Roma even though she didn’t have any prior experience in the industry. Regardless, she says, “it was quite easy because he façade

my philosophy was to listen to what the customers wanted, and if five people said I should bring in an item, I did. The more people expressed what they would like us to do, it was easy to grow.”

Since taking it over, the market has expanded into a specialty deli with imported bresaola and homemade sausage, a wall of freezer cases full of lasagna and cacciatore made in-house, and a small café affectionately nicknamed “La Taverna.” Some customers come in to load up coolers with eggplant parmesan; some sit at a small diner table to enjoy a sandwich of porchetta (slow-roasted pork shoulder, a specialty at Roma). Other food nationalities show up alongside the Italian fare: there’s a selection of Greek, Hungarian, and German dishes, among others—a tour of customers’ interests added over time.

“Over the years we have seen customers return, and children being born, and customers come in with children who are now in college, and it’s always wonderful to see the new people who come in and the old time customers who bring their friends in, showing their friends and family all the things we are doing here. It’s definitely the people who make the business what it is.”

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Caravan Mideastern Foods 2817 N. Country Club Road · 520.323.6808 · Year opened: 1987

“I

think everything is changing these days,” says Khalifa Solieman, the owner of Caravan Mideastern Foods, which occupies a narrow storefront on Country Club just north of Glenn. “You cannot stay on one thing.

The market changes; people change. It affects all kinds of things. You need to keep continuing some things and see what the customers need. It's happened many times with Somalis, Iraqis, Russians, Sudanese; we get new groups,” as Tucson welcomes the diasporas, he says. And with each new ethnic group that lands here, Solieman has a new need to fill, a new cultural shade to add to Caravan’s shelves, which are so tightly packed they remind me of what caravan loads on the Spice Trade might have looked like. Teas crowd around the corners of one room while coffee takes a wall. A huge array of bulk spices includes whole cardamom pods and mango spice, lending a dark sweetness to the air in the shop.

A dozen olive oils are stacked around a table, while an olive bar takes up a long wall in every shade of

green to black, bordered by dried fruits. Nudging each other on display are products from Africa, India, South America, everywhere. From these items it’s possible to pluck out a meal from a specific region, or create a truly American dish from elements around the world.

My favorite start: a Bulgarian feta whose saltiness plays nicely with tart dried cherries. Then pick up ground lamb and eggplant to stuff grape leaves. Spiced rice can be made in any flavor with the huge array of bulk spices along one wall. Mix cocktails with orange blossom and rose water, or finish a meal with a spicy masala chai. Colorful candy-coated chickpeas come in a pastel palette of shades to fix a sweet tooth. A decadent surprise hides among the jams: a jar of peanuts, walnuts and hazelnuts packed together in honey.

But soon you won't have to make your own dishes; Solieman plans to add a Middle Eastern restaurant to the mix, with kebabs, shawarma, and the like. “You shop here, you eat here,” he says, “and it's fantastic.”

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Sandyi Oriental Market 4270 E. Pima St. · 520.441.6199 · sandyiorientalmarket.com · Year opened: 1998

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of Pima and Columbus, the red awning of Sandyi Market is the only thing to call attention in this quiet neighborhood. But inside, it’s a small riot of packages in a flurry of Japanese and Korean writing. Standing sentinel by the door of Sandyi Oriental Market is a case of cherished Melona bars—frozen honeydew treats that lure in transplanted Koreans and cultural neophytes alike.

Owner Yesuk So opened this small market more than 16 years ago, when she moved from New York to Tucson for her kids’ schooling. “At that time it was big business,” she says of the diverse Asian community who welcomed this little market in the center of town. “But in the last six years, everyone has moved away.” Now her clientele is more American than immigrant, but her store still reflects the desires of someone living far from home. In addition to the extraordinary—whole shelving units of dried seaweed in different variations; lychee and jackfruits canned in syrup—there’s also a touch of the very ordinary, like pot scrubbers in Japanese labels and strainers for the kitchen sink. uck ed on the cor ner

A college student might be satisfied with the gallery of quick ramen flavors to choose from, but for an adventurous foodie the possibilities are endless. Get a proper rice cooker here, and put on to steam some good sticky rice, the kind that mounds into snowballs when you scoop it out. Quick frozen dumplings make an excellent appetizer with a little plum wine or quality sake, or an endless list of teas that you could serve iced, boba-style in the summer. For the main fare, a mixed grill of ocean meats lines the freezer cases, carefully but unceremoniously wrapped on Styrofoam trays. Choose from any number of fishes—skate, pomfret, croaker—to go with delicate squid, octopus, and steamed mussels.

Grab a daikon radish, vegetables of choice, and kimchi to go on the side. And for dessert, Sandyi has all the quirky Japanese staples: mochi in multiple colors, red and green bean cakes, and slightly savory ice creams in black sesame and green tea flavors.

Or perhaps you’ll bypass these exotics for the Spam luncheon loaf. It’s there, on a top shelf next to more respectable canned meats. And even in Japanese, it still looks the same.

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European Market and Deli 4500 E. Speedway Blvd., Suite 36 · 520.512.0206 · europeanmarketandeli.com · Year opened: 1999

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n the bustle of traffic on Speedway, it might be easy to miss European Market in the reddish-orange business park east of Columbus, but it’s worth visiting for the Slavic charcuterie board alone. With a case each of salamis and cheeses, and half the market overtaken by dark bottles and Russian labels, this is the perfect stop for an elegant and high-spirited party. The selection of so many little luxuries here has been primarily driven by remembrance: Olga Chausovskaya, who owns the market with her husband, Alex, explains that especially around the holidays, “People are always looking for some product to remember from grandma or from friends; they come in with a name and we have to find it, and they are always happy.”

The market is filled with names that, though unfamiliar to many, are home for others: kielbasa sausage, pierogi dumplings, kolbasi. The Chausovskayas came from Ukraine in 1989, when Jewish persecution was high. Since then, they’ve been building back pieces of what they and so many others had lost in their home countries.

Clustered along a narrow hallway stretching to the back of the store are wall cases of trinkets and tchotchkes, small wooden nesting dolls in painted red dresses, miniature St. Petersburg cathedrals and magnets—so many bright colors. Foil-wrapped chocolates and candies fill one rack; jars of preserves and pickles line the wall. The list of found products comes from not just Ukraine and Poland but also many parts of Europe: Germany, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Greece; it goes on and on.

Experiment with a plate of everything: surround a little dish of caviar with a selection of salami, smoked kielbasa, kishkin, and paté, with a little pickled fish in oil. Spread soft sheep’s milk bryndza on a poppy seed roll, or choose a more familiar sweet farmer’s cheese with Russian marmalade. For an aperitif, you may need the Chausovskayas’ help deciphering the extensive collection of unique brews and spirits, but the semisweet Ukrainian wines, cognac, strong beers and Polish potato vodkas are not to be missed.

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The Modernist architectural heritage of this street is a regional asset.

On Broadway Boulevard between Euclid and Country Club (and within 3 blocks to the north and south), you will find premier shopping, dining, entertainment and services.

This two mile strip is lined with award winning boutiques and restaurants, as well as many neighborhood services you won’t find anywhere else.

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Yogi’s Indian Café & Market 2537 N. Stone Ave. · 520.303.3525 · Year opened: 2013

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alk ing into Yogi’s, one is immediately greeted by order and color. Against one wall, the gold trim on bright saris glimmers on a rack while locally handmade Nepalese jewelry shines in iridescent colors. From there, black racks of bright boxes and jars extend several rows back, with “all that goes in Indian cooking,” explains Satye Bhati, who opened Yogi’s in 2013. The selection ranges from the convenient—bags of Indian snack foods, masala mixes, and minute rices—to the obscure, as a dozen distinctive kinds of flour lie in rows from barley to buckwheat, jawar to ragi, jockeying for space with bulk spices and noodles.

Bhati calls attention to the produce case, where there are some very hard-to-find staples, like fenugreek, a bittersweet leafy green that lends a quintessential Indian flavor of smoky dark caramel made tangy by a squeeze of lemon. Or karela and parval: bitter gourd and pointed gourd, respectively, which can be prepared like eggplant, sliced, salted to draw the water out, then squeezed and pan-roasted. And there are lovely beans: gawar and valor long beans, both of which are crunchier than green beans but made tender from simmering in turmeric, coriander, and red chili.

“I thought there was a need for something like this in Tucson,” says Satye Bhati. He opened Yogi's Indian Cafe & Market “to fulfill that need, not just with the market but also with the café and street food. In the Indian community, they already know what that kind of food is, so they’re familiar with it and very excited about it.”

With a menu of samosas, curries, paneer, and tikka masala, there is much to be excited about. Crowd pleasers among the street foods include pani pooris, “a kind of puff ball,” Bhati explains, with “spicy water, black chickpeas and spiced potatoes, and you pop the whole thing in to your mouth at one time,” and momos, a tender dumpling made in the Himalayan region of India and Nepal dipped in spicy tomato relish. A vegan menu features okra, cauliflower, potatoes, and lentils, while other dishes star chicken and lamb. And to drink: spiced chai, mango-yogurt shakes, Indian coffee, and Thumbs Up. The cafe is simple and clean, without fanfare, but it’s the cooking that shines. ✜ Emily Gindlesparger traded forested Southern Illinois for the mountains of Tucson, where she teaches yoga and writes about adventures on bicycles, cliff sides, and wine trails.

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MEET YOUR FARMER

True Foods From planting stick to precision farming: After 65 years, Ramona Farms has become a modern operation focused on heritage crops.

By Mary Paganelli | Photography by Grace Stufkosky

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R amona B ut ton was only 4 years old, her father told her it was time to leave her mother’s side and learn how to work on the farm. The farm was a 10-acre allotment on the Gila River Indian Reservation. “My father told my mother he would take me to the garden and tell me about the healthy foods, traditional foods,” she says. “My mother was blind, so for him to take me out was hard for her.

He said to me, ‘You’re going to help me plant this field.’”

On the first day in the field, her father placed a handful of corn kernels in her hand. “He told me to feel the seeds, to taste them, that they came from the earth,” she says. “He told me, ‘Ramona, these seeds are the seeds of your ancestors; they hold the key to our health.’” This was her introduction to the life of farming and traditional foods.

Fast-forward 65 years to today. What was once Ramona’s 10-acre family plot is now Ramona Farms, a swath of 4,500 acres that yield a historic harvest—traditional Native American indigenous foods including brown, white, and black tepary beans, and 60-day corn, as well as heritage foods brought to the community by the Spaniards in the 1800s, including garbanzo beans, Pima Club wheat, White Sonora wheat, and black-eyed peas.

Owned and operated by Akimel O’odham community member Ramona Button and her husband, Terry, Ramona Farms has becomes a vast commercial farming enterprise that includes 200 miles of fields across the Gila Indian River Reservation growing—in addition to traditional crops—commercial crops of alfalfa, durum wheat, cotton, and Bermuda grass. The Buttons also oversee a milling and packing operation, and a thrivhen

ing direct mail and retail business. The farm spans both sides of the Gila River, between the rolling San Tan Mountain range to the northeast and the craggy Sacaton Mountains to the south.

The story of Ramona Farms is a personal one, deeply rooted in family and tradition. Ramona’s father, Francisco “Chiigo” Smith, was Tohono O’odham; her mother, Margaret, was Akimel O’odham, or Pima. Ramona’s father “planted five acres for food and five acres for horses,” she says. “He would plow the fields with a horse-drawn plow to loosen the earth and a ‘smooch board’ to level the fields. Then we would use the old-fashioned planting stick to make a hole in the earth and drop the seeds into each hole.”

Terry comes from farming stock as well. A descendant of generations of Connecticut tobacco farmers, his father was an agronomist who became a landscape architect and, later, a horticulturist and the founder of Button Flower Farm. Terry has a long history of successful cattle ranching and farming, and worked with the Lakota community in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, which is where he and Ramona met. “I found someone to work the land,” Ramona says, laughing.

Married in 1972, Terry and Ramona began farming in Nebraska, raising corn, beans, alfalfa, sheep, and cattle. Even then, they dreamed of Ramona’s family farm and after two years of working the Nebraska land, they started developing the Arizona property left by her mother, working both farms at the same time.

In addition to growing commercial crops like alfalfa, durum wheat, and cotton, Terry and Ramona Button focus their farm on heritage crops like tepary beans, 60-day corn, and Pima Club and White Sonora wheats.

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A colorful array of heritage corn contributes to the crop diversity at Ramona Farms.

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The National Parks Store

A window into the people, places, and histories of this region.

Fine Handmade Crafts American Indian Arts Southwestern Food & Apparel Children’s Items Books on National Parks & the West Free Public Events Tours, Workshops, Concerts & More

The store is off the beaten path, but it’s worth the trip.

Visit wnpa.org to learn more about our shows & sales.

Open Every Day 10AM–5PM 12880 N. Vistoso Village Dr. Tucson, AZ 85755 For more information call 520-622-6014.

The National Parks Store is operated by Western National Parks Association, a nonprofit education partner of the National Park Service. Your tax-free purchases help support national parks across the West. wnpa.org

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(Above:) The Buttons grow Bermuda grass for hay. (Below:) Ramona Button offers a handful of the crop her ancestors relied upon—tepary beans.

“In 1974, we started growing on my mother’s land; we used her 10 acres and my mother’s uncle’s 16 acres. Soon other relatives wanted to lease us land until we finally had 5,000 acres all over the reservation,” Ramona says. “My aunties came to us and said, ‘Please can you grow some of these foods for us.’ We saw that no one was growing our traditional tepary beans and that these foods were going away, as were the farms and farmers that were producing them locally.

The elders came to us and asked for us to use their land to bring back the tepary beans.”

“These seeds are the seeds of your ancestors; they hold the key to our health.”

Inspired by community and family requests, Ramona and Terry were determined to bring these crops back.

“We started tepary beans in the late ’70s,” she says. “My dad had saved seeds and we found them in an old trunk in a Mason jar—I recognized them. My dad always had seeds. I remember him saying, ‘These are better foods for you. These are your true foods.’ It inspired me to start growing them.”

Terry started growing the tepary beans in a small area, mostly producing them for seed.

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BICYCLING THE SANDS OF BELGIUM ON A BEATER BIKE, A WAYWARD TWENTY-ONE YEAR OLD ESCAPING, SOWING WILD OATS. OR WAS IT SPROUTING WINGS? IRRELEVANT, REALLY; IRREVERENT REALLY. THERE WAS NO LOCAVORE MOVEMENT TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO, OVER THERE; OVER THERE, THINGS MOVED AT ANALOG PACE, IN A SPACE YOU COULD SEE WITH CONES AND RODS. AS IN THE HUBS OF THOSE BEAT UP WHEELS, SPINNING, CREAKING, TO THE ROADSIDE, BY THE S E A S I D E SALAMI, WINE, BREAD, SWISS CHEESE, SWISS ARMY KNIFE. I CAN TASTE IT STILL, STILL AS THE WATER LOPPING ON THE COBBLESTONES, AS IF IT WAS TWENTY-FOUR HOURS AGO.

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The Buttons grow heritage grains like Pima Club wheat and White Sonora wheat.

”We took big 10-pound burlap bags of them to stores and trading posts on the Tohono O’odham and Pima Nations, trying to keep them in circulation,” says Terry. Working with local elders and community members, Terry learned how to grow tepary beans and other indigenous foods and, through a process of trial and error, how to use commercial techniques to increase yields and guarantee a successful crop. “I learned the hard way how to farm this kind of land. We had a vision to bring some of this land back into production and to grow traditional crops,” he says.

Hard work, perseverance, and vision have resulted in a successful operation and a thriving family business. One of their daughters, Velvet, handles the sales and marketing and recipe testing; another daughter, Brandy, a culinary school graduate, handles food demos at local schools and diabetes awareness events; their son, Edward, drives the tractors; Terry’s brothers Karl and Dale work the harvesting, irrigation, and planting equipment. Community member Andrew Moyah handles the on-site milling, processing, and packaging operations.

A line of traditional food products including tepary beans (bavi), roasted ground 60-day corn (ga’ivsa), and parched corn

pinole (huun haak chu’i) are sold under the Ramona Farms label directly to the consumer via their website, at farmers’ markets, through retail stores like Whole Foods and Native Seeds/SEARCH, and wholesale to restaurants and foodservice companies across the country.

Modern technology has replaced the horse-drawn plow and the planting stick. Today computerized tractors and combines use sophisticated satellite GPS technology to plow the fields to sub-inch accuracy, plant the seeds, and harvest the plants.

What would Ramona’s father think of all this? “He would be proud, “ she says, thoughtfully. “Smiling down to see what has grown from his handful of seeds.” ✜ Ramona Farms. Arizona 87. 520.418.3642.

RamonaFarms.com.

This article is dedicated to Copper, Terry and Ramona’s dog, who died on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015.

Mary Paganelli is a chef, writer, and food lover. She is the author of the Foodlovers’ Guide to Tucson and From I’itoi’s Garden: Tohono O’odham Food Traditions.

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The Fire Outside By sun, coals, or fire, the great outdoors is the place to make your next great meal.

By Renée Downing Photography by Liora K

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hey cook . They cook a lot. And they do it outside, spurning the mere comfort and convenience of their kitchens. At a time when fewer and fewer people can be bothered to cook at all, you have to ask what inspires the hardy souls among us who, with unflagging gusto, raise the bar of culinary difficulty by creating whole feasts under the open sky.

Compelled by curiosity, practical ingenuity, sociability, obsession, love of food, and, of course, the desire simply to be outside, they’re exploring diverse answers to the question, “But can I do it in the back yard?”

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Brick, Dutch, or solar—however you fashion your oven, it’s clear there’s a whole lot of cooking that can be done outside, from pizza to bread rolls; cake to hamburgers. And in a town like Tucson, with weather like ours, why not take your onion-chopping into the fresh air?

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Mary Beth Cabana – Founding Artistic Director

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A delicious concert of classical and contemporary dance works with a grand finale of dessert tastings from Tucson’s favorite restaurants and eateries!

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From left: Bruce Joseph, the organizer for Solar Guildâ „Citizens for Solar; Carolyn Dumler, co-author of Southwest Dutch Oven; Philip Rosenberg is obsessed with making pizza in his backyard oven.

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The Fire from Heaven

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or b ruce J oseph , an organizer for Solar Guild /Citizens for Solar, it all started with an idle what-if sort of question.

“It just popped into my head one day: ‘Can you boil water with the sun?’ I Googled it, discovered it was possible, and built this weird parabolic trough cooker using PVC and Mylar.

“That was it. I was hooked, and I kept modifying and changing it until I had a very powerful solar grill with a mirror and a Fresnel lens off a projection TV to focus the rays.”

In its current incarnation, his grill can cook two ¼-inch turkey burgers to well-done in under six minutes. Needless to say, Bruce, who has a degree in computer science, encyclopedic knowledge of beer, and a part-time job selling craft beer at 1702, didn’t stop there.

“There are three basic types of solar cooker. Panel cookers, which work like crock pots and reach temperatures of around 200 degrees Fahrenheit, box ovens which work like conventional ovens and can reach temperatures of over 350 degrees, and parabolic cookers, which work like stovetop

burners and reach temperatures of over 800 degrees. With all three you can solar-cook almost anything that you can make in your kitchen.”

His path to a complete solar set-up has been strewn with big lenses, parabolic dishes and, lately, evacuated tube cookers that reach 500 degrees but are light enough for backpacking.

His current project is a tube cooker for which he’s developing a reflector and steel food tray.

In spite of his obvious appreciation for the sun’s silent, focused efficacy, he’s occasionally lost temporary sight of its incendiary potential.

“I once partially melted my garbage cans with light bouncing off of a 59-inch parabolic reflector—since then I keep it turned upside down and weighted so it can’t blow over and set something on fire.”

There was also the time a Fresnel lens he’d set down on the driveway started to melt the asphalt, and an incident where his pants began to char. Most of his mishaps, though, have been of the minor grabbing-a-hot-handle sort that can befall any cook.

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A new kind of desert barbeque—Bruce Joseph shows how the sun can sear meat.

“Why wouldn’t anyone want an alternative to turning on the oven in July?”

And, he points out, it’s a less expensive hobby than his other interest: high-end craft beer.

“And then, I really like to cook and fool around with recipes. I make a nice paella and a pork shoulder with chiles that’s really popular at the potluck.”

The 33rd Annual Solar Potluck at Catalina State Park—free, open to the public and attended by thousands since its inception—will be held on April 11 this year. It is, according to Bruce, the longest-running annual solar event in the world. More than 40 enthusiasts will be cooking, with one using a nine-foot parabolic reflector that can cook 10 pounds of chicken in an hour, and the organizers are contemplating adding an Iron Chef-style competition to the festivities. (Past competitions tended to be about the amount of food cooked—Citizens for Solar was originally, as Bruce explains, essentially a men’s cooking club that coalesced in the late ’70s from a group of people who liked

hanging around in each other’s backyards in the summer, swimming, smoking pot, and talking about how to make food without having to go inside.) The group, which recently merged with the more technically oriented Solar Guild, also does public service projects, as well as solar outreach and education at local schools and at green-themed events. Their strategy is to use solar cooking to interest the public in the wider potential of solar: Bruce regularly sets up his grill in Himmel Park on nice weekends and talks solar with anyone who walks up and asks what he’s doing.

“There’s all different sorts of people who get interested in this—for example, you’ve got preppers, folks who’re getting ready for the apocalypse. In addition to cooking, you can easily distill water using solar, and of course they’re into that.

“But, really, why wouldn’t anyone want an alternative to turning on the oven in July?”

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The Cast-Iron Way

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is the first thing you notice. It sits outside Carolyn and George Dumler’s pleasant, far-northwest-side home, which, in turn, sits along a sandy, nicely graded dirt road through a cholla and ironwood forest. The bulldozer says a lot about the Dumlers: These are people who get out and do things for themselves.

Their latest venture is a cookbook, Southwest Dutch Oven (Gibbs Smith, 2014) featuring the techniques and recipes that have won them first places in a series of local, outdoor Dutch oven cooking competitions around Arizona and New Mexico, plus two fourth-place finishes in the intensely competitive International Dutch Oven Society’s World Championship Cook-Off, held each March in Sandy, Utah. The book features sophisticated, elegant recipes, plus detailed instructions about the size of the oven, the number of coals and timing designed to take the anxiety out of cooking in the deep, lidded black iron pots most popularly associated with pioneers, cowboys, prospectors, and messes of beans and soda-bread.

(You didn’t know that competitive Dutch oven cooking was a thing? Now you do. In Utah, where everything pioneer is sacred, it’s big: 20 to 25 teams compete in the annual cook-off.)

“The Dutch oven is the official state cook pot of Utah,” says Carolyn, an assistant superintendent in the Marana school district. “We’ve competed against Utah teams who’ve been out cooking their competition menus over and over every weekend for months. People are just very serious about it up there. But also very nice.”

The motto of the Dutch Oven Society is “Good Friends.

Good Food. Good Fun,” but the rules governing sanctioned competitions are strict. The two-person teams have five hours he bulldozer

in which to prepare bread, a main dish, and a dessert, all completely from scratch, using only Dutch ovens and charcoal and no electrical devices. (A big hand-cranked Amish mixer comes in handy.) The Dumlers, for instance, cannot use the prickly pear juice they make from fruit on their property in competition because it counts as something they prepared ahead of time.

As passionate outdoors people and talented cooks, the Dumlers had long been experimenting with Dutch ovens while boating and camping, and at their rustic place on Mount Graham.

“You get tired of steak and hamburgers,” explains George.

As a boy on a cattle ranch in Colorado, George had seen his grandparents cook outside using the ovens, and he’d been cooking since he was a teenager.

“I wanted to go to culinary school, but my mother said, ‘No, you’re an outside kind of guy.’ She was right. I hate being stuck inside.”

Carolyn, in turn, grew up on a dairy farm in Minnesota, where she helped her mother do the daily baking for a large household. She’s been baking ever since.

In 2008, on one of their regular jaunts around Arizona, they happened across an outdoor Dutch oven competition at a wine festival in Bowie.

“I thought it would be fun to get into that,’ says George, an airplane mechanic who specializes in high-tech testing for structural damage. “So we started working on recipes and looking for competitions to enter. One turned up in Willcox at a tractor pull—terrible venue, lots of dust—and we knew we weren’t ready but we decided to just go for it.”

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Heated by smoldering coals, Dutch ovens are best for long, slow cooking; basically any recipe that can be made in a conventional oven can be made in a Dutch oven.

At that first contest, their bread collapsed in the middle, their cake burned, and they lost—badly. A month later, they entered another competition in New Mexico against many of the same people and won, qualifying them for their first foray to the Utah championship.

“We had a lot to learn,” George explains, tasting the Calabacitas con Puerco simmering in, naturally, a Dutch oven on the couple’s large back patio, where the calls of dove and quail are a constant sonic backdrop.

“You know what would be good in this?” he says to Carolyn. “Hominy.”

“You used the roasted corn, right?” she says.

“Yeah. But I think we should try hominy next time.”

“The first thing we learned was cook where you’re at,” George resumes. “If it’s a livestock show—and the local cookoffs are always part of a bigger event or festival—make beef. If something with hunters, such as a cook-off at Cabela’s, make game. If you’re in Utah, lay off the chiles.”

“The second big thing was presentation, which to begin with we didn’t know a thing about,” says Carolyn. “You’re allowed to present your food in the oven or on the lid. Period.

So you have to think about what the pot and the lid look like and how you’ll arrange the food. We’ve bought some pots just for their nice lids.” (The Dumlers own upwards of 40 Dutch ovens, including one that’s deep enough for a medium-sized turkey. George hauls it into the store when he buys their Thanksgiving bird to test for fit.)

For the beautiful photos in their book, shot on the couple’s property by Edible Baja Arizona’s own Steven Meckler, they

sometimes deviated from the competition rules.

They also lost points at their first championship for more esoteric aspects of presentation: not having matching outfits, themed decorations for their area, or a team name. And, sadly, George was wearing shorts.

Another fine point of championship strategy is creating a menu that tastes good cold, because it’s all photographed before being presented to the judges at the other end of a large, drafty hall where the doors are opened whenever the smoke detectors go off.

“Molten lava cake? Bad idea.”

It was at last year’s championship that they met their publisher, whom they noticed simply as an older gent who hung around, chatting up George and distracting him from getting on with the Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin. (“I’m the one who keeps an eye on the clock,” says Carolyn. “I was going nuts.”) He left a card and returned the next day to propose that they put together a cookbook.

“All these other Dutch oven people we know had been trying to get a cookbook published for years, and for us, it just fell into our laps,” says Carolyn.

They’ve already started developing recipes for their next book at the request of their publisher. It’ll focus on game.

“I worship those guys at Dickman’s Meats,” says George.

“We are so incredibly lucky to live in Tucson. We must have called 20 places in Salt Lake trying to find duck legs last year.”

In the meantime, he’s working on a challenge from a friend: a successful Dutch oven soufflé.

“I’m getting closer.”

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SHOP · DINE · EXPLORE

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IN THE HISTORIC

PRESIDIO DISTRICT Celebrating the fine art of wine.

CRUSH pARTy

Friday, April 10, 2015 Tucson Museum of Art

Taste phenomenal wines from around the world and culinary creations from Tucson’s best restaurants, with a live performance by Cirque Roots, a special appearance by artist Mat Bevel, and more!

For tickets and more information call 520-624-2333 or order online: TucsonMuseumofArt.org

SPEND A DAY IN THE REAL OLD TOWN

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Lots of garage parking downtown on weekdays. See “P” on the map.

Free street parking on the weekend.

Pick up a Turqoise Trail map at any of these locations to walk the historic downtown.

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The Fiery Furnace Gather friends and family in your backyard and fire up the brick-oven—pizza parties are best organized outdoors.

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her e B ruce J oseph and Carolyn and George Dumler are out to prove that you can cook anything outside, Philip Rosenberg is laser-focused on producing only one dish in his midtown backyard. Fortunately for his family and friends, it’s the world’s most popular food.

The pizza thing started for him eight years ago, after his godson, Gus Hoffman, returned from attending pizza school in Naples.

“Gus got me interested and I quickly realized that I had to have an outdoor oven—you can never get a regular oven close to hot enough. Stones, ‘pizza steels,’ all the things they sell to make your gas oven better for pizza? Totally useless,” he says.

For Philip, who owns both a construction company and a large backyard in a quiet midtown neighborhood, the obvious thing to do was to build a brick pizza oven of the sort that’s common in yards in the Italian countryside.

He built the first one in a far corner of the yard. It worked fine, but turned out to be inconveniently far from the house. He and

his wife, Quinta, often host up to 12 on a typical Sunday evening and their guests insisted on hanging around the oven, enjoying the fire, drinking wine, and watching him and Gus Hoffman’s brother, Sam, and Philip’s son, Christopher, prep and bake the pies. (Sam is the pizza chef, Christopher, who is in training, functions as sous, while Philip’s role is oven/dough manager.) So he built a second oven near the doors to the kitchen.

“Actually, I like building the ovens even better than making the pizza. I’d love to build a pizza restaurant, one where no one would be allowed to wear a hat or talk on a cell phone. Not that I’d want to run it or even eat there.”

The key to the design of the ovens was sizing the half-spherical dome so they accommodate two small pies at once but stay incandescently hot with a minimum of Ramsey Canyon oak.

He built the brick domes on concrete slabs set on a steel frame because he didn’t want to look at a lot of massive masonry, and insulated them with material that’s used on glass-blowing furnaces: The ovens are cool to the touch on the outside while go-

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Fired up, in the family: Philip Rosenberg (right) with his son, Christopher Rosenberg (left) and Sam Hoffman (middle).

ing full blast. (“You don’t want to have to keep adding wood.”)

And the main trick in the actual construction? “Keeping the dome from collapsing as you get toward the top. I used various supports, including beach balls wedged into the gap.”

He also built a pretty cylindrical tandoor, a traditional Indian oven, but has yet to perfect techniques for using it.

These days, with a pizza oven completed and positioned to his satisfaction, Philip concentrates on his crust, which is thin, crackery and superb, but never exactly what he’s looking for.

“I’ll go to my grave trying to make the perfect crust,” he says. “It’s only flour, yeast and water, but the permutations are inexhaustible. There’s time, temperature, different types of flour and different combinations of types of flour, and different strains of wheat. Italian flour and Arizona flour from Hayden Mills. I’m looking for the taste of sourdough bread, which I love, but have yet to achieve. It may be impossible. I read somewhere that San Francisco sourdough depends on strains of yeast that occur naturally in those hills.”

He typically starts his dough on Wednesday night and keeps an Excel spreadsheet on all the batches. He will reveal none of the details. When he makes three different doughs for a single evening, as he often does, he and his assistants half-jokingly refer to them as Doughs A, B, and C. They don’t cook during the hottest months, preferring evenings when working around a roaring oven is fun, and it’s nice enough for everyone to eat outside.

“Food tastes different out in the fresh air,” he says. “Everything is better outside.” ✜ Visit SolarGuild.com for details about the 33rd Annual Solar Potluck on April 11. Admission is free.

Join George and Carolyn Dumler for a book signing and cooking demo on March 28, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. at the Sportman’s Warehouse, 3945 W. Costco Drive.

Renée Downing has been eating and writing in Tucson for nearly 40 years.

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How to make your own solar oven in five (or six) simple steps.

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B Y A NNA M IROCHA | I LLUSTRATIONS

you can fry an egg on a southern Arizona sidewalk? At least, it’s possible on the hood of a car, if you put a bell jar over the raw egg to help heat up the hood. In fact, the Sonoran Desert is one of the best climate zones in the country for such a feat, with our low humidity and powerful sun. (Strange but true: The town of Oatman, Arizona, is famous for its annual Solar Egg-Frying Contest, held every July 4.)

So yes, you can turn a car hood into a solar frying pan. But what if you want a solar oven? Solar baking is different from solar frying, but it relies on a related principle—to demonstrate, we’ll move this discussion’s focus from a car’s hood to its interior.

ID YOU KNOW

BY

T RACY V IVERRETTA

That’s right—you may already own a solar oven of sorts: a car.

A closed vehicle in the Arizona summer—a figurative oven, everybody knows—actually does get as hot as a gas oven, capable of reaching temps greater than 200 degrees. If you leave some raw cookies on a reflective tin pan beneath the car’s windshield, eventually those cookies will bake through. (It generally takes a 350-degree oven to bake chocolate-chip cookies in 10–15 minutes ... you do the math.)

Of course if you want a hotter solar oven—and one that you don’t also happen to drive—it’s easy and cheap to make one, following the steps below. Note: Solar ovens have limitless designs; these directions describe the construction of a simple “box oven.”

Step One: Find or make a box with an

open top that’s the size you want the inside of your oven to be—with space for a pan or pot, plus your oven-mitted hands. The box can be made of wood, most kinds of metals or even cardboard.

(Stay away from plastic and galvanized metal since plastic melts, and both these materials can emit yucky chemicals when heated.)

Step Two: Find a bigger open-topped box

into which your first box will fit easily, leaving gaps at least a couple inches wide between the boxes’ walls and bottoms. The boxes may be made of different materials and be slightly different shapes.

Step Three: Fill the gaps between the

boxes’ walls and bottoms with some kind of nontoxic insulation—rags, cotton, straw: whatever won’t change structure much with heat—as you place one box inside the other. Fill the bottom of the bigger box first, preferably with just enough insulation so that when you set the smaller box in place, the boxes’ tops are level. Then fill in the gaps between the boxes’ walls. If your insulation is flammable, cover the still-exposed stuff with anything that’ll protect it from direct sun (like metal tape or cardboard strips).

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Step Four: Coat all

inside surfaces with nontoxic black paint, which absorbs the heat.

Step Five: Top your

structure with a piece of glass that covers both boxes. This is your oven’s lid.

And you’re done!

Unless you have time to do ...

Optional Step Six: Customize it!

The oven you’ve so far made will certainly suffice in the Sonoran Desert’s super-hot summer, but most box ovens also have one or more flaps to focus the sun’s heat inside the box, which is good for winter (even here). These flaps will be flat, reflective-surfaced panels (like shiny tin sheets or foil-topped cardboard) sticking out of the top of the oven and angled diagonally upward to direct more sunlight inside. For maximum heat you can also add wedges to tip the entire oven toward the sun, wherever it is in the sky, changing your oven’s aim periodically to follow the sun’s arc. (Make sure you do something to keep the food container inside from spilling its contents if you tip your oven.)

Other ways you can improve your oven are endless: Add wheels, lid hinges, an internal thermometer ... or bedazzle it!

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O THERE YOU GO .

Once you’ve completed your first oven, you can make others, improving your method and design. You can build a solar oven with almost anything: Local solar-oven enthusiast Kay Sather made one using an old top-loading washing machine, stuffing insulation between the machine’s outer walls and inside spinner and switching out its metal lid with glass. Barbara Rose, vice-chair of the Tucson group Citizens for Solar, built one with multiple metal strips, acting as flaps, welded around

the rim of a crockpot and bent outward in a pretty flower-petal formation: both oven and art. Rose says she’s also made crude ovens simply using old cooking pots and attaching sunlight reflectors from the windshields of cars (which are a different kind of “oven,” remember!).

Just be practical, have fun, and make the most of our desert’s ovenlike heat. ✜ Anna Mirocha is a Tucson-born writer and artist who loves cooking, conservation and every aspect of the Sonoran desert (even its heat—really).

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stay in

Historic photos courtesy of the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum

bisbee, arizona

Bisbee,AZ An unusual art town built in a deep canyon...

UPCOMING EVENTS IN BISBEE

● Every Second Saturday, 5-8pm – Bisbee After 5 ArtWalk ● Every Saturday, 9am-1pm – Bisbee Farmers Market in Warren’s Vista Park ● March 6-8 – Bisbee Women’s Revue at Central School Project ● March 10-12 – Cochise College/Mexican Consulate Concert without Borders at Border Wall ● March 11-12 – Vintage Base Ball Tournament at the Historic Warren Ballpark ● March 11-12 – Pianists on Tour at Bisbee Women’s Club ● March 25 – Invest in Kids at Bisbee Boys & Girls Club

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E X P L O R E

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eat & drink in bisbee

Historic photos courtesy of the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum

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e a t & d r i n k i n b i s b e e

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Ingra i Bringing White Sonora wheat back to the Sonoran Desert.

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ining

By Lisa O’Neill | Photography by Jeff Smith

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(Previous page) Left: In the early winter, soon-to-be wheat stalks look more like sprouts of grass.

Right: The head of the wheat stalk holds the wheat berries—the kernels we grind into flour and bake into bread.

(Above) Because of White Sonora wheat’s comparatively high protein content, it’s more suited to cakes and tortillas than leavened bread.

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ak ing is a sacr ed r itual , one that requires simple ingredients: water, salt, yeast, and flour. But there is another ingredient that is just as necessary: time. The time for seeds to be planted, for wheat stalks to grow tall and turn from green to golden brown, the time for threshing, for cleaning, for milling, for mixing, for kneading. Time for dough to ferment and rise. Time for dough to be rolled thin for tortillas.

The story of White Sonora wheat is one of time, patience, and listening to the land.

The history of White Sonora wheat in the Sonoran desert begins with the people who brought it here and the people who grew it. In the seventeenth century, Spanish and Italian missionaries brought White Sonora’s precursor, a candeal soft white wheat, to the desert. By 1640, Opata and Lowland Pima Indian farmers were growing the wheat near Tuape, Sonora. When Father Eusebio Francisco Kino arrived in Sonora in 1687, he brought the now well-established crop northward. Among the many crops the missionaries brought, White Sonora endured because it was drought-and disease-resistant, thriving in the arid Sonoran landscape.

Maribel Alvarez, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona’s Southwest Center, has written extensively on White Sonora wheat. She found a reference to the grain in one of Father Kino’s journal entries from 1710 where he discusses bringing the grain to Pima and Yuma Indians: “I sent … grain and seed which had never been seen or known there, to see if it would yield as well as in those other fertile new lands; and it did yield and does yield very well.”

Ethnobotanist Amadeo Rea says the introduction of wheat “completely altered the life of the Pimans. Before they had this winter crop, the Tohono O’odham were entirely dependent on the summer rains for agriculture, [and] could raise but a single crop a year—if everything went right.” White Sonora

meant that Pima and Tohono O’odham now had a viable winter crop to sustain their communities. Dams were built of mesquite branches to direct water and nutrient-rich silt to fields and wheat was harvested using sickles. Threshing was done with horses or mules on circular threshing floors called eras in Spanish, and the cleaned wheat was made into flour on volcanic grindingstones called taunas.

The Pima—along with Yaquis, Maricopas, Yumas, and Hispanics—adopted White Sonora wheat into their cuisine, making posole (poshol in Piman)—wheat berries soaked, cooked, and mixed with tepary beans—and huge flatbreads known as tortillas de las aguas (che’chemait in Piman). The White Sonora wheat was ideal because of the protein content that allowed dough to stretch very thin.

Over time, Alvarez says wheat “became integrated into the social fabric of communities that grew it, harvested it and consumed it.” In public art, in home décor, in religious festivals and cuisine, she says, Sonorans began to incorporate wheat as an indelible part of life.

For more than three centuries, White Sonora was one of the principal crops grown in the Sonoran desert. As industrialization of farming took root following World War II, cereal scientists and grain breeders began to think about how to stabilize and secure staple crops like wheat. Combining wheat bred to be high-yield and fertilizer-responsive with artificial fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation systems, farmers in arid climates were no longer dependent on drought-resistant grains. Farmers planted seed from short breeds to avoid rot and mold caused by stalks toppling from wind and rain.

While these changes helped farmers increase yields, something was lost. We lost diversity in the grains we consume. We lost our connection to eating what was adapted to grow in our local ground. We lost our connection to the earth.

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NEW MENU MON.- FRI. 11AM - 9PM SAT. & SUN. 9AM - 9PM

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Thursday, March 12 6 pm

Centennial Hall The University of Arizona

Free to the public For more information, please visit www.haury.arizona.edu/robinson Presented in conjunction with the Tucson Festival of Books

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“There’s a lightbulb that goes off. Oh my gosh, This is what bread should taste like.”

Steve Sossaman of Sossaman Farms renovated his old pole barn into a milling space for Hayden Flour Mills.

From left: Miller Ben Butler, founder Jeff Zimmerman; farmer Steve Sossaman; and Emma Zimmerman.

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onservation scientist Gary Paul Nabhan, the co-founder of Native Seeds /SEARCH, first spotted some of the last remnants of White Sonora wheat when he worked with farmers in northern Mexico in 1976.

By the 1980s, no one was growing White Sonora wheat in the larger valleys of Arizona or Sonora, says Nabhan. The Nobel Prize-winning plant breeder Norman Borlaug had developed one of the first Green Revolution wheat varieties, Sonora 64—a semidwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant variety—purportedly using White Sonora as breeding material.

In addition to the advent of commercial farming, Nabhan attributes the demise of White Sonora to a series of droughts and freezes, as well as a generation of farmers dying out, and with them, the knowledge and infrastructure required for traditional wheat farming. According to Jeff Zimmerman of Hayden Flour Mills in Phoenix, there were 44 mills established in Arizona Territory between 1865 and 1912. Today, there are only two.

In 2012, a coalition of local organizations was awarded a $50,000 USDA Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant to bring White Sonora soft wheat and chapalote flint corn back into the local food chain.

People were drawn to the grain for many reasons. For Native Seeds /SEARCH, bringing back White Sonora was aligned with its mission of preserving heritage seeds. Research and education program manager Joy Hought says, “For us, it’s about climate change and bringing back crops that don’t abuse or overuse our natural resource.” Grants and special project manager Chris Schmidt adds, “Twenty to 30 years from now, these crops are going to be more important than ever. We need to work to preserve genetics and build the infrastructure for production now.”

In addition to the SARE grant, Glenn Roberts, founder of Anson Mills in South Carolina, donated 5,600 pounds of White Sonora wheat seed over a three-year period so farmers wouldn’t have to face the expense of seed in addition to more labor and less yield.

While a variety of heirloom crops have been growing in popularity over the years, extra enthusiasm and effort was needed to bring back heirloom grains. “Harvesting wheat involves complicated and technical processes,” says Hought. “It’s not the same as other crops where you can just pluck the apple off the tree and get it to the consumer. You have to get the grain at the right time.

You have to thresh and clean it. Jeff Zimmerman has spent the last few years learning how to mill it; it’s a craft.”

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Ben Butler pours heritage grain into the stone mill; within minutes, fresh flour sifts out the other side.

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z i m m e r m an grew up in North Dakota on a wheat farm; as the farm changed hands from his grandfather to his father, and now to his cousin, he witnessed the industrialization of the farm. A manager at an insurance company by day, Zimmerman has always prioritized food; so has his wife, a nutritionist, and their five children. Years ago, Zimmerman developed a passion for bread baking. But he found that even when he took the time to make bread from scratch, he was dissatisfied with the end result: “It tasted empty,� he says.

Zimmerman began milling his own flour and became inspired to restart the well-known Phoenix-based Hayden Flour eff

Mills, a mill that had closed in 1998 after a 15-year decline.

That dream kicked into high gear after the 2010 Farmer+Chef Connection, where Jeff met Marco Bianco, baker for Pane Bianco and brother of Chris Bianco, restaurateur and James Beard award-winning chef.

At his famous Pizzeria Bianco, Chris is committed to using the freshest ingredients and sourcing them locally; for years, he had been looking for a way to access locally grown and milled grain. Emma Zimmerman, Jeff ’s second eldest and his business partner, had two degrees in bioengineering and was pursuing a Ph.D. in bioethics when she returned home to help her father with his passion project.

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“I don’t know if Chris and Marco thought that we were serious, that we were really going to do it,” says Emma, laughing.

They were. Jeff Zimmerman ordered a stone mill from Austria and soon it was installed at the back of Pane Bianco.

Although it was a tight fit, being housed in the kitchen of Pane Bianco had its perks. Marco Bianco could immediately experiment with the freshly milled flour and offer feedback.

“If you work in a marble quarry, you don’t necessarily see the statues. But if you are a miller and you’re working next to my brother every day, it’s a pretty interesting relationship when you are working, vetting things out. How was the hydration of it? Was the protein too high or low? So that dialogue became beneficial,” Chris says.

Bringing back White Sonora involved bringing back infrastructure for smaller crops—from farming and harvesting, to cleaning and milling—that no longer existed. At first, the Zim-

mermans were ordering the freshest grain they could find from out of state, but when Nabhan approached them about heritage grains, they immediately came on board. The first farmers they approached did not.

Emma explains. “The whole reason industrialized farming works is they have bred these grains to be high yielding; they’re very short and dense. You plant an acre and you’ll get 5,000 pounds. You go back to heritage and you get 2,000 pounds.”

But when the Zimmermans approached an old family friend, Steve Sossaman of Sossaman Farms, he agreed to grow their first crop of 10 acres of White Sonora in 2011 as a personal favor. But that first season made growing heritage grains a passion for him as well, Emma says; he recently renovated his old pole barn into a milling space complete with a tasting room.

Hayden Flour Mills is now working with five farmers growing 20 varieties of heritage grains. In 2014, they grew

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At BKW Farms, three generations of farmers are committed to growing White Sonora wheat. From left: Brian Wong, Ron Wong, and Ralph Wong.

300 acres of grain. With 200 wholesale customers nationally, Hayden Flour Mills can barely keep up with demand. Tucsonans can pick up their flour at Whole Foods, Native Seeds / SEARCH, Time Market, and at some farmers’ markets, or taste it in local restaurants like Zona 78, Gallery of Food, Canyon Ranch, Agustín Kitchen, Proper, Food for Ascension, and Pizzeria Bianco.

In 2014, Hayden Flour Mills was one of nine companies to win Martha Stewart’s American Made contest, showcasing American companies doing innovative work. The award included a $10,000 prize, a trip to New York, and a spread in Martha Stewart Living.

“People just seem to react to eating Marco’s bread, or eating a really good bread,” Emma says. “There’s a lightbulb that goes off. Oh my gosh, this is what bread should taste like. Even me, starting out, I didn’t think about flour. It’s just powder in a bag.

You don’t think about where it comes from. All of a sudden, you think: Why does this taste so good and what is it made of? And you realize, Oh, this is rye or barley; there’s all this amazing diversity behind it. I think it goes back to people tasting the food that is made with these really good ingredients.”

At $10 to $12 for a one and a half pound bag, Hayden’s flour is two to three times as expensive as conventional all-purpose flour. “This used to be something I apologized for,” Emma says.

“But now, I say: Isn’t it amazing that you now get this grain that didn’t even exist in this region five years ago at your Whole Foods? You treat it differently. This is the true cost of flour. We are so out of touch with what food costs.”

Hayden Flour Mills offers educational discounts to schools to make their flour more accessible, and they hope that over time, as heritage grains grow in popularity and infrastructure is established, heritage flour will be available to everyone.

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a road in Marana, past the mid-century steel silos that signal arrival at BKW Farms, fourth-generation farmer Brian Wong points outside his window to the small field that has just been furrowed up, brown dirt piled alongside shallow ditches waiting for seeds to be planted.

This was the very field BKW used to grow its first round of organic White Sonora wheat three years ago.

BKW just celebrated its 75th anniversary but this was its first venture into organic farming and the first time it had grown heritage grains since the Green Revolution. BKW’s main crops are cotton and durum; the wheat is exported in its entirety to Spain. Not a part of the SARE grant, BKW Farms became involved after farmers Ron Wong and Karen Dotson attended the Native Seeds /SEARCH grain school and learned about heritage grains such as White Sonora wheat. They realized that more and more local restaurateurs, brewers, and bakers were becoming interested in local heritage grains, which gave them an opportunity to grow crops that would stay in the local foodshed. iding dow n

Pane Bianco’s Marco Bianco turns White Sonora wheat into delicious desserts and pastries, like this 100% White Sonora wheat Tres Leches cake.

In 2012, they obtained 1,800 pounds of White Sonora seed from Native Seeds / SEARCH’s inventory and planted their first crop of certified organic White Sonora on 15 acres.

For their conventionally grown wheat, they typically get 7,000 pounds an acre.

With ideal weather that initial growing season, their first harvest yielded a total of 40,500 pounds, or 2,700 pounds per acre.

Inside their climate-controlled storage room are the fruits of their harvest: huge white totes holding tons of the small tan berries. Because of their high yield, they were able to donate double the amount they borrowed back to the seed bank.

This year, they will plant two new heritage grains: organic Red Spring and organic Durum White. (They’re also growing barley to be made into beer by local breweries.)

“We know how to grow things,” Wong says. “The biggest problem is not growing but the selling and making sure people want what we are growing.”

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Sierra Bonita Vineyards Join us for our Tucson Tasting Room

Wine Release Party

April 4, 2015, 12-6pm

6720 Camino Principal Live Music Open Thursday-Friday 4-8pm 8pm Saturday-Sunday 12-6pm Tickets are $15/person and include an 296-0674 introduction to our new releases, small bites, and souvenir wine glass. Tickets can be purchased at our Tasting Room or online at eventbrite.com.

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At Native Seeds/SEARCH, Sheryl Joy collects harvested seeds of White Sonora wheat for storage.

At Ramona Farms, Ramona and Terry Button are growing White Sonora wheat not only because of its growing market, but also because of its history. When Schmidt asked the couple to help bring back heritage grains by cleaning White Sonora wheat and Pima Club seed, and growing half of it, they immediately agreed. They planted 15 acres and returned double their yield.

Growing White Sonora wheat fit with Ramona Farms’ commitment to honoring traditional farming done by the Pima Indians. Today, Ramona and her daughter Velvet do outreach on the reservation and teach the importance of reintroducing native crops into modern diets, hoping to instill pride in young people for what their ancestors did to develop agriculture in Arizona.

Terry credits the work of organizations like Native Seeds / SEARCH and individuals like Nabhan and Rea for providing a market for place-based heritage grains. “Health-conscious people are wanting to improve their diets. Native foods are being introduced to high-end restaurants,” he says. “It’s gratifying for us because we think maybe there will be a market. Without a market, we can’t preserve seeds just with seed banks. Seeds have an expiration date. They have to be replotted and grown back and that seed stock needs to be replenished. If we do have a market, we can save these crops. Indian corns, tepary beans, heritage grains—they contain survival qualities we need. If we can preserve diversity in seed stock that have other traits, we could avert famine in the future.”

A

sof t w heat , White Sonora, when ground, crumbles.

The density of the flour makes it challenging when used on its own for bread, which requires more elasticity, but White Sonora is perfect for pastas and pastries. The taste is hearty, fresh, of the earth. Marco Bianco bakes with White Sonora for cookies, biscotti, and tarts. Barrio Bread’s Don Guerra uses 12 percent of the grain in his baguette mix because the soft flour adds contrast to the harder varieties he uses.

In Marco’s kitchen, loaves made of Red Fife and soft wheat are set aside to proof while other oval loaves in the oven have begun to develop a dark brown crust. A historian in the guise of a baker, he knows not only every property of White Sonora wheat but also every detail of its history in the history of farming and milling in Arizona.

Marco likens modern all-purpose flour to having one kind of red wine. While all-purpose flour has good baking properties, bakers have no idea what kinds of grain are being used. “The thing we eat the most, we know the least about,” he says.

He now works with 12 varietals for the assortment of bread, tarts, and pastries he makes for the Bianco restaurants. “If you were growing your own wheat and making bread every day you would start to know the tendencies of that varietal. We lost that.

We’re starting to get it back now,” he says.

Bringing back local heritage grains farmed without the use of chemicals in growing or baking may allow for more people to have access to wheat. Marco says, “It’s really in the last 10 to 12

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Mature White Sonora wheat stalks. Photo by Dena Cowan.

years that there’s been an explosion of people with gluten problems. When the bread is allowed to have a long fermentation, it breaks down the gluten so it is more digestible. In commercial baking, components are added to the bread to mimic the natural fermentation process but do it in less time. Commercial bakers making 10,000 loaves a day want bread to be done in three and half hours, start to finish. It takes 18 to 24 hours for one of my breads.”

And, he says, “If you look at the back of the bread label, there are 25 ingredients you can’t pronounce,” Marco says. “My bread has four ingredients: a sourdough starter made from wild yeast, water, flour, salt.”

No research exists that proves products made with heritage grains are better nutritionally or digestively. Joy Hought says, “There are too many variables: breeding, growing, processing baking.” But anecdotally, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. “People with nonceliac gluten sensitivity who buy our flour to go home and bake with, come back and tell us they didn’t have the reactions they typically have,” Emma Zimmerman says.

Some argue that it is conventional farming techniques rather than fast-track baking that leads to potential allergic reactions in consumers. “My dad had a list of best practices for conventional farming methods for wheat,” Emma says. “It lists 30 chemicals that you spray on that crop. The last one is spraying Roundup so it all dries up uniformly. That [ends up] in the wheat head.”

in the process of bringing back White Sonora wheat to the local foodshed will take credit. Conversations are filled with effusive storytelling about the others involved. Emma Zimmerman credits the Biancos for making space for their mill.

Marco Bianco says Jeff Zimmerman was the spark that got the whole thing going. Chris Bianco praises Glenn Roberts for donating the initial seeds and Gary Nabhan and Chris Schmidt for connecting folks around the SARE grant, which provided much needed money and infrastructure to get the project going. BKW expressed gratitude for the bakers and local brewers, who have been vital in communicating both their support and what they need in their grains.

But everyone is excited about the success of bringing back White Sonora wheat, not only because of its value to our palate and our pantry, but also because in doing so, they have developed a model for bringing back other wheat varieties.

In our modern world, urgency is a part of daily life. We are always on our way somewhere, always checking our devices. We don’t sit still; we don’t have much patience. In a culture in which humans have often attempted to control the land rather than listen to it—where time is commodified rather than respected and honored—returning these heritage grains is a radical act.

“A broken tradition is now revived,” Nabhan says. “We affirmed White Sonora’s value in the very place where Norman Bourlaug won a Nobel Prize for breeding high-yield wheat. It reminds us these things aren’t obsolete.”

Chris Bianco says that everything is about communication and connection. “We’re in the relationship business. We are in relationship with each other, our consumers, our environment,” he says. “I’m just a little raindrop. For this thing to work it’s going to take a big puddle, a pond, and an ocean of change.

We are all a part of change.” ✜ o one involved

Hayden Flour Mills. 480.557.0031. HaydenFlourMills.com.

Native Seeds / SEARCH. 3061 N. Campbell Ave. 520.622.5561. NativeSeeds.org.

BKW Farms. Info@bkwazgrown.com. BKWAZGrown.com.

Ramona Farms. Arizona 87. 520.418.3642.

RamonaFarms.com.

Pane Bianco. 4404 N. Central Ave. 602.234.2100.

PizzeriaBianco.com.

Lisa O’Neill originally hails from New Orleans but has made her second home in the desert, where she writes and teaches writing. Find her online at The Dictionary Project or at lisamoneill.com.

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Discover

T u b a c, A r i z o n a Events in Tubac this spring:

Every Saturday - Guided Walks and Tours at Tumacácori National Historical Park.

March 7 - 19th Annual Lucky Clover 5K Road Race March 13 - Arte de Avian & Poetry in the Wild Opening Reception March 14 - Spring ArtWalk - explore Tubac’s arts scene April 4 - Taste of Tubac - at Tubac Golf Resort April 25 & 26 - Bonanza Days - Tubac’s 3rd annual sidewalk sale

Stay in Tubac

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Explore Tubac USA Today Travel named Tubac 1 of 10 Best Places to Escape the Cold

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Must See Destinations in 2014

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Over 24 art galleries and shops will be open for your delight!

Hors d’oeuvres, refreshments, music, & fun

ArtSeeds - Big Horn Gallery - Bruce Baughman Gallery - Casa Maya de México Cloud Dancer - Cloud 9 - Hozhoni - K. Newby Gallery -La Cucaracha de Tubac Lone Mountain Turquoise Company - Los Cántaros - Mariah’s - Más y Más Old Presidio Traders - Purcell Gallery - Rare Earth - Roberta Rogers Watercolors - Sole Shoes - Southwest Designs - Stone House of Tubac For more information, contact: La Cucaracha de Tubac at (520) 398-3165 or Sweet Poppy at (520) 398-2805

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It’s Not About

the Bread Barrio Bread’s Don Guerra does more than bake slow-fermented, heritage-grain artisan breads — he also cultivates “belongingness.”

By Megan Kimble Photography by Steven Meckler

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G uer r a works alone.

He spends 70 hours a week baking bread in a two-car garage-turned-bakery. His process is slow—the life cycle of a loaf is 24 hours—but his work is quick. He mixes flour into dough, shapes dough into loaf, bakes loaf into bread—time after time, 750 loaves a week. He has the build of an endurance athlete and baking 750 loaves a week—alone—is an endurance sport.

Don Guerra works with people— with farmers and millers, teachers and students, with Arizonans and with bakers from across the world. Twelve hundred people regularly buy loaves from Guerra’s Barrio Bread and he knows all but a handful of their names.

Guerra has one employee supporting his work. He founded Barrio Bread in 2009 and ran it as a one-man show until 2011, when he hired his first employee, Ginger Snider, who now works eight hours a week helping with packaging and distribution.

Guerra has a community supporting his work. When the 44-year-old baker shows up at markets, customers rush over to his van to help him unload baskets full of bread. Two of his neighbors volunteer as delivery drivers.

Others help him distribute at markets.

“A huge part of my success and how I can get so much bread out there is that people want to be a part of the process and lend a hand,” he says.

Don Guerra is a community-supported baker—almost every loaf of bread he makes has been pre-ordered online; he is a baker literally powered by consumer demand. Without a brick-and-mortar storefront, he sells his bread at four schools, one farmers’ market, at the Tucson CSA’s Tuesday and Wednesday pickups, and at River Road Gardens.

Guerra is supported by a community that buys his bread—and Guerra supports his community by envisioning a future for local food that extends far beyond bread. “The bread is a vehicle to connect community,” says Guerra. “To get people to be proud of where they live and invested in their communities.” He pauses. “I guess I say ‘community’ a lot.”

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(Previous page) Sunrise or sunset? Don Guerra makes every loaf of Barrio Bread in his home's garage, which has been converted into a bakery. He's often up at 4 a.m. or baking until midnight. (Above) Guerra works quickly to make slow-fermented bread, rolling out baguettes and shaping loaves.

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T empe , Guerra moved to Tucson to study anthropology at the University of Arizona.

He dropped out after his junior year—“I ran out of money”—and moved to Flagstaff where, by chance, he got a job working the night shift at a bakery. “My first day there, I fell in love with it,” he says. “And that was it.”

He bounced around bakeries, learning from the best and honing his craft. He ended up at Arizona Bread Company, where he baked at night and took business classes at the community college during the day. The business plan for his first bakery was a school project. “I took it to a bank and they said, ‘Yeah, let’s do this,’” he says.

Guerra was 26 years old when he opened the Village Baker in Flagstaff. Business boomed—“We were doing a thousand loaves a day,” he says. One of those loaves was usually claimed by a graduate student named Jen. “We’d chit-chat,” says Don. Eventually, Don and Jen started dating; eventually, she’d move with him to Ashland, Oregon, as he opened a second Village Baker and she finished her master’s degree in special education. By then, Don had all but stopped making bread, consumed instead by running two bakeries in two states.

“We realized that if we wanted to have kids, we needed to figure r iginally from

out a business model that was more conducive to family,” he says. “We missed Arizona. We missed our families. So we said, ‘Let’s go home.’”

In Tucson, Guerra took a break from bread, enrolling instead in the University of Arizona’s College of Education. “I realized that with the bakeries, all I did was teach. I’d trained over a hundred people,” says Guerra. “It was so fascinating to learn about pedagogy, about meta-cognition—learning how people learn.”

He got a job at Miles Elementary teaching math, health, and physical education—in 2009, he was named Arizona’s Elementary Physical Education Teacher of the Year. But he couldn’t stay away from bread. “I loved teaching but the whole time I was dying to be a baker again,” he says. “That was how my wife and I met, and I wanted to be that person again. I thought, If I could just get back to that place, it would all come together.”

So he started making bread on the side; he started selling loaves in the parking lot after school. That model—selling bread at school—would eventually become a central part of Barrio Bread’s business plan. “I chose accounts that fit my lifestyle,” he says. “I designed a business after my life instead of my life after my business.”

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Guerra says that he loves to connect with the community through bread.

Weekly deliveries out of the back of his van are just one way he stays connected.

oday , Guerra bakes bread in the garage of his midtown home—the sweet smell of yeast and grain wafts out the front windows, permeating the air to the street. (The bakery is licensed under Arizona’s Home Baked and Confectionary Goods program.)

Guerra’s day begins at 4 a.m. He bakes until 7 a.m., when he takes a break to wake up his son and daughter, 10 and 12, and get them ready for school—and then it’s back to the bakery, back to the flour, dough, and solitude. “It gets wonky in here sometimes,” he says, smiling and covered in flour.

On Fridays, the day before he sells 200 loaves at the Plaza Palomino farmers’ market, he works from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., takes a break to eat dinner with his family, sleeps for a couple of hours, and is back in the bakery by midnight. The obvious question—“Do you sleep much?”—gets an obvious answer.

“No,” he says, simply. “I’ve never been a big sleeper.

“The thing I like about baking is the physicality of it. It requires physical and mental endurance, plus art and science.”

The bakery is warm, not hot—76 degrees, year-round.

Guerra slides eight Barrio baguettes into the Italian oven that anchors his operation. It’s a deck oven, he says, peering across the 500-degree stone tiles to check on the bread. An exhale of steam lingers around the loaves.

The bakery smells like memory—like the first kitchen you remember; the first restaurant where you earned your first paycheck. It smells like bread, of course, but what does bread really smell like? Yeast and Sunday; honey and home.

“What goes into bread is a lot of intangible things,” says Guerra.

Tangibly, what goes into bread is flour, water, yeast, and salt.

Bread begins with fermented dough and Guerra’s dough begins fermenting by way of a sourdough starter. Made of flour and water, a sourdough starter is how bakers capture and propagate wild yeast; most artisan bakers have what’s called a mother culture, which they take from every time they bake, feeding and growing the culture to source the yeast needed for a batch of bread.

After he cultivates his starter, Guerra combines several flour varieties—say, Red Fife, White Sonora wheat, and Hard Red Spring—into a batch, along with water and salt. The dough “rests” for four hours, which is when it comes to life, as the yeast are activated and start munching through sugars and exhaling carbon dioxide into air pockets—the very process that gives bread its lift.

At this point, the dough is a bundle of creamy smoothness— it is a discrete thing, one you can pick up and shape. Guerra shapes the dough into loaf-sized portions and, after another hour of room-temperature rest, the dough goes into cold storage to proof for another 15 hours before it’s baked. “Slow fermentation—that’s where you get all the benefits,” he says.

Indeed, unlike with commercially produced bread, which goes from flour to loaf in as little as two hours, slow fermentation is the hallmark of artisan bread. During extended fermentation, an enzyme is produced that breaks down phytic acid, a nutrient blocker present in the outer layer of bran that can prevent a grain’s nutrients from being absorbed into the body.

Long fermentation develops flavor and texture; it creates a stable pH and increases shelf life. Hours of fermentation allow yeast and other bacteria to break down gluten—the protein that gives dough its elasticity—into smaller components that are more easily digested.

“The process is everything,” says Guerra. “People have been eating poorly processed grain. I could take a semi-decent grain and turn it into a great loaf because of my process.”

The fermentation is slow; the transformation, sudden. Flour, water, salt, yeast. Flour water salt yeast. Flourwatersaltyeast.

Bread. Disparate ingredients cohere into one sustaining unit.

It is poetic. (Pablo Neruda: “Then life itself will have the shape of bread, deep and simple, immeasurable and pure.”) But there is also something so not poetic, not abstract nor artistic, about a loaf of bread—it is one of the most tangible things there is. Don Guerra is an artisan baker, but he is also just one producer in a web of producers that make up our local food system.

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A student at Second Street Children's School snags one of Guerra's “Epi” breads, shaped to look like the head of a wheat stalk.

Lines form wherever Guerra appears and students jump into action to help him unload his van. He often pays volunteers in loaves of bread.

“I

see D on ’ s entrepreneurial capacity as extending beyond Barrio Bread,” says Matt Mars, an assistant professor in the UA’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. “He has a vision for the whole local food system, one based on collaboration and community.” Struck by this vision, Mars spent two months interviewing Guerra, summarizing his findings in a case study called “From Bread We Build Community," soon to be published in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development.

“From a purely entrepreneurial perspective, what’s brilliant about Don’s model is that he never has inventory. He always knows how much to make, and how much is going to be sold and who is going to buy it,” says Mars.

Another brilliance is folding fickle customers directly into the business—which, in turn, embeds the business in customers' lives. Rather than buy an artisan loaf once in a while, when they’re in their “artisan bread phase,” says Mars, customers return to Barrio Bread regularly—“it’s part of their routine.

They’ve met Don, they get how he works, so they value the bread more.” It’s precisely this sense of value that Guerra is trying to export to other facets of the local food system—the value he’s working to collect and cohere into a local food identity.

“Local food systems tend to struggle with this, bringing cohesion to a system and a supply chain that is otherwise fragmented and not very well articulated,” says Mars. “Don is a connector, a hub. That’s a special ingredient in a local food system—someone who can transcend their own business to understand that the local system is stronger when competition is put aside. Someone who can pull everyone along the supply chain together under a common vision that is relevant to the community.”

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is a narrative—it has a beginning, middle, and end. Seed to farm, grain to mill, baker to buyer.

“When you open the garage door to his bakery, it’s palpable—you see the beginning, middle, and end,” says Pizzeria Bianco's Chris Bianco. “The bread comes from wheat that comes from a good place and good people.”

Since Guerra met Chris Bianco in 2012—since Gary Nabhan first introduced him to White Sonora wheat; since he met Jeff and Emma Zimmerman of Hayden Flour Mills, Steve Sossaman of Sossaman Farms, and Brian and Ralph Wong of BKW Farms—he’s become an integral part of a collaboration between farmers, millers, bakers, and seed savers working to bring native and heritage grains back to southern Arizona farms and tables. As farmers have learned how to grow heritage grains and millers learned how to process it, Guerra has had to figure out how to make bread from that which is harvested locally.

“The challenge in working with local wheat is variability,” says Guerra. “We all learned about it together. What can you do with this variety? Well, let’s try it and see what it does.

“Every bag of flour is different,” he says. “Baking with local grains offers some good life skills. If you push too hard on something, it’s going to push back. If you push too hard, it’s going to shut down.”

Guerra estimates that 100 of his 750 weekly loaves are made with local grains. Part of the challenge is the price point— Guerra is committed to providing his community with affordable food, which means he has to take the loss when he prices a loaf of heritage grain bread at $5.50. (He hasn’t raised his prices from $4 to $5 a loaf in four years, even when the price of a bag of high-quality organic flour has more than tripled since supply chain

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he started baking.) “I’m growing a strong root system, so that when I need to change, the community will be there for me,” he says.

Chris Bianco made every pizza he served at his famous Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix for 17 years. “There’s a vulnerability there,” says Bianco. “Say you’re a professional athlete.

There will be a day that comes when you won’t be able to run as fast and jump as high.

How can you still serve your craft? What will you leave behind?”

For Guerra, the answer is education.

He teaches community baking classes and weekend workshops for adults; he worked with Avalon Organic Gardens to help them develop their bread program; he teaches seedto-loaf classes at Tucson Village Farm for kids. (“There are always two kids out of 60 who are going to be bakers,” Guerra says. “They come up to me at the end of class and say, ‘I’ve figured it out.’”)

“I want more people to make a good loaf themselves,” he says. “And I want the business to grow organically. If I can get more people making good bread, maybe they’ll come back and work for me someday.”

Guerra has traveled across the world to teach other bakers about his business model— the idea of a community-supported baker is exportable to other communities, he says. The idea of entrepreneurial leadership driving food system change is replicable in other locales.

But for now, when he’s at home, Guerra focuses on the craft. For now, he loves the solitude. As his kids become independent teenagers—as they move out of the house and into the world—he’ll think about doing the same. For now, “I love that my hands are in every loaf,” he says. “When I’m in here alone, I can really just laser focus on the craft.”

It’s all about the bread. And it’s not really about the bread. It’s about the craft—but really, it’s about the community. “I want to be a village baker in all senses of that term,” Guerra says. “People want to belong. I want to do more than just live here—I want to belong.

The local food movement makes me belong to a local tribe. Maybe that’s why we’re so fanatical about it. Taste, sure, but belongingness.”

“I might make a loaf with Hayden’s Red Fife,” says Guerra, “and it smells like dirt, like soil, like dust. It smells like Arizona.” ✜ Visit BarrioBread.com.

Bright light, local bread: Guerra is all smiles after a morning lining up loaves in the bakery's storage carts.

Megan Kimble is the managing editor of Edible Baja Arizona. Follow along on Twitter @megankimble.

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PlazaPalomino.com Come stroll the promenade and also visit Plaza Palomino’s additional merchants including Abstrax Hair & Day Salon, Dark Star Leather, Jackson Tavern, La Contessa Boutique, La Placita Café, Premiere Piano, and T & R Design Fine Jewelry.

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BUZZ

Slaking Tucson’s Thirst Nanobreweries are on the rise in the Old Pueblo —and there’s no shortage of thirsty customers.

By Kati Standefer | Photography by Dominic AZ Bonuccelli

O

a Wednesday night in January at Pueblo Vida Brewing Company, there’s only one stool left at the bar. A big group fans out at one of the long blonde wood tables in back, laughing; a couple chats quietly beside the brick wall, resting their drinks on a glossy reclaimed ceiling-beam-turned-counter.

Outside, two bald men in winter coats pass by. They slow and then stop, peering through the glass storefront. It’s clear they’ve never been here before.

The latest in a wave of small microbreweries to launch in Tucson, Pueblo Vida has been open just three months, and business is already booming. “We’re so lucky to be downtown,” says founder Kyle Jefferson, who started the business with his girlfriend, Linette Antillon. “We didn’t even have a sign up. Someone etched our window, so I had to put something up, but we’ve done zero advertising.” n

(Left) Connie Wick, the mother of Kyle Jefferson from Pueblo Vida, holds a glass of winter seasonal coffee brown.

(Right) From left: Pueblo Vida's Bavarian Hefeweizen; 1055's XOXO Coffee Stout; Pueblo Vida's IPA.

Making seven barrels per batch, Pueblo Vida has started off bigger than many in its brewery cohort. One-year-old Sentinel Peak Brewing began using a 1.5-barrel brewing system, although it has since upgraded to a six-barrel brewhouse. Two-yearold Ten Fifty-Five Brewing uses a three-barrel system, and Iron John’s Brewing Company is the most nano of the nanobreweries, brewing just two barrels at a time.

If the term nanobrewery isn’t familiar, don’t despair—even in brewing circles, the definition is debated. Microbreweries are more clearly defined: According to the Brewers Association, microbreweries produce less than 15,000 barrels each year, and must not be more than 24 percent owned by another alcoholic beverage company.

(A barrel is equal to two kegs, or 31 gallons, or 124 pints of beer.)

Nanobreweries are the smallest of these. While a widely accepted definition puts nanobreweries at

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J. P. Vyborny (left) and Chris Squires (right) toast a Leap Pale Ale in the tasting room of Ten Fifty-Five Brewing.

three-barrel production or smaller, some brewers continue to use the nano designation even as they expand.

Why start as a nanobrewery? The answer is often practical: It’s less risk. The nano size requires a smaller investment—a smaller warehouse space, smaller tanks, fewer employees.

There’s less ingredient investment in each batch. It is, as Tucson brewers repeatedly told me, just “glorified homebrewing.”

“This is the size to get going,” says Ten Fifty-Five’s John Paul Vyborny, gesturing to the entrance of his taproom, which features a small seating area and a brightly chalked blackboard listing current beers. Like most brewers in town, Vyborny and his co-founder, Chris Squires, began as home brewers. Behind the wood taps and cash register, tanks gleam. “Raise the brand, brew good beer,” Vyborny says.

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Pueblo Vida’s tiny ver at S entinel storefront on Broadway Peak, co-founder makes it seem like a naTaylor Carter is nobrewery. But it’s not. in the business of convert“We’re closer to a micro ing cheap beer drinkers to than we are to a nano,” Jefcraft brew. “We have peoferson says. ple on a daily basis that have Jefferson’s gamble to open never had craft beer before,” with a higher production Carter says. “Tucson’s slow volume is not just a shot in to catch up with everywhere the dark. It’s grounded in the else; it’s an untapped market.” market. “Tucson’s thirsty,” He says many people don’t Jefferson said. “I hear people realize the difference between say all the time there’s so many big cheap beers and craft beer breweries, and there really ar“is like the difference between en’t.” Ninety-eight percent of all crappy box wine and a fine aged beer sold in Arizona is still made Pinot Noir.” out of state, he reminded me.

Whether it’s due to crossover But the consumer trend overall customers or the same beeris to buy local, which means the thirsty crowd reared on estabaudience for craft beer—and his lished breweries like Dragoon, in particular—is rapidly growing.

Nimbus, and Barrio, so far these According to Rob Fullmer, the new brewers’ projections have executive director of the Aribeen spot-on: business is good. zona Craft Brewers Guild, 11 Sentinel Peak had to shut new microbreweries opened in down for three weeks when they Arizona in 2014—up from just first opened because they ran two or three in 2013. And the out of beer. Ten Fifty-Five has more established microbrewbeen selling out since four eries are operating at full tilt. months in. And at Iron John’s, Borderlands Brewery, which Adkisson says, “Lately we’ve started on a three-barrel system, been blowing out in 10 days.” expanded into a 20-barrel system If you’re thinking that a boomTaylor Carter at Sentinel Peak drinks his Icebreak IPA between 2013 and 2014. Dragoon ing market means fierce compein front of the art wall of shipping palettes branded with has amped up its fermentation catition between Tucson’s nano and Kickstarter contributors that helped launch the brewery. pacity to 255 barrels. Barrio runs a microbrewers, think again. “It’s not 30-barrel brewhouse. competitive from brewery to brewery,” Jefferson says. “We all “You look at other great beer cities in the nation—there are support each other. I want to see them be successful.” sixty breweries in Denver, two hundred in the state,” Vyborny In fact, the relationship can be downright cozy. On the day I says. “I think we’re just at an earlier point on the same trajectovisit Ten Fifty-Five, Vyborny hops in his car and has me follow ry,” adds co-founder and general manager Chris Squires. him downtown to Pueblo Vida, where he and Kyle offer me a “So you guys think there’s room for more breweries?” I ask. taste of a fermenting Double IPA they recently brewed togeth“At least thirty,” Vyborny says, grinning. er. (“It’s still hot,” Vyborny says. “It’s still boozy. I’m thinkin’ 10 148 March - April 2015

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more days in here until it gets bright.” Jefferson winces.

“I need the space, man,” he says. We all laugh—it’s a good problem to have.)

Vyborny says Tucson’s older microbreweries have paved the way for new businesses like Ten Fifty-Five, which helps keep any competition in perspective. “Because Dragoon has sold so well,” he says, “restaurants are willing to put other local beers on tap. Dragoon sets the bar. It helps the whole beer community.”

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ith sales so good ,

the question, becomes whether or not to expand—and how.

At Sentinel Peak Brewing, the initial business plan included a goal to expand within two years.

But “we outgrew ourselves way too fast,” Carter says.

Just a year after opening, the brewery, located at Grant and Swan, is poised to take over the space next door by mid-February. After knocking out a side wall, they’ll upgrade to a 10-barrel brewing system with 20-barrel fermenters. They’ll also expand onto the sidewalk with a full patio, planters, and roll-up glass garage doors.

“When we started this we did not just want to be a small guy,” says Carter. “The sky is the limit at this point. We have quite a few people who would like to back us at this point and go pretty big.” He sees Sentinel Peak becoming one of the bigger regional craft beers, more widely distributed, like SanTan Brewing Company in Chandler. But Carter also sees the nanobrewery stage as inevitable. “You gotta walk before you can run.”

Ten Fifty-Five, too, sees its current operations as laying the groundwork for what’s next. “When we decided to open a brewery, we planned around distribution—to get ourselves into as many restaurants as possible,” Squires says. But the ultimate goal has always been to open a brewpub downtown, with “a restaurant and great beer.” When Vyborny left his job in the IT world to pursue his dream with Squires, he worked for a year in the kitchen of Zona 78 on Tanque Verde to gain some baseline knowledge.

“We’re foodies as well,” Vyborny says. “Now we have a broker looking around downtown. We’re raising money.”

From top: A new jargon. A wort grant moves wort—or unfermented beer—from the mash to the brew kettle. A broiler at Sentinel Peak heats the grain mash. Ten Fifty-Five’s boil kettle brews beer for an hour, before hops are added. A blow-off line at Iron John’s releases carbon dioxide into a bucket of sanitizer solution.

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1702's Austin Santos gives his daughter, Margo, a tour of the back brewing room.

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s a nanobr ewery ,

then, just the first step in the microbrewery life cycle? Or are there reasons to stay small?

For 1702, the limit’s well defined: It’s the law.

“We didn’t think it would be possible to brew because of our zoning requirements,” Austin Santos tells me, seated at the bar of his pizza and beer shop on a gauzy winter day, wearing what seems to be the brewer’s uniform: a collared, button-down, short-sleeved workshirt, this one a darkish blue-gray with an Odell logo. (Vyborny calls Santos “Tucson’s Beer Visionary.”

Squires says he’s like “John Wayne slash The Dude.”)

After looking for other locations to brew, in 2011 Santos found a loophole that allowed brewing at the current restaurant site. “It can’t be my primary business, or take up more than 25 percent of the business area,” he said. Since Santos likes to have control over his product—“no outside distribution,” he says—this works fine.

1702 keeps 64 draughts on tap and sells other beers in their new bottle shop—which means Santos is keenly aware of the recent explosion in availability of craft beers from all parts of the country. His commitment is to brewing what’s not yet available, including his wife’s favorite, an Elysian Jasmine IPA. “We’re still just trying to brew what friends, employees want to drink,” Santos said. But if he had the tank space, he’d be brewing all the time.

In some ways, the restaurant’s focus on pizza and others’ beer is freeing, Santos says. Although he recently expanded capacity by purchasing Borderlands’ three-barrel brewhouse with seven-barrel fermentation tanks, “We’re not reliant on selling

our obscure weird beer. It’s not the end of the world for us if it doesn’t work out.” Perhaps this freedom is part of why Santos is less excited about the prospect of Tucson breweries growing up.

“Tucson’s not saturated with small breweries; it’s saturated with large-distribution breweries,” Santos says. He believes there’s room in the market for more brewpubs and storefronts—but not more breweries whose primary goals include extensive distribution. “I hope it scales down. I hope it does go down to nano size and we’re not always trying to outdo each other,” Santos says. He misses the excitement that came with visiting breweries in other cities to drink beer that wasn’t available back home. “I still feel kinda dirty putting Goose Island on [1702’s tap]. These used to be small companies, but they’re all getting so big. Do you really need your product to be everywhere?”

To Santos, the answer to the growing demand for craft beer is simply more breweries—and of greater variety. “I’d like to see one to three more nanobrewers popping up that are neighborhood watering holes,” he says. He says that there are new brewers starting up near Marana, in an area of town that’s underserved—Catalina Brewing Company and Button Brew House. (BlackRock Brewers raised over $5,500 via Kickstarter in June to support its production facility and tasting room in east Tucson.) And, while most of us don’t currently equate craft beer with pool tables and late night hours, “It’d be nice to have dive bar breweries, to be able to walk home from the local breweries,” Santos says. “This is where much of the unconverted potential exists, for craft beer to gain a new audience.”

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I hadn ’ t gone looking for Iron John’s, I would never have noticed it, tucked in an inconspicuous industrial plaza just south of Broadway, off Plumer. The most nano of the nano, Iron John’s bottle shop is modest: one big glass case of bottled brew, some memorabilia (I’m partial to the “DAMN GOOD BEER” snifters), a few stools at a wood counter, and a smiling tap room employee with an iPad register.

Iron John’s doesn’t have a liquor license, so this isn’t a taproom for tasting. With the exception of a few rare kegs headed to places like Tap & Bottle, Iron John’s sells only bottles—the big 750 mL resealable kind, which you can return to the brewery for a $1 refund. “We’re trying to sell beer like wine,” co-founder John Adkisson tells me, “get it into table service.”

Iron John’s strategy is in many ways the opposite of other breweries in town. “We’re aiming to create a limited release frenzy,” Adkisson says. They brew in two-barrel batches just f

once a week, on Mondays, with new beers hitting the bottle shop on Thursdays, and in Adkisson’s ideal world, customers would make it a part of their weekly schedule to swing by on Thursdays to snag new releases before they sell out.

Because when an Iron John’s beer is gone, it’s gone.

“At first we didn’t know if there would be enough people who appreciated this ethos,” Adkisson says, laughing. “We thought maybe we would just be making people angry.”

Still, there’s incentive to expand—cost. “Capacity is what holds us down now,” Adkisson says. Since it’s roughly the same labor to brew on bigger set-ups, “On big units, there’s just less labor per beer.”

The brewery plans to take over the 1,200-square-foot unit next door later this summer. Though he and his partner, John Markley, have discussed adding a distillery, as of now the tentative plan is simply to move the fermentation room and double their capacity, adding Wednesdays as a brew day.

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Iron John’s John Adkisson holds a handful of belottas, Emory oak acorns, native to Sonora desert foothills; they're used in the brewery's Mole Stout and Nut Brown Ale.

Even with an expansion, he says, he can’t imagine settling into flagship beers. To Adkisson, that would defeat the purpose.

“I’m a barley artist,” he says, putting his hands up. “It’s an art.

It’s an art that gets consumed. I’m only as good as the next beer.

The last beer was great, but what is the next beer?”

Perhaps I’m just buying into the “barley artist” thing, but hanging out with Adkisson feels more like touring a gallery with a maestro than hanging out in a brewery. (Indeed, he tells me he sometimes jolts awake at 3 a.m. with a new beer recipe.)

“Five years ago I thought I’d done everything I’d ever do. Now I’m so excited. I’ve got a list of projects.” He’s working on a traditional American lager with hydrated masa, a local blue corn. He shows me Ziploc bags of coffee beans, a varietal called Monsooned Malabar that Raging Sage saved for him, which he’ll use to brew an Imperial Stout. “They leave [the beans] on this concrete floor in India through monsoon season,” Adkisson

tells me, his eyes gleaming. It’s expensive, he says, and rare. “It just makes the biggest difference.”

His freezer is full of bulging bags of Willcox peaches, pitted and frozen, and Palo Santo woodchips that a brewer from Ecuador gave him, to finish a chocolate porter. Adkisson picks up a glass jar of bellotas, Emory oak acorns, which he plans to combine with mesquite pods for a local Nut Brown. He has a French Saison with prized Geisha coffee from Yellow Brick Coffee on the schedule; so, too, a re-brewing of his mesquite-roasted green chile ale. He recently brewed a pairing beer for Zona 78’s farm-to-table dinner, featuring—get this—pigs fattened on his own brewery’s waste grain.

The one that haunts me is a French ale finished with creosote flowers. “What happens when you pour the beer,” Adkisson says, his eyes glowing, “is it smells like a rain coming across the desert.”

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that Iron John’s is the only brewery experimenting with delicately paired flavors or local ingredients. 1702 and Dragoon recently brewed a 13.2% ABV Imperial Porter using tequila barrels from Mexico; Ten Fifty-Five collaborates with Exo Roast Company on the light-bodied 4.6% XOXO Stout that is “more like an iced coffee—so you can drink it in the summer,” says Vyborny. In fact, one could say this kind of experimentation, collaboration, and local focus is a hallmark of craft brewing today, in nanobrewing especially. Ten Fifty-Five’s Squires sees this as a natural alignment of beer with a parallel movement: local food. “The local food movement has really helped,” Squires says. “There’s extra interest in heritage ingredients.”

In part, this is why Squires and Vyborny have been “on a quest since October” to localize further.

The main ingredients for their beer—barley, wheat, and hops—come from outside the state and even Canada, and though they recently tried to brew with feed barley from the San Xavier Coop Farm, it didn’t work out. Now they’re working with BKW Farms in Marana, which is planting some malting barley for spirits and beer.

“It’s a big step,” says Vyborny.

BKW Farms first began serving the craft beer industry in 2013, when it planted its initial crop of White Sonoran wheat for Dragoon. Since then, they’ve increased the acreage each year, supplying Dragoon’s growing lineup of brews, as well as Borderlands, Ten Fifty-Five, Sentinel Peak, and Perch Pub & Brewery out of Chandler. According to Karen Dodson at BKW, the farm is the “only grower of USDA Certified Organic White Sonora wheat— maybe the only grower in the U.S.” Now, they’re expanding into barley. Most of what is grown in this area is feed barley, which (as Ten Fifty-Five found) isn’t ideal for brewing. So in late December, BKW planted 40 acres of malting barley for Dragoon, Ten Fifty-Five, and Hamilton Distillery. The barley won’t be certified organic, but at this point the breweries say they’re more concerned with sourcing locally than the organic designation. After 76 years in Marana, Dodson says the 4,000-acre farm has “grown everything”—so if the local beer market continues to grow, they’re happy to plant more.

Down in Willcox, too, Carlson Creek Vineyards has planted two acres of hops for Ten Fifty-Five.

“The main thing is to know your farmer,” says Squires. “That’s where we’re behind in the beer movement.” Ten Fifty-Five’s end goal, the founders say, is to brew a beer made from 100 percent Arizona ingredients by November.

At Pueblo Vida, Jefferson’s on the same track.

“The trend I see is local ingredients,” he says. “The trend is toward organic. My plan is to use all organic at some point, when we can phase into that.” hich is not to say

Wine barrels in the basement at 1702.

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(Left) The crew at Iron John’s (from back to front): Brian Dougherty, Anna Jackson, John Adkisson, John Markley. (Right) Pueblo Vida's Linette Antillon enjoys a taste of community; the Mic Drop Double IPA is a product of a Pueblo Vida and Ten Fifty-Five collaboration

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s i ’ m pr epar ing to leave Iron John’s, Adkisson tells me the story of Iron John. It’s an old German folk tale that’s been retold—by the Grimm Brothers, among others— for thousands of years. Though the story is full of twists and turns, it centers on a child’s decision to unlock a cage holding a wild man, who, though intimidating, becomes the boy’s longterm teacher, ushering him into adulthood.

Adkisson says the tale, at its heart, is “about growing up, becoming the person you are supposed to be. The choice to use the key is a necessary first step.

“For me, brewing was that right place in my life,” Adkisson says. “The time is right, the place is right.”

Perhaps—as formerly empty storefronts fill with new taps, as brewers collect local acorns and order bigger tanks, as nanobreweries spring up in untouched parts of town—we can say the same for Tucson. ✜

Pueblo Vida Brewing Company. 115 E. Broadway Blvd.

520.623.7168. PuebloVidaBrewing.com.

Ten Fifty-Five Brewing. 3810 E. 44th St. 520.461.8073.

1055Brewing.com.

Sentinel Peak Brewing. 4746 E. Grant Road. 520.777.9456.

SentinelPeakBrewing.com.

1702. 1702 E. Speedway Blvd. 520.325.1702. 1702az.com.

Iron John’s Brewing Company. 245 S. Plumer Ave. 520.775.1727. IronJohnsBrewing.com.

Kati Standefer writes from Exo Roast Company and teaches community writing classes from her kitchen table in Tucson.

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no girly BEer A local chapter of the national Girls Pint Out brings women into the Tucson craft brewing scene.

By Kati Standefer | Photography by Liora K

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o a G ir l s couTs coordinator, a Spanish professor, and a policy intern walk into a bar.

No? How about an ICU nurse, a stay-at-home mom, and an ad agency production manager? An entrepreneur, a medical malpractice paralegal, and a JoAnn Fabrics store team leader?

It’s a typical gathering of the Tucson chapter of Girls Pint Out (GPO). As a national organization, GPO aims to create community among women who love craft beer; in Tucson, the group has garnered nearly 700 “Likes” on Facebook and runs at least two events each month.

On this particular Saturday morning in December, the Girl Scouts coordinator, et al., and I are standing around Barrio Brewing Company at 8 a.m. in rubber rainboots, jeans, and hoodies, drinking coffee and eating doughnuts with pink frosting. We’re here to brew an Imperial Stout, so it seems fitting that the Catalina Mountains are draped in dark blue cloud.

Within an hour, rain begins to fill potholes in the parking lot, pouring off the brewpub gutters. By then, we’re up on a catwalk scooping oats into the mash; by then, we’re sipping cold beers.

Why are we here, at 8 a.m. on a Saturday? Because in most stories about craft beer, including those told in Tucson, there tend to be a whole lot of bearded men with black-rimmed glasses—and not many women. And GPO is out to change that.

Founders Sarah Ritchie and Victoria Parridgen met on Untappd, an app that allows beer lovers to check into bars, rate brews, and meet each other. One night in early September 2013, after Ritchie had just “been dumped for the first time,” she and Parridgen got together for a “breakup beer” at 1702.

The friendship was immediate; their shared passion for building community around beer, clear. They started Tucson’s GPO in late October 2013, with a vision of creating a space where women who love beer could come together without their male counterparts to learn about and enjoy craft brews.

Since then, GPO has toured all but a few breweries in town.

This fall, GPO journeyed to Willcox to pick local apples—then baked apple pies and threw them into the mash at Ten Fifty-Five Brewing for an Apple Pie Saison. (Never fear—they saved a pie to eat together, too.) When the beer arrived at Tap & Bottle, GPO celebrated with a release party.

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The Girls Pint Out gang gathers at Tap & Bottle. Top, from left: Victoria Parridgen, Eva Jane Chartier, Sarah Ritchie, Jennifer O'Connor, Jessie Jean Zugerman, Bonnie Machen, Reina Ravago, Niki Hoffman, and Rebecca Safford (with baby Eleanor Safford).

“There’s no significant others to worry you’ll ask a stupid question around,” says Ritchie. “We want everyone to come and feel comfortable.”

There’s no one better to run a women’s craft beer group than Sarah Ritchie. After working as a mattress salesperson for almost 14 years, Ritchie left security for passion. She now works a host of beer-related jobs: She’s the events director at Borderlands and the people coordinator at Tap & Bottle (until owner Rebecca Safford returns from maternity leave), and she formerly worked as the Tucson account manager for Pitcher of Nectar Distributing. Known locally as “Craft Beer Betty,” Ritchie also volunteers as a board member of Craft Tucson, and was the previous chair and board member of the Greater Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce. In short, she knows everyone, which makes coordinating GPO events a breeze.

Today’s brewing date is an important one for GPO regular Jennifer O’Connor. She’s the aforementioned production manager, but she’s also on the board of a nonprofit called Wings for Women, which will receive the proceeds from the Girls Pint Stout that we’re brewing today. “A lot of women out there don’t fit into the parameters of women-oriented charities—they’re not addicts, they’re not victims of domestic violence,” O’Connor says.

Wings for Women helps catch those who slip through the cracks, who are often homeless women and their children, who

are referred by agencies like the Salvation Army. “The program is not government subsidized,” O’Connor says, “so we’re not limited in the way we can help.” Wings For Women has helped buy students’ uniforms, pay the electric bill, adopt wish-lists for Christmas, and provide an apartment deposit. Today, the friendships women have made at GPO will be building community in a more literal way.

Just before lunch, I ask the women their favorite local beers. Their answers are diverse: Barrio’s Mocha Java Stout.

Ten Fifty-Five's XOXO Stout. Dragoon’s IPA. Borderlands’ Noche Dulce. They roll their eyes at the idea that men drink beer and women drink wine. “This is why people need to understand that there is no beer gender,” Ritchie says. “There is no girly beer.”

O’Connor laughs. “I was a Coors Light and Corona girl,” she says. But her boyfriend used to be the head brewer at Nimbus, and when she tried new beers with him, everything changed. “I wonder if he thinks he created a monster. My Coors Light and Corona has been replaced by a Blonde,” O’Connor says.

Then there’s a silence as we eat. “Daydrinking is my favorite,” someone else says, mouth full of breadbowl, and everyone at the table laughs as the rain comes down outside. ✜ Barrio Brewing donated $925 in Girls Pint Stout proceeds to Wings for Women in January.

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el centro comercial hispano

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Arizona Beer Bill

ARIZONA CRAFT BREWER’S GUILD is hoping to pass some changes to SB 1030, dubbed the Arizona Beer Bill, with the help of Senator Kelli Ward of Lake Havasu, Legislative District 5. Under the current law, a brewery loses its special status as a microbrewery after reaching 40,000 barrels of beer per year, which means it must reclassify itself as a producer and is unable to hold any retail licenses. The end result is that microbreweries that find success will be forced to shut down their restaurants and tasting rooms—often their main source of income to subsidize the actual beer production and distribution.

The proposed changes will allow a microbrewery to obtain up to seven retail licenses until it hits the 40,000-barrel cap.

After that, it cannot gain any more but can keep its existing licenses. Tristan White of Dragoon Brewery assured us that its production is nowhere near the barrel cap but it is still defending the law as necessary for the health of Arizona’s craft breweries. In the past, most laws that affect the industry have had little to no input from the industry itself, so negotiations around SB 1030 seem to be a coming of age moment for the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild—a time to band together and try to achieve change in the best interests of Arizona’s future as a microbrew haven. The bill has support from countless breweries and multiple distributors but is finding major opposition in the form of the Arizona Wine and Spirits Wholesale Association, an organization made of the big three liquor distributors in the state: Young’s Market Company, Southern Wine and Spirits, and Alliance Beverage Distributing. The Guild urges people to show their support by signing the petition at AzBeerBill.com and reaching out to their state senators in support of the changes to SB 1030. he

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Tucson Hop Shop

in which Tucson has embraced all things craft beer may seem out of control but there are still major areas of town that remain underserved.

Although Noble Hops has made a dent in the vacuum of Northwest Tucson’s beer scene, Tucson Hop Shop, an upcoming project by husband-and-wife team David and Jessie Zugerman, will provide another much needed break from the endless chain-restaurant draught programs. The Zugermans started their shared love of beers while attending the University of Oregon; their early drinking years were influenced by the Pacific craft-beer culture.

They both found “normal” careers after college but have returned to their love of beer.

They say they haven’t secured a location yet, although they suggested we keep a lookout at Ina and Shannon. Their plans for the Tucson Hop Shop already sound exciting.

Early ideas include an extensive rotating handle list, an on ⁄off premise retail bottle selection, and a dedicated selection of homebrew goods.

Finally—somewhere to buy double-fermented, Italian oak-barrel aged sour beers other than Tap & Bottle! he r apid pace

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115 Railview Ave., Willcox, AZ www.carlsoncreek.com

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Connor’s Sundays @ Scott Connor Mansanger, Scott & Co. mixologist alumnus, became part of the Tucson bartending diaspora when he left town to work in the promised land of Portland, Oregon, a few years ago. After tending bar at the highly acclaimed Woodsman Tavern, he moved to New York City where he continued to build his impressive resume at the Long Island Bar in Brooklyn. With an impressive bartending pedigree in hand, Mansanger has returned to Tucson with one thing in mind: to run a dive bar.

Since The Buffet has no management positions available, he is installing a pop-up bar inside of Scott & Co., featuring a selection of house shots, a selection of cold beer, and Kyuss’ greatest hits playing on the stereo. Stop by for some day drinking and stoner rock every Sunday with an overqualified mixologist in a tank top. Scott & Co. 47 N. Scott Ave. 520.624.4747. 47Scott.com.

Maguey Pechuga mezcal bottle, Hans Reisetbauer’s Austrian plum brandy, Schlichte Steinhäger German dry gin, and Japan’s Nikka Coffey Grain corn whisky. Visiting on Fridays can be difficult because the store doubles as a check-cashing location but the trip to the Southside is worth it. Buy some of Liquor Dan’s chicharrones and stock up on tax-labelled Armagnac. Liquor Dan. 6121 S. Sixth Ave. 520.294.4313. LiquorDan.com. ✜ Bryan Eichhorst is a native Tucsonan, unapologetic sommelier, dedicated evangelist of Oaxacan mezcal, and the beverage director at Penca.

Liquor Dan

For the size of our town, Tucson has an enviable number of independently owned liquor stores.

Sometimes it takes a bit of work to find them but each one has something special hiding on their shelves that makes the search worth it. Liquor Dan, located at Bilby Road and Sixth Avenue, sports some of the most in-depth liquor selections in the city.

Although the big box booze shops probably have more bottles, Liquor Dan has gleaned a selection of hard to find, out of production, and rare bottles that takes hours of window shopping to fully enjoy. On a recent search through the padlocked plexiglass windows lining the liquor shelves, I was able to find an original wax-top Del

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SONOITA/ELGIN & TOMBSTONE WINE MAP To Tuc s

on/Ph

Exit #281

oenix

To New M

exico

6.3 Mi. 1

Sonoita

83

1 km

2

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gal

Lower Elgin Rd. Phoenix

5m a (1 i n o tag to Pa

6

Tombstone

83

th S

Elgin ford

St.

80

12

Note: Many roads have been omitted for clarity.

1 2 3

CHARRON VINEYARDS

18585 S. Sonoita Hwy, Vail 520-762-8585 CharronVineyards.com Fri–Sun: 10-6

DOS CABEZAS WINEWORKS 3248 Hwy 82, Sonoita 520-455-5141 DosCabezasWineworks.com Thurs–Sun: 10:30-4:30

AZ HOPS & VINES

3450 Hwy 82, Sonoita 888-569-1642 AZHopsAndVines.com Thurs: 11-4, Fri-Sun: 10-6

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4 5

HANNAH’S HILL

3989 State Hwy 82, Elgin 520-456-9000 HannahsHill.com

By Appointment Only

WILHELM FAMILY VINEYARDS

21 Mtn. Ranch Dr., Elgin 520-455-9291 WilhelmVineyards.com Oct–April: Daily 11-5 May–Sept: Fri – Sun 11-5 Mon-Thurs by Appointment

6 7 8

11

N5 Saf

To Bi sbee (25 min. )

14

Elgin

t.

t.

t.

13

St.

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th S

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llen

10

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80

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9

8

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45 min. to Sonoita via Hwy 82 75 min. to Tucson via I-10 3 hours to Phoenix via I-10

7

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Tucson

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Elgin Rd.

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From this exit: 2.5 Hours to Phoenix 30 minutes to Tucson 30 minutes to Sonoita

RANCHO ROSSA VINEYARDS 32 Cattle Ranch Ln., Elgin 520-455-0700 RanchoRossa.com Fri–Sun: 10:30-3:30

CALLAGHAN VINEYARDS 336 Elgin Road, Elgin 520-455-5322 CallaghanVineyards.com Thurs–Sun: 11-4

FLYING LEAP VINEYARDS 342 Elgin Road, Elgin 520-954-2935 FlyingLeapVineyards.com Daily: 11-4

9

KIEF-JOSHUA VINEYARDS

370 Elgin Road, Elgin 520-455-5499 KiefJoshuaVineyards.com Daily: 11-5

10 V471 Elgin Road,EElgin ILLAGE OF

LGIN

520-455-9309 ElginWines.com Daily: 11-5

To Ft. Huachuca (50 min.)

Sierra Vista (1 hr.)

12 L2368 Hwy 83,RElgin IGHTNING

CELLARS

IDGE

520-455-5383 LightningRidgeCellars.com Fri-Sun: 11-4

W W 13 T15 N 4th St, Tombstone OMBSTONE

INE

ORKS

520-261-1674 TombstoneWinery.com Daily: 12-6

V W 11 S290 Elgin Canelo 14 S334 E AllenS St., Tombstone Rd., Elgin ONOITA

INEYARDS

520-455-5893 SonoitaVineyards.com Daily: 10-4

ILVER

TRIKE

INERY

520-678-8200 SilverStrikeWinery.com Daily: 12-6

2/19/15 10:05 PM

27811 S. Sonoita Hwy (Hwy 83), Sonoita 520.455.9272

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WILLCOX AREA & BISBEE WINE MAP Fort G ra nt Rd .

From Exit #331 1 Hour to Tucson 1 hour to Sonoita 3 Hours to Phoenix

336

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Bisbee

3 From Bisbee

1 hour to Sonoita 2 Hours to Tucson

4

Subway St.

5

16

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M

80

N

500’ 152m

Note: Many roads have been omitted for clarity.

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7 8 9 10

186

( 75 las oug to D

5 miles

n ai

186

W. Rex Allen Dr.

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12

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6

SAND-RECKONER 130 S. Haskell Avenue 303.931.8472 Sand-Reckoner.com

By Appointment Only FLYING LEAP VINEYARDS: WILLCOX TASTING ROOM 100 N. Railroad Avenue 520.384.6030 FlyingLeapVineyards.com Wed-Sun: 12-6 KEELING SCHAEFER 154 N. Railroad Avenue 520.766.0600 KeelingSchaeferVineyards.com Wed-Sun: 11-5 CARLSON CREEK 115 Railroad Avenue 520.766.3000 CarlsonCreek.com Thu-Sun 11-5 ARIDUS TASTING ROOM 145 N Railview Ave 520.766.9463 AridusWineCo.com Tasting Room Daily: 11-5 Crush Room Daily: 11-5 w/appt.

ARIDUS CRUSH FACILITY 1126 N. Haskell Avenue 520.766.2926 Mon-Fri: 11-5, Sat-Sun: By Appt.

11 12 13 14 15

. ve lA

S. R

oo

#3

ag

t Exi

oa ailr

ra nt Ce N . e Av

on rs ffe Je

Exit #318

(3 hrs. to Las Cruces

)

to New Mexico

Exit #

Exit #331

Dr

191

7

Business Loop

PASSION CELLARS AT SALVATORE VINEYARDS 3052 N. Fort Grant Road 602.750.7771 PassionCellars.com

By Appointment Only CORONADO VINEYARDS 2909 E. Country Club Drive 520.384.2993 Mon-Sat: 9:30-5:30, Sun: 10-4 CoronadoVineyards.com FORT BOWIE VINEYARDS 156 N. Jefferson, Bowie AZ 520.847.2593 By appointment only BODEGA PIERCE TASTING ROOM 4511 E. Robbs Road 602.320.1722 Daily: 11-5 or by appt.

BodegaPierce.com PILLSBURY VINEYARD 6450 S. Bennett Place 520.384.3964 Pillsburywine.com Thurs-Sun: 11-5, Mon-Wed: By Appointment Only ZARPARA VINEYARDS 6777 S. Zarpara Lane 602.885.8903 Zarpara.com Fri-Sun: 11-5, Mon-Thurs: By Appt.

KEELING SCHAEFER VINEYARD 10277 E. Rock Creek Lane 520.824.2500 Wine Club Events Only LAWRENCE DUNHAM VINEYARDS 13922 S. Kuykendall Cutoff Rd. 602.320.1485 LawrenceDunhamVineyards.com M-Sa: 8:30-4, Sun 10-3 GOLDEN RULE VINEYARDS 3649 N. Golden Rule Road 520.507.2400 GoldenRuleVineyards.com

By Appointment Only FLYING LEAP VINEYARDS: BISBEE TASTING ROOM 67 Main St. Bisbee 520.384.6030 Wed, Thur & Sun, Noon to 6pm Friday & Saturday, Noon to 8pm

2/19/15 10:05 PM

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INK

Book Reviews by Molly Kincaid The Fat Radish Kitchen Diaries

By Ben Towill and Phil Winser (Rizzoli, 2014)

B

T oW ill and Phil Winser were buddies growing up in the United Kingdom but have made their names as restaurateurs and creative forces in New York City in the past few years. In addition to owning The Fat Radish, a popular greenmarket-centric outpost on the Lower East Side, the two own Silkstone, an agency that designs food events, as well as two additional restaurants called Leadbelly and East Pole. Towill made headlines last summer by biking across the United States and “talking to people about food”—he blogged about picking veggies from strangers’ gardens in Kentucky coal country and foraging for wild blackberries in Oregon, among other adventures, in T Style Magazine.

Somewhere amidst all this, Towill and Wisner managed to write a cookbook, along with the help of their Fat Radish chef Nick Wilber and author Julia Turshen (she co-authored Gwyneth Paltrow’s It’s All Good). There’s no real genre or culinary theme for the book, but it’s all food that you’d want to eat, and mostly simple to prepare.

Some recipes are influenced by the authors’ English origins, such as Stewed Rhubarb with Yogurt, Scotch Eggs, Brown Rice Kedgeree (hailing from colonial India), Brussels Sprout Bubble and Squeak, and something called a Branston Pickle—an intriguing mixture of vegetables, dates, vinegar, brown sugar, and mustard seeds boiled together until softened.

The “pickle” is then puréed and spread on bread with clothbound cheddar for a sumptuous and piquant grilled cheese.

The other recipes are a mélange, drawing from a variety of culinary genres. The Miso Glazed Turnips play on the popular dish miso-glazed black cod. The Sweet Corn and Cherry Tomaen

to Succotash with Crab recall summers in New England. The Fat Radish Plate, featuring steamed kabocha squash, kale, adzuki beans, hijiki, carrot ginger purée, and tahini dressing seems like something out of the ‘70s vegetarian health craze.

Despite the lack of cohesiveness, Fat Radish superbly embodies what is known amorphously as New American.

Each recipe draws on time-honored techniques, incorporates the best produce of the season, and strikes the right balance between simplicity and creativity.

Bitter: A Taste of the World’s Most Dangerous Flavor, with Recipes

By Jennifer McLagan (Ten Speed Press, 2014)

“W

our natural dislike of all things bitter if what we are putting in our mouths has a psychoactive effect.” —Russell Keast.

Thus begins Jennifer McLagan’s chapter on beer, tea, coffee, and aperitifs such as Campari and Fernet-Branca.

Most adults have become accustomed to bitter flavors in our pursuit of such effects (relaxation, intoxication, alertness). But as children, most of us were reluctant to consume these strange, dark, tannic, puckery, and sour foods and drinks. Many remember the first time taking a timid taste of Mom and Dad’s coffee or beer. Yech! In adulthood, though, most of us can’t imagine starting the day without a coffee or tea.

McLagan, in her ode to all foods bitter (primarily greens, coffee, tea, and beer and liquor), explains that this aversion has an evolutionary purpose. We are endowed with many taste buds, which are “adept at detecting bitterness” as tastes often e overcome

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The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu

By Dan Jurafsky

M

(Norton, 2014)

acaroon , m acaron —same

indicate toxins in nature. Babies have more taste buds, she explains, as small amounts of toxins can kill them.

Single dish, single ingredient, and single genre cookbooks sometimes have limited appeal or can feel kitschy, but Bitter avoids this by encompassing a wide variety of recipes and cooking techniques that feel fresh. McLagan’s accompanying text piques interest by providing a historical palette for the ingredients.

A Dandelion Salad with Hot Bacon and Mustard Dressing recipe is accompanied by an etymological lesson. “Dandelion” comes from a French expression “dents de lion” or lion’s teeth.

A French nickname for dandelion, “pissenlit” means “piss in the bed” owing to the weed’s diuretic tendencies. The recipe, McLagan explains, uses hot fat to temper the extreme bitterness in the greens.

In other dishes, McLagan does not advocate for any mitigation of the bitter flavor at all. These dishes range from the unusual, like Turnip Ice Cream, or Beer Jelly—made with wheat beer and served on a cheese plate—to more the familiar, like Rapini Braised with Garlic and Chile, or Arugula Pizza.

The common thread throughout the book is a cultivation of a core desire for the forbidden, acquired, and complex tastes of bitter foods. Though bitter flavor profiles can be at first hard to swallow, they have become necessary elements of human bonding—there is just something about sharing a cup of coffee or toasting a mug of beer with one’s friends. Perhaps it’s that, as we grow older, we learn that the bitter in life can at times be more interesting than the sweet.

thing, right? Not so.

Dan Jurafsky, an inquisitive linguist based in San Francisco, will explain to you in great detail the difference between the two, and how their origins are intertwined.

An abbreviated version: The trendy French macarons (two airy almond-based cookies smashed together with ganache in between) are descendants of medieval Arab confections brought to Sicily in the year 827. The chewier cousin of the macaron, the coconut macaroon, spun off in America in the 1800s when exotic foods, like coconuts, became a fad.

Along with detailed origin stories of food names, Jurafsky illustrates the stories behind them with tangential but colorful historical notes. In the coconut macaroon discussion, for example, he includes Emily Dickinson’s recipe for Coconut Cake, which was reportedly written on the back of her poem, “The Things That Can Never Come Back, Are Several.”

Ever wondered why we call a celebratory drink a “toast?”

Jurafsky has an answer for that, too. It’s comically literal. In the Elizabethan period, partygoers would put spiced toast in their wine. This is also where the phrase “toast of the town” originates. Toasts soaked in wines and ales were also common in the Middle Ages, adding calories and nutrients to “sops” and “pottages.” Jurafsky cites The Canterbury Tales to illustrate: The character called the Franklin loved to have a “sop” in his morning wine. “Sop,” Jurafsky explains, is also a linguistic precursor to the modern words “soup” and “supper.”

In other chapters, Jurafsky studies modern menus and commercial food products to reflect on the relationships between restaurateurs, diners, advertisers, and consumers. Fancy potato chip brands tout the health benefits of “all natural” potato chips to appeal to the wealthy, while cheaper brands convey tradition: “Time-honored traditions,” “Classic American snacks,” and “85-year-old recipes.”

Jurafsky’s statistical surveys reveal sociological idiosyncrasies in our relationship with food. Diners reviewing inexpensive restaurants online frequently use language associated with drug use to describe their experience (“These cupcakes are like crack.”) Reviewing more expensive restaurants, diners would still exaggerate, but they preferred sexual innuendo (“The apple tarty ice cream pastry caramely thing was just orgasmic.”)

Throughout, Jurafsky delivers an educational, amusing, and eye-opening read. His meticulous research is admirable, and his habit of looking at the world through the lens of food makes reading history more palatable for the layperson. The hungry layperson, that is. ✜ Molly Kincaid is a Tucsonan who is obsessed with tinkering in the kitchen and reading cookbooks. Her favorite foods are, paradoxically, kale, and pork belly.

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Celebrating life on two wheels!

JOIN IN

one of many THEMED RIDES and EVENTS throughout the region

COMPETE in the 2 mile COMMUTER CHALLENGE

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Progressive Dinner by Bike

LOG YOUR BIKE TRIPS TO WIN PRIZES

SATURDAY, APRIL 11TH 6-9 PM

Visit bikefesttucson.com for details.

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SABORES DE SONORA

Past Grain Discovering the the historic flour mills of Sonora and the Southwest.

Text and photography by Bill Steen

A

t the end of the 19th century, there were close to 60 flour mills operating in the state of Sonora, Mexico. As far as I know, most of these were constructed in the late 1800s. Originally they were hydropowered, but as water sources became scarce and undependable due to the construction of dams and the overdraft of groundwater, all were converted to alternative forms of power.

The craft and technology utilized by these old mills has long been forgotten and mostly lost. In the mid-1960s, CONASUPO (La Compañía Nacional de Subsistencias Populares), Mexico’s now defunct federal food agency, instituted aggressive regulatory practices that, in a short period of time, contributed directly to the closing of the Sonoran mills. Exceptions to this were the mill in Ures, Sonora, which closed during the late 1990s and Tempe’s Hayden Flour Mills, which closed in 1998. Despite their closure, these abandoned flour mills remain vividly alive in the memories of many Sonorans. In her writings about White Sonora wheat, anthropologist Maribel Alvarez references Mexican anthropologist Guillermo Nuñez Noriega, who commented that the mills “are the equivalents for Sonorans of the pyramids in Central Mexico.”

Little is known about the history of each individual mill.

There were no written records; any information that I have discovered has been the result of happenstance. Most of the people who had knowledge of those mills or worked there have long since passed on. Only once did I come across an older man in the town of Banamichi who had worked in the local mill as a young man; the only information I got from him was that the mill in Banamichi was the most complex of those located along the upper Rio Sonora valley and produced three grades of flour.

A reader once commented on my blog to share his memories of the mills: “My father was born in Oquitoa and he would always talk about the “molino” (mill). My grandfather, Antonio Olguin, was the one who delivered the water wheel to Oquitoa from Tucson on a horse-pulled wagon.”

Additional information about these old mills will most likely come in the same way, by chance. For the moment, apart from the history of each individual mill, our best source of knowledge comes from other small-scale modern millers. All over North America, small-scale stone mills and local grain economies are popping up as alternative sources of grain flour. This small group of millers and grain farmers—including Emma and Jeff Zimmerman of Hayden Flour Mills—are slowly recovering pieces of the craft. On a visit to the Rio Sonora mills, Jeff Zimmerman artfully deciphered much of the remaining equipment and how it was used.

The photographs in this collection were mostly taken between 2008 and 2012. The first mill I discovered was in the town of Banamichi. I had passed the building many times before; when I finally did enter, it was a great surprise to discover that it had once been a mill. The mill in Huepac was the next I stumbled upon, but it wasn’t until my friend and agricultural ecologist Gary Paul Nabhan inspired me to search out more mills and expand the collection of photos that I found the others. Although we wanted to capture images of flour mills across the Rio Sonora river valley, we decided to concentrate our efforts in the area around Magdalena, further west to the mill at Oquitoa, and north to Hayden Flour Mills, which was once located on the banks of the Salt River.

The idea behind these photographs is to educate people that in the very recent past, the production and processing of regionally adapted heritage grains was an integral part of vibrant local economies; that businesses and individuals could go directly to the mills and purchase fresh flour for their use instead of months old or years old bagged flour, most likely from areas other than where they live. Perhaps, not far in the distant future, those practices may once again become commonplace. ✜ Bill Steen and his wife, Athena, are founders of The Canelo Project, a nonprofit organization in Santa Cruz County dedicated to “connecting people, culture, and nature.”

The molino harinero (flour mill) in Ures, Sonora. The Ures mill is the largest of all the Rio Sonora mills and has been partially restored.

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The Hayden Flour Mill in Tempe, Arizona, built in the late 1800s.

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Top: Molino harinero at Terrenate, Sonora, on the outskirts of Magdalena. Bottom: Molino harinero in Banamichi, Sonora

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(Above) Diesel power to supplement the original hydropowered mill in Banamichi, Sonora.

(Below) Restored interior portion of the Hayden Flour Mill in Tempe, Arizona.

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(Above) At the Molino harinero in Bamori, an irrigation ditch fills with water during seasonal rains.

(Below) A partially entombed water wheel in Oquitoa, Sonora.

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This SOURCE GUIDE is an annotated directory of our advertisers. Many of our advertisers are also distribution outlets where you can find a complimentary copy of the magazine. Our incredible advertisers are the reason we can provide this publication at no cost. Please make it a point to patronize them often and let them know how much you appreciate their support of Edible Baja Arizona and the local food and drink economy. Baja Arizona towns and cities are noted if the business is not located in Tucson.

Dining & Drink Guide Restaurants, Cafés, & Bars in Baja Arizona

CENTRAL BEYOND BREAD Locally-owned and operated since 1998, we offer a variety of hand-crafted breads, delicious sandwiches, house-made soups, fresh salads and decadent pastries—all in a comfortable and friendly environment.

We make just about everything from scratch, using only the finest ingredients. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 3026 North Campbell Avenue 520.322.9965 BeyondBread.com GHINI’S FRENCH CAFFE The embodiment of culinary ecstasy. Providing you locally grown, fresh, made to order, menu offerings since 1992. Award winning and pet friendly.

1803 East Prince Road 520.326.9095 GhinisCafe.com KINGFISHER An American bar and grill specializing in regional cuisine from across the U.S. Specializing in several varieties of fin fish, shellfish, and oysters. Great intimate bar with happy hours and late night menus every day. 2564 East Grant Road 520.323.7739 KingfisherTucson.com PREP & PASTRY We are a modern American eatery. Serving breakfast, lunch, and brunch. All food and drinks are prepared with fresh ingredients, locally sourced. 3073 North Campbell Avenue 520.326.7737 PrepAndPastry.com DOWNTOWN, UNIVERSITY & THE SUNSHINE MILE 1702 A pizzeria, and craft beer extravaganza. On tap, 46 craft beers from all over the 50 states and world complements our fresh, hand-tossed pizza made with the best ingredients. 1702 East Speedway Boulevard 520.325.1702 1702AZ.com 4TH AVENUE DELICATESSEN Proudly serving Boar’s Head meats and cheeses, as well as Vero’s Bakery bread (locally owned). Come for the sandwich, stay for the pickle! 425 North 4th Avenue 520.624.3354 4thAveDeli.com BOCA TACOS Tacos with attitude! Happy hour daily 3pm to 6pm. Come explore with us on Exotic Taco Wednesday. Catering services available. 828 East Speedway Boulevard 520.777.8134 CAFE A LA C’ART Enjoy your breakfast, lunch, or dinner in a casual atmosphere and surrounded by fine art. Try our famous desserts (with gluten free choices!). Join us at the historic Stevens House at the Museum of Art, or al fresco on the brick patio. Catering is also available. 150 North Main Avenue 520.628.8533 CafeALaCartTucson.com

CAFE PASSÉ Dedicated to serving great coffee and coffee drinks, locally-sourced organic food whenever possible, craft cocktails and an eclectic beer menu. It is also home to Tucson’s best patio and biergarten with a patio bar. Live music and local art. 415 North 4th Avenue 520.624.4411 CafePasse.com CAFFE MILANO Led by the prestigious Italian chef Fulvia Steffenone (known as La Fufi) Caffe Milano offers a wide range of authentic Italian dishes: not only the classic pasta with tomato and meat sauce, but also the delicious salmon in foil, surprising salads, and fragrant rustic soups.

They also offer classic Italian cooking classes led by La Fufi herself. Call for more information. 46 West Congress Street 520.628.1601 LaFufiCaffeMilano.com CARUSO’S ITALIAN RESTAURANT Offering fine homemade Italian Food located in the historic 4th Avenue district. Pasta, pizza and Italian Specialties • continuously served by four generations of the Zagona family since 1938. 434 North 4th Avenue 520.624.5765 CarusosItalian.com CHE’S LOUNGE Cheap drinks, great art, great jukebox.

Never a cover. Bringing the awesome since 2000. 350 North 4th Avenue 520.623.2088 ChesLounge.com THE CORONET Brasserie-style restaurant, old world rustic cuisine, cute bar, quiet music, big patio with good shade, outstanding coffee. 402 East 9th Street on the corner of Fourth Avenue and 9th. 520.222.9889 CafeCoronet.com DELECTABLES International selections in a casual atmosphere. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, & late night menus.

Dog-friendly patio dining. Live music every Friday & Saturday. Full bar, excellent wine list, and homemade desserts. Vegan & gluten-free menus. Catering. 533 North 4th Avenue 520.884.9289 DIABLO BURGER Named America’s Best Burger in USA Today, Diablo Burger is a local foodsbased burger joint serving 100% grass-fed, hormone-free and antibiotic-free, open range raised beef. “All about local” and totally committed to enhancing the connection of people committed to place through local foods. 312 East Congress Street 520.882.2007 DiabloBurger.com DOWNTOWN KITCHEN & COCKTAILS Innovative farm-to-table cooking with global influences & killer cocktails from James Beard Award winner Janos Wilder in an art-filled, urban setting with roomy outdoor patio. Dinner, happy hour, bar menu seven nights a week and late night Friday & Saturday.

135 South 6th Avenue 520.623.7700 DowntownKitchen.com

EXO ROAST COMPANY We seek out the world’s finest coffees, craft roast them in small batches and extract them manually at our “slow bar.” Visit our cafe in a minimalist, historic setting and enjoy one of our “regionally inspired” coffee drinks using locally-sourced chiltepin, mesquite and mole. 7am-6pm, everyday. Free educational cupping Saturdays at 1pm. 403 North 6th Avenue 520.777.4709 ExoCoffee.com FALORA In the historic Joesler-built Broadway Village, Falora builds pizzas & salads anchored in tradition with a sharply creative angle. Ingredients are simple, fresh; imported from Italy or sourced from local farms. Lunch & dinner. Charming patio or cozy interior. 3000 East Broadway Boulevard 520.325.9988 Falora.com FLYCATCHER A bar and live music venue, Flycatcher is dedicated to live local, regional, national, and international touring music acts. Formerly Plush Tucson. 340 East 6th Street 520.207.9251 TheFlyCatcherTucson.com FOOD FOR ASCENSION CAFÉ A new paradigm of sustaining community by providing pure food through fair systems that interact together and support a vibrant life, community, and self with the ultimate intention of reconnecting our body, mind, and soul. 330 East 7th Street 520.882.4736 FoodForAscension.org FROG AND FIRKIN A locally-owned bar and restaurant right outside the University of Arizona campus Main Gate.

Please come by, sit on the liveliest patio in town, and watch the world go by! Live music Thursday-Sunday evenings! DELIVERY AVAILABLE. 874 East University Boulevard 520.623.7507 FrogAndFirkin.com GOOD OAK BAR A celebration of Arizona. We focus on serving exceptional craft beer, fine wines, and great food directly from Arizona. 316 East Congress 520.882.2007 GoodOakBar.com HUB RESTAURANT & CREAMERY Enjoy American comfort food, downtown made ice cream, and over 20 craft beers on draft. Located on historic Congress Street in downtown Tucson. Plenty of downtown parking and the SunLink streetcar route right outside our doors, a night on the town or dinner with the family is not only fun, but easy. 266 East Congress Street 520.207.8201 HubDowntown.com LA COCINA RESTAURANT, CANTINA & COFFEE BAR We care deeply for our community and strive to provide a gathering place for all. Tucson musicians take the stage most days of the week. Our cantina pours local beer and we support our local farmers and ranchers. 201 North Court Avenue 520.365.3053 LaCocinaTucson.com LINDY’S ON 4TH AVENUE If punk rock, heavy metal, Sinatra, tattoos, hotrods, choppers, low riders, a lazy Sunday afternoon, hot ladies, and the man’s man were all put into a burger that was so good you’d slap your mama, that’s what we’re servin’ up in this place. 431 North 4th Avenue 520.207.6970 LO4th.com

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MAMA’S HAWAIIAN BAR-B-QUE Whether you are a weary Wildcat looking for some cheap eats near campus or out for dinner with the family you will be sure to find something you like on our menu. Open late. We Deliver. 800 East Speedway Boulevard 520.792.2350 MamasHawaiianBBQ.com

SURLY WENCH Established 2004. Late night kitchen featuring fresh, never frozen beef and homegrown herbs.

Delicious burgers, tacos, and more. Full bar. Black Cherry Burlesque, live music, DJs, billiards, air hockey, arcade, foosball, darts. Daily happy hour & nightly drink specials.

424 North 4th Avenue 520.882.0009 SurlyWench.com

PITA JUNGLE “The Art of Eating Healthy.” Mediterranean-inspired dishes made from scratch daily with the freshest ingredients. The menu is based on offering a healthy and natural cuisine abounding with vegetarian and vegan options. Catering available. 5340 East Broadway Boulevard 520.207.6873 PitaJungle.com

MARTIN’S COMIDA CHINGONA Nestled right on 4th Avenue, Martin’s is fun, casual and independent. Martin’s serves traditional Mexican food with awesome interpretations by chef/owner Martin Fontes. 557 North 4th Avenue 520.884.7909

TASTEFUL KITCHEN Modern vegetarian cuisine creatively prepared, farm to table fresh. We showcase regional heritage foods infused with Southwestern sauces and flavorings. Everything from scratch using whole foods, local organic when available, and few processed ingredients. Dine in, take out, weekly meals to go, boutique catering, cooking classes, and a private function room.

Dinner is served Tuesday through Saturday 5pm-9pm.

Free parking. Reservations recommended. 722 North Stone Avenue 520.250.9600 TheTastefulKitchen.com

RENEE’S ORGANIC OVEN Serving creative and traditional pizzas and so much more. We offer a casual space for you to enjoy a menu filled with local and organic ingredients. Everything we do is made possible by our connection to great people and we would love to add you to our mix. Happy hour, dine-in, take-out. Reservations encouraged, but walk-ins welcome. 7065 East Tanque Verde Road 520.886.0484 ReneesOrganicOven.com

MAYNARDS MARKET & KITCHEN We established the first downtown market and paired it with a charismatic restaurant & bar. Both are fueled by a passion for celebrating the best of place, product, and service. 400 North Toole Avenue 520.545.0577 MaynardsMarket.com MISS SAIGON DOWNTOWN Each dish is re-created with the same recipes Grandma passed down. This is authentic Vietnamese, home-style cooking, with a warm and inviting ambience. 47 North 6th Avenue 520.884.4778 MissSaigon-Tucson.com PENCA Mexico City cuisine and international bar located in the heart of downtown Tucson. December 2013, Food & Wine magazine named Penca “one of America’s best bars.” 50 East Broadway Boulevard 520.203.7681 PencaRestaurante.com PIZZERIA BIANCO James Beard Award winner Chris Bianco now has a location in downtown Tucson featuring his famous pizza. 272 East Congress 520.838.0818 PizzeriaBianco.com PLANET SMOOTHIE We bring two fabulous worlds together…Real Fruit Smoothies & Self Serve Frozen Yogurt, in two charming and upbeat atmospheres: Oro Valley & Downtown Tucson. Open 7 days week serving Organic Acai Bowls, Gluten Free Pastries, Homemade Belgian Waffles, & Marley Coffee. Blending 7am to late night. 7315 N. Oracle Rd., and 345 East Congress Street.

PlanetSmoothie.com PLAYGROUND BAR & LOUNGE In the heart of historic Downtown Tucson on the corner of Congress St. and 5th Avenue. Whether you’re looking for the ultimate spot to watch the game, meet up with friends for some late-night dining, or looking to dance the night away on Tucson’s largest ROOFTOP dance floor with our VIP Bottle Service, Playground Bar & Lounge is the place to be! 278 East Congress Street 520.396.3691 PlaygroundTucson.com PROPER A casual, urban dining establishment serving contemporary, farm to table cuisine. Brunch daily from 9am-3pm. Dinner nightly from 5pm-10pm. Happy hour Monday through Friday 3-6pm. Late night seven days a week, 10pm-midnight. 300 East Congress Street 520.396.3357 ProperTucson.com

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R BAR Join us for a drink at R Bar, the Rialto’s 7-nighta-week bar. Great drinks, great times, no unicorns. Because they don’t exist. 350 East Congress Street, Suite 110 520.305.3599 RBarTucson.com REILLY CRAFT PIZZA & DRINK Offering reasonably priced modern Italian food in a casual urban setting.

Our menu features artisan hand-made pizzas, as well as craft drinks. We also offer fresh baked sandwiches for lunch and fresh hand-made pastas for dinner. 101 East Pennington Street 520.882.5550 ReillyPizza.com ROCCO’S LITTLE CHICAGO PIZZERIA Real Chicago Pizza, right around the corner! Since 1998 Rocco DiGrazia has been serving perennially award-winning pizzas, buffalo wings, and chocolate chip cookies on Broadway’s Sunshine Mile. Check out our gigantic beer selection, too. You’ll agree it’s a HELLUVA pie! 2707 East Broadway Boulevard 520.321.1860 RoccosLittleChicago.com SPARKROOT A cornerstone of a burgeoning downtown, Sparkroot serves up Blue Bottle Coffee & vegetarian fare with flair, in a striking atmosphere. Vibrant community flavor, morning through evening. Great meeting spot; you can even reserve our loft! Beer, wine, & killer Irish coffee. 245 East Congress 520.623.4477 Sparkroot.com

TIME MARKET A historic neighborhood market that includes the best bread in Tucson (baked daily), incredible wood-fired pizza, a fantastic organic produce section, outstanding wines and beer, and a beer and wine bar with a patio. See our listing under markets, too. 444 East University Boulevard 520.622.0761 TOOLEY’S CAFE Fresh baked goods, scones, chocolate chip cookies, turkey tacos, killer mailman burro, pulled pork burro, posole, a great Mexican breakfast, limeade, and great organic coffee! 299 South Park Avenue 520.203.8970 TUCSON TAMALE COMPANY More than 30 different kinds of incredible tamales. Mild to spicy, meaty to vegan, savory to sweet, we have just about every kind of tamale you can think of and then some! GMOfree masa! 2545 East Broadway Boulevard 520.305.4760 TucsonTamale.com WILKO A modern gastropub featuring inventive classic American comfort food in the Main Gate district at Park & University. Everything is prepared on site. We use local, organic ingredients whenever possible. More than 30 wines by the glass, 11 quality brews on tap, and a craft cocktail bar. Check out our artisan cheeses and salume. 943 East University Boulevard 520.792.6684 BarWilko.com EAST BEYOND BREAD Locally-owned and operated since 1998, offering hand-crafted breads, delicious sandwiches, house-made soups, fresh salads, and decadent pastries in a comfortable and friendly environment. We make just about everything from scratch, using only the finest ingredients. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 6260 East Speedway Boulevard 520.747.7477 BeyondBread.com JACKSON TAVERN New England inspired restaurant and bar located at Plaza Palomino. Classic tavern fare from Chef Virginia ‘Ginny’ Wooters along with modern classic twists that Metzger Family Restaurant have come to be known for. 2900 North Swan Road Suite 100 520.219.1235 JacksonTavern.com JONATHAN’S CORK A longtime Tucson favorite featuring Buffalo, Ostrich, Steaks and Fresh Fish specials.

Award-winning chef and owner, Jonathan Landeen and wife, Colette, welcome you to a casual, cozy Southwestern ambiance, accented with DeGrazia prints, Native American art and four beehive fireplaces. Full service catering available. 6320 East Tanque Verde Road 520.296.1631 JonathansCork.com LE BUZZ CAFFE A one-of-a-kind hangout popular with cyclists, climbers, and locals with great in-house roasted coffee, full espresso bar, sublime baked goods, hearty breakfast, soups, salads, panini, and quiches. The Le Buzz “house cookie” is worth the trip alone. 9121 East Tanque Verde Road 520.749.3903 LeBuzzCaffe.com MAMA’S HAWAIIAN BAR-B-QUE Whether you are a weary Wildcat looking for some cheap eats near campus or out for dinner with the family you will be sure to find something you like on our menu. Open late. We Deliver. 6310 East Tanque Verde Road 520.770.7800 MamasHawaiianBBQ.com

SAGUARO CORNERS Enjoy our Old Spanish Trail comfort food in our dining room, on our patio or at our bar!

We’ve been serving our local guests, our sightseeing tourist friends and hungry travelers right outside Saguaro National Park since 1956. 3750 South Old Spanish Trail 520.886.2020 SaguaroCorners.com THE SCREAMERY Hand Crafted Ice Cream pasteurized on-site with all natural ingredients to provide an old fashioned solution to modern day ice cream flavors.

Its ice cream base is from the freshest cream and milk from Strauss Family Creamery out of California. Their cows only eat grass and are not treated with any hormones. 50 South Houghton Road Suite 120 520.721.5299 TheScreamery.com TUCSON TAMALE COMPANY More than 30 different kinds of incredible tamales. Mild to spicy, meaty to vegan, savory to sweet, we have just about every kind of tamale you can think of and then some! GMOfree masa! 7153 East Tanque Verde Road 520.238.8404 TucsonTamale.com ZONA 78 Tucson’s premiere destination for artisan pizza, Italian specialties, and an eclectic selection of wine, beer, & spirits. Zona 78 sources many ingredients locally and has an in-house charcuterie. 7301 East Tanque Verde Road 520.296.7878 Zona78.com VERO AMORE Authentic Neapolitan Pizza Certified authentic by Italy’s renowned Verace Pizza Napoletana, Vero Amore features fresh, handcrafted wood-fired Neapolitan pizza, pasta, panini, salad, dessert, and daily specials, made with the highest quality ingredients. Vegetarian and gluten-free dishes always available. Open daily with two locations and mobile Pizza Truck for parties and events. Lunch, dinner, full bar, happy hour, catering, private Parties. 2920 North Swan Road 520.325.4122 VeroAmorePizza.com GREEN VALLEY, SAHUARITA MAMA’S HAWAIIAN BAR-B-QUE Whether you are a weary Wildcat looking for some cheap eats near campus or out for dinner with the family you will be sure to find something you like on our menu.

Open late. We Deliver. 15990 South Rancho Sahuarita Boulevard, Rancho Sahuarita 520.207.8187 MamasHawaiianBBQ.com NORTH, CATALINA FOOTHILLS ACACIA Located in the Catalina foothills, Acacia offers an exquisite panoramic view of Tucson and features award-winning cuisine by chef Albert Hall. Fresh natural and local ingredients lovingly prepared in the friendliest and most comfortable setting in Tucson. Join us for lunch, dinner, Sunday brunch, and happy hour daily. 3001 East Skyline Drive 520.232.0101 AcaciaTucson.com ARMITAGE WINE BAR & LOUNGE The setting changes character as the night lengthens, with its Old World ambiance and intimate conversation areas providing a relaxing setting for lunch, dinner, weekend brunch, or winding down after the workday. As the evening progresses, the lights dim and the music picks up tempo, transforming into an energized nightspot. 2905 East Skyline Drive 520.682.9740 ArmitageWine.com

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NORTH ITALIA Our love letter to Italy. Handmade pasta and pizza: every day, we start from scratch to create dishes like Strozzapreti with Bloomsdale spinach or supple ribbons of tagliatelle for our Bolognese. With the spirit of the Italian taverna, North is the place to talk shop over a cocktail or swap gossip sharing delectable chef creations. La Encantada, 2995 East Skyline Drive 520.299.1600 NorthItaliaRestaurant.com TAVOLINO RISTORANTE ITALIONO Specializing in simple, elegant food, Tavolino’s Northern Italian cuisine features fresh salads, homemade pastas, wood-fired pizzas, succulent rotisserie meats, and luscious desserts.

Lunch & dinner Monday through Saturday. Happy hour 3-6pm and 9-11pm. 2890 East Skyline Drive 520.531.1913 ZONA 78 Tucson’s premiere destination for artisan pizza, Italian specialties, and an eclectic selection of wine, beer, & spirits. Zona 78 sources many ingredients locally and has an in-house charcuterie. 78 West River Road 520.888.7878 Zona78.com NORTHWEST TUCSON, ORO VALLEY & MARANA BEYOND BREAD Locally-owned and operated since 1998, we offer a variety of hand-crafted breads, delicious sandwiches, house-made soups, fresh salads, and decadent pastries—all in a comfortable and friendly environment. We make just about everything from scratch, using only the finest ingredients. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. 421 West Ina Road 520.461.1111 BeyondBread.com GOURMET GIRLS GLUTEN FREE BAKERY/BISTRO Everything is gluten free, from the seasonally-inspired menu to the outstanding selection of handcrafted baked goods.

Enjoy house specialties all prepared in a dedicated kitchen with no cross-contamination. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner by reservation. 5845 North Oracle Road 520.408.9000 GourmetGirlsGlutenFree.com

GRINGO GRILL + CANTINA A place to relax and enjoy fresh, simple flavors. More than 100 tequilas, hand-crafted cocktails, and seriously delicious food...you’ll always come back for more! Be careful, not many can handle the Desert Ghost Diablo! 5900 North Oracle Road 520.887.3777 GringoGrillTucson.com

SEIS KITCHEN Experience the sights, sounds, and smells of Mexico’s beloved street food at its finest—warm handmade tortillas, hot off the griddle quesadillas, fire-roasted salsas, or artisan tortas, all served Seis Style, inspired from six culinary regions of Mexico. 130 South Avenida del Convento 520.260.6581 SeisKitchen.com

MAMA’S HAWAIIAN BAR-B-QUE Whether you are a weary Wildcat looking for some cheap eats near campus or out for dinner with the family you will be sure to find something you like on our menu. Open late.

We Deliver. 8300 North Thornydale Road 520.572.5225 MamasHawaiianBBQ.com

SONORAN SNO-CONES Highlights the traditional recipes for sweets made of fresh fruit and natural ingredients, instead of artificial sweeteners. 120 South Avenida del Convento Suite 120, 520.344.8470 SonoranSnoCones.com

THE PARISH A southern-fusion gastropub. It draws its inspiration from Louisiana, Texas and Arizona, devoted to comfort, cuisine, hospitality, and community. 6453 North Oracle Road 520.797.1233 TheParishTucson.com PITA JUNGLE “The Art of Eating Healthy”. Mediterranean-inspired dishes made from scratch daily with only the freshest ingredients. The menu is based on offering a healthy and natural cuisine abounding with vegetarian and vegan options. Catering available. 7090 North Oracle Road 520.797.7482 PitaJungle.com SOUTH & BARRIO VIEJO 5 POINTS MARKET & RESTAURANT Bridging South Tucson and downtown, we serve breakfast and lunch. We are also a grocery store and deli. 756 South Stone Avenue 520.623.3888 5PointsTucson.com CAFE DESTA Offering authentic Ethiopian cuisine, great food and great coffee in a relaxing environment. 758 South Stone Avenue 520.370.7000 CUSHING STREET BAR & RESTAURANT Uptown comfort food, garden patios, full bar, and live jazz, have made this 1860s historic landmark a local favorite for 40 years.

Book an intimate party in a private dining room or a wedding for 100 guests. Family-owned since 1972. 198 West Cushing Street 520.622.7984 CushingStreet.com EL DORADO RESTAURANT Authentic Mexican cuisine in South Tucson. Where the locals go to eat. 1949 South 4th Avenue 520.622.9171 LOS PORTALES Our mission is to manage the satisfaction of our clients in a family environment where the art and the music merge to the flavor of the Mexican food. 2615 South 6th Avenue 520.889.1170 LosPortalesDeTucson.com SONORAN SNO-CONES Highlights the traditional recipes for sweets made of fresh fruit and natural ingredients, instead of artificial sweeteners. 135 West Ajo Way, Suite A 520.889.0844 SonoranSnoCones.com WEST 4 SEASONS RESTAURANT Serving high quality and affordable Chinese, Thai, and American plates. Located off highway 10 & Miracle Mile. Enjoy a new relaxed atmosphere, patio seating, and great food. Open 7 days a week starting at 6 am. 1423 West Miracle Mile Road 520.882.4212 4Seasonsaz.com AGUSTIN KITCHEN Three-time Iron Chef winner Ryan Clark’s Agustin Kitchen is a twist on new American and classic French cuisine, with an emphasis on local ingredients. 100 South Avenida del Convento 520.398.5382 AgustinKitchen.com

Cilantro

COYOTE PAUSE CAFE Comfort food with a Southwestern twist! Menu inspired by local desert foods. Breakfast & lunch daily 730am-230pm & dinner on Fridays 4-8pm.

Omelets, salads, sandwiches, vegetarian choices, beer, wine. Located at Cat Mountain Station shopping center with unique art, antiques, buy-sell-trade fashion!

2740 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, AZ, 520-883-7297 CoyotePauseCafe.com MOTHER HUBBARD’S CAFE Serving contemporary Native American comfort food. Breakfast & lunch only.

At the northwest corner of Grant & Stone--just minutes from downtown Tucson. Come taste the love! 7am2pm, daily. 14 West Grant Road 520.623.7976

YOGI’S INDIAN CAFE & MARKET Delicious Indian food & delights! Largest selection of South Asian groceries in Tucson & you’ll love the prices too! Centrally located near UA & downtown. 2537 North Stone Avenue 520.303.3525 BISBEE BISBEE BREAKFAST CLUB The best choice for breakfast in Bisbee, Arizona. Lunch also available. Open 7am3pm every day. 75A Erie Street, Bisbee 520.432.5885 BisbeeBreakfastClub.com CAFÉ CORNUCOPIA Made-from-scratch soups, sandwiches, quiche, and desserts, in the heart of historic Old Bisbee. Open Monday through Tuesday 11am-4pm, Friday through Sunday 11am-4pm. 14 Main Street, Old Bisbee CAFÉ ROKA Celebrating 20+ years of serving the Bisbee community and Baja Arizona. We create a wonderful dining experience for our guests, providing delicious food, beverages, and warm hospitality. Reservations recommended. 35 Main Street, Old Bisbee 520.433.5153 CafeRoka.com CONTESSA’S CANTINA Featuring traditional Mexican food for lunch and dinner. Full bar and live music.

202 Tombstone Canyon Road, Old Bisbee 520.432.6711 ContessasCantina.com HIGH DESERT MARKET Gourmet food, gift market, and cafe. Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with indoor and outdoor seating. We do all our baking on premises, serve generous gourmet salads and sandwiches, quiches, pizzas, desserts, and more. 203 Tombstone Canyon, Old Bisbee 520.432.6775 HighDesertMarket.com JIMMY’S HOT DOG COMPANY Jimmy and his wife Pammy use genuine “Vienna Brand” Beef, Hot Dogs, Sausages, even condiments and buns as well as authentic Gonnella Italian Bread, flown in fresh from the northwest side of Chicago for your dining enjoyment. 938 West Highway 92, Bisbee 520.432.5911 MORNINGS CAFE We are a quaint and popular local diner with a friendly atmosphere and familiar faces. Our menu is simple with creative twists and our half-pound burger menu will impress! Hope to see you soon! 420 Arizona Street, Warren (Bisbee) 520.366.1494 MorningsCafeBisbee.com THE QUARRY Focusing on farm-to-table, non-gmo, local, fresh and seasonal fare. High quality comfort food, slow foods and fresh craft cocktails and beer. 40 Brewery Avenue 520.366.6868 TheQuarryBisbee.com SCREAMING BANSHEE PIZZA & WINE BAR A unique, eclectic restaurant housed in a renovated gas station, with lovely front and back patios. We take pride in our hand-crafted, wood-fired pizza, salads, small plates, calzones, and sandwiches. Featuring a full bar, signature cocktails, local beers, and unique wines. 200 Tombstone Canyon Road, Old Bisbee 520.432.1300 ScreamingBansheePizza.net THUY’S NOODLE SHOP Authentic, from scratch Vietnamese food, specializing in pho, a noodle soup—beef or vegan. 9 South Naco Road, Old Bisbee 520.366.4479 WHYLD ASS COFFEE SHOP An organic, plant-based, culture experience. We feature “more than fair trade” coffee. Our restaurant offers healthy, tasty, vegan alternatives that are made with only the finest organic ingredients, mainly locally-sourced. Live music and poetry on weekends. 54 Brewery Avenue 520.353.4004

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CONTIGO Innovative and modern Latin Cuisine. We respect yet redefine contemporary Latin American and Spanish cooking with pan-Latin fare incorporating flavors from Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba and Spain, excellent specialty cocktails and fine wines from around the world. 1745 East River Road 520.299.1730 EatAtContigo.com

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SONOITA, ELGIN, PATAGONIA OVERLAND TROUT Farm to table restaurant in Sonoita by celebrated chef Greg LaPrad. Dedicated to supporting local and producing quality meals. Lunch, dinner, cocktails.

3266 Highway 82, Sonoita 520.455.9316 OverlandTrout.com TIA NITA’S CANTINA Enjoy your favorite drinks in post-modern bordertown surroundings in Sonoita. Full bar opens at 2pm daily, serving Barrio Brewery beers on tap. Italian kitchen opens for dinner nightly, serving fresh, homemade pizza, wings, sandwiches, and more. Closed Tuesdays. 3119 South Highway 83, Sonoita 520.455.0500 NOGALES LA ROCA Enjoy authentic Sonoran cuisine with the freshest ingredients from Mexico. Take in the rich ambiance of the historic Casa Margot. Visit our unique shops below the restaurant to find local art, hand-crafted home goods, and beautiful clothing. Calle Elias # 94, Nogales (on the Sonora side) LaRocaRestaurant.com TUBAC/ TUMACACORI ELVIRA’S Established in 1927 in Nogales, Sonora, Elvira’s is now in Tubac, bringing you the best Mexican cuisine and award-winning dishes! 2221 East Frontage Road A101, Tubac 520.398.9421 ElvirasRestaurant.com THE GOODS Green smoothies, hearty & healthful bites for breakfast & lunch in the heart of Tubac. Soups, salads, sandwiches, baked goods, organic coffee, & teas + freshly tempered chocolates using healthful and often organic ingredients. Stop in for a cozy respite and a “good” meal.

26A Tubac Road, Tubac 520.398.2001 TheGoodsTubac.com

MELIO’S TRATTORIA Amazing view, candelight atmosphere, classic Italian food. 2261 East Interstate 19 Frontage Road, Tubac 520.398.8494 MeliosRistorante.com SHELBY’S BISTRO A southern Arizona restaurant, located in the artistic, historic town of Tubac. We offer Mediterranean-style cuisine. Lunch or dinner, it is a highly enjoyable experience! 19 Tubac Road, Tubac 520.398.8075 ShelbysBistro.com SOTO’S PK OUTPOST Mexican Food, great margaritas, delicious fajitas, and a friendly atmosphere where the customer is #1. 14 Camino Otero, Tubac 520.398.3256 TUBAC JACKS Welcome to Tubac Jack’s Restaurant & Saloon! Discover delicious, authentic Southwestern cuisine infused with our own signature style. 7 Plaza Rd, Tubac 520.398.3161 WISDOM’S CAFE Your neighborhood restaurant for seven decades. Let our family serve your family mouth-watering Mexican food that is lovingly prepared and steeped in tradition. Owned and operated by four generations of the Wisdom family. 1931 East Frontage Road, Tumacocori 520.398.2397 WisdomsCafe.com WISDOM’S DOS! Street tacos, Sonoran dogs, sliders, nachos, burritos, hummus, soup, salads, cheese crisps, and homemade ice cream await you when you want a quick, delicious lunch or want to stop in for drinks and appetizers before dinner. 4 Plaza Road, Suite 102, Tubac 520.216.7664 WisdomsCafe.com/Dos FOOD TRUCKS, CATERING, PERSONAL CHEFS BUDDHA’S BOWL Personal Chef Service Offering customized, ready to serve meals to complement your healthy lifestyle. Specializing in Vegan, Paleo, Low Carb, Gluten Free, and Omnivore diets, Affordable, convenient, and delicious. Free consultation. 520.668.9010 BudBwl.com

CHEF CHIC CATERING Your answer to your food time dilemma. We are a personal chef service that can handle all of your food needs. Including, prepped meals, table ready meals, special diets, special occasions, parties, catering, desserts, and cooking lessons. 520.406.2757 ChefChicAZ.com CHEF POLICE Your food has the right to remain tasty. A Personal Chef and Caterer of authentic Caribbean food.

Chef Police focuses on delivering artisan interpretations of cuisine from the Caribbean West Indies & Latin America, with European, African, and Southeast Asian influences. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @ChefPolice 520.398.6596 ChefPolice.com FOODIE FLEET A high class, high quality, low price mobile eatery in the Tucson area. We feature pressed sandwiches and waffles. We also offer tantalizing sides, and our special homemade sauce, that will keep you coming back for more! We make a concerted effort to source all of our products locally and organically. It is an experience that you’ve never had before. Catering Available. 520.329.3663 FoodieFleet.com PLANET OF THE CREPES Bringing southern Arizona a modern twist to the French classic, PotC’s award winning crepes range from savory duck breast with fig jam to the decadent fresh strawberry and French custard. Daily specials and rotating locations make this food truck a destination. 520.271.6083 PlanetOfTheCrepes.com ST. ANDREW’S CATERING Led by Deacon Jefferson Bailey (a Tucson culinary icon), this innovative caterer based at St. Andrew’s Espiscopal Church in the historic Armory Park district can do anything, from a locally sourced, organic, multicourse dinner to simply furnishing a pleasant space for an offsite meeting. Proceeds fund the non-profit Neighbors Feeding Neighbors program. 545 South 5th Avenue 520.622.8318

Food & Drink for Home Grocery Resources in Baja Arizona ARTISAN PURVEYORS & DEALERS

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ALEJANDRO’S TORTILLA FACTORY Corn and flour tortillas, bread, & chips. Look out for our new natural tortillas as well as our chiltepin and other flavored tortillas. Find us at many markets and grocery stores throughout Baja Arizona. 5330 South 12th Avenue, South Tucson 520.889.2279 AlejandroTortilla.com ALFONSO OLIVE OIL A world of flavor, locally owned. We invite you to a unique tasting experience of the freshest, first cold pressed, extra virgin olive oils, and flavored olive oils from around the world, and all natural traditional aged balsamic vinegars from Modena, Italy! “Taste first…buy when the excitement becomes overwhelming.” Central location: 4320 North Campbell Avenue, Oro Valley location: 7854 North Oracle Road 520.441.9081 AlfonsoOliveOil.com BISBEE HOT & SPICY The HOTTEST Place in Arizona. We have over 150 items - - all to tempt your taste buds and blast your head off with heat!! 51 Main Street, Old Bisbee 520.432.4332 BisbeeHotAndSpicy.com BISBEE OLIVE OIL Come visit us in Bisbee and experience everything the town has to offer. We are located in a 111-year-old renovated building and carry 180 different items for sale. With 45 different olive oils and balsamics, there is a flavor for everyone. We also offer free tastings!

8 Brewery Avenue, Old Bisbee 520.432.4645

BLU—A WINE & CHEESE SHOP There’s a new cheesemonger in town! Tana Fryer of Blu has been crowned “cheesemonger in chief” by Tucson foodies. Also sold in Alfonso Olive Oil locations. 100 South Avenida Del Convento 520.314.8262 BluArizona.com CHERI’S DESERT HARVEST Cheri’s all-natural products are made from fresh fruits and vegetables indigenous to the Sonoran Desert. Only the freshest prickly pear cactus fruit, citrus, honey, sweet peppers, and hot chile peppers are used in her preserves. 1840 East Winsett Street 800.743.1141 CherisDesertHarvest.com DURAZO’S POCO LOCO SPECIALTY SALSAS Fresh fruit salsas with peaches, pineapple, and mangos at three different levels: Mild, Hot and Stupid Hot. Pico De Gallo, Salsa Ranchera (our more traditional), Guacamole, Ceviche with crab, shrimp, and baby clams, and Crab and Shrimp Dip. Find at Heirloom Farmers Markets. 520.884.7178 FERMENTED TEA COMPANY Family run and operated microbrewery of Kombucha which takes love, effort, and a desire to make the best batch, fermented with tea, every time. 520.286.6887 FermentedTeaCompany.com GRAMMY’S JAMS Grammy offers artisan jams, jellies, chutneys, mustards, and pickles. Habanero Dills, Dilly Beans, Rolling Thunder, and Habanero Jams are favorites. Backyards, our trees, local farms, and orchards provide fruits for Grammy’s special products! Find Grammy’s at Heirloom Farmers Markets. 520.559.1698 Facebook.com/Grammys.AZ

HAYDEN FLOUR MILLS A family business working to revive heritage and ancient grains in the desert. We have revived the tradition that started in Tempe, Arizona more than 125 years ago by Charles Hayden and his Hayden Flour Mills.

While not milled at the iconic Hayden Flour Mills’ building, our fresh flour harkens back to a time when flour still was full of nutrients and flavor. 4404 North Central Avenue, Phoenix. 480.557.0031 HaydenFlourMills.com REX’S PEROGIES, LLC Making the most delicious traditional Polish Perogies—Handmade pockets of Love. Find us at the Oro Valley Farmers’ Market on Saturday and at the Rillito Park Farmers’ Market on Sunday. For more information call 520.250.1590 QUEEN CREEK OLIVE OIL MILL Oils & olives. A family-owned, local business that produces Arizona’s only extra virgin olive oil. Their olives are Arizona grown and pressed at their mill in Queen Creek, Arizona with four stores and tasting rooms in the state. At La Encantada, 2905 East Skyline, Suite 167, 520.395.0563 QueenCreekOliveMill.com SANTA CRUZ CHILI & SPICE COMPANY Both manufacturer and retailer of fine chili products. At our Spice Center in Tumacacori we sell, along with Santa Cruz Products, a wide variety of gourmet southwestern foods, cookbooks, and more. 1868 East Frontage Road, Tumacacori 520.398.2591 SantaCruzChili.com SKYE ISLAND OLIVE AND GRAPES We carry more than 30 different flavors of olive oils and balsamics! Come in and sample in our tasting room! Browse our gift shop for locally made items! Open Wednesday through Sunday 10am to 5pm. 3244 Highway 82, Sonoita 520.455.4627 SkyeIslandOliveAndGrapes.com

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BAKERIES BARRIO BREAD Tucson’s first Community Supported Baker. Don Guerra’s artisan breads, prepared with wild yeast cultures, long fermentation, and hearth baking create a truly inspired loaf. Crafting top quality bread and supporting local foods in Tucson since 2009. Find at Plaza Palomino Farmers’ Market on Sunday, and at the Tucson CSA. BarrioBread.com BAVIER’S BAKERY Tucson’s premier provider of locally sourced, artisan, organic wedding cakes. Our pastries, cakes, and breads are enjoyed by thousands of Tucsonans every year. Trust us to create the perfect, unique cake for your wedding. 520.220.0791 BIG SKYE BAKERS Bodie from Big Skye Bakers will tell you that what he is selling is romance. Pies and cookies baked much the same as our grandmothers made.

The nuanced difference is the addition of mesquite flour; taste of a summer rain. Inquire about special orders at bigskyebakers@gmail.com BigSkyeBakers.com LA ESTRELLA BAKERY At the Mercado San Agustin: A Tucson staple with yummy traditional Mexican pastries and pan dulce you won’t find anywhere else in town. Monday-Saturday, 7 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday, 7 a.m.2 p.m., 100 South Avenida del Convento 520.393.3320 LaEstrellaBakeryIncAZ.com SMALL PLANET BAKERY We started baking bread in February of 1975. At that point, we were a collective of six, only one of whom had any baking experience. We now service many stores and do custom baking for eight restaurants and participate in many farmers’ markets. 411 North 7th Avenue 520.884.9313 SmallPlanetBakery.com BEER, WINE, & DISTILLED LIBATIONS ARIDUS WINE COMPANY Family-owned Aridus Wine Company opened custom crush cellar doors in August 2012. Tasting Room open 11-5 daily. 145 North Railview Avenue, Willcox 520.766.9463 AridusWineCo.com BEAST BREWING COMPANY Arizona’s first and wildest craft beer. Our mission is to inspire a renewed passion for flavor, one pint at a time. 1326 West Highway 92 #8, Bisbee 520.284.5251 BeastBrewingCompany.com BODEGA PIERCE Our wines are made exclusively from 17 varieties of mature vines encompassing Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone, Spanish, and Italian grapes grown at the family’s estate vineyard south of Willcox, AZ. The wines are designed to express the high desert terroir of the Willcox Bench and have been found to be unsurpassed in producing spectacular world-class wines. 4511 East Robbs Road, Willcox 602.320.1722 BodegaPierce.com BORDERLANDS BREWING COMPANY Devoted to crafting unique beers using local ingredients and sustainable brewing methods. Founded in 2011 by two friends, Borderlands has a unique tap room located in a 100 year old produce warehouse and is now providing beer for dozens of bars and restaurants in Southern Arizona.119 East Toole Avenue 520.261.8773 BorderlandsBrewing.com CALLAGHAN VINEYARDS Located in the rolling, oak-dotted hills of southeastern Arizona, at an elevation of 4800 feet, we produce rich, complex red and white wines from a 25 acre vineyard. Mediterranean and Spanish varietals—Tempranillo, Mourvedre, Petit Verdot, Petite Syrah, and Grenache—are the basic building blocks for our red blends, while Viognier, and Riesling are blended for our estate white wine. 336 Elgin Rdoad, Elgin 520.455.5322 CallaghanVineyards.com CARLSON CREEK VINEYARDS A cozy, comfortable tasting experience, with plush seating and charming staff. Carlson Creek’s cottage tasting room allows you to relax and enjoy our wines in a stress free atmosphere. 115 Railview Avenue, Willcox 520.766.3000 CarlsonCreek.com

CHARRON VINEYARDS & WINERY Less than 30 minutes from downtown Tucson is a small vineyard producing quality hand crafted Arizona wines. Visit one of the oldest wineries in Arizona where you can sample an array of award-winning wines in the glass enclosed tasting room or on the wine deck surrounded by mature vineyards and breathtaking mountain views. 18585 South Sonoita Highway, Vail 520.762.8585 CharronVineyards.com

TEN-FIFTY FIVE BREWING Committed to the idea of the local nano-brewer; we are a small batch company using fresh ingredients and open minds to make some great tasting brew. 3810 East 44th Street, Suite 315, 520.461.8073 1055Brewing.com

DOS CABEZAS WINEWORKS Planted, harvested, and fermented in Arizona! Come try a glass! Our winery tasting room is open Thursday-Sunday 10:30-4:30. Tasting fee of $15 includes a souvenir glass. 3248 Highway 82, Sonoita 520.455.5141 DosCabezasWineWorks.com

EXO ROAST COMPANY Exo seeks out the world’s finest coffees, craft roasts them in small batches, and distributes them in limited quantities to ensure unequaled quality. Roastery and café open Monday-Saturday, 7am-7pm, Sunday 7am-3pm. Come by for free twice-weekly tastings.

Custom wholesaling for area cafes and restaurants. 403 North Sixth Avenue 520.777.4709 ExoCoffee.com

FLYING LEAP VINEYARDS With developed acreage in both Sonoita AVA and Cochise County, Flying Leap offers a diverse portfolio of ultra-premium, carefully crafted wines. Visit the tasting rooms at estate vineyards in Willcox and Sonoita, and tasting rooms in Bisbee and Tucson.

520.954.2935 FlyingLeapVineyards.com GOLDEN RULE VINEYARDS One part of a family farming operation owned by Jim and Ruth Graham of Cochise, Arizona. The combination of rich alluvial soils, a deep groundwater aquifer, brilliant Arizona sunshine, and a wide spread between daytime and nighttime temperatures creates a high desert terroir that is unique in American vineyards. 3649 North Golden Rule Road, Cochise 520.507.2400 HAMILTON DISTILLERS Whiskey del Bac is handmade by Hamilton Distillers in small batches using a copper pot-still and house-malted, mesquite-smoked barley. Three desert single-malt whiskeys made in Tucson. 2106 North Forbes Blvd #103 520.628.9244 HamiltonDistillers.com IRON JOHN’S BREWING COMPANY A rotating selection of small batch craft beers all bottled by hand. We produce all our beer at our brewery and have a small retail bottle shop on site. We invite you to stop by and purchase some of the beer you like. 245 South Plumer Avenue 205.737.4766 IronJohnsBrewing.com OLD BISBEE BREWING COMPANY Come and visit lively, historical Bisbee and taste the premium beer at Old Bisbee Brewing Company in the heart of Brewery Gulch! 200 Review Alley, Old Bisbee 520.432.2739 OldBisbeeBrewingCompany.com PLAZA LIQUORS A family-owned and independent store, Plaza has been around under the ownership of Mark Thomson for 35 years. Plaza specializes in family-owned wineries, breweries, and distilleries from around the world. The service and selection speaks for itself. 2642 North Campbell Avenue 520.327.0542 SAND-RECKONER VINEYARDS Located on the Willcox Bench at 4,300 feet in elevation, Rob and Sarah Hammelman tend to the vineyards. Our name, Sand-Reckoner, means ‘sand-calculator,’ and references Archimedes’ revolutionary and thought provoking third century B.C. writing. In this text, Archimedes calculates the size of the universe by figuring the number of grains of sand that will fill it. The name alludes to our sandy loam soils, our connection to the cosmos, and the infinite calculations required to create a wine that expresses the very sand into which our vines’ roots grow deep. 303.931.8472 Sand-Reckoner.com SENTINEL PEAK BREWING COMPANY Located in midtown Tucson, our nano brewery and tap room provide a constant variety of award-winning, craft beers and great food in a casual setting where families and friends can catch a Wildcats game, enjoy live music, or get a growler to go. 4746 East Grant Road 520.777.9456 SentinelPeakBrewing.com SIERRA BONITA VINEYARDS AND TASTING ROOM For us, wine making is a family tradition. We work hard to produce some of the best wines in Southern Arizona to be enjoyed by those of us who love the life of good food and wine and great company. Visit our tasting room in Tucson. 6720 Camino Principal 520.296.0674 TAP & BOTTLE A craft beer and wine tasting room in Downtown Tucson featuring hundreds of beverage options to enjoy on site or carry out. Look forward to beer flights, events, and merchandise. 403 North 6th Avenue 520.344.8999 TheTapAndBottle.com

COFFEE ROASTERS

SAVAYA COFFEE Our goal is to offer superior quality coffees available around the corner from where you brew at home, so the fresh flavors of the Americas, Africa, and Asia are right here for you to enjoy. Several locations in Baja Arizona. SavayaCoffee.com STELLA JAVA Enjoy delicious espresso drinks made from locally roasted coffee beans at this unique family-owned Tucson café. Mon-Sun 8am-2pm 100 South Avenida del Convento 520.777.1496 StellaJava.com FARMS, RANCHES, PRODUCE COMPANIES APPLE ANNIE’S U-PICK FARM The Country Store is located just off of I-10 exit 340 in Willcox. We are open daily year-round offering our famous pies, apple bread, fudge, jarred good, gifts and other Apple Annie’s goodies that you love! 1510 North Circle I Road, Willcox 520.766.2084 AppleAnnies.com AVALON ORGANIC GARDENS & ECOVILLAGE Avalon Gardens practices traditional permaculture principles and time-honored techniques of organic gardening, as well as new sustainable technologies; they also promote seed-saving and the cultivation of heritage varieties of produce provided to our local area through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Tours available by appointment. 2074 Pendleton Drive, Tumacácori 520.603.9932 AvalonGardens.org CHIRICAHUA PASTURE RAISED MEATS Home of “Josh’s Foraging Fowls” pasture raised poultry (chicken, eggs, and holiday turkeys). Also high quality grass-finished beef and lamb. All of our livestock are raised on our irrigated pastures near Willcox, AZ. Visit us online or call to order.

520.507.3436 CPRMeats.com CHIVA RISA We make artisanal, all natural, European-style cheese on an off-grid, sustainable site situated in the upper San Pedro Valley near the Mexican Border. We treat our animals, land, and cheese with the utmost care and respect. Sharing nature’s bounty with our community through finely-crafted cheese is Chiva Risa’s primary goal.

520.901.0429 ChivaRisa.com DOUBLE CHECK RANCH We are a family business that raises, processes (on-farm), and directly sells hearty, wholesome pasture-raised meats in ways that would be familiar to our grandfathers. For eighteen years we have been reinventing local, small-scale agriculture in a way that respects land, animals, and people. Find at various farmers’ markets. 520.357.6515 DoubleCheckRanch.com FIORE DI CAPRA Raw Goat Milk, Yogurt, Kefir, Artisanal Farmstead Goat Cheese, and Confections. Healthy, happy goats fed grass, alfalfa, and local browse. Award-winning products can be sampled and purchased at the Heirloom Farmers’ Market, Sundays. 520.586.2081 GoatMilkAndCheese.com HARRIS HERITAGE GROWERS We are a small family U-Pick farm. Our seasons are May, July-November, we also sell farm raised chickens, turkeys, eggs and homemade pies. 27811 South Sonoita Highway (Highway 83), Sonoita 520.455.9272 HIGH ENERGY AGRICULTURE Based out of Marana, AZ. Family owned and operated, High Energy brings the freshest possible produce for maximum nutrient value picked each morning of the market. Find on Facebook, available at Heirloom Farmers Market.

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TORTILLERIA AREVALO We offer tortillas, cookies, and pancake mix, all made with the natural goodness of sweet-tasting Mesquite pod flour. Our products are traditionally made and delivered fresh to the Tucson area. Find us at Heirloom Farmers Markets. 520.822.0952

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LARRY’S VEGETABLES We grow according to the seasons and the garden dictates when each crop is ready to go to market. All produce is picked within 24-48 hours prior to market. Larry and Eunice are “getting fresh with your veggies.” 520.250.2655 LarrysVeggies.net PATAGONIA ORCHARDS An organic grower, packer, and shipper based in Rio Rico, Arizona. We ship premium organic fruits grown in Arizona and Mexico to wholesalers and retailers throughout the U.S. and Canada. We partner with more than 15 organic growers. 520.761.8970 PatagoniaOrchardsLLC.com RAMONA FARMS AKIMEL O’ODHAM FARM producing ancient, heirloom food crops on ancestral land along the Gila River. Products grown and packaged on farm. Visit our website for wholesome, delicious, traditional Pima recipes for tepary beans, corn and wheat. Shop at our online store or get from Whole Foods or Native Seeds/ SEARCH. Wholesale + food service prices. Sacaton, 602.322.5080 RamonaFarms.com

BISBEE FARMERS’ MARKET Vibrant village market appears magically at Vista Park in the Warren district in Bisbee every Saturday morning. We feature local musicians while you enjoy shopping for healthy local foods and artisan crafts. Choices for Sustainable Living booth features workshops for healthy lifestyle changes. 9am-1pm, Saturdays, BisbeeFarmersMarket.org BISBEE FOOD COOP Community owned. Natural & Organic. Open for everyone. Serving Bisbee and Cochise County for over 35 years. 72 Erie Street, Bisbee 520.432.4011 BisbeeCOOP.com FOODINROOT We are a small business startup with big dreams. We believe you can change your world through food, and we are dedicated to bringing greater access and knowledge for all things concerning local food. UAMC Farmers’ Market on Friday 10am-2pm. St. Philip’s Farmers’ Market on Saturday & Sunday 8am-1pm 520.261.6982 FoodInRoot.com

REZONATION FARMS A family-scale farm serving two restaurants, the Food Conspiracy Co-op, farmers’ markets, and others. We produce eggs, honey, and vegetables and hold natural beekeeping workshops twice a year. 4526 North Anway Road, Marana ReZoNationFarm.com

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VAN HAREN MEAT COMPANY Local lamb & goat meat raised locally in San Manuel. Find at the Heirloom Farmers’ Market on Sunday at Rillito Park. 520.909.0744 email: TSVanHaren@msn.com WALKING J FARM A polyculture farm specializing in grass fed, pasture-raised beef, poultry, and pork, and organically grown vegetables. At Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market on Thurs, Nogales Farmers’ Market on Fridays, and Heirloom Farmers’ Market on Sun 520.398.9050 WalkingJFarm.com GROCERS, FARMERS’ MARKETS & CSAS APPLE ANNIE’S COUNTRY STORE Open year-round offering our famous pies, apple bread, fudge, jarred goods, gifts, and other Apple Annie’s goodies that you love! Visit our U-Pick farm in season. 1510 North Circle I Road, Willcox 520.766.2084 AppleAnnies.com

RIVER ROAD GARDENS We are a small urban farm, using Biodynamic principles, located on the grounds of the Tucson Waldorf School. CSAs available. 3605 East River Road 520.780.9125 RiverRoadGardens.com

SHOPORGANIC.COM An online retailer of carefully selected Organic and NonGMO products. Local Tucson customers can shop online and pick up at our facility. We offer shelf stable groceries, bulk foods, personal care, household items, gluten free, raw, and more. 520.792.0804 ShopOrganic.com

SKY ISLAND BRAND From conception to consumption, you’ve got a friend on the land, SKY ISLAND BRAND! Find us at the Sierra Vista Farmers’ Market (Thurs), Bisbee Farmers’ Market (Sat), Sierra Vista Food Co-op, and Tucson at Food Conspiracy Co-op. 520.642.9368

SUNIZONA FAMILY FARMS We are a family-owned, certified organic farm in Willcox, Arizona growing fruits and vegetables with sustainable, veganic practices, and greenhouse technology. CSAs available all over Baja Arizona. 5655 East Gaskill Road, Willcox 520.824.3160 SunizonaFamilyFarms.com

RINCON VALLEY FARMERS’ & ARTISANS MARKET Enjoy the beautiful scenery and discover a one-of-a-kind shopping experience featuring fruit, produce, eggs, and meat from local Arizona farmers, local raw honey, artisan breads, beautiful artwork, crafts, furniture, aprons, and more handcrafted by our Artisans. We are open EVERY Saturday year round from 8am-1pm. 520.591.2276 RVFM.org

SANTA CRUZ RIVER FARMERS’ MARKET Fresh, sustainably grown foods from local farmers. Arizona fruits and vegetables, free-range meat, eggs, honey, baked goods, and natural plant products! Live music, cooking demonstrations, children’s activities, and free workshops. A great place to get to know your community! Every Thursday from 3-6, on West Congress Street, just west of I-10 at Mercado San Agustin 520.882.3313 CommunityFoodBank.org

SAN XAVIER CO-OP FARM The San Xavier Cooperative Association envisions a farm committed to sustainable farming practices that support economic development in the community. Visit our farm store.

8100 South Oidak Wog 520.449.3154 SanXavierCoOp.org

SLEEPING FROG FARMS Sleeping Frog Farms is an intensive 75-acre farm nestled in the Cascabel corridor of the San Pedro River Valley in Southern Arizona. Our mission is to improve the health of our land and community by growing high quality fruits and vegetables without the use of chemicals. 520.212.3764 SleepingFrogFarm.com

NOGALES MERCADO Enjoy the border experience at our all-local farmers’ market in the heart of downtown Nogales with Santa Cruz County produce, meat, baked goods, jams/ jellies, and much more every Friday afternoon. The Nogales Mercado is part of Cosechando Bienestar, an initiative in Nogales to renew food traditions so that locally-grown food is enjoyed by all for better health. 520.375.6050 Facebook.com/NogalesMercado

Sweet potato HEIRLOOM FARMERS’ MARKETS Four local farmers’ markets that support our region’s farms by: connecting consumers directly to local food producers, strengthening urban-rural agriculture and small food businesses. Heirloom Farmers’ Markets, dedicated to the benefits of local food. 520.882.2157 HeirloomFM.com HIGH DESERT MARKET Gourmet food, gift market, and cafe. Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with indoor and outdoor seating. We do all our baking on premises, serve generous gourmet salads and sandwiches, quiches, pizzas, desserts, and more. 203 Tombstone Canyon, Old Bisbee 520.432.6775 HighDesertMarket.com NATIVE SEEDS/SEARCH RETAIL SHOP In addition to the seed shop, find a mouthwatering variety of Southwestern foods, including native chile powders, savory mole sauces, locally grown beans, and much more. 3061 North Campbell Avenue 520.622.5561 NativeSeeds.org

SIERRA VISTA FOOD CO-OP Our store has a full natural & organic grocery selection as well as frozen, dairy, bulk foods, organic and local produce, specialty & organic cheeses, olives, cruelty-free cosmetics, premium supplements, and more! 96 South Carmichael, Sierra Vista 520.335.6676 SierraVistaMarket.com SIERRA VISTA FARMERS’ MARKET Open Thursdays at Veterans’ Memorial Park in Sierra Vista, AZ. Meet local growers, ranchers, beekeepers and bakers. Take home some of the bounty of southern Arizona! Grass-fed meats, desert heritage foods, and plants. Contact SierraVistaFarmersMarket@cox.net SierraVistafarmersMarket.com TIME MARKET A neighborhood market since 1919, we bring specialty goods to the table: craft beers, esoteric fine wine, wood-fired pizza, espresso, and artisan organic natural yeast breads. We sell organic produce and use it for our restaurant in sandwiches, salads, and pizzas. We are committed to honest communication about sourcing, and enjoy featuring local farms in our menu. 444 East University Boulevard 520.622.0761 TUCSON CSA Offering weekly boxes of local, organically-grown produce since 2004. We also offer pasture-raised eggs and chickens, grass-fed meats, cheese, and bread (from Barrio Bread). Pickups are Tuesdays or Wednesdays, 4:00-7:00 pm, The Historic Y, 300 East University Boulevard 520.203.1010 TucsonCSA.org

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Nonfood in Baja Arizona ARTISTS

FITNESS & YOGA

INNS AND B&BS

BARBARA BRANDEL ARTIST Original artworks by a long time Tucson artist, rich in luminous color, and well-crafted by the artist’s own hand. Paintings on canvas or paper, and mixed media collages with recycled postage stamps & maps. Themes of world cultures, ecology, nature, and Tucson. BarbaraBrandelArtist.com

DNA PERSONAL TRAINING/CROSSFIT Science-Based Fitness and Nutrition - CrossFit - Kettlebells. Wise training for wise people. 930 North Stone Avenue and 3305 North Swan Road 520.327.0600 DNAPersonalTraining.com

BLUE AGAVE BED & BREAKFAST Dramatically situated on one of the Tucson Mountain’s lush cactus covered hilltops, the Blue Agave Bed and Breakfast is perfect for those seeking an elegant yet relaxed Arizona desert experience.

With four lovely casitas, The Blue Agave is a great B&B! 455 North Camino de Oeste 520.250.2202 BlueAgave.com

BANKING & FINANCIAL HUGHES FEDERAL CREDIT UNION Our mission is to provide superior personalized service and high quality financial products to our field of membership while maintaining our long-term financial stability. We support the National Credit Union philosophies of “People Helping People” and “Not for Profit, Not for Charity, But for Service.”

520.794.8341 HughesFCU.org VANTAGE WEST CREDIT UNION A full-service financial institution. We offer personal and business accounts, and with more than $1.4 billion in assets, Vantage West is the largest credit union in southern Arizona. Several locations to serve you. 520.298.7882 VantageWest.org DENTAL DR. KRIZMAN INTEGRATIVE DENTISTRY We are an integrative dental clinic that combines the best aspects of general and biological dentistry, and determines the healthiest restorative dental solution for each patient. 1601 North Tucson Boulevard #27, 520.326.0082 KrizmanDental.com DESIGNERS & BUILDING SUPPLIES ARIZONA DESIGNS KITCHENS & BATHS, LLC Your home should be an extension of things in life you enjoy and value. Our designers have more than 100 years total experience designing kitchens and baths in homes throughout Southern Arizona. Come see us! 2425 East Fort Lowell Road. 520.325.6050 ArizonaDesigns.net BENJAMIN SUPPLY COMPANY Benjamin Supply’s 10,000 sq. ft. plumbing supplies showroom features only top quality products by leading manufacturers from around the globe from sinks and faucets to the most elegant whirlpool spa. Located in the Warehouse Arts District near Downtown Tucson. 440 North 7th Avenue 520.777.7000 BenjaminSupply.com ORIGINATE NATURAL BUILDING MATERIALS SHOWROOM Specializing in environmentally-friendly building materials made from natural, renewable, & recycled resources. We offer innovative and unique materials that rival the aesthetics and performance of more traditional interior finishes. Flooring, countertops, cabinetry, paints, plasters, alternative plywoods, fireplaces, and architectural salvage. 526 North Ninth Avenue 520.792.4207 OriginateNBM.com RED BARK DESIGN, LLC LANDSCAPE DESIGN + CONSULTATION RedBark Design offers regionally and ecologically appropriate landscape design services for residential, commercial, and consulting projects. Mail: P.O. Box 44128 Tucson, Arizona 85733. 520.247.2456 RedBarkDesign.com SUNSET INTERIORS & DESIGN STUDIO With over 30 years of experience, the award-winning Dara Davis is known for her unique interpretation of regional design, inspired by the rich heritages of California missions, New Mexico pueblos, and ranches of the southwest. Plaza Colonial at 2890 East Skyline Drive Suite #190, 520.825.2297 SunsetInterior.com

YOGA OASIS Tap into the wellspring of your inner Oasis!

Every member of our staff is expertly trained in the art and science of teaching yoga. We specialize in making yoga more accessible. Three locations in Tucson: 245 East Congress Street, 2631 North Campbell Avenue, and 7858 East Wrightstown Road. 520.322.6142 YogaOasis.com HOUSEWARE & HARDWARE ACE HARDWARE Locally-owned and managed, we are an affiliate of the Ace Hardware co-operative. Five locations across Tucson, from Downtown on the West to the far Southeast side. We look forward to helping with your next project, no matter how small or large. Our locations listed at 135Hardware.com BUFFALO GALS Three-quarters hardware store, one-quarter gift shop. 3149 Highway 83, Sonoita 520.455.5523 BuffaloGalsOfSonoita.com HF COORS Lead free, microwave, oven, broiler, freezer, and dishwasher safe. All our scrap and waste is inert or recycled. Our 200 foot long primary kiln is one of the most energy efficient in the world. 1600 South Cherrybell Stravenue 520.903.1010 HFCoors.com TABLE TALK AT HOME Tucson’s Premier Home Specialty Store! Our goal has always been to help you and all of our shoppers make your home as comfortable, functional, and fun as possible. Furniture, cookware, decorative home accessories. 7876 North Oracle Road, Oro Valley 877.828.8255 TableTalk.com TUMACOOKERY 45 minutes south of Tucson, in Tubac, this well-stocked kitchen shop is a foodie destination for gadgets, appliances, cutlery, gourmet food, and more. Great local products, and knowledgeable, friendly staff, make Tumacookery a regional favorite. Worth the drive to Tubac all by itself! 2221 South Frontage Road, Tubac 520.398.9497 Tumacookery.com HERBAL MEDICINE ALCHEMISTA AROMATHERAPY SANCTUARY & SPA Aromatherapy for the mind, body & soul. Life is hectic. That’s why we based Alchemista Sanctuary & Spa on the therapeutic value of essential oils. From our own handmade aromatherapy products made with all-natural ingredients to comprehensive, innovative massage therapy we offer something for everyone. 6955 North Oracle Road 520.867.6501 AlchemistaLLC.com TUCSON HERB STORE Located in the Heart of Downtown since 2003. Dedicated to serving a variety of ethically wild-crafted and botanical products of the southwest desert. We carry: bulk herbs, teas, herbal tinctures, beauty care products, soaps, books, incense, and much more!

408 North 4th Avenue 520.903.0038 TucsonHerbstore.com YARD WOMAN An old-fashioned natural remedy shop specializing in herbs and herbalism in the Western Herbal Tradition. Custom blending, essential oils, homeopathics, handmade soaps and lotions, books, tarot cards, and yard art. All natural. Servicing Baja Arizona since 2004. 6 Camino Otero, Tubac 520.398.9565 YardWoman.com

CANYON ROSE SUITES Our turn of the century building is listed on the National Historic Registry and has been lovingly restored to provide every amenity. The rooms are beautifully decorated and include fully furnished kitchens and private baths. From $99 - $195 and we offer AAA and AARP discounts. Please inquire about our corporate and weekly rates. Subway Street & Shearer Avenue, Bisbee (520) 432-5098 CanyonRose.com CAT MOUNTAIN LODGE A bed & breakfast in the desert!

Eco-friendly accommodations in a vintage ranch setting with five eclectic spacious rooms. Southwestern comfort—mixed with modern conveniences. Enjoy free full breakfast at Coyote Pause Cafe. Reserve a guided Star Tour at Spencer’s Observatory. 2720 South Kinney Road 520.578.6085 CatMountainLodge.com COTTAGE B&B AND BAKERY A historic landmark with comfortable, private accommodations: 1 bedroom cottage, 2 bedroom guest house. We serve a delicious full breakfast for two. Relax in our garden surrounded courtyard and enjoy a treat from our bakery. We offer a variety of freshly baked pastries, artisan breads, and organic coffee. Ask about our Saturday bakery deliveries to Tucson’s St. Phillip’s Plaza. 1104 South Central Avenue, Safford 928.428.5118 CottageBedAndBreakfast.com DOWNTOWN CLIFTON We are a small inn near downtown Tucson, AZ in the Armory Park neighborhood. 485 South Stone 520.609.6093 TheDowntownClifton.com LA POSADA DEL RIO SONORA La Posada del Rio Sonora is a boutique hotel and restaurant on the Plaza Principal of Banámichi. Our 250 year old adobe has 10 rooms and suites, and two apartments. This is the heart of “La Ruta Rio Sonora” with nearby hot springs. 70 Calle Pesqueira, Banámichi, Sonora, Mexico MexicoEcoResort.com THE INN AT CASTLE ROCK A beautiful, eclectic hotel in the middle of Old Bisbee, located at the foot of Castle Rock, gateway to Tombstone Canyon. This 1895 historic hotel is also home to the historic Apache Springs Well. 112 Tombstone Canyon Road 520.432.4449 TheInnAtCastleRock.com TRIANGLE T GUEST RANCH Located in Dragoon, next to the Amerind Museum and only about an hour from Tucson, Triangle T is the perfect quick getaway. Established in 1922, the Triangle T Historic Ranch boasts a colorful and exciting past. 4190 Dragoon Road, Dragoon 520.586.7533 TriangleTGuestRanch.Rocks TUBAC POSTON HOUSE INN Located in the historic location of the Tubac village, the Poston House Inn has been occupied since the 1850s. Our Bed & Breakfast Inn has 5 pools, beautiful rooms, a homemade breakfast. Premier lodging in Tubac. 20 Calle Iglesia, Tubac 520.398.3193 TubacPostonHouseInn.com WHISPER’S RANCH BED & BREAKFAST 8 easy miles from Sonoita Vineyards. They offer king sized memory foam beds, private bathrooms, a full breakfast, and personal chef services to accommodate your special dietary needs—amenities that are unparalleled in the community.

1490 Highway 83, Elgin 520.455.9246 WhispersRanch.com

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Local Products & Services

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LANDSCAPING & PERMACULTURE AHIMSA LANDSCAPING Ahimsa Landscaping is an ethically-focused, small design + build business specializing in creating sustainable landscapes through the integration of permaculture design principles and water harvesting techniques for the desert environment. Inquiries at info@ahimsalandscaping.com 520.345.1906 AhimsaLandscaping.com WATERSHED MANAGEMENT GROUP Helping you with water harvesting, soil building, edible and native gardens, and watershed restoration. We’re a Tucson-based, non-profit serving the community by sharing our technical expertise and offering hands-on workshops, training programs, custom property consultations, site plans, and project implementation. 520.396.3266 WatershedMG.org LAWYERS LAW OFFICES OF NICOLE J. FRANCO, PLC Do you need a social security disability attorney? If you suffer from a serious medical condition preventing you from working, we can help. All consultations are free. 5111 North Scottsdale Road #160, Scottsdale 888.945.0144 NicoleFrancoDisability.com LITERATURE ANTIGONE BOOKS Zany, independent (and 100% solar-powered) bookstore. Books for all ages plus large selection of unusual gifts and cards. Regional books on cooking, gardening, sustainability, green living, and more. Voted Tucson’s best independent bookstore. Located in Tucson’s unique Fourth Avenue shopping district. 411 North 4th Avenue 520.792.3715 AntigoneBooks.com BOOK STOP A Tucson institution for decades (since 1967!), the Book Stop stocks thousands of quality used and outof-print titles. Monday-Thursday: 10am-7pm, Friday-Saturday: 10am-10pm, Sunday: noon-5pm. 213 North 4th Avenue 520.326.6661 BookStopTucson.com HOZHONI, A GATHERING PLACE The best place for coffee, ice cream, books, art, events, and more. Weekdays: 6:30am-5pm. Weekends: 7am-5pm. 22 Tubac Road, Tubac 520.398.2921 Hozhoni-Tubac.com MASSAGE, WELLNES & SALONS BLADES HAIR DESIGN Specializing in the greatest cuts, ORGANIC color & highlights, keratin texture smoother treatments, waxing, styling. 804 East University Boulevard 520.622.4247 BladesTucson.com

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COYOTE WORE SIDEBURNS A high quality progressive hair salon. Our stylists are well-trained and current. If you would like to speak to a stylist about your hair service prior to making a commitment, consultation appointments are available. New location: 2855 East Grant Road 520.623.7341 CUT, COLOR, POLISH SALON A full service salon surrounded by luxury and relaxation. Specializing in all things beauty. Cut Color Polish welcomes clients to come indulge in the experience while taking care of all hair and nail pampering needs. Whether it’s a quick cut and style on the go or a manicure for a special occasion, Cut Color Polish staff aims to please and make every customer a top priority. 345 East Congress Street 520.777.7419 CutColorPolish.com ESTUDIO DE PIEL This beautiful skin studio is the perfect place to treat yourself. The professionals at Estudio De Piel provide relaxing massages and clinically effective skin care treatments. 100 South Avenida del Convento 520.882.5050 EstudioPiel.com GLOW SKIN CARE & LASHES Melinda M. Spreng’s philosophy is ‘beauty from within.’ She uses all natural products and methods to make you look and feel your best! 3101 North Swan Road 520.261.4635 GlowSkinCare-N-Lashes.SkinCareTherapy.net THE HIVE HAIR STUDIO & GALLERY Conveniently located inside the historic Hotel Congress. We offer premium hair care at a competitive price point, and feature a revolving gallery of local artists. Book your appointment online today.

315 East Congress Street 520.628.4188 TheHiveTucson.com

JEFF ROGERS, AT CRANIOSACRAL & ZEN SHIATSU THERAPIES OF TUCSON The only Upledger Diplomate Certified CranioSacral Therapist in Southern Arizona, treating deeply with a light touch all forms and effects of stress, injury, chronic pain, headache/migraines, PTSD, and much more, since 1990. 439 North 6th Avenue Suite 221, 520.990.5865 CSTZST.com KRIS SCHAEFER ROGERS, AT CRANIOSACRAL & ZEN SHIATSU THERAPIES OF TUCSON Provides in-depth and multi-leveled bodywork skills to touch in at the root of energetic, nervous, immune, and organ function to regulate stress, trauma, and pain, since 1985. 439 North 6th Avenue Suite 221, 520.977.8019 CSTZST.com ROOTED THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE & BODYWORK A small, locally owned clinic staffed by independent massage therapists located in the heart of Tucson, minutes from downtown and the University of Arizona. Rooted offers a wide range of modalities, including therapeutic, sports, Thai, prenatal massage, Chi Nei Tsang, and Skincare. 1600 North Tucson Boulevard, Suite 120, 520.326.8300 RootedMassageTucson.com

KXCI COMMUNITY RADIO Connecting the communities of Tucson and Southern Arizona to each other and to the world with informative, engaging, and creative community-based radio programming. Tune in at 91.3 KXCI Tucson, or listen online at KXCI.org.

LOCAL FIRST ARIZONA We empower Arizonans to build the life they want in their local community. Together we can create a strong economy, vibrant community, & job opportunities. LocalFirstAZ.com MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART The MOCA inspires new ways of thinking through the cultivation, interpretation, and exhibition of cutting-edge art of our time. 265 South Church Avenue 520.624.5019 Moca-Tucson.org NATIONAL CENTER FOR INTERPRETATION A research and outreach unit at the University of Arizona charged with social justice for language minorities through cutting-edge research, training, and testing for interpreters and translators while advancing professionalism. 800 East University Blvd Suite 200 520.621.3615 NCI.Arizona.edu

SPA DAZE TUCSON Providing quality pain management, stress relief, & athletic therapy. Therapeutic & Medical Massage, Shiatsu, Ashiatsu, Thai Massage, & More! 6812 North Oracle Road, Suite 100, 520.334.1919 SpaDazeTucson.com

PIMA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS A nonprofit metropolitan planning organization with Transportation Planning, Environmental Planning, Energy Planning, and Technical Services divisions. 1 East Broadway Boulevard, Suite 401, 520.792.1093 PAGRegion.com

VILLAGE SALON Hair, nails, makeup...a full service salon located in Broadway Village. 120 South Country Club Road 520.795.3929 TheVillageSalonTucson.com

PRESIDIO SAN AGUSTÍN Located at the center of Washington and Court Streets in downtown Tucson. The Presidio San Agustín del Tucson has living history festivals where visitors can sample Spanish Colonial food, listen to stories of old Tucson, learn period crafts, see the cannon fired, and watch the soldiers drill! Admission is free.

Metered parking is available during the week and parking on nearby streets is FREE on weekends. 196 North Court Street 520.837.8119 TucsonPresidio.com

ORGANIZATIONS AMERICAN SOCIETY OF INTERIOR DESIGNERS ASID is a community of people–designers, industry representatives, educators and students–committed to interior design.

520.547.5516 ASIDTucson.org AMERIND MUSEUM A nonprofit museum and research center dedicated to Native American cultures and histories. Located in Arizona’s spectacular Texas Canyon. 2100 North Amerind Road, Dragoon 520.586.3666 Amerind.org ARIZONA CENTER FOR INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE At the University of Arizona College of Medicine is leading the transformation of health care by creating, educating, and actively supporting a community that embodies the philosophy and practice of healing-oriented medicine, addressing mind, body and spirit.

IntegrativeMedicine.Arizona.edu BISBEE HUB Are you traveling to Bisbee soon? Find out what’s in store before you travel by visiting BisbeeHub.com and checking out the events calendar. We are also working on a business directory so come back again and again and see why Bisbee is so special! BisbeeHub.com BOYS & GIRLS CLUB, TUCSON Providing building-centered programs, professional staff, and a safe environment to assist youth in developing self-esteem, values, and skills. 3155 East Grant Road 520.573.3533 BGCTuc.org COSECHANDO BIENESTAR An initiative to renew food traditions in Nogales so that locally-grown food is enjoyed by all for better health. We do this by improving access, building residents’ capacity to grow food, supporting sound policy, and promoting local business. 520.375.6050 Facebook.com/NogalesMercado DOWNTOWN TUCSON PARTNERSHIP A private nonprofit corporation whose mission is to revitalize Downtown through economic development, community development, public outreach, and events. 100 North Stone, Suite 101, 520.268.9030 DowntownTucson.org ETHERTON GALLERY Founded in 1981, Etherton Gallery specializes in 19th, 20th century, and contemporary fine photography, and features top local and regional artists working in all media. We also manage the Temple Gallery at the Temple of Music and Art. 135 South 6th Avenue 520.624.7370 EthertonGallery.com HEALTHY YOU NETWORK The mission of Healthy You Network, Inc. is to promote the lifelong health benefits of a whole, plant-based lifestyle to residents of Arizona. 3913 East Pima Street 520.207.7503 HealthyYouNetwork.org

SANTA CRUZ VALLEY HERITAGE ALLIANCE We connect people to the unique heritage resources of the Santa Cruz River Valley in southern Arizona. 520.882.4405 SantaCruzHeritage.org SONORAN INSTITUTE Founded in 1990, the Sonoran Institute informs and enables community decisions and public policies that respect the land and people of western North America.44 East Broadway Blvd, Suite 350, 520.290.0828 SonoranInstitute.org SOUTHERN ARIZONA ARTS & CULTURAL ALLIANCE A notfor-profit organization that exists to ensure that, through engagement in arts and culture, our communities produce strong, inspired citizens. 520.797.3959 SAACA.org TOHONO CHUL PARK One of the “World’s Ten Great Botanical Gardens” according to Travel + Leisure magazine, and the place in Tucson where nature, art, and culture connect.

7366 North Paseo Del Norte 520.742.6455 TohonoChul.org TUBAC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE A non-profit business league, engaged in all activities relating to the perpetuation, preservation, & promotion of Tubac, and its businesses. Welcome Ctr 12 B Tubac Road, Tubac 928.300.9448 TubacAZ.com TUCSON CLEAN & BEAUTIFUL A non-profit organization with the intent to preserve and improve our environment, conserve natural resources, and enhance the quality of life in the City of Tucson and eastern Pima County. These goals are achieved through initiating educational and participatory programs implemented with broad-citizen, multicultural support. 520.791.3109 TucsonCleanAndBeautiful.org TUCSON JAZZ FESTIVAL A 12-day festival of jazz, with locations at the historic Fox Tucson Theatre, The Rialto Theatre, and the Hotel Congress. The Festival also includes a free outdoor event on Martin Luther King Day, Jan. 19, 2015 in downtown Tucson, and festival artists will also hold master classes and educational activities for local schools and academies. TucsonJazzFestival.org TUCSON MUSEUM OF ART Western, Latin, modern and contemporary, and Asian art fills our historic city block in downtown Tucson for an everlasting experience while traveling exhibits keep the paint and clay fresh for each visit. 140 North Main Avenue 520.624.2333 TucsonMuseumOfArt.org

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NATIVE SEEDS/SEARCH Revered Tucson nonprofit and world-class seed bank saving and sharing the seeds of the desert Southwest since 1983. Classes, tours, seeds, native crafts and more! 3061 North Campbell Avenue (store) and 3584 East River Road (Center).

520.622.0830 NativeSeeds.org

YWCA TUCSON The Cafe at the YWCA: Setting the Table for Change. The Galleria Art and Gifts: Gifts with Purpose. Social Enterprises of the YWCA Tucson.

Our Mission: Eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all. 525 North Bonita Avenue 520.884.7810 YWCATucson.com

RILLITO NURSERY & GARDEN CENTER An independent family-owned business that has provided our customers with a diverse inventory of quality plants and products since 1994. Our goal is to provide quality products and excellent service at a fair price. 6303 North La Cholla Boulevard 520.575.0995 RillitoNursery.com

WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH CENTER The WRRC is committed to assisting communities in water management and policy, educating teachers, students, and the public about water, and encouraging scientific research on state and regional water issues. 350 North Campbell Avenue 520.621.2526 WRRC.Arizona.edu WESTERN NATIONAL PARKS ASSOCIATION Promotes preservation and stewardship of the national park system and its resources and associated public lands by creating greater public appreciation through education, interpretation, and research. 12880 North Vistoso Village Drive, Oro Valley 520.622.6014 WNPA.org PLANTS, SEEDS & GARDEN SUPPLY ARBICO ORGANICS Arbico Organics has been providing organic solutions for homeowners, gardeners, farmers and pet, horse, and livestock owners since 1979. Products include beneficial insects and organisms, natural fertilizers, amendments, composting supplies, weed and disease controls, critter control, and more. 800.827.2847 Arbico-Organics.com ARID LANDS GREENHOUSES We sell the most unusual plants: cacti, succulents, pachycaul trees, pachyforms, terrestrial bromeliads and orchids, and bulbs. Order online or to visit and browse, call ahead. 520.883.8874 AridLands.com B&B CACTUS FARM A cactus and succulent grower in Tucson, Arizona, B&B has both seasoned landscape specimens and plants for the collector. 11550 East Speedway 520.721.4687 BandBCactus.com BAMBOO RANCH Providing Desert Grown Bamboo since 1986. Specializing in non-invasive, clumping bamboo suited to harsh conditions. Providing plants, poles, and expert advice on species, growing, and care, for privacy screening and shade. 520.743.9879 BambooRanch@juno.com BambooRanch.net CIVANO NURSERY We carry a large variety of plants for our unique climate, pottery from around the world in various styles, colors and sizes. Wind chimes that sparkle and herbs and vegetables for your kitchen garden. Fruit trees and shade trees, and flowers for butterflies and bees. 5301 South Houghton Road 520.546.9200 CivanoNursery.com GREEN THINGS NURSERY A retail & wholesale plant nursery located in Tucson in the Binghampton Historic District on the banks of the Rillito River. Come visit us for an unbelievable variety of plants, trees, cactus and pottery all at great prices! 3235 East Allen Road 520.299.9471 GreenThingsAZ.com MAGIC GARDEN NURSERY AND LANDSCAPE Shop at The Magic Garden which features delicious, organic vegetables and herbs including exciting Heirloom varieties. Fill the need for all your edibles with our extensive collection of fruit bearing plants such as Blueberries, Grapes, Citrus, Fig, and Pomegranate. 7909 East 22nd Street 520.885.7466 MagicGardenNursery.com MESQUITE VALLEY GROWERS NURSERY A destination garden center with 24 acres of plants grown on-site, including desert natives, shade trees, fruit and nut trees, shrubs, roses, cacti and succulents. Also featuring fountains, statuary and garden accessories. Knowledgable staff on hand for planning, learning & diagnosis. 8005 East Speedway Boulevard 520.721.8600

ROMEO TREE SERVICE Certified arborist and tree worker, Angelo Romeo is the author of the DVD Mesquites & Palo Verdes, A Homeowner’s Guide. 520.603.0143 RomeoTreeService.com SILVERBELL NURSERY & COUNTRY STORE We sell bedding, garden and landscape plants, water harvesting supplies and now even pet food. “Our success is yours.” We believe that if we sell you a plant and tell you how to plant it, feed it, water it, harvest it and prune it, and you and the plant are successful, you will be back. 2730 North Silverbell Road 520.622.3894 TANK’S GREEN STUFF Our mission is to create value added products from stuff that was once considered waste. To create jobs and great products that can be used to build a sustainable local economy. Our compost is a naturally made soil amendment, containing no fertilizers or chemical products. 520.290.9313 TanksGreenStuff.biz REAL ESTATE & PROPERTY MANAGEMENT BARRIO VIEJO RENTALS Become part of downtown’s historic district. Apartments rent from $650-$900 a month.

Offices range from 400 to 6,000 square feet, and leases include off-street parking. Let us welcome you to the neighborhood. 520.623.4091 BarrioViejo.com HERBERT RESIDENTIAL Offering modern, urban living in downtown Tucson! Come see our newly remodeled studio and one bedroom apartments with breathtaking city views.

520.777.5771 HerbertLiving.com HOMESMART ADVANTAGE GROUP The largest real estate brokerage in the Southwest and ranked among the top 10 largest real estate brokerages in the nation. Living healthy and green are inter-related. 6893 North Oracle Road Suite 111, 520.307.6560 HomeSmartTucson.com JILL RICH REALTOR I am dedicated to our Long Realty mission: To create an exceptional real estate services experience that builds long-lasting relationships. “It’s like having your grandma in the real estate business.” 520.349.0174 JillRich.LongRealty.com TIERRA ANTIGUA HOMES The largest, locally-owned real estate brokerage in Southern Arizona. With over 800 agents, we are the largest, locally-owned real estate brokerage in Southern Arizona. We are a high energy, cutting-edge company that continues to put clients and agents first! Downtown office at 216 East Congress Street Call Kent at 520.302.5368 or Emmary 520.314.8078 TierraAntigua.com RETAIL SHOPS & PLAZAS ANGEL WINGS THRIFT & GIFT SHOP Offering a “boutique” shopping experience with an ever changing and wide variety of inventory. All proceeds go to Our Lady of the Angels Mission Catholic Church, newly built, in Sonoita. 22 Los Encinos Road, Sonoita.

AVENUE BOUTIQUE One of Tucson’s most unique, fashion-forward women’s clothing boutiques. BRANDS: Gestuz, MinkPink, Plastic Island, Sheila Fajl, Rebecca Minkoff, James Jeans, Blank Denim, Myne, Dolce Vita, Genetic, Garde, Thomas Paul, Hanky Panky. Located in the Broadway Village. 3050 East Broadway Boulevard 520.881.0409 ShopAvenueBoutique.com BON BOUTIQUE Located in Broadway Village, we offer a collection of well-made, beautiful things… home, garden, clothing, accessories and gifts. The things we seek out are made by skilled craftsmen who are passionate about what they do, whether they are in Tucson or abroad. 3022 East Broadway 520.795.2272 Bon-Boutique.com

BUFFALO EXCHANGE We buy, sell, and trade designer wear, basics, vintage, and one-of-a-kind items. You can receive cash or trade for clothing on the spot! We’re a family operated company that works to sustain the environment by recycling clothing. 2001 East Speedway Blvd. (Campus) 520.795.0508 & 6212 East Speedway Boulevard. (East Side) 520.885.8392 BuffaloExchange.com BUFFALO TRADING POST New & Recycled Goods. We buy-sell-trade wonderful clothing & unique things! Our ever-changing inventory includes home decor, vintage, furniture, imports, clothing & accessories for women and men.

Known as “Buffalo Exchange’s Older Sibling”. Art & Craft Fairs start in March! 2740 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, AZ, 520578-0226 CatMountainStation.com COPENHAGEN IMPORTS Committed to providing the highest quality service to our customers. Come in and experience our comfortable showroom with exciting displays and sales consultants who are truly interested in your furniture needs. 3660 East Fort Lowell 520.795.0316 CopenhagenLiving.com COWGIRL FLAIR Sonoita’s local “Gussy’d Up Outfitters” providing locals and tourists a variety of contemporary western wear, boots, jewelry, and home décor with a unique style at 3244 Highway 82 #5 in Sonoita, Arizona Wednesday through Sunday 11am to 5pm. 3244 Highway 82, Sonoita 520.455.4784 Sonoita CowGirlFlairSonoita.com CROWE’S NEST Hats, casual fashions, Minnetonka Footwear, unique jewelry & gifts. Year-round Christmas.19 Tubac Road, Tubac 520.398.2727 DARLENE MORRIS ANTIQUES We carry an unusual collection of 18th, 19th, and 20th century items including silver, jewelry, furniture, porcelain, glass, fine art and decorative items brought to the great Southwest from all over the world. Plaza Palomino 2940 North Swan, #128 520.322.9050 DECO, AN ILLUMINATING EXPERIENCE Treasures for you and your home. An eclectic mix of local artistry, recycled glassware, one-of-a-kind artworks, many items made in the USA, plus worldwide accents. 2612 East Broadway Boulevard 520.319.0888 DecoArtTucson.com DESERT LEGACY GALLERY Offering Southwestern gifts and accessories. We also have a frame shop and an interior design service. If you like beautiful Native American and contemporary Southwest jewelry, saddle up your horse and ride on in! 3266 Highway 82, Sonoita 520.455.0555 DESERT VINTAGE We’ve come to be known as a great source for excellent, one-of-a-kind vintage pieces of quality and flair. We buy men’s and women’s vintage clothing and accessories seven days a week. Come by and check us out! 636 North 4th Avenue 520.620.1570 ShopDesertVintage.com DOS CORAZONES Offering Fabulous Furniture, Accessories & Gifts. Our store will have your heart singing!

Specialty lines and one of a kind inventory. We can add that special touch or do an entire home! 520.398.3110 DosCorazonesDesign.com FED BY THREADS Downtown Tucson’s Destination for American-Made Organic Sustainable Clothing that feeds 12 emergency meals to hungry Americans per item sold.

Featuring women’s, men’s, baby and toddler apparel made from organic cotton, hemp, bamboo and beyond. 345 East Congress Street 520.396.4304 FedByThreads.com FLASH IN THE PAST Book a pinup photo shoot! Flash in the Past takes you back to the era of the classic pinup! The perfect treat for yourself! The perfect gift for a lover! Pinup parties available! Aside from pinup photo shoots, Flash in the Past also offers Retro Beauty Classes and vintage shopping. 43 South 6th Avenue 520.304.0691 FlashInThePast.com FORS SHOP In the heart of the 5C district of downtown Tucson FORS Architecture has created a small gift shop inspired by food, fashion and design. Come chat with us about our architecture and interior design services too, since our office is in the same building. Come and browse!

Monday through Friday, 9am-6pm. 245 East Congress Street #135, 520.795.9888 FORSArchitecture.com GRUMPY GRINGO FINE CIGARS The husband drop off point, daddy day care center. It’s the place to go when the other one is shopping. Grumpy Gringo features fine cigars, pipes, tobacco, excellent camraderie and tall tales. 4 Camino Otero, Tubac 520.980.5177 GrumpyGringoCigars.com

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TUCSON ORIGINALS Since 1999, The Tucson Originals have been the driving force in promoting the value of Tucson’s independent restaurants and supporting Tucson’s culinary diversity. Visit our website for information on restaurant membership, events, and special offers.

520.477.7950 TucsonOriginals.com

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GYPSY COWGIRL RESALE BOUTIQUE Unique resale clothing and accessories for women. Consignment by appointment. An upscale, resale boutique for humble snobs. Featuring brands like Lucky Brand, Double D, Johnny Was, 3J Workshop. Boots, jeans, jackets, vests skirts, shirts and more. 6 Camino Otero, Tubac 520.398.3000 HEART OF GOLD Offers real antiques (over 100 yrs old) and consignments from local estates. The owner is a certified appraiser and can help with consignment services, an estate sale, or appraisals of your treasures. P.O. Box 1273, Sonoita 520.394.0199 or cell 520.240.4490 HOW SWEET IT WAS Locally-owned since 1974, we specialize in vintage fashion from the 1880s-1980s. We also buy vintage everyday. No appointment necessary. 419 North 4th Avenue 520.623.9854 ILLUMINATIONS Offering affordable and stylish lighting and high quality lighting products in Tucson. Of all the lighting stores in Tucson, we’re so glad you’ve come to us.

We look forward to seeing you soon! 3527 East Fort Lowell Road 520.325.3031IlluminationsTucson.com JGILBERT FOOTWEAR A luxury footwear, apparel and accessories boutique. We offer exclusive collections from Lucchese Classics & hard-to-find brands like Thierry Rabotin, Arche, Salpy and more. Monday-Saturday 10am5:30pm Plaza Palomino. 2960 North Swan Road Suite 124, 520.327.1291 KRIKAWA JEWELRY DESIGNS, INC. Located in the heart of downtown on Congress Street! In the showroom, you’ll find exceptional handcrafted jewelry, accessories and art made by local and national artists. Gaze into the workshop and see the internationally renowned Krikawa jewelers at work, making one-of-a-kind wedding and engagement rings, and taking care of your fine jewelry repairs. 21 East Congress Street 520.322.6090 Krikawa.com LITTLE BIRD NESTING COMPANY New, Gently-Used, and Locally Handmade Baby and Toddler Clothing, Gear, Toys, and Gifts! AGES Newborn to Age 4. 2924 East Broadway Boulevard 520.203.7372 LittleBirdNestingCo.com LA CABAÑA Offering an artful collection of furniture and decor including traditional talavera, blending Spanish colonial and classic styles from around the world; antique and contemporary. 120 South Avenida del Convento 520.404.9008 MAGNETIC THREADS Original Designs then constructed into handmade clothing by Meggen Connolley. 2 Copper Queen Plaza, Old Bisbee 917.660.4681 Magnetic-Threads.com MAST TUCSON A local lifestyle boutique. Specializing in handmade jewelry, leather goods, accessories, home goods & select furnishings. The three co-owners create the lion’s share of the stock, artfully curating an enticing selection from fellow designers and artisans. At Mercado San Agustin, 100 South Avenida Del Convento 520.495.5920 ILoveMast.com

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MAYA PALACE Clothing & Gifts From Around the World.

Festive fashions including prom dresses, wedding dresses, work fashion, casual and seasonal attire. Plaza Palomino, 2930 North Swan Road #120 520.748.0817 MayaPalaceTucson.com MERCADO SAN AGUSTIN Tucson’s first and only Public Market hosting several locally-owned shops, eateries and incredible experiences. Our courtyard is home to the Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market (every Thursday afternoon) and many other special events. Open seven days a week with Farmers’ Market on Thursdays from 3-6 p.m. 100 South Avenida del Convento 520.461.1110 MercadoSanAgustin.com MIRAGE & BIRD Working artist studio and retail shop.

Faux plants, succulents and individual flower stems. Custom and ready made permanent arrangements. Eclectic cards and gifts. Personal consultations available by appointment. ana@mirageandbird.com Plaza Santa Cruz, 10 Plaza Road, Tubac 520.248.5039 MirageAndBird.com MONTEREY COURT Studio galleries, cafe, bar, catering, and entertainment venue centrally located in Tucson just west of Oracle Road on historic Miracle Mile. 505 West Miracle Mile 520.207.2429 MontereyCourtAZ.com

PICÁNTE A treasure trove of traditional handmade crafts from Mexico, Guatemala and Latin America. Artisan works include colorful ceramics, tin objects, carved wood santos, and fine silver jewelry. There is an incredible collection of textiles, huipils, fabric by the yard, hand-embroidered blouses and dresses, and oilcloth. 2932 East Broadway Boulevard 520.320.5699 PicanteTucson.com

SUNSET INTERIORS FURNITURE WAREHOUSE One-of-akind furniture samples, consignment, and a little vintage thrown in. Treasure hunt in our warehouse Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 11am - 3pm. 75 North Park Avenue Tucson, Arizona 85719. 520.825.2297 STAGECOACH BAGS Handmade, one of a kind, cowboy boot purses made from authentic cowboy boots. Custom orders available. Unique styles for all that love the look of bling and western flair. Located in Cowgirl Country.

P.O. Box 393, Sonoita 480.265.5312 StageCoachBags.com

PLAZA PALOMINO Distinctly Tucson specialty and boutique shopping & dining. Beautiful courtyards, unique businesses and ample parking.

Ready to make your shop or restaurant part of Tucson’s gateway to the Foothills? 2960 North Swan Road PlazaPalomino.com

SWEET POPPY A one of a kind store, along with a unique selection of furniture, accessories, and much more.

Located in the Mercado de Baca in Tubac next to Shelby’s Bistro. 19 Tubac Road, Tubac 520.398.2805 SweetPoppy.webs.com

PETROGLYPHS-FURNITURE, LIGHTING, ACCENTS An eclectic collection of furniture, lighting ,and accents. Much of which is produced in Tucson. Located in the Lost Barrio shopping district. 228 South Park Avenue 520. 628.4764 PetroglyphsTucson.com

SWEET RIDE GIFTS & ACCESSORIES We carry a variety of Sonoita tees for men women and kids. Old guys Rule Tees, Hats and gift Items, Beautiful Bling Belts by Nocona and Jewelry for ladies. Also motorcycle related gift items for our biker enthusiasts. Stop in and see Valorie—she will be glad you did. 3244 Highway 82, Sonoita 520.455.4717

POP-CYCLE A gift shop devoted to handmade items produced from recycled, reclaimed and sustainable materials. The products are fun and whimsical, with a little something for everyone. Many items are produced locally, some by the store’s owners. 422 North 4th Avenue 520.622.3297 PopCycleShop.com

TUCSON THRIFT SHOP Tucson’s unique vintage and costume-wear resource for the fun side of life! Established in 1979, we have evolved with the 4th Avenue community into a blend of old and new. A marketplace for streetwear and theme party needs. Hours: M-Th: 10-8, F-Sat: 10-9, Sun: 12-6. 319 N. 4th Avenue 520.623.8736

PREMIERE PIANO - Home of Steinway The NEW home of Steinway, Premiere Piano is located in Plaza Palomino. Come see Premiere Piano’s newly renovated space – complete with gorgeous showroom and performance area/recital stage. 2990 North Swan Road Suite 147, 520.445.6597 PremierePiano.com

TUMACACORI MESQUITE SAWMILL A leader in raw and finished mesquite materials. From lumber, slabs, posts, to exotic burls and burl slabs, The Sawmill has an ever changing selection. 2007 E. Frontage Road, Tumacacori 520.398.9356 MesquiteDesign.com

RUSSELL’S RETRO FURNISHINGS Tucson’s only store specializing in Mid-Century Modern furniture as well as vintage accessories from the 1950’, 60’s and 70’s. Relive the nostalgic style and function of an ingenious design era from kitchenwares, chotchkes and lamps to refinished, reupholstered and restored dining tables, living room and bedroom sets. Family owned and operated, we offer something for everyone.1132 East Broadway Boulevard 520.882.3885 RussellsRetro.com

WILDFLOWER JEWELRY & ART We offer affordable and fun arts and crafts classes and have a wide selection of jewelry, drawings, quilts, plants, and more. Find us on Etsy. 27 Subway #4, Old Bisbee 520.234.5528 YIKES TOYS! Quirky Fun for the Curious Mind.

Enchanting books, wacky wonders, old-school novelties. Serious science, kooky kitsch, phenomenal fun. Featuring original works by Tucson artists & scientists. Specializing in Gifts for All Ages. 2930 East Broadway Boulevard 520.320.5669 YikesToysOnline.com

RUSTIC CANDLE COMPANY Locally-owned and operated. Our candles are hand-poured on site. All styles, sizes & fragrances. Enjoy a fabulous selection of home decor, gift, incense, soap & much more! 324 North 4th Avenue 520.623.2880 RusticCandle.net SAN AGUSTIN TRADING COMPANY In addition to handmade moccasins from artisan Jesse Aguiar, this shop showcases fascinating Native American crafts and jewelry.

120 South Avenida del Convento 520.628.1800 SanAgustinTradingCompany.com

Lemongrass

SUNSET INTERIORS & DESIGN STUDIO With more than 30 years of experience, the award-winning Dara Davis is known for her unique interpretation of regional design, inspired by the rich heritages of California missions, New Mexico pueblos and ranches of the southwest. Plaza Colonial, 2890 East Skyline Drive Suite #190, 520.825.2297 SunsetInterior.com

ZOCALO MEXICAN IMPORTS A destination for fine Mexican imports. Owners Robert and Karri buy directly from numerous artisans all over Mexico.

The 10,000 sq. ft. showroom features an extensive collection of mesquite & alder furnishings, unique decorative pieces by artists featured in the “Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art”, a wide selection of handmade textiles from Mexico and around the world, antiques, artifacts & the finest iron chandeliers available. 3016 East Broadway Boulevard 520.320.1236 SCHOOLS

CITY HIGH SCHOOL An Arizona public charter high school serving grades 9-12 located in downtown Tucson in the historic Cele Peterson building. City High School seeks young people who want to study in a dynamic small school that prepares them for college and connects them with the community in which they live. 48 East Pennington Street 520.623.7223 CityHighSchool.org

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KINO SCHOOL Where students are given the responsibility and freedom that are the essence of a democratic society.

Students of all abilities succeed where learning, creativity, respect for others, and community thrives. 6625 North First Avenue 520.297.7278 KinoSchool.org SKY ISLANDS HIGH SCHOOL A a tuition-free public high school in its 7th year, now enrolling grades 9-12 at its new campus on the Rogers Commons—formerly TUSD’s Rogers Elementary on 12-acres in the heart of Tucson. Call for a tour. 6000 East 14th Street 520.382.9210 SkyIslands.org GREGORY SCHOOL Inspired Learning—Beyond strong academics. Gregory School develops inspired students who are encouraged to pursue their individual passion and develop a love for learning. Our students are well-prepared to excel in college and go on to create impactful and fulfilling lives. 3231 North Craycroft Road 520.327.6395 GregorySchool.org TUCSON WALDORF SCHOOL Tucson Waldorf School is located in the scenic Binghampton Rural Historic Landscape and is home to the River Road Gardens CSA farm. Children from Parent-Child Classes through 8th Grade experience an engaging education that cultivates joy and excellence in learning. The arts are integrated throughout a classical curriculum and hands-on work. Weekly tours available.

3605 East River Road 520.529.1032 TucsonWaldorf.org SERVICES CONNECT COWORKING Connect provides entrepreneurs, small businesses and freelancers more than just a desk, more than just a roof. Connect is a place where cutting-edge minds and innovative technology call home; a place where collaboration breeds success, community and change. And it happens all right here. Right in the heart of Tucson. 33 South 5th Avenue 520.333.5754 ConnectCoworking.com FLASH IN THE PAST Book a pinup photo shoot! Flash in the Past takes you back to the era of the classic pinup! The perfect treat for yourself! The perfect gift for a lover! Pinup parties available! Aside from pinup photo shoots, Flash in the Past also offers Retro Beauty Classes and vintage shopping. 43 South 6th Avenue 520.304.0691 FlashInThePast.com INPULSE NINE MEDIA If you like the look of Edible, these are the minds behind it! I9M functions like a tiny marketing department, handling small businesses’ marketing so business owners can focus on their business without hiring more staff. Graphic & web design, social media and more. Clients get 10% off Edible ads! 520.777.9551 ImpulseNine.com ORDINARY BIKE SHOP Servicing bikes of all sorts and selling new and used bikes and parts. “Life is like riding a bicycle—in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.”—Albert Einstein. 311 East 7th Street 520.622.6488 OrdinaryBikeShop.com SCRAPS ON SCRAPS Scraps on Scraps is a residential and commercial food waste and compostable materials pickup. If it can be composted, then we want it! Scraps on Scraps is committed to changing the way that you dispose of your food waste. 520.333.7106 ScrapsOnScraps.com SAHUARO TROPHY A Family Owned Business serving Tucson and Southern Arizona for more than 30 years. We offer Three Generations of Experience in the Awards Industry, to provide you with quality innovative products. We offer State-of-the-Art Technology in all our Marking Processes, including: Diamond Drag, Rotary, Laser, Photo Etch, Sublimation, Silk Screening and Sandblasting. 2616 East Broadway 520.326.9000 SahuaroTrophy.com

SOLAR ENERGY SERVICES & PRODUCTS

VETERINARY CARE

SOUTHWEST SOLAR Providing the highest quality evaporative cooling products, customer service, and passive heating/cooling techniques; while being a model business for environmentally conscious and safe business practices and ethics through our use of renewable and sustainable energy sources and green building technology.

5085 South Melpomene Way 520.885.7925 Southwest-Solar.com

ENLIGHTENED VETERINARY CARE Provides Holistic house calls for pets. Wellness & healing naturally. Homeopathy, Accupuncture, manipulations, nutriceuticals, hospice/senior nursing, vaccinations, hands-on exam. Concierge service at your home is convenient, comfortable, safe. I love cats! Consult Dr. Jones: drjonesevc@yahoo.com 520.249.1661 EnlightenedVetCare.com

TECHNICIANS FOR SUSTAINABILITY A Tucson based, locally-owned, mission-driven company specializing in renewable energy and sustainable technologies for residential and commercial settings, including solar electric (PV) and solar hot water. 520.740.0736 TFSSolar.com

WELLNESS CENTERS & CONSULTANTS

TRAVEL & TOURISM BIOSPHERE 2 Our mission is to serve as a center for research, outreach, teaching and lifelong learning about Earth, its living systems, and its place in the universe.

Come visit us. 32540 South Biosphere Road, Oracle 520.838.6200 B2Science.org SILVER CITY Be here for lunch—an easy and scenic three hour drive from Tucson. Nationally recognized cuisine, historic downtown district, arts, Gila National Forest, WNMU University, fresh air, clear skies, mild climate, great festivals, a top-ten destination, quaint and quirky! 575.538.5555 SilverCityTourism.org TUBAC PRESICIO Come to Tubac Presidio and experience 2,000 years of Southwest history! We showcase every culture (Native American, Spanish, Mexican, Pioneer American, and Arizonian) with award-winning artifacts and displays to bring those 2,000 years of history to life. See Arizona’s first printing press, our original 1885 school house, and much more. Open 7 days 9am to 5pm in Arizona’s 1st European settlement. 1 Burruel Street, Tubac 520.398.2252 TubacPresidio.org

BOBCAT INTEGRATIVE CONSULTING Bobcat Integrative Consulting Bob Harris, M.A., and Catriona O’Curry, M.A. We both have 25 years of experience working with Individuals, Couples, and Small Businesses. Masters in Psychology, 4 year Diplomas in Energy Healing. Coaching for individuals, couples, families, and businesses. Coaching groups for Women and Men. Energy Medicine Classes. We accept PayPal.Just email: robertpharris1946@gmail.com (520) 822 4982 BobCatIntegrativeConsulting.com COPPERSTATE WELLNESS AQUA workouts in your own pool! With over 19 years of professional teaching and training experience, we specialize in performance, prehab and functional fitness. 520.906.9192 CopperstateWellness.com FOREVER ABLE WELLNESS We are an alternative wellness center that provides services in acupuncture, Chinese herbs, massage, and chiropractic. 205 W. Giaconda Way Suite #135, 520.219.2400 Forever-Able.com NEW GRATITUDE NUTRITIONAL THERAPY Kariman Pierce is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and Real Food advocate with a focus on gluten sensitivity, digestion, and blood sugar related issues. She uses Functional Assessment to uncover your body’s bio-individual needs and supports you with customized nutritional protocols based in nutrient-dense whole foods. 520.477.6204 NewGratitudeeNutrition.com

VENUES, THEATRES, & ENTERTAINMENT BISBEE ROYALE A cultural and events venue screening new, classic and foreign films & hosting wine tastings, poetry, flamenco concerts & more! 94 Main Street, Old Bisbee 520.432.6750 BisbeeRoyale.com D&D PINBALL A great place to enjoy the Art and Sport of Pinball in Tucson Arizona.

Open Thursday through Sunday. 331 East 7th Street 520.777.4969 DandDPinball.com FOX TUCSON THEATRE Tucson’s Premiere entertainment venue. A 1,200 seat Southwestern Art Deco movie palace built in 1930 and restored in 2005. 17 West Congress Street 520.547.3040 FoxTucson.com RIALTO THEATRE Recognized by the Tucson Weekly as the Best Indoor Venue for 10 years running, the nonprofit Rialto Theatre is the best place to see live music in Tucson, bar none. 318 East Congress Street 520.740.1000 RialtoTheatre.com LOFT CINEMA A local nonprofit cinema dedicated to creating community through film, honoring the vision of filmmakers, promoting the appreciation and understanding of the art of film. 3233 East Speedway Boulevard 520.795.7777 LoftCinema.com THE MINI TIME MACHINE MUSEUM OF MINIATURES Displaying more than 300 antique and contemporary miniatures in a state-of-the-art building sure to entertain and educate visitors of all ages. 4455 East Camp Lowell Drive 520.881.0606 TheMiniTimeMachine.org

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SOURCE GUIDE

GREEN FIELDS COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL Challenge. Inquiry. Balance. The foundations of a Green Fields education.

From Kindergarten to Commencement, students are encouraged to develop their interests in Academics, Fine Arts, Sports, and more. Class sizes are small and students receive individual attention. 6000 North Camino de la Tierra 520.297.2288 GreenFields.org

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LAST BITE

No Se Echa a Perder

By Francisco Cantú | Photography by Karima Walker

Y

ears ago ,

in the trodden desert far west of Tucson, Morales and I arrested two men traveling along a remote trail north of the border. It was early March, and the nights were still cold. The men did not run, but fell quietly to their knees, their hands trembling above their heads in the pale orange from our flashlights. They followed our commands, nodding timidly. As we walked them single-file to the patrol vehicle, I observed their gait—heavy and sapped of purpose.

Outside the processing center, Morales and I talked with the men as we searched their belongings. They were my age, mid-twenties, and both hailed from the same mountain village in Oaxaca. One of them wore a baseball hat with the image of a marijuana leaf embroidered on the front. You think it’s cool to wear a hat with marijuana on it?

Morales asked him. The man seemed confused. I didn’t know it was a marijuana hat, he said.

It’s the only kind they were selling. His companion, small and potbellied, listened in, concerned. Is that what marijuana looks like? he asked.

Morales and I rummaged through the men’s backpacks, setting aside liquids, perishable foods, and anything that could be used as a weapon. In the bag belonging to the man with the hat, Morales uncovered a bag of thickly cut carne seca. The man smiled. I prepared it myself, he said, standing a little straighter.

Morales looked longingly at the jerky. Have some, the man offered—no se echa a perder. No thanks, Morales said.

At the bottom of the potbellied man’s backpack I discovered a bag of grasshoppers and another filled with small dried fish.

The man chuckled. Comida típica de Oaxaca, he said. Try the chapulines, he suggested, pointing at the grasshoppers. I shook some into my palm and glanced at Morales before tossing them into my mouth. The Oaxacans laughed. Not bad, I said. Tastes like salt and lime. The men looked at me eagerly. See if you

like the charales, they said, gesturing toward the dried fish. I took one into my mouth, grimacing from the heavy salt. I dared Morales to do the same. Maybe I’ll try the jerky, he offered.

For a moment we stood together with the men, laughing and eating, listening to their stories of home.

As Morales prepared to escort them into the processing center, I gathered up the items to be discarded. I was about to toss a small water bottle when the potbellied man whispered to me that I should not throw it away, that it held mezcal made on his family’s ranch.

His father had harvested the maguey from the mountains around their village, he told me, and it had been aging for six months. It’s at its best right now, he said, take it with you.

No se echa a perder.

Many months later, I moved into an old adobe row house in Tucson’s Barrio Viejo with my longtime partner. We hosted a housewarming party, inviting an assortment of old friends.

That night, after only the hearty remained, we climbed to the roof dancing and shouting, young and free, our hands outstretched in the glow of a nearby streetlight. The alcohol soon ran out, so I fetched the bottle of mezcal. Before opening it, I gathered our friends and told them of the men from Oaxaca. I could see that they were uncertain, as was I, how to feel about drinking the toiled-over spirits of men waylaid on their journey through the desert, far from the rolling jungled mountains of their home. I drank first from the bottle. The mezcal burned, tasting of earth-smoke and wet volcanic soil. I held it out to my companions. It’s at its best right now, I said. Don’t let it go to waste. ✜ Francisco Cantú served as a Border Patrol agent for the United States Border Patrol from 2008 to 2012. The recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, his nonfiction has appeared in Guernica, South Loop Review, and is forthcoming from Ploughshares. He is a contributing editor at PublicBooks.org.

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Hand-crafted with the highest quality ingredients.

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