Edible Baja Arizona - November/December 2016

November/December 2016 • Issue No. 21 • Gratis

Celebrating the gastronomy of Tucson and the borderlands.

LOCALIZING LUNCH No. 21 November/December 2016

Reimagining School Food • Barrio Sustainability Food With a Sense of Place • Trading Taps in Baja Brews Cover.indd 1

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Features

Contents

6 COYOTE TALKING

10 ONLINE What’s happening at EdibleBajaArizona.com?

14 VOICES What do you eat at Tucson Meet Yourself?

18 GLEANINGS Purple Tree Organic Açaí; Oat Mama granola bars; Benson’s Mo’ Coffee 24 CALENDAR 138 FEEDING TUSD Tucson Unified School District s Food Services department is out to change the way kids eat.

28 BAJA EATS 36 THE PLATE 38 A DAY IN BAJA ARIZONA Exploring Yuma.

45 HOMESTEAD A Beginner’s Guide to Seed Sourcing; Worms 201; The Abundant Harvest Cooperative.

56 FARM REPORT 60 SONORAN SKILLET Get desert festive for the holidays.

74 IN THE BUSINESS The Pages of Bisbee.

80 MEET YOUR FARMER Maggie’s Farm Arizona combines hydroponics, aquaponics, and traditional field cultivation

166 FOOD FROM SOMEWHERE The power of place-based labeling to support a local food economy.

92 TABLE Beyond Bread serves from-scratch sandwiches, salads, and soups, building a brand that goes beyond food.

104 YOUTH Sowing traditional knowledge in the garden at San Simon School on the Tohono O’odham Nation.

110 FOOD JUSTICE Since 1981, Casa Maria Soup Kitchen has helped feed Tucsonans in need.

125 BAJA BREWS Distribution is the gateway to success for local brewers. Too bad it’s so difficul 186 BUZZ For Kent Callaghan, grape harvest season means hard labor and worried weather watching.

178 BARRIO SUSTAINABILITY Giving back to the ’hood and to the earth.

192 BUZZ In 2015, Nogales Brewing Company became the firs craft brewery operating in Nogales, Sonora.

202 LAST BITE

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LOVE THIS MAGAZINE? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE.

COYOTE TALKING

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at Edible Baja Arizona is to celebrate the gastronomy of Tucson and the borderlands by telling compelling stories about the people and organizations working to build a prosperous, just, and resilient local food economy. The magazine is all about building community and making connections, holding a mirror up to this special place and reflecting the energ , creativity, innovation, deep roots, and abundant harvests that are possible when we come together. There is so much to celebrate and illuminate here, so many stories to tell; we will never run out of material.

In this very issue, you’ll find editor Megan Kimble s story on the exciting work going on at Tucson’s “biggest restaurant”: TUSD’s Food Services, a department that serves meals to more than 30,000 kids a day and is helping to transform the local food system in positive ways that impact all of us, not least of all our students.

And there are many other wonderful stories and images to discover in the 200+ pages you’re holding.

Since 2013, we have pursued our mission with an unwavering commitment to quality. Our tiny staff works incredibly hard with a large group of freelance contributors to produce a magazine that has won a bushel of awards for writing, design, and photography excellence. We spend an inordinate amount of money on best in class printing to produce what I call “artifacts” that are worthy of savoring and collecting. In this age of digital saturation, we believe print is powerful, a tangible touchstone in a flood of information ur mission

Become a subscriber. Your support makes a huge difference. Will you join us?

And so, dear reader, if you agree that Edible Baja Arizona is doing something exemplary—and perhaps extraordinary—in this community we love, we invite you to directly support our efforts by subscribing. A casual perusal of this issue would indicate that we have amazing support from our advertising partners and for that we are grateful. That support pays for a good portion of our overhead. Your support as a subscriber, however, is a powerful way to ensure that we can continue to produce at the level of quality you have come to love and expect after 21 issues. Supporting Edible Baja Arizona is no different that helping to sustain public broadcasting, cultural organizations, or worthy nonprofits in our communit .

If you love Edible Baja Arizona, now is absolutely the best time to become more than a reader. Become a subscriber.

Your support makes a huge difference. ill you join us?

Edible Baja Arizona’s award-winning editor, Megan Kimble, and her mom, Midge, enjoy brunch at The Coronet and take advantage of the VIP Discount Card for subscribers. If you love Edible, be like Megan and Midge—and become a subscriber today. See page 160 for details.

Photo by Steven Meckler.

A staff note: ith this issue, we celebrate a transition.

Online editor Kate Selby has handed the controls to Shelby Thompson, who is now in charge of our blog, website, newsletter, and social media platforms. Kate came aboard in early 2015 and was instrumental in taking our ragtag digital efforts to a higher level. Kate performed miracles, creating our weekly newsletter “Bocaditos,” energizing our Facebook and Instagram feeds, and wrangling a group of contributors and interns to create wonderful online content that extends the reach and breadth of the print magazine. Although I’m a passionate supporter of print, I positively adore our digital realm. Thank you, Kate! You’ll continue to see Kate in Edible Baja Arizona as our Baja Eats restaurant writer. We welcome Shelby, who brings a passionate enthusiasm for all things local.

From all of us at Edible Baja Arizona, thank you for an amazing year. We wish you a joyous holiday season and look forward to further adventures in 2017. We’ll see you around the table. ¡Salud!

—Douglas Biggers, editor and publisher

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Editor and Publisher Douglas Biggers Editor

Megan Kimble

Art Director

Steve McMackin

Advertising Sales Director John Hankinson Business Coordinator Kate Kretschmann Online Editor Kate Selby Senior Contributing Editor Gary Paul Nabhan Copy Editor

Ford Burkhart

Proofreader

Charity Whiting

Designer

Chloé Tarvin

Contributors

Luke Anable, Vanessa Barchfield, Amy Belk, Zotero Citlalcoatl Seth Cothrun, Marguerite Happe, Sara Jones, T. Clayton Kamm, Lourdes Medrano, Angela Orlando, Rusty Ramirez, Claudio Rodriguez, Nelda Ruiz, Moses Thompson, Joy Vargo, John Washington, Debbie Weingarten, Suzanne Wright

Photographers & Artists

Jackie Alpers, Adela Antoinette, Scott Baxter, Dominic AZ Bonuccelli, Seth Cothrun, Julie DeMarre, Tim Fuller, Liora K, Elijah LeComte, Steven Meckler, Jeff Smith, Bill Steen, Moses Thompso

On the cover: School lunches, reimagined

Interns Maya Holzman, Elena Gonzalez, Tessa Patterson, Ben Sisco

with local produce and regional cuisine.

Photo by Steven Meckler

Distribution Royce Davenport, Gil Mejias, Shiloh Walkosak-Mejias, Steve and Anne Bell Anderson

Above: The making of an Edible cover.

Photo by Megan Kimble

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

facebook.com/EdibleBajaArizona youtube.com/EdibleBajaArizona twitter.com/EdibleBajaAZ flick .com/EdibleBajaArizona instagram.com/EdibleBajaAZ pinterest.com/EdibleBA

V olume 4, I ssue 3.

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

by Salt in Pepper Shaker, LLC. Subscriptions are available for $36 annually by phone or at EdibleBajaArizona.com. Copyright © 2016.

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).

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Hungry for More eBA? Edible Baja Arizona is always serving up fresh content online! Visit EdibleBajaArizona.com.

From the blog

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Beets to Ballots

more than fresh produce—it cultivates community engagement. In this piece, we learn how an internship with the University of Arizona’s Community and School Garden Program inspired Ylenia Velderrain to advocate for school gardens and get to the polls. As she explains, “The garden is a perfect place to be in any school. Getting to build those relationships with the students, the parents, and the teachers, that is the most important relationship you’ll ever build. That is the best advice I can give, in order to build community: it all starts with the kids.”

Internship experiences, like Ylenia’s, can have cascading effects. “Not only am I building communit , but I’m also building my future and the future of my children and other children,” she said. “I will be voting for the first time in Novembe . I became a citizen in 2014 so this will be my first presidential election voting for a woman, voting for the first time, and voting for myself. ar dening grows

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ocaditos is our weekly newsletter that packs up the best of Edible Baja Arizona online and sends it straight to your inbox. It features: • An exclusive original recipe, only available to Bocaditos subscribers.

• A roundup of upcoming local events.

• The best of the eBA blog and social media.

• Weekly giveaways, like movie tickets to The Loft Cinema and gift certificates to local restaurants.

Go to EdibleBajaArizona.com/newsletter to sign up!

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ur Instagram account has been bursting with photos from places we visit, restaurants we enjoy, gardens we grow, and behindthe-scenes looks at how we make the magazine.

Learn more about Ylenia’s work in the Tucson community by reading the original piece at bit.ly/BeetsToBallots.

instagram.com/ediblebajaaz (Left) Things heated up at our second Baja Brews tasting event at Barrio Brewing Company as guests tasted 13 local beers brewed with chiles and chiltepins. Join us at Sentinel Peak Brewing Company for our third Baja Brews tasting event on 11/17, featuring beers brewed with late summer fruits. (Center) eBA publisher Doug Biggers enjoyed a deliciously foraged meal after he came across this oyster mushroom in Bear Wallow on Mount Lemmon. (Right) Local John Ward continues to impress us with his hand-decorated sugar cookies.

instagram.com/EdibleBajaAZ youtube.com/EdibleBajaArizona facebook.com/EdibleBajaArizona

pinterest.com/EdibleBA twitter.com/EdibleBajaAZ

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VOICES

WHAT DO YOU EAT AT

I came to Tucson Meet Yourself to hang out and see people, to see diffe ent foods. It’s my first ear here.

Normally, the U of A is playing. They aren’t playing a home game today. I ordered ground beef tacos.

It’s good food, they have a little bit of everything.

Ray Diaz

I love the variety of people here. This is my third time—I come down when the weather is nice.

We got Hawaiian food. It’s a BBQ pork slider.

Oh, my hat? It’s the perfect festival hat.

Ruben Paz

Alicia: I ordered vegetarian pad Thai. Andrew: I ordered Thai BBQ chicken. Alicia: We really come just to eat. It’s Tucson treat yourself. I haven’t had Thai food in awhile. Andrew: I’m so hungry and this is the first thing I s w.

Alicia Simon and Andrew West

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TUCSON MEET YOURSELF? PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVEN MECKLER

I came here because of the churros—they make them right on the spot. Churros are the favorite food of several people I work with. I’m going to take them back to the offic I work for Pima County. A lot of the people here today are government people.

Roy Kline

I love Tucson Meet Yourself because it’s part of Tucson. It’s a wonderful way to get out and see people. I eat all the food here. The smell drew me into this place. I ordered chicken satay and egg rolls.

Maria Pia Minichiello

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I ordered pancit—rice noodles with veggies— and egg rolls. I love seeing all the diffe ent cultures represented in our community. And I love getting Filipino food. I make a point to come every year to get some. The food is fantastic.

Jennifer Nichols

I ordered paella and sangria. I come to Tucson Meet Yourself just to try everything.

It’s nice to get to know all the food downtown. The paella is so good. I work down here, at the Pima Justice Court.

Jessica Murillo

We come every year. We just got here and we’re both hungry. What we usually do is buy one thing and share it and then we can eat at all the vendors. We ordered an Indian fry bread taco, with ground beef, beans, lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes.

Poncella Quihuis

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I work for Pima County. We have a booth here. I was walking through the festival and I got hungry so I stopped.

I ordered three potato pancakes, with sour cream and applesauce. I love potatoes, so I’m sure I’ll love it.

Ben Changkakoti

I drove nine hours for this festival from St. George, Utah. I heard that you’re a UNESCO site for food. So I came to eat your food! I got a tako yaki, a Japanese street food—it’s an octopus dumpling.

Debbie Justice

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gleanings

André Newman was motivated to start Purple Tree Organic Açaí Blends as a way to offer healthy dessert options for kids like his daughter, Savan.

Sweet Superfoods

Purple Tree Organic Açaí Blends crafts guilt-free confections.

By Marguerite Happe | Photography by Maya Holzman

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he bright fuchsia crystals melt in my mouth, mellowed by a touch of organic honey and the tropical sweetness of organic coconut shavings. Delicate notes of banana and hearty granola top the little bowl in front of me, and each spoonful results in a slightly different balance of vibrant flavors.

Incredibly, the concoction isn’t a “guilty pleasure” that I’ll need to pay for later on the treadmill. In fact, it’s probably the most guilt-free dish I’ll consume this month.

I’m standing outside Purple Tree Organic Açaí Blends, enjoying their classic organic açaí (pronounced ah-sigh-EE) multiberry blend bowl. The bright purple food truck pops up weekly in various Tucson locations, including Tumamoc Hill, Main Gate Square, and Heirloom Farmers’ Market at Rillito Park, to dish up healthy, organic treats like açaí bowls, fresh-pressed juice, and vegan ice cream sandwiches.

According to co-owner André Newman, the açaí bowl is far and away their star player: “People are frequently surprised that açaí bowls are actually legitimately healthy alternatives to treats like frozen yogurt or ice cream,” Newman says. “The açaí fruit is not only guilt-free, it’s a potent superfood that is extremely high in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.”

The combination of açaí’s nutritional dynamism and luscious taste inspired Newman and his partner, David Krummenacker, to launch their dessert food truck concept after a trip to Hawaii in 2014: “We took a vacation in Oahu with our wives and kids, where we realized that there was a healthy smoothie or açaí bowl place located about every quarter-mile,” says Newman. “We’re both dads, and it’s really important for us to offer up healthy dessert options for our kids, since sweet desserts are sort of an

offering that kids aren’t really willing to debate about. So, we were inspired, and started working on Purple Tree as soon as we returned home.”

After finding their truck on Craigslist, the pair worked with an outfitter to craft the perfect vehicle for a sustainably inspired business. Krummenacker, a former Olympic mid-distance runner, used his expertise as a solar power technician to develop an entirely solar-powered set of food appliances. “When we show up for events, there’s no air pollution, no noise pollution, and other than the engine of the truck, we have no carbon footprint,” says Newman. And after much trial-and-error, the pair developed an açaí blend using only organic ingredients.

Today, the Purple Tree menu includes açaí bowls, smoothies, fresh-pressed juice, organic ice cream concoctions—a notable customer favorite is the vegan coconut ice cream sandwich—and iced coffee made with organic Ethiopian coffee blends. Newman describes the açaí bowl: “The flavor is like a subtle, rich, chocolate-covered raspberry. We top the açaí fruit with granola, freshly chopped fruit, shaved coconut, and locally sourced honey, attempting to build the bowl as traditionally as one you might see in Brazil or Hawaii. You can also add toppings like mango, hemp seed, cacao nibs, peanut butter, or chia seeds.”

An açaí bowl from Purple Tree is a culinary experience, which is very much on purpose. “We did a pretty thorough search for the best possible ingredients we could include, and we’re really specific about using as many local sources as we can,” says Newman. “We took our time to ensure that our açaí blend would be not only healthy, but distinct from any other franchise in town.”

Facebook.com/PurpleTreeTruck.

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Eliza Larson (left) and Kristy Kohler tried hundreds of recipes before settling on the final granola bar; they launched Oat Mama in 2015.

Making Milk

Oat Mama’s granola bars are a nutritional treasure for breastfeeding moms.

By Marguerite Happe | Photography by Maya Holzman

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liza Larson and Kristy Kohler’s friendship is predicated on similar life patterns. The Arizona women both have a passion for baking, are mothers to two boys of the same age, and love dinner parties and creating rich, sustaining food for their families and friends. So, after the birth of Kohler’s second son just two months after Larson’s, the women stumbled upon the path that their friendship and intertwined lifestyles had prepared them for: “Eliza was running a food blog, and we were both breastfeeding our second sons,” Kohler explains. “I was struggling with my milk supply and my baby growing. She mentioned that she had seen lactation cookies on Pinterest, and we both had this lightbulb moment.”

Neither woman thought that the active ingredient in lactation cookies, a bitter brewer’s yeast, was suited for sugary cookies. “We thought we could make something better. So, our two families were at a cabin in Pinetop enjoying a weekend in the snow with the kids. We sat down together and thought, let’s do this. As soon as we get back home, let’s get into the kitchen and make a lactation food that tastes better, but with the same effectiveness for moms struggling with their milk supply,” Kohler says.

The goal? To create a product that could fuel maternal health, boost milk supply, and become a staple snack for busy moms, breastfeeding or otherwise. The partners experimented with ingredients and flavor combinations, baking hundreds and hundreds of batches before landing on their final product and launching their business, Oat Mama, in 2015: “The brewer’s yeast is rich and savory, which makes our bars really delicious and addictive.

You can also add much more brewer’s yeast to granola bars than you can to cookies, because the cookies will just crumble,” says Kohler. In addition to the brewer’s yeast, a known galactagogue, their Apple Cinnamon bars include fenugreek, another ingredient thought to improve milk production. As such, customers floc to the product as gifts for postpartum moms, who need as many nutrients and vitamins as possible.

Kohler notes that although they’re designed to boost milk supply, the bars aren’t just for breastfeeding mamas: “We’ve had regular male customers, we’ve had moms who aren’t breastfeeding any more, or moms who never breastfed at all. The bars are rich, filling, and include naturally healthy fats from the nuts, seeds, and oils that are good for just about anyone.” Each bar is a nutritional powerhouse, including oats, ground flax, brewer’s yeast, toasted almonds, cashew butter, sunflower seeds, organic brown rice syrup, organic coconut oil, and a host of other berries, seeds, nuts, and natural sweeteners.

Though Oat Mama primarily sells bars via their website, they’ve expanded to regional and national retail stores in Colorado Springs, Brooklyn, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. “Being part of the community in Arizona, though, is still incredibly important to us,” says Kohler. “We’re active in local philanthropies like Milk & Honey to support breastfeeding education, and we’re really involved in local breastfeeding events. Even though our granola bars are sold nationally, we’re still very committed to employing people, running our business, and being part of the food scene here in Tucson.”

OatMama.com.

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Edward and Megan Moreno started Mo’ Coffee in Benson after visiting Brazil and falling in love with the laid-back coffee culture.

Small Batch Success

Mo’ Coff e brings artisanal roasting to Benson.

By Marguerite Happe | Photography by Maya Holzman

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hen Edward and Megan Moreno visited Brazil in 2006, they fell in love with the laid-back, social-centric culture. “They’re more interested in the quality of time spent than schedules and appointments,” says Megan Moreno. For the Morenos, an integral part of their joyously relaxed experience was the relationship between coffee-drinking and quality time. “We would sit around and visit, just drinking quality, freshly roasted coffee out of these tiny cups that felt so different than our ginormous American trenta cups from Starbucks. The coffee culture was extraordinar ,” Megan says.

This experience inspired the Benson-based Morenos to investigate the ways quality coffee could be roasted and sold in their hometown of Benson, where they returned after graduating from the University of Arizona. “Edward is very inquisitive, so he began researching how, exactly, we could get quality, flavorfu coffee in Benson, and we started ordering different types of beans and roasts online. One day, he found a roaster online. I couldn’t believe he talked me into it, but we ordered it and set it up in the shed in the backyard. The first time we roasted, he almost burned the shed down,” Megan says. “But he really fell in love with the whole process of roasting coffee, and we began reinvesting our money into a commercial roaster and really building our business.”

The pair dove into the specialty coffee market, learning all they could about sourcing beans, taste-testing, roasting, and selling their product online. Edward honed his manual roasting to carefully craft offerings with optimal flavor profiles: “Where we are in America, not everyone necessarily wants really flavorfu or bright coffee,” Megan says. “Right now, we have six different

offerings, and a decaf, because everyone’s palate is different. All artisanal roasting is truly an art.” The husband-and-wife team prefer different roasts: Megan favors the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, which Mo’ Coffee roasts lightly to give a bright taste with flavor of blueberry pie, whereas Edward’s preference lands on one of their several chocolate-y, nutty Brazilian roasts.

Today, the Morenos operate Mo’ Coffee from their home in Benson, which presents simultaneous benefits and challenges.

“We’re both from Benson, so after going to school at the University of Arizona, we both wanted to move back. For small business, though, it can be a really hard market. It’s just volatile.

There’s potential for Benson to grow as a result of some major projects in the future, but for the time being, we’re happy working on growing our wholesale accounts and visiting farmers’ markets rather than pursuing opening a brick-and-mortar shop.”

Mo’ Coffee sells their beans online, and coffee lovers can also find the fledgling business at the Heirloom Farmers’ Market at Trail Dust Town.

For the couple, the venture is one of joy. “I think the best part of what we do, and what we love so much about it is not necessarily the coffee, but the opportunity to build community through coffee,” says Megan. “You know how they say that every person you meet knows something that you don’t? Well, we’ve learned so much from so many different people that we never would have met if it weren’t for Mo’ Coffee.”  GetMoCoffee.com Marguerite Happe is a writer, English teacher, and editor. Follow her on Instagram @margueritehappe.

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CALENDAR

NOVEMBER Tuesday, November 8

Soil Management, A Three Part Series for Home Gardens and Landscapes 9:30-11:30 a.m.

Tucson Botanical Gardens 2150 N. Alvernon Way

Friday, November 18

Rainwater Harvesting 9-11 a.m.

Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona 3003 S. Country Club

Friday, November 11

YMCA Community Military Ball

Fermented Foods 1-3 p.m.

Garden Kitchen 2205 S. Fourth Ave.

6-10 p.m.

Tucson Convention Center 260 S. Church Ave.

Saturday, November 12

Saturday, November 19

Soil and Compost Part 2

Planting a Healthy Garden, Part 3

9-12p.m.

Las Milpitas Farm 2405 S. Cottonwood Lane

Living Lab and Learning Center Free Tour

9-10:30 a.m.

Watershed Management Group 1137 N Dodge Blvd

Tuesday, November 15

9-11 a.m.

Las Milpitas Farm 2405 S. Cottonwood Lane

Field Studies: Pruning Native Shade Trees

9 a.m.-12 p.m.

Watershed Management Group

34th El Tour de Tucson 7 a.m.-5 p.m.

Armory Park 221 S. Sixth Ave.

Tucson Water Rebate Class: Greywater

4-6 p.m.

Watershed Management Group 1137 N Dodge Blvd

Soil Management, A Three Part Series for Home Gardens and Landscapes

Sunday, November 20

Good Oak Bar Reading Series with Orlando White, Karen Brennan, and Alison Hawthorne Deming

9:30-11:30 a.m.

Tucson Botanical Gardens 2150 N. Alvernon Way

7-8:30 p.m.

Good Oak Bar 316 E. Congress St.

Thursday, November 17

Sunday, November 27

Edible Plants Tour and Tasting

Words on the Avenue 6:30-9 p.m.

Café Passe 415 N. Fourth Ave.

10-11:30 a.m.

Tucson Botanical Gardens 2150 N. Alvernon Way

Seasonal Salsa and Chutney

4-7 p.m.

Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market 100 S. Avenida del Convento

Tuesday, November 29

Rainwater on Tap: Giving Tuesday Happy Hour

5-8 p.m.

Watershed Management Group 1137 N. Dodge Blvd.

DECEMBER Thursday, December 1

Harvest Barrel Cactus Fruit

3-6 p.m.

Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market 100 S. Avenida del Convento

Saturday, December 3

Tucson Water Rebate Class: Rainwater Harvesting 9 a.m.-12 p.m.

Watershed Management Group 1137 N. Dodge Blvd.

Thursday, December 8

Tucson Water Rebate Class: Rainwater Harvesting 3-6 p.m.

Watershed Management Group 1137 N. Dodge Blvd.

Friday, December 9

Hanukkiah Factory and Shabbat Potluck

6-7:30 p.m.

Tucson Jewish Community Center 3800 E. River Road

Saturday, December 10

Fruit Tree Maintenance 8 a.m.-12 p.m.

Las Milpitas Farm 2405 S. Cottonwood Lane

Living Lab and Learning Center Free Tour

10-11:30 a.m.

Watershed Management Group 1137 N. Dodge Blvd.

Wednesday, December 14

Wine Enrichment Series

Thursday, December 15

Edible Plants Tour and Tasting

9:30-11:30 Tucson Botanical Gardens 2150 N. Alvernon Way

JANUARY Friday, January 6

Food and Beer Pairing 7 p.m.

Gentle Ben’s 865 E. University Blvd.

R E P E AT I N G Thursdays

Twilight Thursdays

4:30-8 p.m.

Tucson Botanical Gardens 2150 N. Alvernon Way

Fridays and Saturdays

Holiday Lights: A Million Lights

5:30-8:30 p.m.

Tohono Chul 7366 N. Paseo del Norte December 2-18

Saturdays

Public Brewhouse Beer-asana 11 a.m.-12 p.m.

Public Brewhouse 209 N. Hoff Ave.

Saturday Courtyard Music 6-9 p.m.

Mercado San Agustín 100 S. Avenida del Convento

Sundays

Andy Hersey Live

5-7 p.m.

The Parish Gastropub 6453 N. Oracle Road

5-7 p.m.

Sierra Bonita Vineyards Tasting Room 6720 E. Camino Principal, Suite 101

SEND US YOUR EVENTS!

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FARMERS’ MARKETS

Saturdays

Heirloom Farmers’ Market 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Steam Pump Ranch, Oro Valley 10901 N. Oracle Road

FoodInRoot Farmers’ Market 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Plaza Palomino

FoodInRoot Farmers’ Market 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

St. Philip’s Plaza

Santa Fe Square Farmers’ Market 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

Santa Fe Square Shopping Center

Mondays

FoodInRoot Farmers’ Market

FoodInRoot Twilight Farmers’ Market

Our Garden

El Pueblo Farm Stand

9 a.m.-1 p.m.

St. Philip’s Plaza

9 a.m.-12 p.m.

16500 N. Stallion Place

Rincon Valley Farmers’ Market 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

12500 E Old Spanish Trail

5-8 p.m.

Maynards Market & Kitchen 3-5 p.m.

Irvington Rd & S. 6th Ave.

Tuesdays

FoodInRoot Farmers’ Market

Bisbee Farmers’ Market

10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

First and Third Tuesdays Northwest Medical Center

St. David Farmers’ Market

Wednesdays

8 a.m.-12 p.m.

Vista Park, Bisbee

8 a.m.-12 p.m.

70 E. Patton St., Saint David

Shorey Family Farms

11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

Mirage & Bird Botanicals, 10 Plaza Road, Tubac

Authentically Ajo Farmers’ Market 9 a.m.-12 p.m.

15 W. Plaza, Ajo

Sundays

Heirloom Farmers’ Market 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Rillito Park Food Pavilion

Our Garden

9 a.m.-12 p.m.

16500 N Stallion Place

FoodInRoot Farmers’ Market 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

UA Mall. Runs 11/9, 11/30, 12/7

FoodInRoot Farmers’ Market 5 p.m.-8 p.m.

St. Philip’s Plaza

Shorey Family Farms

11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

Mirage & Bird Botanicals, 10 Plaza Road, Tubac

Thursdays

Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market 3 p.m-6 p.m.

Mercado San Agustín

Sierra Vista Farmers’ Market 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Veterans’ Memorial Park 3105 E Fry Blvd., Sierra Vista

Authentically Ajo Farmers’ Market 4-7 p.m.

15 W. Plaza, Ajo

Fridays

Heirloom Farmers’ Market 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Trail Dust Town

FoodInRoot Farmers’ Market 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Banner-UMC

77 North Marketplace Farmers’ Market 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

16733 N. Oracle Road, Catalina

El Presidio Mercado

9 a.m.-2 p.m.

Corner of Church and Alameda

Sycamore Park Twilight Farmers’ Market 4:30-7:30 p.m.

First Fridays Sycamore Park

FoodInRoot Farmers’ Market

4:30-7:30 p.m.

Rancho Sahuarita. Runs third Fridays.

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indulgent about a buffet—that sense of limitless abundance, and total agency over how much of what food ends up on your plate.

Govinda’s Natural Foods Buffe hits all the satisfying marks of a buffet, but you won’t find the hot pans of gummy mac ‘n’ cheese and mystery meat that characterize some all-you-can eat joints. The vegetarian restaurant, which is attached to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple and gift shop, has been providing Tucson with flavorful, healthy options for 22 years.

After entering through the gift shop, which sells clothing, books, incense, and more, you’ll be surrounded by food: freshly baked bread and crackers near housemade tea on one side, and a salad bar and hot food along the other. You can eat at tables and chairs indoors or outdoors, or eat in the temple, where floor mats and low tables are provided, and shoes are prohibited.

The food is hearty, and the portions are unlimited, though you get the impression that Govinda’s is the type of her e is something

place where waste is, rightfully, frowned upon. Start with a bowl of salad and a plate of well-seasoned rice with vegetable curry. You can come back for seconds, or to try additional offerings.

For people who are maybe less hungry, or satisfied by a more simple selection, Govinda’s offers a soup, salad, and baked goods option for $7.50.

Govinda’s all-you-care-to-eat buffet .

For adults, the all-you-care-to-eat buffet is $10.95, and there are discounts for children, students, and seniors.

While dishes vary on a nightly basis the menu has a definite through-line.

Curries, samosas, and fritters make a regular appearance.

If you go often enough, you will develop a taste for certain staples, like the halvah, a traditional Middle Eastern dessert of soft, dense, sweet cubes, and the salad dressings—full-bodied bends of nuts, miso, and spices in various combination that are good enough to warrant a write up about salad dressing.

The food is mostly Indian-inspired, but you can find nods to traditional foods from other cultures—Tex-mex fajitas made with seitan, a wheat protein, for example, or, on a recent visit, “meatballs” made from lentils and chickpea flour tha left me wanting for neither the flavor or th protein of meat.

Wednesday and Thursday are vegan night, and every Sunday Govinda’s hosts its Sunday Festival, an evening of music, dance, and mantra meditation followed by a vegetarian feast. More information on special events related to the temple can be found on the ISKCON website, HarekrishnaTucson.org.

Govinda’s Natural Foods Buffet.

711 E. Blacklidge Drive. 520.792.0630.

GovindasofTucson.com.

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Babylon Market’s combo platter with manaeesh and fattoush and filo honey pistachio dessert squares.

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where to begin at Babylon Market. The international and Middle Eastern food market on Speedway carries halal meat, spices, candy, pickles, canned goods, fresh produce, prayer mats, dry goods, bulk grains, hookahs, and more, but might I suggest the hummus ($4.99).

Bright with garlic and lemon, it’s the creamiest I’ve had.

The hummus, along with myriad other prepared foods, is available at the casual counter service restaurant within the market. Don’t let the unassuming facade fool you. The kitchen behind it produces quantities of meat, rice, salads, soups, bread, sweets, and condiments.

Meats are marinated, rice is vibrant with saffron, salads feature fresh vegetables but it’s the sauces that tie it all together and make a meal shine. At Babylon, the hummus, tzatziki, baba ghanoush, mutabbal eggplant, and lebni can and should be added to just about anything.

Dressed with olive oil and spices, ample sides of the above are offered for $4.9 each, and they are well worth the price. t ’ s har d to k now

While Babylon does have a couple of picnic tables outside, the food holds up well to-go, one of the reasons that their catering menu is such an attractive option.

On a recent visit, we picked up the combo platter ($9.99), two kebabs—one chicken, one beef—over basmati rice with grilled tomatoes and two sides.

One of the sides, mutabbal eggplant, was smoky, tart, and blended with tahini and chopped green pepper. Similar to baba ghanoush, it was a lovely complement to the kebabs.

The combo platter also came with pita bread, and I also ordered manaeesh ($1.99). Even though we had too much bread for one sitting, I’m glad I did. The manaeesh—chewy, soft—is like some holy combination of naan bread and a perfect flour tortilla It’s great for making little wraps of meat and tzatziki, but would be equally good served warm and drizzled with olive oil and za’atar.

The fattoush ($4.99), a well-seasoned salad of crisp romaine, red onion, cucumber, tomato, and pita chips,

would make a lovely light lunch, or the perfect side to a falafel or shawarma sandwich. We had it alongside our feast, and the lemony tang of the dressing balanced nicely with the ground spices of the kebabs.

Don’t forget dessert—pretty squares of delicate filo and honey-drenched pistachios ($1-$2) tempt you from a case on top of the counter. It’s hard, too, to pass up an impulse purchase or three. A variety of oils, spices, and grains inspire even the most humble home chef with visions of grandeur.

Babylon Market, it should go without saying, is worth a trip even if you aren’t planning to grab a quick lunch or dinner. It’s a haven for hard-to-find ingredients, an walking the aisles is an education in Middle Eastern staples. Employees are friendly and happy to point you in the right direction.

Babylon Market. 3954 E. Speedway Blvd. 520.300.6440.

BabylonMarketTucson.com.

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Senae Thai’s thom kha gai and paupia tod with Thai beer.

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Thai Bistro is a welcome addition to Tucson’s rapidly developing downtown. Rather than chasing a trend—Mason jars, industrial-chic—Senae embraces a classic, timeless aesthetic with nods to the plastered walls and natural wood that are found in some of Tucson’s oldest neighborhoods.

The restaurant’s appearance inspires confidence. Anyone able to pull off su an elegant space has taste, and that bodes well for what comes out of the kitchen.

Even the living wall, a vertical garden inside the restaurant, fits nicely into th overall vibe and doesn’t feel forced.

Senae’s menu—simple but complete—also conveys a strong sense of self, which is expected given that the chef and owner, Amonwadee Buizer, has been a restaurateur for more than 30 years. She opened her first restaurant, Sweet Basil, in Berkeley, California, and has since run restaurants throughout the Bay Area, Maryland, and, now, Arizona.

Buizer’s husband, Jim Buizer, is a professor at the University of Arizona’s Institute of the Environment. Senae sources produce from the University of Arizona’s Community and School Garden Program. Vegetables, local and otherwise, get star treatment on the menu, where they are featured in starters like the paupia tod, crispy vegetable rolls with sweet chili vinaigrette, and som tum, a green papaya salad with long enae

beans, cherry tomatoes, and peanuts in a garlic-lime dressing.

More familiar starters like satay and tom kha gai are also available. The tom kha gai ($5) is excellent—spicy and intense, a little sweet, a little oily, but not too heavy.

Comfort food in the form of fried rice and noodles has its own section on the menu. Pad thai, pad se ew, and kao soy all make an appearance, and they’re all in the $10 range, making them an affordabl choice in Senae’s upscale environment.

Entrées are presented in satisfying symmetry. They are divided into four categories—vegetarian, poultry, meat, and seafood, and each category has four options. The makeur pad ped, with Asian eggplant, shiitake mushrooms, long beans, and bell peppers wok-fried with basil and chili ($13), shines with simplicity.

On a recent visit we also tried karee gai ($15), roasted chicken with potatoes and scallions, simmered in yellow curry and coconut milk. Sweet and rich with coconut, the dish arrived just as described, uncluttered by any superfluous ingredients Simple doesn’t mean boring, of course, and many of the seafood and meat options feature intriguing flavor combinations and lovely cuts, though prices are higher than most will be used to paying for similar food in Tucson.

Still, the food is good, and the price is further justified by the ambiance, attentive service, and downtown location. Senae also has a full bar, with local draft beers, wine, bottled Thai beer, and a cocktail menu that incorporates traditional Thai flavors.

Senae Thai Bistro. 63 E. Congress St. 520.373.5335. SenaeThai.com.

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ania’s

“33,” located on Grande just off St. Marys, is a comfortable counter-service Mexican restaurant. With its iconic interior neon sign and homemade flour tortillas this west side establishment has been satisfying patrons since 1987. Offering are extensive and classic—tacos, burritos, flautas, caldos, enchiladas, quesadillas but what sets Tania’s “33” apart is its selection of vegan and vegetarian options.

Most Tucson-area Mexican restaurants in a similar price range offer a veggie burrito, maybe a cheese or flat enchilada, but Tania’s has a wide range of uncommon proteins and veggies that can be added to dishes in lieu of meat. A personal favorite is the coliflo , battered and deep fried cauliflower that adds heft and crunch to any vegetarian dish.

Other meat alternatives include lentejas and calabacitas. For those who want to go veggie but still want some of the texture and flavor of meat, ania’s has soy chorizo and soya verde.

The many veggie and vegan options do not detract from the quality of Tania’s meat offerings. Machaca, house made chorizo, albondigas, and green chili beef are among the highlights.

Flexibility is another notable feature of Tania’s menu. Chalkboards line the space above the counter, offering a vas array of sizes and combinations. Burritos come in three sizes, and after choosing a main ingredient, diners can select up to three additional ingredients to design their dream burrito. Classics like the California burrito can be recreated— with potatoes or tater tots—but you can also be as selective as you want without feeling like a nuisance. Every burrito is built from the ground up.

Tania’s 33 coliflor burrito, breakfast platter with soy chorizo, and cup of albondigas.

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Most everything is available a la carte or as a combo platter, and soups can be ordered in sizes ranging from a small cup to a gallon.

On a recent visit I opted for a coliflo burrito with beans, guacamole, and pico de gallo. It was crunchy and satisfying, with enough vegetables to trick me into thinking I was being healthy.

I also tried a cup of the albondigas—a beautifully seasoned meatball and rice soup in a light tomato broth. It was more food than I could consume in one sitting. The burrito held up fine fo later, though the coliflo is better fresh as the batter loses its crunch over time.

My partner went for a breakfast platter—soy chorizo and scrambled eggs with beans, rice, and fresh flour tortillas. The soy chorizo is heavily spiced, and, while not a dead ringer for the meat version, it made for a satisfying alternative.

An array of soft drinks fills a cold case, but we both opted for coffee—the kind that sits on a hot plate all day and can be downed cup after cup. In addition to beverages, the cold case contains prepared to-go food. Fresh tortillas and chips are also available, and Tania’s offers party packs and catering Tania’s “33.” 614 N. Grande Ave. 520.622.0685. Tanias33.com.

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Roast Co. recently expanded both their physical space and their culinary offerings. Th café, housed in an old glass shop on Sixth Avenue and Seventh Street, now serves breakfast out of its Southern Arizona Work Space. Work Space isn’t some trendy throwaway concept—the dining area, with long tables and an open kitchen, also has a large chalkboard and shelves lined with books. Classes and talks are offered several days a week, an range from lectures on water usage to Spanish classes and book releases.

Breakfast is served until noon.

Produce, sourced by Pivot Produce, is featured alongside local cheeses and eggs, homemade granola, and baked goods. The menu is simple, and prices are reasonable considering the quality of the ingredients. The ethos behind Exo’s coffee—careful customer service paire with a goal of social responsibility and environmental sustainability—is apparent in their food. On a recent visit, we tried a couple of their breakfast sandwiches.

The Herb Egg Sandwich, with Fiore di Capra chèvre, rosemary, sage, thyme, calamondin lime jam, and greens, was served on a homemade sourdough English muffin The bite of the goat cheese was tempered perfectly by the sweet and herbaceous jam, and at $5 the sandwich was a great value for the portion. xo

Exo’s Whiskeytown biscuit breakfast sandwich.

The “Whiskeytown” Biscuit Breakfast Sandwich ($6) featured the same chevre alongside Sausage Shop Canadian Bacon, San Xavier roasted green chiles, roasted tomatillos from Dream Flower Gardens, and an over-medium farm egg—all piled high on a homemade biscuit.

All produce on the menu is local, organic, and/or wild-harvested. With that in mind, we tried the Fruit Cup ($4). Seasonal and locally sourced, it was unlike any I’ve had. Featuring melon from Cochise County and white pomegranate alongside fresh, tart tomatillos, shaved thin, and perfectly crisp pear, the bowl was a vibrant combination of texture and flavo , and a clear indication that we live in a region with so much great food to offe .

Regional touches pepper the menu—ocotillo, camomile, and ironwood blossoms in the granola and Tohono O’odham h:al squash and I’itoi onions on the sandwiches are just a few examples of how Exo raises the bar on local sourcing by bringing customers ingredients native to the Tucson area.

Pastries from the B Line are still available and still irresistible. We opted for a seasonal pumpkin and cream cheese scone. Not too sweet, dense and moist, it was the perfect snack while we drank our coffee an waited for our food.

The coffee, of course, deserve mention—Exo’s coffee is excellent an expertly prepared, and their focus on sustainability, community engagement, and education are an undercurrent to all they do. In that sense, their expansion into a workspace feels natural.

Lucky for consumers, taste, ambiance, and value do not suffer in th face of such noble underpinnings.

Exo would be an excellent breakfast choice regardless, but their use of local ingredients, paired with their underlying values, is a challenge to other restaurants that settle for less.  Exo Roast Co. 403 N. Sixth Ave. 520.777.4709. ExoCoffee.com.

SouthernArizonaWorkspace.com.

Laura Horley is a Tucson-based writer.

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Sonoran Gimlet Penca Bacanora, blanco tequila, Cocchi Americano, lime cordial. $12.

50 E. Broadway.

Tucson Lemonade Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails Whiskey, lemon juice, sage syrup, hibiscus float. $9 135 S. Sixth Ave.

The Rabbi Slept Late The Coronet Bols Genever gin, Velvet Falernum, lemon almond milk, vanilla simple syrup. $10.

402 E. Ninth St.

Dark & Stormy Kingfisher Gosling’s Black Seal rum, Bundaberg ginger beer, lime. $9.75.

2564 E. Grant Road

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A Day in

Baja Arizona

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Yuma Text by Suzanne Wright | Photography courtesy of the Yuma Tourism Bureau

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an y think that driving west on I-8 is boring, but I find it to be a Zen ride: all tha yawning desertscape. Most motorists are continuing on to San Diego, but I’m exiting to Yuma for the first time. I’v heard there’s a lot for a foodie to love here.

Located in the southwestern corner of the state, Yuma is the sunniest city in the United States, with 350 days of it a year. As a result, the town’s population swells to nearly twice its size during the mild winter months when snowbirds return. The climate also translates to a long growing season and an agricultural industry that tops $3 billion annually, ranking as the third largest in the United States.

In recent years, agriculture has spawned agritourism.

Fields flank both sides of m car; a farmer in a John Deere yields to local traffic with almost imperceptible lift of the index finge . I roll down the windows and inhale the smell of fertile earth. The soil is especially rich thanks to the sediments deposited by the Colorado River. Some 200 vegetables are grown here, including broccoli, cauliflowe , and cabbage, and 90 percent of the nation’s leafy winter vegetables.

Yuma is the world’s largest producer of medjool dates and you can taste the sticky, rich fruit at Martha’s Gardens (9747 S. Avenue 9 3/4 E), family-run business that traces its towering trees to Moroccan transplants. Once reserved for royalty, these jumbo beauties flourish in uma’s triple-digit heat. There are 8,000 date

palms on 100 acres; all are painstakingly hand-pollinated before 800,000 pounds are hand-harvested and shipped around the world. A cool and creamy date shake is a must, but pick up a box of dark chocolate-covered dates, too.

Yuma’s Historic Riverfront District is quaint and compact and boasts a number of attractions. If you’ve seen the movie “3:10 to Yuma,” you know about the Old West legacy of the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park (1 Prison Hill Road). Even on a sunny day, it’s downright spooky to walk through the imposing cellblock where more than 3,000 incorrigibles—including women and polygamists—hacked out their own cells from granite. Take a self-guided tour of the 10-acre Quartermaster Depot State

Historic Park (201 N. Fourth Ave.), which supplied military posts in the Arizona Territory and beyond before the advent of the railroad. Some of the state’s best-preserved buildings are here, along with the Back in Time Pie Shoppe, which serves fresh-baked slices (the marionberry is delicious) and tea.

Enjoy a leisurely lunch amid lemon trees and birdsong on the shaded patio at the Garden Café (250 S. Madison Ave.). The daily special, a turkey, strawberry, and coconut salad served with coffee cake, is a uman favorite. Then stop into the Desert Olive Farms (224 S. Main St., No. 106) to sample the organic olive oils grown just over the border in Brawley, California. I especially liked the Mexican lime.

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6 All 230,000 acres of Yuma’s agricultural land are irrigated from the Colorado River, so it is an important part of the town’s identity. The Pivot Point Interpretive Plaza (North Madison Avenue) is a fine place to appreciat the life-sustaining river. A multiuse, paved, and lighted trail runs seven miles from the West Wetlands Park to the Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge, a marshy desert oasis some have dubbed the Everglades of Arizona. At twilight, I rented an inner tube for $10 from Yuma River Tubing and took a relaxing hour-long float dow the river, communing with herons as the sun set peachygold over the rippling water.

“Wine is for responsible drinkers,” says bartender RJ Robuck at Yuma’s Main Squeeze (251 S. Main St.); he

recently made the transition from water (river guide) to wine. I’m sitting at the beautiful circa 1920s tigerwood oak bar sipping a Super Tuscan, but on balmy nights there’s also sidewalk seating.

Beer aficionados will wan to check out Prison Hill Brewing Company (278 S. Main St.), which pours Jailbait Blonde and Rykers Red RyePA. Meat lovers, don’t miss the platter of Kammann sausage, brisket, and pulled pork, enough for two.

The city’s best dinner is in a neighborhood I predict will be gentrified in five year At the Asian-accented River City Grill (600 W. Third St.), waitress Jenna improvised my request for a refreshing cocktail, creating an off-men concoction with vodka, cucumber, and cilantro served in

a generous martini glass. They offer gluten-free and vega options, but I recommend the mustard-crusted halibut with ravioli and olive tapenade.

Once you’ve tasted Yuma, you’ll be hungry for more.

The popular Field to Feast Tours (November through early March) include hands-on produce harvesting and a tasty lunch prepared

by Arizona Western College culinary students, while Savor Yuma offers guests progressive dinner at three restaurants (January through April). Multicourse gourmet dinners called Date Nights (held January-March) take place in a lush date grove just 15 minutes from downtown; they sell out, so book ahead.

A number of special culinary events, including the Rio de Cerveza Brewfest

7 (Nov. 19), the Somerton Tamale Festival (Dec. 17) and the Yuma Medjool Date Festival (Jan. 28) also fill th winter calendar. I’ll be making that drive west again.  Suzanne Wright is a frequent contributor to Edible Baja Arizona, along with regional and national publications including AAA Highroads Arizona, Go Escape, Hispanic Living, Modern Woman, and Phoenix Magazine.

1 A group gathers for a lettuce

harvest at the annual Field to Feast Tour. 2 Need more desert?

Take a walk on the sand dunes.

3 An evening stroll past the Downtown Art Center. 4 Silver Spur Rodeo. 5 Stop for some local suds at Prison Hill Brewing Company. 6 Tubing on the Colorado River. 7 Kids try on innocence at Prison Hill.

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Homestead

Skills for self-sufficient living & eating

A Beginner’s Guide to Seed Sourcing

By Amy Belk | Illustrations by Adela Antoinette

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tarting plants from seed is one of the most rewarding experiences I can think of. After many years of gardening, I still get excited when I see life spring out of a tiny, seemingly inert thing that I had placed in the soil and watered. It’s certainly the most economical way to grow your veggies, but even after I win the lottery, I’ll still enjoy planting seeds for the way it feels.

It used to be more common for homesteaders to collect printed seed catalogs that piled up alongside holiday greeting cards every fall and winter as we made plans for next year’s gardens. The catalogs and greeting cards are mostly online these days, and planning is often done on a computer or smartphone, but this is still a great time of year to reflect on what worked and what didn’t in last year’s garden, and to start thinking about what to try the next time around.

Browsing through a seed catalog, whether it’s online or on paper, is a fantastic way to jump-start your imagination, but it’s easy to get intimidated by the bombardment of options if you’re new to gardening or growing from seed. Between the countless catalogs and thousands of varieties, the number of choices can seem overwhelming. Thankfully, narrowing them down gets

easier as you learn some of the terminology and browse with your gardening goals in mind. Reputable seed companies clearly post their standards and practices on their websites and in their catalogs; look for this page before you go any further to make sure that their seeds are produced to your standards.

One thing to remember is that most seed catalogs weren’t written with Baja Arizona’s growing conditions in mind. If you want to make things easier for yourself, start your seed-sourcing close to home. Check with local nurseries and seed companies for varieties that are known to be great performers in our region. We’re lucky to have some excellent resources when it comes to buying seed locally.

One of these resources is Native Seeds/SEARCH, a nonprofit seed conservation organization located in Tucson. Native Seeds/ SEARCH has been working to preserve the agrobiodiversity of arid crops since 1983, and many of their selections have stood the test of time here in the Sonoran Desert. These enduring crops have been grown in Baja Arizona and similar environments for generations, so it’s hard to go wrong when ordering from a Native Seeds/SEARCH catalog. You’ll grow something distinct and delicious and, if you

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save some seeds, you could also help to save and spread the genes of arid-adapted crops that might play an important role during the dry conditions that have been forecast for our future.

There are other fantastic seed companies in Baja Arizona that carry well-known varieties for our area, and local nurseries do a great job of stocking only the best performing varieties from trusted suppliers. Ask your gardening friends where they get their seeds, and you’re likely to get different answers from each of them. We all have our favorite sources, and most of us have more than one.

Of course, not all of our favorites are local; there are plenty of notable and trustworthy nonlocal seed companies who sell all kinds of things that we can grow here. Regardless of what the catalog or seed packet says, if the seeds came from a nonlocal source, you’ll want to refer to your local county extension for information on heat and sun tolerance, suggested planting dates, harvest dates, and watering requirements. Our growing seasons are likely to be quite different than those of the package or catalog’s intended audience.

When regionally specific information is unavailable, try to choose varieties that mature quickly, also called early ripening. Our optimal growing seasons are relatively short, especially in the low desert, so the faster our gardens can produce results, the better.

With tomatoes, for example, gardeners in the arid Southwest often have an easier time with smaller varieties that ripen more quickly, sometimes producing several harvests before colder weather sets in.

Unless you start seed indoors or in a greenhouse, some of the larger, slower varieties may not have enough time to produce much fruit before the weather turns, and there are more opportunities for things to go wrong while you wait for them to do so.

Resistance to pests and diseases is a good attribute for your seeds to have, as well as drought and heat tolerance. This type of information can often be found in the written description of the variety. Many catalogs rely on pictorial, alphabetical, or numerical codes that follow the written description to communicate suitable growing regions, resistances, and other important details about their selections. This makes it quick and easy to identify which varieties will work for you, but you may need to refer to the catalog’s glossary or key the first few times you use it.

While you’re browsing through selections, you may notice that many of the varieties boasting the best resistance or largest crops are hybrids (sometimes identified as “F1 hybrid,” or “F1”).

This isn’t a coincidence; hybrids are “superplants.” Simply put, hybrid seeds are the results of precise crosses between two parent species or varieties. This deliberate combination of genes provides hybrids with desirable attributes from each parent, but you’ll have to buy more seed if you want to grow that same variety again. Hybrid plants can produce viable seed, and gardeners who love to experiment will collect and plant them, but the seedlings aren’t likely to ever possess the same qualities that you admired in the parent.

Collecting seeds from your own garden is the least expensive way to keep it going from year to year. If you want to collect your own seed, but also want to know exactly what type of plant you’ll be growing, look for seeds marked as open-pollinated (sometimes marked “OP”) or heirloom. To be open-pollinated means that the parent plant was pollinated by insect, wind,

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mammal, or other natural means. Heirlooms are openpollinated varieties that have been passed down for a number of generations. Most sources define an heirloom as a variety that has been in circulation for at least 50 years.

Seeds collected from heirloom or OP varieties will grow into plants very much like the parent with only slight variations, as long as the parent wasn’t cross-pollinated with another variety or species. Beans, lettuce, peas, and tomatoes are the easiest veggies to keep from cross-pollinating; they all pollinate themselves.

Other plants will need to be separated by distance or time to keep the varieties pure.

If you enjoy collecting and sharing seeds from your garden, you might also look into local garden clubs to see if and when they have seed exchange events. Many libraries, including the Pima County Public Library, now offer a seed exchange program, too.

You can check out seeds with your library card, and bring some seeds back to the library after you’ve harvested. Keep in mind that homesteaders aren’t always as careful as seed companies to prevent cross-pollination and mixing of seed stock. You may end up with something unexpected from time to time, but that’s all part of the adventure! One of the wonderful things about a garden is that it’s never finished; it’s always a work in progress, and there are always different seeds to try next time.  Amy Belk is a garden writer and photographer, a certified arborist, and a certified nursery professional who has been learning from her garden for 15 years. She and her husband homestead on a little piece of the desert in the heart of Tucson.

Crop Highlight

Magdalena acelgas (chard).

Beta vulgaris ssp. Cicla.

When I called the Native Seeds/SEARCH retail store to ask what they’re excited about growing this winter, Melissa Barrow was enthusiastic about this honorary native chard that they’ve recently added to their selection.

Jesus Garcia’s family grew this acelgas for generations in Magdalena, Mexico, and he was kind enough to donate some seeds to NS/S. It was planted at the Mission Garden in Tucson as part of their Father Kino-inspired traditional winter garden in 2012, and now the seeds of this Sonoran chard are available to everyone through the NS/S store or online catalog. Barrow and the rest of the team at NS/S are looking forward to hearing what chard lovers think of this new-to-us heirloom variety.

Planting recommendations: Transplanting can be difficult, so direct sow in the garden or into a planter.

Like most of our leafy greens, Magdalena acelgas is a cool season crop that appreciates good compost. The stems are shorter than what we’re used to, and they’re not as colorful as the ever-popular rainbow chard, but it keeps producing through the winter and summer if you provide a little bit of afternoon shade when the heat is on.

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Homestead

Grow Your Soil Part 2 in a series.

By Zotero Citlalcoatl | Illustrations by Adela Antoinette

D

o you want to build the soil life in your garden? An easy

first step is raising worms. Vermicomposting is the process of using worms and microorganisms to turn kitchen waste into a black, earthy, nutrient-rich humus. A garden’s soil food web— protozoa, nematodes, bacteria, fungi—needs a humus layer in order to access nutrients in the soil, and practicing vermicomposting is one way to build humus in your soil quickly and sustain it over time.

The fertilizer produced from a vermicomposting system is called worm castings. Worm castings contain high levels of phosphorus and potassium, and are rich in humic acids, microorganisms, and help improve the structure of any soil to which it is added.

First, we need to talk worms. Most folks in Tucson are using red wigglers (Eisenia fetida) for vermicomposting. These worms thrive in rotting vegetation, compost, and manure. They are epigean, a term used to describe organisms who are active above the soil surface; in this case, by crawling. They are rarely found in the subsoil and seek out conditions that other worms couldn’t survive in. They do very well in containers. Like all other worms, red wigglers are hermaphroditic, but two worms are still necessary for reproduction. The clitellum, the band on a worm, is a thick saddlelike ring that secretes a thick fluid that forms a cocoon for their eggs. To reproduce, two worms must join their clitella and exchange sperm, and then both worms secrete their cocoons.

Red wiggler worms thrive at temperatures of 59 to 77 degrees, but can survive temperatures between 50 to 86 degrees. It is easiest to establish a worm bin inside, since it will require fewer inputs to keep them alive in our hot summers and cold winters. Indoor worm bins can be made from food-grade (No. 2 or 5) storage totes or five-gallon buckets. I suggest placing your worm bin in a dry and

cool place, like in the laundry room, under kitchen sink cabinets, or in closets. Smaller indoor bins can be made with materials you may already have. In addition to a bucket or container, you’ll need a drill, drill bits, and materials to make “worm bedding.” And of course, you’ll need worms.

I make indoor worm bins from Rubbermaid roughneck storage totes or five-gallon buckets. These materials are stackable, durable, and affordable.

To make an indoor worm bin: I use two identical Rubbermaid roughneck storage totes (10-gallon minimum), and one lid: 1. Take one storage tote and drill 3/16-inch holes in the bottom, spacing the holes about 1 inch apart.

2. Lay the tote on its side and drill 3/16-inch holes two inches from the bottom of the storage tote. Continue drilling all the way around the bottom sides of the storage tote maintaining the 1-inch spacing between the holes.

3. Next, drill 1/8-inch holes spaced 1 inch apart into the lid for aeration.

4. Place this storage tote, which we modified, inside of the second storage tote.

That’s all it takes to make a do-it-yourself worm bin! To convert two five-gallon buckets into a worm bin, follow Steps 1 to 3, but place a brick inside the second bucket before completing Step 4. The brick creates a looser fit and will keep the two buckets separate over time.

Next, add worm bedding, a pound of worms, and feed.

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Worm bedding can be made from carbonrich materials like shredded paper, coconut husk, leaves, and wood chips. I mix several of these inputs with organic compost. To prepare the worm bedding, moisten the inputs as you mix them together. You don’t want the bedding material to be sopping wet. Imagine a sponge after it’s been rung out: it’s still moist, but not soaking wet.

Once everything is well-incorporated and moistened, place it into the worm bin. I like to add a pound of worms throughout the filling process in layers. Make sure to leave a couple of inches for head space at the top to keep the conditions in the bin aerobic.

ARBICO Organics, Vermillion Wormery, and EcoGro are trusted local worm vendors.

Vermicomposting is the process of using worms and microorganisms to turn kitchen waste into a black, earthy, nutrientrich humus.

Now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for: feeding our worms for the very first time.

It’s critical that the food is buried a minimum of eight inches deep. A very common mistake is to throw food on the top of the worm bin or lightly bury the food near the top. This creates the conditions that fruit flies, fungus gnats, and cockroaches thrive in. Remember, bury the food! Wait for the worms to eat everything before feeding them again. Too much food in the worm bin will attract cockroaches and other undesirable bugs. If you’re using a five-gallon bucket as a worm bin, the food will be buried in the middle every time. Feeding worms in a rectangular storage tote is a little different. I mentally break up the storage tote worm bins into three

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sections. I like to rotate the feedings from left to right. This creates consistency in the quality of the worm castings throughout the entire rectangular bin, because we’re forcing the worms to move throughout it to feed and breed.

The most common question I get asked about raising worms is, “What do worms like to eat?” I mainly feed my worms banana peels, herbs, and grains—leftover oatmeal, quinoa, rice, tea bags, spent medicinal herbs, fruits, vegetables, and bread.

Grains and herbs are important because worms require a high level of nutrition to be healthy and produce premium worm castings. Think of these two feed sources as worm superfoods. Any feed source that creates conditions where worms will clump up and rub against each other taps into their innate breeding behaviors. Banana peels do exactly this. They trigger breeding behavior in worms by enticing them to ball up.

This is a great way to fill up your worm bin very quickly.

Avoid feeding your worms dairy products, meats, or high acidic or spicy food scraps (i.e. citrus, hot peppers, garlic, ginger, cinnamon).

At this point some of you may be thinking, “Can I just buy a worm bin?” Yes, of course! The tradeoff is the price, but these commercial units work very well. As a green professional, I’ve had hands-on experience with many of the commercially produced worm bins. Two worm bins that I would purchase for myself, family, or friends are the Worm Factory and the Worm Wigwam.

The Worm Factory is ideal for backyard growers.

A three-tray model runs around $80; find them at ARBICO Organics. If you’re more serious about worms, or want to produce worm castings on a community garden scale, then I’d recommend the Worm Wigwam, by Sustainable Agricultural Technologies. These units run around $650, plus shipping. A Worm Wigwam can process around 70 pounds of food and produce 55 pounds of usable worm castings a week, and will house more than 20 pounds of worms once it’s going strong. There are many products out there, but these two are the ones that give you the best value for the money.

Building, or purchasing, a worm bin is a critical first step toward building up the soil food web. Let’s not forget that by feeding worms, we’re also taking care of the land—the soil beyond our yards. According to the U.S. Composting Council, 72 percent of the waste going to landfills is compostable. Think about that and ask yourself, “Do I have two unused buckets or storage totes?”

In the next issue, I’ll cover basic worm-bin maintenance, how to harvest worm castings, and how to build a compost tea brewer, a key tool for building our soil food web.  Zotero Citlalcoatl is a permaculture designer and herbalist of the Sonoran Desert. Follow him on Instagram at @the_sonoran_desert_grower.

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Harvesting Cooperatively Abundant Harvest Cooperative brings together small farmers and backyard growers to sell produce and other goods at Community Food Bank farmers’ markets.

By Debbie Weingarten | Photography by Elijah LeComte

O

n a Thursday afternoon near the end of summer, the courtyard of the Mercado San Agustín teems with activity before the start of the weekly Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market. Tables are unloaded, tents popped up, signs unfurled.

Baskets of vegetables, loaves of bread, and jars of honey are arranged on tablecloths. Just inside the courtyard’s southernmost entrance, beneath a sign that reads “Abundant Harvest Cooperative,” several tables are pushed together in a line and filled with eclectic offerings: green nopales, dusty red garlic, glowing pears, multicolored eggs.

The Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market, a year-round market run by the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, began in 2005 to address the lack of direct market outlets facilitating the exchange of fresh produce between farmers and consumers. Today the market is a pillar in Tucson’s local food system, accepting SNAP benefits and WIC vouchers and requiring that all products sold be grown in Arizona, and that vendors themselves grow or make at least 80 percent of the products they sell.

In addition to narrowing the food gap between farmers and eaters, the Community Food Bank has also used its market resources to support the development of Tucson-based agricultural microenterprises. Once known as “the consignment program,” the recently renamed Abundant Harvest Cooperative is a network of small farmers and backyard growers, making use of shared market space to gain experience and access to economic opportunities. Supported administratively by the Community Food Bank, AHC members bring their eggs, honey, dried goods, and produce to the cooperative table, where staff oversee the sales in exchange for a small fee, which is returned to the organization.

Audra Christophel, the community food systems coordinator for the Community Food Bank, says that the 11-year-old program has morphed from a tiny experimental program with just five participating gardeners to a true market staple, with participation from over 150 growers. Don and Chris Breckenfeld,

who now operate their own booth at the Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market, began selling their homegrown produce in the early days of the consignment program. Chris describes the value of the Community Food Bank staff in “coaching and encouraging us into being independent vendors.” When the Breckenfelds made the choice to invest in their own market booth, they did so having gained significant knowledge in sales and marketing, as well as the important connections with consumers that would carry them as full-fledged farmers.

Anne Loftfield, chair of the AHC Governance Board, and co-owner of local farm High Energy Agriculture, knows well the risk and challenges associated with becoming a farmers’ market vendor—namely the investment in infrastructure, time, and producing enough food to justify having an entire booth. Loftfield says that AHC provides a low-risk alternative for smaller growers wanting to supplement their income, or gardeners simply looking to gain market experience.

In addition to the Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market, AHC members also have vending access to a Tuesday morning farm stand at the Community Food Bank, where Christophel says the majority of customers come to use their federal Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) checks. In fact, during the FMNP check season, which is May through October, AHC growers sell more produce on Tuesdays than at the Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market. “Last Tuesday market, we collected over $1,600 in FMNP checks alone—all for AHC grown produce,” says Christophel, “So on both the economic impact front and the accessibility front, the Tuesday market is key.”

Produce grown in and around Tucson fills a table at the Abundant Harvest Cooperative farmers’ market, including chiles from Nandi Neopaney; loose bell peppers from Wayne McCraney; Anaheim chiles from Sleeping Frog Farms; bagged bell peppers from High Energy Agriculture; lunchbox peppers from Southwinds Farm; and serrano chiles from Cindy Clegg.

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Homestead

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The all-volunteer staff labels and organizes a spread of locally grown produce at the Abundant Harvest Cooperative farmers’ market.

(From left): Alina Mourtisen, Erik Sandstrom, Audra Christophel, and Gigi Owen.

Recently the Community Food Bank has worked with growers to transition toward a shared leadership structure, in which growers have a larger role in informing the decisions and direction of the program. Christophel says the transition to shared leadership has been profound in moving the AHC toward “a more grower-driven and grower-centric cooperative.”

With funding and organizational support from the Community Food Bank, AHC established a governance board of growers, launched new economic incentives for growers open to taking leadership roles, and developed values, a vision statement, and organizational bylaws. And while the AHC is still a project of the Community Food Bank, there is potential for the cooperative to become self-sufficient in the future.

“It’s been really amazing for me to see the way this has transformed people’s relationships,” Christophel says, “For a long time, growers would drop off their product, interface only with the Food Bank, and then leave. The Food Bank did everything else.

It was a super-limited way for this group to function. With shared leadership, it’s much more rich, with more opportunity for common good, connection, and a strong network of sharing resources and knowledge—grower to grower.”

It has taken time to fully gauge the impact of the program on participating growers, but today it’s clear that it has made significant social and economic impact. According to recent surveys of AHC growers, nearly 40 percent of members self-identify as low-income and 59 percent are women. A total of 46 percent of surveyed members report wanting to start their own food-related business. And more than a third of growers report that they “sometimes or often” depend on money they earn through AHC to make ends meet.

“One day I realized: this is really big,” says Christophel, reflecting on the seven years she has spent dedicated to the program. “We continue to ask how we can facilitate this sharing of resources in a way that holds space for community and opportunities to develop naturally. And what kind of knowledge is held in this community of over 150 farmers and gardeners?”

She pauses. “A whole lot. It’s a rich place to be.”  CommunityFoodBank.org.

Debbie Weingarten is a freelance writer and a co-founder of the Farm Education and Resource Network (FERN). She serves on the City of Tucson’s Commission for Food Security, Heritage, and Economy, as well as the Pima County Food Alliance Leadership Council.

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Farm Report

By Sara Jones | Photography by Liora K

B

y late fall ,

most of the crops growing in Baja Arizona are cold-tolerant leafy greens and root vegetables. The first frost on most farms is usually in November, depending upon the elevation. As conditions become drier in the fall, freezing nights and very warm days are common. The extremes in temperatures can be stressful for plants and farmers. Farmers must take special care of young, tender plants. Passing a local farm this time of year you are likely to see many rows shrouded in long sheets of white material to protect the crops below. As day length becomes noticeably shorter, plants also begin to grow more slowly or even go dormant. Luckily, our southern latitude means that even the shortest days around the winter solstice provide enough sunlight for winter crops to maintain a slow but steady growth rate.

In fall and early winter, quick-growing and pungent mustard greens tend to dominate at the market and in CSA shares. Young mustards, including many colorful Asian varieties, are often used in salad mixes where they add a mild, spicy f lavor. Joe Marlow of SouthWinds Farms grows an array of mustard greens. “I really like komatsuna, also known as spinach mustard,” he says. “It has a mild f lavor in the early growth stages and gets hotter and stronger later. It can be prepared many ways both raw and cooked.”

Since mature mustards can be quite pungent, some folks are wary of using them to cook with. But their bite can be easily tempered by blanching them before use. To blanch your greens, bring a large pot of water to a boil and submerge greens for one minute. Cool blanched greens in an ice water bath, then squeeze to remove moisture, chop, and use in your recipe.

In addition to many greens, fall also offers an array of root vegetables as well as early citrus varieties. Potatoes and sweet potatoes are perfect for hearty meals, and young beets, radishes, and turnips can be used raw or cooked. Remember to separate your roots from their greens when you get home from the market. The leaves of beets and turnips are nutritious and delicious, so don’t discard them. Citrus season starts in November and really kicks in by late December. Many of the local varieties of kumquats and mandarin oranges won’t hold up well to shipping, so we are lucky to have them available at markets.

Baja Arizona is one of the biggest pecan growing regions in the world. Driving north or south of Tucson, huge orchards dominate the skyline. The nut harvest usually starts sometime in late November or early December. The nuts can be difficul to find at Tucson farmers’ markets, but are always available at the Food Conspiracy Co-op and at other local stores. Green Valley Pecan Company sells whole pecans, as well as pecan meal (perfect for holiday cookies), spiced pecans, and candies online and at their store in Green Valley. Cochise County also has numerous smaller orchards dotting the land. Pecans are available at both the Sierra Vista and Bisbee farmers’ markets; drive along almost any country lane in the region and inevitably you will find a little farm store or roadside stand selling pecans. The flavor of these local, fresh pecans is far better than anything you will find in the grocery store and well worth the effor and price.

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Sweet Potato Pecan Turnovers Whenever I have the oven on, I always toss in a few extra sweet potatoes to roast. Roasted sweet potatoes are nice to have on hand for last-minute dishes like this.

Store-bought puff pastry makes these turnovers incredibly simple to prepare, but you can use a pie or empanada dough recipe if you have the time.

~1½ cups cooked and mashed sweet potato 1 teaspoon cinnamon ¼ cup pecans, finely chopped ¼ cup brown sugar 1 tablespoon heavy cream, optional 1 package puff pastry, defrosted

Instructions: Mix together sweet potato, cinnamon, pecans, sugar, and cream. Set aside. Lay out puff pastry and roll lightly just to smooth. Cut into desired size squares. Scoop filling into center of each square, fold in half to form a triangle, and crimp the edges with the tines of a fork to seal. Lay out on a parchment covered baking sheet, at least 2 inches apart.

Bake according to package or recipe direction.

Let cool and sprinkle with a mixture of powdered sugar and cinnamon, if desired.

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Mustard Greens with Paprika Oil and Pickled Onions The paprika in this recipe mimics the smoky f lavor of bacon that might traditionally be used in Southern style greens while the sweet and sour onions round out the flavor of the greens. ½ medium size red or yellow onion, thinly sliced 2 tablespoons apple cider or red wine vinegar 1 tablespoon honey or brown sugar 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, plus a small pinch cayenne if you want more heat in the dish ¼ cup olive oil 2 large bunches mustard or turnip greens ¼ cup veggie or chicken broth Instructions: Dissolve honey or brown sugar in the vinegar and toss with onions in a medium size bowl. Set aside and let sit for at least 30 minutes. In a small saucepan over low heat, stir together ¼ cup oil with the paprika. Cook for about 3 minutes then remove from heat and cool. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Blanch greens in batches by submerging a large handful of leaves in the pot for 30 seconds to one minute. Remove greens with tongs or a slotted spoon and dunk in cold water. Repeat with remaining greens. When all the greens are blanched and cooled, press them to remove most of the moisture. Roughly chop. Heat two teaspoons oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Add greens and toss to coat, then add broth. Cover and cook until broth is reduced, about 10-15 minutes. To serve, remove about half of the onions from vinegar mixture and add to greens, drizzle with a scant tablespoon of the paprika oil and toss well to mix.

Garnish individual portions with additional onions, if desired. Store any leftover onions and oil in the fridge.  Sara Jones is a longtime employee of the Tucson CSA.

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Desert Festive Shop at local markets for a Sonoran spin on holiday classics.

By Sara Jones, Joy Vargo, and Rusty Ramirez Photography by Jackie Alpers

F

or m an y of us , the holiday season means potlucks and casual parties as well as formal holiday meals. With our mild winter weather and a few recipe ideas in hand, there’s no better place to spend your time and money than at your favorite farmers’ market. Whether you are preparing a holiday meal, shopping for a last-minute contribution to a potluck, or putting together a gift basket for friends or relatives across the country, you will find great products at local farmers’ markets.

From pomegranates and pistachios, fresh chèvre, and locally milled grains to citrus and greens, you can build your holiday meal to highlight the seasonal items that can be found in and around Baja Arizona.

There are plenty of ingredients for traditional holiday meals available at local markets. Find local apples and pumpkins, as well as holiday centerpieces like lamb or beef roasts and salmon filets Find local goat cheese, nuts and fruit, as well as olives, dates, and bread for elegant holiday platters. Consider, too, the local foods that offer a Sonoran flair to holiday dishes. The chile is a widely recognized icon of the Sonoran Desert; consider picking up a locally produced hot sauce or salsa. Local salsa and tortilla chips are an easy contribution for a last minute potluck during this busy season. Chiles are also an excellent addition to holiday cookies and candies. Consider adding a bit of crushed chiltepin to your favorite chocolate cookie or fudge recipe for an unexpected but delicious surprise. For more desert flavo , mesquite and White

Sonoran wheat flours are both becoming more widely available at farmers’ markets, as well as Native Seeds/SEARCH, the Food Conspiracy Co-op, or Whole Foods. These flours add local flavor to your baked goods and are an excellent gift idea for cooks and foodies.

Local citrus becomes widely available in November, when early navel oranges and mandarins appear at markets and backyard trees become laden with heavy fruits. Limoncello and preserved lemons both make excellent gifts and kumquats and oranges are a refreshing alternative to baked goods on holiday tables.

Recently the three of us met at a farmers’ market to brainstorm holiday recipe ideas. As we explored the market, we were delighted to see that many of the ingredients for our favorite holiday dishes were available right there. Getting together gave us a chance to talk about some of our current food projects and what inspires us most about the local food scene. We each have a diverse history of cooking in this region.

Rusty Ramirez is a baker who helps stock the delectable pastry case at the B-Line restaurant; Joy Vargo offers catering and personal chef services in Tucson; and Sara Jones teaches cooking classes and helps members at the Tucson CSA fin the perfect recipe for their produce.

So get shopping! We hope you have as much fun procuring the ingredients as you have making the dishes.

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Spaghetti Squash Latkes Spaghetti squash is available at market in the fall and winter.

This is a great way to use it, perfect for holiday parties. Several farmers’ markets sell cured salmon, produced by local families who fish in Alaska part-time. Serve these latkes with curls of lox or slivers of cured salmon. The latkes can be made ahead of time and reheated in the oven before serving.

Ingredients:

2½ ½ 2 2 1-3

cups of cooked spaghetti squash, teased apart into strands onion, finely sliced eggs, beaten teaspoons corn starch or potato starch, optional tablespoons panko or matzo meal A few tablespoons of oil, as needed for pan frying

Instructions:

Toss squash and onions together, sprinkling with a couple of teaspoons of corn starch or potato starch, if using. Mix in egg and add enough panko or matzo meal to bind together in a loose batter. Heat two tablespoons of oil in large skillet over medium high heat. When oil is hot cook latkes in batches, scooping large spoonfuls of the mixture into the oil and pressing lightly to spread. Brown latkes on both sides and drain on paper towels. Cooked and cooled latkes can be covered and stored in the fridge for a day or two. To reheat, arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet and cook for about 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

Lemon Pistachio Shortbread Cookies Pistachios are available at the Thursday Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market as well as the Sunday farmers’ markets at St. Philip’s Plaza and Rillito Park.

Ingredients: ½ ½ ¼ 2 ¼-½

cup powdered sugar pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature teaspoon salt cups all-purpose flour cup chopped, roasted, and salted pistachios Zest of one lemon

Instructions:

Using a mixer, cream the powdered sugar, lemon zest, salt, and butter in a medium bowl until light and fluffy. Add the flour and mix on low speed until just incorporated.

Do not overmix. Stir in nuts by hand or with a wooden spoon, gently mixing to ensure that everything is incorporated. Using a dough scoop, or a teaspoon, pinch dough off into 2-inch balls, roll and place on a greased and parchment-lined cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Press the tops down lightly. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, until they are a light golden brown around the edges.

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Roasted Garlic and Spinach Dip This is a deliciously simple, healthy dip that can be gobbled up practically guilt-free, and can be offered alone as an appetizer or to complement smaller dishes in a holiday spread. Locally grown spinach is plentiful in the markets this time of year, and fresh spinach will make a world of differenc in this recipe. You can also substitute other fresh greens for the spinach, for interesting flavor variation. Serve alongside a loaf of sliced fresh artisan bread, toasted bruschetta, festive crackers, or colorful root veggie chips.

Ingredients:

1 bulb garlic, cloves separated, peeled, and minced 2 bunches fresh spinach, washed, spun dry, and chopped 1 small sweet onion, minced 1 cup fat-free Greek yogurt 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt Edible flowers for garnish

Instructions:

In a small saucepan, gently simmer the minced garlic in 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil until soft and lightly golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, drain, and reserve the oil. In a large sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the reserved garlic oil and gently cook the minced onion until soft. Add the spinach, season with salt, and cook, tossing just until wilted. Remove from heat, strain, and cool completely.

In a large mixing bowl combine the roasted garlic, cooked spinach and onion mixture, and Greek yogurt. Season with more salt if needed. Serve in a colorful dish and garnish with edible flowers.

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White Sonora Wheat and Olive Oil Cracker Recipe These crackers are easy to make, and are a great addition to any holiday party platter or as a packaged gift for friends and family. To get creative with your crackers, considering adding a topping before baking: freshly grated cheese, artisan salts, dried herbs, a dusting of your favorite spice blend, seeds, or a brushing of infused oil. You can cut the unbaked cracker dough into shapes or leave it whole.

Ingredients: 1½ cups semolina flour 1½ cups White Sonora wheat flour 1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt 1 cup filtered warm water 1/3 cup locally pressed extra virgin olive oil, plus a little extra for shaping and garnishing

Instructions:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours and salt. Add the water and olive oil. Using a mixer with a dough hook attachment, mix the dough at medium speed for 5-7 minutes. Alternately, mix by hand and knead on a floured counter-top. The dough should be just a bit tacky—not too dry, not too sticky.

Depending on the humidity, you may need to add a bit more flour or water.

Shape the dough into a large log and cut into 12 equal-sized pieces. Gently rub each piece with a bit of olive oil, shape into a ball and place on a plate. Cover with a clean dishtowel or plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 30-60 minutes. While the dough is resting, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. To shape crackers, flatten one dough ball on a lightly floured surface. Using a rolling pin, shape the dough into a flat oval strip. Gently pull the dough out a bit thinner by hand, the same way you might pull pizza dough. At this point you can cut the dough into whatever shape you like, or just leave it whole. Transfer rolled crackers to a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough balls, leaving about a fingers width between each cracker. Poke each cracker with the tines of a fork to prevent puffing and add any toppings you like.

Bake until deeply golden, 12-15 minutes, and let cool completely before eating.

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Tepary Bean Hummus with Sonoran White Pomegranate Seeds Beautiful, delicious, and nutritious, tepary beans make a great substitute for the classic chickpea in this recipe. They can be found in numerous local markets and specialty grocers. Choose the type of tepary bean that will best suit your fancy—lighter colored/white tepary beans have a more fruity and sweet flavor while the darker colored/brown beans have more of a nutty and earthy flavor profile.

Additionally, the seeds of the Sonoran White pomegranate are softer and sweeter than their bright red counterparts and make a beautiful topping for this festive dip. If you have trouble tracking down the Sonoran White pomegranate, substitute with the seeds of the red variety. Hummus makes a great centerpiece for a holiday party platter.

Ingredients: 2 cups locally grown tepary beans, cooked and drained (reserve some cooking liquid to use in place of water for a more robust flavor) ½ cup organic tahini ¼ cup locally pressed extra virgin olive oil ¼ cup filtered warm water 2 cloves locally grown garlic, minced 1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin Juice of 1 lemon Seeds from 1 small Sonoran White pomegranate, for garnish

Instructions:

Add tepary beans, tahini, olive oil, water, garlic, lemon juice, and spices to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse several times until mixture comes together, then blend on low speed for about a minute or two more until hummus is smooth and creamy.

At this point add a bit more water and/ or olive oil if needed. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Remove the bowl from the machine base and, using a rubber spatula, scoop out hummus into your favorite serving bowl, or divide among several glass jars, top with garnish, and serve.

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Candied Citrus Peel Candied citrus peels make an elegant dessert. Dipped in chocolate they are extra fancy, but they can also be served alongside squares of good dark chocolate. The candied peels can be chopped and added to baked goods like fruit cake, biscotti, or muffins The process takes time, but the steps are quite easy.

Ingredients:

4 citrus fruit of your choice (for the best texture use fruits that have a peel just over ¼ inch thick; early season navel oranges are ideal) 2 cups sugar 1 ½ cups water Sugar for coating

Instructions:

Quarter fruits and remove peels from flesh (reserving the juice/flesh for another use).

Stack quarters neatly into piles of 4 and cut lengthwise into long strips approximately 1/4- to 1/2-inch wide. Meanwhile bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add peels to water, return to a boil, and cook for about 1 minute. Drain and repeat blanching process once more (for thicker peels, like grapefruit, blanch peels three times). Set drained peels aside and bring sugar and water to a boil, stirring occasionally to ensure that sugar is completely dissolved. Simmer sugar syrup over medium heat for 10 minutes, then add peels.

Try to press peels under syrup until they are all mostly submerged. Return to a low simmer and cook for 45 minutes. You can poke peels under the syrup but avoid stirring. Remove pan from heat and let sit at least 5 hours or

overnight. Return to a low simmer and cook an additional 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Pull individual peels out of syrup, gently squeeze excess syrup from peel and lay out on a tray covered with parchment.

Reserve syrup for reuse or to flavor cocktails.

When peels are mostly dry on top, flip and let other side dry slightly. (Depending on the humidity, the peels can take anywhere from 12 to 36 hours to dry.) When peels are just barely tacky to the touch, toss in sugar to coat. Leave peels in an unsealed bag for one day to continue the drying process, then place in an air tight container to store. If you plan to make chocolate-covered peels, let the them dry on parchment until no longer tacky before dipping. The peels can be stored for several weeks in an airtight container and hold up well to shipping. 

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IN THE BUSINESS

A Page of Bisbee Rob and Michael Page, along with their sister, spouses, and parents, own and operate several iconic businesses in the heart of Old Bisbee, including Bisbee Coffee Company, The Table, Santiago’s, and the Hotel San Ramon.

Interview by Luke Anable | Photography by Tim Fuller

What are your ties to this part of the country?

Rob: As military brats, we didn’t have one home, but home was always this area. We were born in Douglas. Our family has always been really tight; our parents are our best friends. My sister writes, Michael is an artist, and I’ve always loved food. I started in restaurants in Las Vegas before working for private cooks up in Jackson, Wyoming, on really small dude ranches, learning how to cook over an open fire.

You and Michael lived in Los Angeles and New York before moving to Bisbee; what was the transition like?

Rob: Michael had to deal with L.A. traffi for 15 years and I lived there long enough to know I never want to live there.

Michael: When Rob first came here [in 1995], for the first 10 years he was in Bisbee, he advocated against the big chains coming into Bisbee. Having come from bigger cities, we’ve always wanted to retain a hometown feel here. Rob: And we finally got an ordinance passed saying you couldn’t have a chain business in downtown Bisbee.

Michael: You know, it took a really long time to grow into what we are today and sometimes we get people who are new to town and they think, “you own so many businesses you must be the evil people!” and we’re saying ,“no, we kept those people out, we’re just service people!” Rob has really done a lot to keep this place the same as it has been.

You seem to have an instinct for urban development.

Where did you learn the business side of things?

Rob: After I got out of the Air Force, I worked as an airport management intern in the leasing and development office and all we did there was open Starbucks. I had to structure the leases, but I also got to get into the businesses and watch them develop, the architectural systems they had, how they operated efficientl in tiny spaces, their business plans, and how it all depended on how many people would walk by. That’s when I got really interested in combining what I knew about food and business. The first thing I did when we were discussing this property was sit outside with a clicker and count how many people walked into the buildings across the street, did the math, and decided it would work.

When we opened in ’95, there were no coffee places in Bisbee and what people wanted was a meeting place. Once we figure that out we provided it by putting in more tables and expanding the space as much as we could. We learned and remembered everybody’s name. We would write their name on the bottom of their mug and hang it behind the counter for them. People were here everyday—if they didn’t show up we’d track them down and make sure they were all right. Now it’s been 21 years.

All in the family. (Clockwise, from bottom right) Rob Page, his mother Georgia, father Ed, son Jonathan, sister-in-law Tamera, brother Michael, and wife, Suzanne Page.

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Bisbee Coffee Company is a community gathering spot in the heart of Old Bisbee.

So then the next step, after Bisbee Coffee, was opening Bisbee’s Table?

Rob: The restaurant at the other end of the building was struggling, and we knew that if it went under we’d probably lose the building. We started Bisbee Table as a fine dining/Tex-Mex concept, and we struggled, especially after 9/11. We had another powwow and went to jeans and T shirts, burgers and pasta, and it took off.

What can you tell me about Santiago’s?

Michael: Santiago’s is in the building that used to be owned by my grandfather, who had a central pharmacy there in 1901.

Rob: We recently developed a 10-year plan for Santiago’s with the goal of being considered one of the best Mexican restaurants in the state, and we’re in the process of mapping out what that looks like. Our new chef, Glenn, is from Colombia (via Sinaloa), and he really understands southern Mexican cuisine—we’re happy to be bringing that into the picture. Defining a great Mexican restaurant is the hardest part. Our recipes are old family recipes. Half of our family is from Sonora and the other half is from Oklahoma.

How has Bisbee changed in the past decade?

Michael: When I used to come down here in the summer, I would wonder how we were going to make it. You could walk down the middle of the street and wouldn’t see a single car or person out.

Rob: And now Bisbee is experiencing huge growth. I think it’s social media and mobility for this generation, which is encouraging a lot of movement and interest in new places.

I had a similar conversation recently in which I was reminded of the days when kids, hanging out on the curb outside of Grill, could lie down across Congress Street at midnight and mostly be left undisturbed. If a car made you move, it was like, “Can’t you see I’m lying down here?”

Rob: That’s not far off from what Bisbee was like. My dad and I worked here when we first opened, and we would work from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. and there would be a span of hours in the afternoon when we had zero customers. There was a store and an artist’s studio across the street, and they would come by and sit with us because they didn’t have anybody either and we would just trade each other, coffee for art, coffee for signage. Everything in here was traded it seems like.

How does your hospitality group fit into the broader southern Arizona food scene?

Rob: We tried really hard to capture the farm-to-table movement in both our restaurants. All of our chiles come from Ochoa Farms and our eggs from Francine’s, both local. Our tortillas are handmade in Naco. Twice a month I drive to Kansas Settlement for beans. I haul 700 pounds of beans in my truck back to Bisbee because we won’t work with canned beans at Santiago’s.

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A quiet corner at Bisbee’s Table.

What are your challenges in sourcing?

Rob: When we tried to source ground beef in Sonoita, we were told that local ranchers couldn’t meet the demand. And tomatoes are hard, too: how do you supply 700 tomatoes every week locally?

So our approach is take small steps. We do put a tremendous amount of effort into finding “that one guy” who can supply us

with “that one thing,” and when we do we’ll break down all the barriers we can to make it a lasting and sustainable relationship.  BisbeeHospitalityGroup.com.

Luke Anable is a Tucson transplant, natural wine protagonist, and beverage consultant for independent restaurants.

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MEET YOUR FARMER

Farming Arizona In Marana, Maggie’s Farm Arizona combines hydroponics, aquaponics, and traditional field cultivation.

By Lourdes Medrano | Photography by Scott Baxter

O

in Marana, a vision to produce sustainable food that relies less on traditional field agriculture and more on soilless plant farming is slowly taking shape.

Hydroponics is the technology that Brian Sternberg and Stacy Tollefson will use to grow most crops at Maggie’s Farm Arizona, spread across 22 acres on Maggie’s Farm Lane. Instead of soil, the method uses a nutrient-rich solution to deliver water and minerals to plant roots. But that’s not to say the farmers will abandon conventional ways of farming altogether.

“We’re doing a little bit of everything, but the hydroponics is going to be the biggest way that we grow,” Tollefson says. “It’s the most stable and reliable way to get nice quality product out all the time.”

Tollefson, who teaches hydroponics courses and manages a greenhouse at the University of Arizona, began doing consulting work for Sternberg in 2012. Early this year, she became a partner in the business venture.

Walking around the property with Tollefson one morning, Sternberg says the goal is to transition Maggie’s Farm into a full-fledged commercial operation. Since he bought it in 2011, it has operated much like a hobby farm.

“A lot of it has been experimentation, trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t work,” he says.

What became problematic after some time was the farm’s aquaponics system, which combines the raising of fish—aqu culture—and hydroponics. Sternberg and Tollefson enter into a spacious greenhouse where the smell of basil and mint permeate the air. Inside, worker Sandy Bales for four years grew the herbs and various lettuce varieties using fish waste as nutrients that flowed to plants growing in soilless beds. The plants then purifi d the water and returned it to nearby big fish tanks n a s ec lu de d de s e rt roa d

But something went awry. “We had different species of fish tilapia, koi, and goldfish,” Tollefson says. “The fish started mating and laying eggs in the system and the eggs and the babies were getting into the troughs and they were eating the roots. It was just a constant maintenance issue to get the fish out of the troughs all of the time, and so we basically had to shut the whole system down.”

The farmers plan to redesign the system at some point, but will reduce it from three greenhouses to a single one.

“One of the reasons we’re doing that is because nutrition in the winter in the aquaponics system really goes down,” she says.

“The fish just don’t eat as much in the cold weather, so it’s harder to maintain a healthy crop during the winter.”

For now, they are using the troughs from the aquaponics system to grow plants hydroponically. “It’s still a floating system, but instead of using the aquaponic water we’re using the inorganic mineral salt, the regular hydroponic nutrients in those,” Tollefson says.

Even as the farm expands, the farmers say experimentation isn’t likely to end. “Really, the hydroponics will give us the most stability for income because it’s a year-round production,” Tollefson says. “Then we can supplement with field incomes and have some cool different things.

Like edible flowers. “Right now we’re experimenting with them,” Sternberg says, entering a small propagation greenhouse filled with seedlings The blooms—nasturtium, borage, Thai basil—are for the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain, in Marana, where they’re added to drinks. From what Sternberg hears, the edible flowers have been a hit.

Maggie’s Farm Arizona owners Brian Sternberg and Stacy Tollefson use a hydroponic system to grow most of the farm’s diverse crops.

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Sandy Bales (above) keeps an eye on plant starts in one of Maggie’s Farm’s three greenhouses.

“Hydroponics is going to be the biggest way that we grow,” says co-owner Stacy Tollefson.

The farmers also cultivate moringa plants, whose leaves are used to make a protein powder, in a small field. And in a temperature-controlled space nearby, pearl and blue oyster mushrooms grow in spawn bags.

The bags come from UA students, but the farm is bolstering its mushroom operation and will start making its own bags, says worker Ryan Capistrano. As part of the changes and renovations, the farm’s animals, mostly sheep and a couple of burros, are gone.

“We really want to focus on produce,” Sternberg says. A flock of chickens, still clucking in the coop house, might stay.

“People like the eggs.”

The eggs and many other vegetables, including cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, eggplant, and herbs, are sold at the Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market at Mercado San Agustín. The farm also supplies restaurants and other local markets.

The two new hydroponic greenhouses started going up in the summer to grow the bulk of crops. Much of the planting will be done in November and the harvest will start in February, Tollefson says.

“We will have about 2,300 pepper plants, 300 cucumber plants, and 1,300 tomato plants,” Tollefson says.

She calls the hydroponics system much more stable than aquaponics. “We can count on that fertilizing the plants and having the crops all the time, whereas the aquaponics—it flu tuates quite a bit.”

Increased consistency bodes well for production. The expectation is that the two greenhouses each month will yield about 2,000 pounds of tomatoes, 1,500 pounds of peppers, and 600 pounds of cucumbers.

Although the vegetables are not grown organically, she says the farm’s practices include few pesticides. “We either use no pesticides, if possible, [or] if we need to use pesticides we try to use stuff that’s labeled organic, and we try not to use synthetic pesticides at all.”

Growing organic hydroponics is not an industry standard right now, she says, but it is something she continues to research at the UA.

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An early aquaponics system went awry when winter hit and the fish stopped eating. But the farm, including employee Ryan Capistrano, aren’t done experimenting, and plan to bring a redesigned system back.

Future farm endeavors also include a new stock of fish and freshwater prawns, as well as opportunities for people who are interested in farming.

“The main vision is to be a model sustainable farm, with multiple methods that we grow, with multiple income streams.

But also to be a model to show people different ways that you can farm,” says Tollefson. “We want to have classes to teach people how to grow mushrooms and teach them how to grow hydro-

ponically and aquaponically, as well as different permaculture techniques for field growing “We want to grow vegetables, but we also want to be an educational center.”  Maggie’s Farm Arizona. 520.591.0085. Visit MaggiesFarm. com for information about monthly tours.

Lourdes Medrano is a freelance writer based in Tucson. Follow her on Twitter: @_lourdesmedrano

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TABLE

Virtuous Gluten For 18 years, Beyond Bread has been serving from-scratch sandwiches, salads, and soups, quietly building a brand that goes beyond food.

By Angela Orlando | Photography by Julie DeMarre

B

B r ead is beyond a café—way beyond. The small business is nothing short of a local institution, and has been since it opened its first location in 1998. When Baja Arizonans move away, we miss its communal vibe and the breads’ earthy flavors. When we move back, as we so often do, we are thrilled to see Beyond Bread flowering now with three restaurants and a pie shop scattered across town.

As I eat a Gordo’s Gorgonzola roast beef sandwich on rustic bread at the flagship location on Campbell Avenue between Glenn and Fort Lowell, I am reminded of the virtue of patience. The patience required of a chef to craft nearly every food item from scratch. Cashiers’ patience to accommodate customers who just can’t decide what to order from among the 30-some sandwiches—or maybe a salad, pasta, soup, or some of the richest macaroni and cheese I’ve ever tasted. I am awed by the patience it takes to explain the relative merits of the 20-plus bread types baked every day; by the patience required to answer scores of people asking, “What’s the soup of the day?” (There are always at least three soups to choose from, as well as a daily salad special or two.)

Randie and Shelby Collier have exercised significan patience and invested much love over the past 18 years, as they grew their dream of running a tiny bread and pastry bakery to a trifecta of bakeries with more than 200 employees. eyond

Prior to opening the first location, Shelby worked in restaurants in Madison, Wisconsin, including apprenticing with a “self-proclaimed master baker” for a year and a half. He loved the craft but sought a new direction, which ended up being westward to Tucson.

The couple’s decision to start Beyond Bread here was by no stretch accidental. They did their research, comparing various similarly sized cities, and decided that Tucson represented a great opportunity for them. Independent bakeries were few at the time, Shelby’s parents lived here, and both liked the feel of the city. So they moved to Tucson in the heat of July, when they were both 29. They relocated halfway across the country, had their first baby, and opened the first Beyond Bread location, which was across the street on Campbell Avenue from today’s location—all within a year.

“The first week we opened, we were doing breads and pastries just to get started,” Shelby said. “We were planning to make sandwiches in a couple weeks, but [almost immediately] a cashier said to a customer, ‘We’ll make you a sandwich!’ So we started that day.”

Randie and Shelby Collier opened the first Beyond Bread location when they were both 29 years old. Today, they oversee three cafés across town with more than 200 employees.

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Avocado, bacon, provolone cheese, chicken, lettuce, and tomatoes make for a mouthwatering sandwich.

Soon, customers were spilling out onto the lawn to eat. Within two years, they had outgrown their 40-seat space and relocated across the street to “increase production,” Shelby said.

And increase production they did. Shelby estimates that the three locations combined make an average of 1,500 sandwiches every day. The Speedway and Wilmot location has become the main production hub. Each store cuts its own vegetables and bakes a few of its own pastries, but the Speedway restaurant is the commissary where the meats and cheeses get sliced, the soups are created, and the dressings crafted.

Beyond Bread employees bake 1,000 to 1,500 loaves of bread daily, all on site at the Speedway location. Some varieties are always available, like the signature white, wheat, and challah, while others are available rotationally. Randie’s personal favorites are the pretzel bread, the brie and scallion, and the ancho chipotle white cheddar.

“We do as best we can for a largescale operator making practically everything from scratch. Everything but the mayonnaise is made here in Tucson.”

The breads all share a recognizable underlying flavor profile and chew, partially attributable to the conditions in the kitchen where the loaves are baked. Most loaves are naturally leavened. They begin with a sourdough mother. The ovens are European. Bakers control the temperature of the water and moisture of the air, and the water hardness level seldom fluc uates.

The newest location, at Ina and Oracle, opened in 2010. “Instead of having two kids, it feels like we have five,” Randie said Two offshoots grow from the family tree: a pie shop and a catering business. The Colliers had some extra space directly behind the Speedway location and turned it into Back Dough, a little storefront bakery which crafts “small pies with ripe flavors,” Randie said.

These include 22 daily cream and fruit pies, four seasonal pies, meat potpies, and quiches.

The catering business’ offerings are diverse, ranging from what the menu calls “behemoth” pretzel bread sandwiches cut

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into 25 generous pieces, to delicate tiramisu cake served on an edible chocolate plate.

Beyond Bread partners almost exclusively with regional vendors and suppliers: their dairy is from Arizona-based Shamrock Foods; they purchase from Stern Produce and pour locally roasted Arbuckles’ Coffee; Maya Tea provides their chai concentrate. Dinnerware is made by Tucson-based HF Coors.

Arizona Lithographers does their printing; Signs Now makes their signs. As little as possible is outsourced, and as much as possible is recycled.

“We do as best we can for a large-scale operator making practically everything from scratch,” said Shelby. “Everything but the mayonnaise is made here in Tucson. We’re not just supporting the local businesses; we’re supporting 200-plus

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Beyond Bread customers can chose from 20 kinds of bread baked daily, 30-some sandwiches, homemade cakes and pastries, and locally roasted coffee.

people. We don’t buy pastry filling. We really don’t want to ‘buy the bucket.’”

In addition to embracing the virtuosity of patience with homemade food and gracious service, Beyond Bread is widely known for its charitable contributions to the Baja Arizona community.

To start, every day each location donates its leftover breads to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. Beyond

Bread gives gift cards, raffl prizes, and auction items to local nonprofit organizations and causes. They host community nights, when a percentage of dinner proceeds go to fundraisers. Beyond Bread organized all the food vendors for the first Tucson Festival of Books in 2009, and continued to do so for five years. “We gave a lot of time, and our staff did too,” Randie said.

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Behind the Speedway location of Beyond Bread, Back Dough is a little storefront bakery which crafts “small pies with ripe flavors.”

Cycling is Shelby’s personal passion, so the organizations Beyond Bread sponsors are mostly biking-related. They include the University of Arizona’s cycling team; El Grupo, which provides youth with bicycles and related education; and Cyclovia, the biannual festival that closes streets to cars so they can be used for nonmotorized movement instead.

“We really are embedded in the community in so many facets. We appeal to a wide swath of people—everything from kids to older people to families to college students,” Shelby said.

“People love to come in and see each other. A variety of people are attracted to meet and converge here. People do business; they close on their houses here. They plan their next vacation.”

“We even did a wedding at the Campbell location for a couple a few years ago,” Randie said.

Beyond Bread embraces one more virtue: fortitude. The Colliers do not intend to give up Beyond Bread any time soon.

“Part of being a business owner is giving back. We are grateful to the community as they supported us. Tucson has been good to us,” Shelby said.  Beyond Bread. 3026 N. Campbell Ave. 520.322.9965.

BeyondBread.com.

Angela Orlando is a cultural anthropologist who writes about the Sonoran Desert, indigenous foodways, cooking, and eating.

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YOUTH

When the Crescent Moon Spills Elders, educators, and students are growing food and sowing traditional knowledge in the garden at San Simon School in the southwest corner of the Tohono O’odham Nation.

Text and photography by Moses Thompson

“W

e spent all day ,

from sun up to sun down in the fields, gathering under the big salt cedar tree to eat. Then we’d go back out again to plant,” recalls Priscilla Thomas, a historian with the Gu Vo District Culture Committee of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Thomas’ childhood memories are peppered with food production. “I learned how to prepare the seeds to be planted, putting them in the clay pots with moist corn husks, and then checking the seeds to see if they’ve sprouted.”

Thomas was born in Oakland, California, where her family moved as part of the Indian Relocation Act of 1956. “My parents worked at a food packing factory.

We lived in apartments—there were three complexes that were all Tohono O’odham people,” she says. After her parents were laid off from the factory, when Thomas was 7, they moved to an area called Ali Chugk, or Menager’s Dam, near Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. “When I came back to Menager’s, I lived with my grandmother and I spent all my days at the farm,” she says. “Back then each family had their own way of growing.

We collected seed from the same corn but my uncle’s would be real tall. But my other uncle’s corn would be all stocky and short. On my grandmother’s side, her family was tall. On my grandfather’s side, his brothers and sisters were short. But the tall and short corn both produced the same amount. I asked my family, why does uncle’s corn grow that way? They said because your uncle is too short, the corn is respecting him. And I believed it! At that time, we would talk to the seedlings and explain why we need them, and sing them songs.”

Menager’s Dam is pinned against the Mexican border in the southwest corner of the Tohono O’odham Nation in the District of Gu Vo. The region is remarkably biodiverse, incredibly remote, and painfully food insecure. “Most people in the community shop in Casa Grande, and when few people have a vehicle that’s a problem. That’s a two-hour drive. It’s also a problem that the food is so expensive. It’s a triple whammy: it’s the distance, it’s the transportation, and it’s the economics of it. It’s problematic,” says Susan Warmack, a Gu Vo native and board president of the Native American Advancement Foundation (NAAF).

The border crossing at Menager’s Dam closed in the early 2000s, allowing only pedestrian access. “Before they closed the gate our nearest shopping area were the farms of Sonoita, Mexico, which are only 30 minutes away.

You can see the farms across the border from our village,” says Priscilla Thomas. “When someone would go shop in Sonoita, families would all put in their orders. I remember I would go with my grandma all day. She had pieces of canvas and she would tie up all the food in a big bundle. Each bundle was what a different family asked for. When we got home the families would untie their bundles and trade each other before they went home. Now that they closed the border, we have to go north. We go to Casa Grande to shop for the whole month. Before we could just go buy from the Tohono O’odham farmers.” Geographic, economic, and political pressures nudge the community to drive their money out of the Tohono O’odham Nation and cart back processed food in bulk.

Priscilla Thomas, a historian with the Gu Vo District Culture Committee of the Tohono O’odham Nation, works to pass down knowledge about farming and agriculture from the tribe’s elders.

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(Left) Virginia Montana, the San Simon School culture teacher, uses the garden to teach song and ceremony, and to grow crops used in basket making and weaving. (Right) Roy Calabaza’s energy and commitment were the push that the San Simon School principal needed to begin the garden program; today, Calabaza works as the school’s full-time garden coordinator.

Yet, nestled just northeast of the Gu Vo District is San Simon School, and with it a gigantic school garden brimming with corn, melon, squash, peppers, tomatoes, sugar cane, and devil’s claw. The half-acre, tractor-scale garden is a wellspring of food heritage that came to fruition through the work of a handful of teachers, a supportive principal, and broad community partnerships. But the seeds for the garden were sown by the community elders.

“Elders who were basket weavers came to give blessings to our children and encourage them to move forward with their own basket weaving. The elders mentioned how they would like to see our children learning about O’odham farming techniques and growing some of the plants needed to weave baskets,” says Frank Rogers, the San Simon School principal of 14 years. From there, teacher interest began to build, but it still wasn’t enough.

“Over the years, staff expressed an interest in having a garden, and I’ve off and on had gardens. I know how much work they are and how much fun they can be. I also know how fast the energy for having a garden can fizzle out. So we didn’t have a garden for years. I wanted to wait until we had the commitment to maintain and sustain a garden,” says Rogers.

The commitment Principal Rogers was looking for came through Larry Secakyuva, a Hopi dryland farmer working at the school as a bus driver, and Roy Calabaza, a Native farmer from the Santo Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico, then working as the school librarian. Together, with help of school staff and with the

support of the community, they broke ground. Tohono O’odham Community Action (TOCA) lent expertise, tools, and seed.

Indian Health Service donated a tractor. The Village of Cowlic lent tools and shared knowledge. Secakyuva and Calabaza tended the garden after school and on weekends. Calabaza helped keep the tractor running and Secakyuva plowed the field. Calabaza says, “Larry is retired now but he’s planning to come back and help us plow. I think he misses us.”

Today, Calabaza serves as the full-time garden coordinator, and the San Simon garden produces more than just food.

The school garden is a two-directional spillway of traditional knowledge. Traditional Tohono O’odham knowledge flows into the garden through the elders and community members who remember the old ways. Virginia Montana, the school’s culture teacher, uses the space to teach song and ceremony, and to grow crops used in basket making and weaving. Traditional knowledge streams out of the garden into Tohono O’odham homes through student emissaries.

“As soon as they started the garden and the kids were bringing home what they grew, and bringing the seeds home for their parents from what they grew, their parents started planting them,” says Thomas. “And people started talking to the elders to find out how to grow things. That opened communication with the elders. The elders realized there’s only so much time for them to be here and they want to pass down the way we grew things.”

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(Above) The San Simon School garden is a space not only for local food production but also education about the community’s agricultural traditions.

(Below) Tohono O’odham melon; squash blossom; dried corn stalks.

Thomas says that each family had their own method for growing and harvesting. “One of the elders I talked to about this said that she wants to pass down her family’s method of cleaning wheat,” says Thomas. “I told my mom and she said that would be good because their family always cleaned the wheat real good.”

The San Simon garden is fertile ground for ceremony as well.

“Before we plant everything we do a dance,” says Calabaza. “One of our spiritual leaders from Pisinemo blesses the ground. At harvest time we have someone from the community come and bless the crops. Once we finish plowing we have someone come in and bless the fields.”

Montana says, “One little boy from Menager’s was in kindergarten last year and we were singing a song in the garden.

At parent-teacher conference, he asked, ‘Can I sing that song for my mom, the song I sang out in the garden?’ He asked for the rattle, so I gave it to him and he started singing. I was so proud of him.”

“When the moon is at its crescent and tipping over to the side, that’s when the rain comes,” says Thomas. Rain ignites the smell of creosote and brings forth life. The San Simon school garden, like the tipping crescent moon, spills food heritage and ceremony. Like the rain igniting the sweet smell of creosote, the garden ignites and spreads inspiration and sense of place across the southwest corner of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Thomas continues, “I tell the kids, this is the area our ancestors were put and we are still here. This is how we survive. This is what makes you O’odham.”  Native American Advancement Foundation (NAAF).

NativeAmericanAdvancement.org.

Moses Thompson got his feet wet with school gardens at Manzo Elementary using gardening as a counseling tool.

Today, Thompson works with the UA Community and School Garden Program and the Tucson Unified School District to spread the Manzo school garden model across the region.

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FOOD JUSTICE

More than Food Since 1981, Casa Maria Soup Kitchen has helped feed Tucsonans, 363 days a year.

By Vanessa Barchfield | Photography by Jeff Smith

O

n a T uesday mor ning in September, the scene at the Casa Maria Soup Kitchen is a lot like any other day. A group of men sit around a picnic table. They smoke cigarettes and sip black coffee. A few people sift through cardboard boxes filled with bags of day-old baguettes and loaves of white bread. Some of the people here slept on the streets last night, in shelters, or on friends’ sofas. Others, in their own homes. These men, women, and children mostly keep to themselves and wait in the yard of the converted South Tucson house where, for the past 35 years, the city’s neediest have come for what they need most.

And at 8:30 a.m., just as he does every day, Brian Flagg arrives in a flurr , a force field of energy. “¿Qué onda?” he shouts out with a big smile.

Flagg runs Casa Maria Catholic Worker Community, with a lot of help. There are a number of places where Tucson’s hungry can go for food on any given day, but Casa Maria is unique.

Unlike most, this soup kitchen is open 363 days a year, shutting only on Thanksgiving and Christmas. People come here for coffee and food. Across the street, they can even showe .

Flagg steps through the crowd into the house where the calm of the outside yard contrasts with the structured chaos inside.

Volunteers and a few staff members have been working for hours already to prepare for the day ahead.

In one corner of the kitchen, Conrad Wall stands over a giant vat of soup. “It’s got pasta, chiles, roasted chicken, vegetables, ham,” Wall says. “Whatever is left over from the day before goes in.”

Nothing goes to waste at Casa Maria.

“I started coming here four years ago after I retired,” Wall, a volunteer, says. He heard about the organization at his church, and over the past few years more people from Corpus Christi Catholic Church on Tucson’s far east side began volunteering with him. “Now every Tuesday is Corpus Christi day.”

Wall’s reason for spending his Tuesday mornings here is simple. “I think it’s just a way for people who have more to give back,” he says.

A line has begun to form outside of the window next to Wall.

When all of the soup is ladled into Styrofoam cups, another volunteer slides the glass pane open and starts handing cups through, along with a chile pepper and wedge of lime.

“We like to make it as tasty as we can,” says Wall.

After getting their soup, people move on to the front door of the house, where Flagg distributes sack lunches.

Brian Flagg (left) runs the Casa Maria Catholic Worker Community’s Soup Kitchen, which distributes food to those most in need.

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Toward the end of the month, volunteers at Casa Maria might hand out 600 bags of food a day. Anyone who needs it can come for a meal.

“¡Llégale chavalo!” he calls out, beckoning people forward.

He’ll hand out about 500 of these brown bags today, maybe closer to 600, since it’s the end of the month.

“Business is booming,” says Flagg. That number will drop closer to 400 in a few days. He explains the fluctuation: “A lot of people get disability checks and things like that so they have money at the beginning of the month but not at the end.”

Most of today’s sack lunches came from Saint Francis de Sales.

Tomorrow’s will be donated by a different group. Flagg says these contributions are vital in feeding Casa Maria’s clients.

But the vast majority of food here is donated by a few supermarkets. “For us, the sun rises and sets with Food City and Safeway,” says Flagg. He’s standing in front of a long table, piled high with produce that volunteers picked up earlier this morning from grocery stores. Nearby, boxes filled with tomatoes, bananas, cheese, roasted chickens, and tortillas are stacked precariously on top of each other, almost as high as the ceiling.

Laura Alameda (La Reina de la Cocina, as Flagg calls her) is, along with Flagg, one of the seven staff members who run Casa Maria. She and volunteer Stan Everheart navigate their way

through these piles, grabbing a mix of foods, which have nudged past their expiration dates, and stuffin them into plastic bags until the bags bulge and look like they are going to burst open.

Flagg hands these grocery bags to people standing in a second line just outside the front door—the one for families.

Heather Guerra has been waiting in that line. “I’ve been coming here 11 years, off and on, in times of need,” she says.

Like most of the folks outside Casa Maria, Guerra heard about it through word of mouth.

Along with the packed grocery bag, Flagg thrusts a package of blueberry muffin into her arms. Pastries are abundant today so everyone in the family line walks away with muffin or rich chocolate cakes that can run $9.99 at Safeway’s bakery.

Guerra has eight children and three grandchildren. “My family’s growing,” she says. Tonight, she’ll cook dinner for the seven kids that live with her. “I get food stamps and recently got employed,” she says. “But by the end of the month I need help to put meals together.”

Setting down her muffins Guerra surveys the contents of her bag: cauliflowe , carrots, tomatoes, onions. She has two

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pieces of hamburger meat at home and she says she’ll make a soup out of the food that Flagg just handed her. “It’ll be a good meal today.”

What would Guerra and her children eat tonight if it weren’t for Casa Maria? “Probably a lot less,” she says. “More ramen noodles. This helps us eat a little more and a little healthier.”

Some of the food in her bag may have come from Felicia’s Farm, a nonprofit urban farm started six years ago in the memory of Felicia Ann Cutler. Cutler was committed to feeding people in need. She died in 2009 and since her husband founded Felicia’s Farm, all of its produce has gone to Casa Maria. Today, manager Sofia Montes drove about 250 pounds of vegetables and 100 dozen eggs from the farm, which is nestled behind River and Alvernon.

“We come about once a week,” Montes says. The vegetables she unloaded from her truck outside Casa Maria were harvested from the farm earlier this morning. “It’s the freshest food you can get short of having your own garden, and picking it.”

Felicia’s Farm donates its produce to Casa Maria because, Montes says, they get it directly to the people who need it the most.

“We’re fighting for a full employment economy that allows people to lead dignified lives ” “I only donate the things that you’d see at a farmers’ market,” she says. “Just because you’re not buying it doesn’t mean you don’t deserve the best.”

It’s that spirit of giving that has kept Casa Maria running since a Carmelite priest named David Innocenti founded the organization in 1981. Innocenti was a member of the Catholic Worker Movement, an activist wing of the church born in the darkest days of the Great Depression. The movement is “grounded in a firm belief in the God-given dignity of every human person.”

Casa Maria is one of the 216 Catholic Worker Communities in the United States. People who follow this tradition of Catholicism live simply, resist war and social injustice, and serve the poor.

“We wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t massive poverty in Tucson, so we really want to work our way out of a job,” says Flagg, who arrived in Tucson from California on a Greyhound bus in the early 1980s and has been with Casa Maria since 1983. “We feel that in this, the wealthiest, mightiest country the world has ever known, there’s no reason for the kind of poverty that we see here every morning.”

Flagg regards his work feeding people here day-in and dayout as one part a larger mission to, as he describes, “change the system.” He’s an activist in the truest sense, involved in a range of efforts that directly affect Tucson’s poor: he registers people to vote, started the Tucson Bus Riders Union, which advocates for affordable bus fares, and has successfully fought to keep schools open that were slated for closure.

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Most of the food served at Casa Maria is donated by supermarkets like Safeway and Food City.

“We’re fighting for a full employment economy that allows people to lead dignified lives,” he says. “The worst thing here is the lack of dignity. People forced to come to this door and beg me for food. That’s not dignity. Dignity comes with a job where you can go to the Safeway when you’re done with a day’s work and buy what your family needs.”

Flagg and the other six staff members at Casa Maria live across the street from the soup kitchen. In addition to their housing and bus passes, they earn $10 a week. “Enough to buy a 12-pack,” says Flagg.

Clearly, it’s not the money that’s kept him here all these years; it’s the cause. “You have to have faith that you’re doing the right thing,” he says. “You have to enjoy what you do and be able to laugh at the absurdities of things. It’s a good way to live, doing what we do. I sleep well at night.”

Volunteer Stan Everheart, who had been packing grocery bags, is now lugging in crates from a van idling at the curb outside—this one, filled with donations from Food City and the

Food Conspiracy Co-op. He kneels to set the crates down and pauses for a second to wipe his brow. It’s exhausting physical work.

Everheart has spent his mornings here for the past year. “I’m a gopher. I do a little of everything,” he says. “Bag groceries, make sandwiches, sweep the floo , and take out the trash. Whatever needs to be done, I’m here.”

He says he could easily be standing in the yard outside waiting to be fed rather than hustling inside. He considers his work here as a way of belonging to a community.

“To me, this is a big family,” he says. “I want the guys outside to be comfortable when I’m making coffee for them in the morning or handing out donuts. They love to come here, to get something to eat, get a hot cup of coffee. It gives them a place to come. It’s more than food. A lot more than food.”  Casa Maria Catholic Worker Community. 401 E. 26th St. 520.624.0312. CasaMariaTucson.org.

Vanessa Barchfield is a eporter and producer at Arizona Public Media.

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f o L o h c c al Hoppin r a e S ni ess The Baja Brews pro

ject is a year-long collaboration between the region's craft brewers and Edible Ba ja Arizona.

Explore, celebrate, and taste Baja Arizona's extra ordinary craft beer in this six-part series. Drink loc al!

Tasting events will feature local breweries using a different indigenous ingredient to create a special small batch. Drink beer and help benefit innovative nonprofit organizations working for food security.

The next event is November 17. See p. 136 for more information.

Sponsored by VISIT TUCSON and the ARIZONA CRAFT BREWERS GUILD

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The beeR pipeline Distribution is the gateway to success for local brewers.

Too bad dispersing beer is so difficult.

By John Washington | Photography by Jeff Smith

Dragoon Brewing’s semi-automated canning line by Palmer Canning Systems is a rotary design, which allows for greater consistency and stability.

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L

et’s say you produce a product. Let’s say your product is a delicious beverage that has been loved for thousands of years and is imbibed in great quantities around the world—a liquid that incites camaraderie, contemplation, bloviation, eructation, and occasionally brawls. Let’s say you want to exchange that beverage—let’s call it beer—for money. Even with today’s heavily greased, capitalistic mechanisms in place, it’s not as easy as you might expect. You can’t just put a table and a pitcher in your front lawn and sell stout like a kid sells lemonade. I mean, you could—but you’d get smacked pretty quickly with a fat stack of fines After the repeal of Prohibition in the 1930s, most states established some form of a three-tier system to regulate alcohol sales, in which a firewall was built between producers (brewers), wholesalers (distributors), and retailers (barkeeps).

The logic behind the three-tier system was based on two presumptions. One, states thought that they could tax alcohol production and consumption at every possible stage, and they do. (Arizona annually rakes in around $22 million a year in beer tax.) Two, states thought that the biggest beer producers would monopolize beer distribution, forcing drinking holes to pour nothing but their own beer—what is known in the industry as a tied-house. Unfortunately, this was effectively what happened: walk into most bars in the second half of the 20th century and you got to choose among three or four varieties of mass-produced, low-alcohol, sparkly-yellow lager, some of which advertised coldness as their most distinguishing characteristic. The three-tier system’s legacy is that today it’s wholesalers who largely get to decide what beer gets sold where—which is only one of the gauntlets beer producers have to slip through to get their beer from brew kettle to pint glass.

“Beer is heavy,” Tristan White, of Dragoon Brewing Company, told me.

It’s an aphorism that bears its truth on multiple levels—full kegs of beer weigh about as much as a grown man, though it’s not such a cinch to get them into bars.

And distribution in the beer industry, White said, “is the gateway to success.”

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(Right) Tristan White is Dragoon’s jack-of-all trades general manager.

(Above) Dragoon’s original canning line was capable of filling eight cans per minute. The new one, seen in the background, can do 40.

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White is Dragoon’s young and bearded jack-of-all trades general manager. Besides running sales and marketing and acting as press offic , he also runs the forklift, installs new brew equipment, and handles accounting, delivery, packaging, and HR as well as throwing in a hand with lab work, bartending, dishwashing, and cleanup. When I first met him he was on his knees in the brew house, tinkering with an orange accordion gate. I was going to ask what he was working on, but was distracted by a double-decker stack of Dragoon IPA cans—thirstily waiting to be hosed full of 16 ounces of IPA during their ride down Dragoon’s new Palmer canning line (which White was helping to install).

With Dragoon’s taproom bopping and Big Bad Wolf’s food truck dishing sandwiches out front, White and I sat down for a few beers. (He went with a tall tulip glass of Unihopper and I tasted through the Black IPA, the Monsooner, a barrel-aged beer called The Cuatro, and the Stronghold Session IPA).

A lot of the “weight” of beer comes from another legal relic: franchise laws.

These laws, which lock a brewer to a single distributor (‘til death or bankruptcy does them part), were put in place to protect beer distributors—the mom-and-pop companies carting or trucking your beer from brewery to bar—from big domestic brewers like Bud, Miller, or Coors. These laws were also imagined post-Prohibition, when there were only 40 or 50 brewers in the country, on which the many small distributors completely depended. Today, the relationship between distributor and brewers (at least small- to medium-sized craft brewers) has been reversed. Distributors have merged or bought each other up, while the craft beer boom has done the opposite, atomizing beer production into the now thousands of breweries across the country. Which means that it’s the brewers who depend on the wholesalers—if they don’t have room in their trucks, or don’t want to carry a brewery’s beer, the brewer is left awash in a sea of unsold suds.

And with so many craft brew options in town (this autumn Tucson welcomes three new breweries—Dillinger, Green Feet, and Crooked Tooth—into its ranks), a lot of bars and tap rooms want to have rotating handles—the physical handle that the barkeep pulls to pour you a beer—which, for a single brewer, means that instead of having four or five clients who keep the beer flowing at a constant rate, you need to have 20 or so clients who put on your handle every other week. Drinkers’ love of options has led to “Rotator Nation,” as White described it to me—great for the drinker, but hard on the brewer. And distributors don’t have clear incentive to keep one craft brewer’s beers on tap at any single bar: for them, as long as their trucks are full, the profits don’t waver.

In effect, craft beer is a distributor s market.

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Sentinel Peak brewer Cory Hines begins a brew that will be served in more than 80 restaurants and bars across Arizona.

o u ’ l l h av e t o g o to Sentinel Peak’s brewpub to drink their Peanut Butter Cup Porter: 10 pounds of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups soaked in Sentinel’s Porter, which might sound like a saccharine gimmick, but—happily—it’s not oversweet, with the peanut and chocolate notes coming out and complementing the porter more than the candy. To drink other Sentinel beers, however, you can go to just about any neighborhood in town.

Their red and white handles are pulled at bars and restaurants across Tucson.

Sentinel Peak has been open for less than three years, and they’ve already gone through a number of expansions, and will likely keep up their rapid growth, according to founder (and full-time firefighter Jeremy Hildebrand. Like most breweries, folks at Sentinel Peak started distributing themselves, selling every drop they produced. After reaching out to, and getting snubbed by, some bigger distributors, they were approached

by Young’s Market, a California-based wholesaler (which also distributes for Bisbee’s Beast).

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The slow-growth trajectory that many brewers I’ve talked to have described as their business model might seem to be contradicted by the local boom in craft breweries. But rate of growth is relative, and I get the sense that Baja Arizona brewers are more careful than slow: the backyard-bucket-to-brewhouse model seems to be the standard model. “We’re growing fast, but we also like to play it cautious,” Hildebrand told me, capturing Tucson’s malty zeitgeist.

Sentinel Peak first started shipping their beers about a quarter mile away, to Roadhouse Cinemas, right across Grant.

But now that Young’s Market is stumping for them—acting as the agent between bar owners and Hildebrand—their beer is being poured in nearly 80 restaurants and bars across the state.

A lot of local bars, Hildebrand told me, are as interested in the story and ethos of their brewery as they are about the product.

Young’s Market set up Tucson International Airport’s Arizona Sports Grill and Sentinel Peak on something like a blind date: Hildebrand beered-and-dined the bar owners at the brew pub, chatting about their origin story, giving them a brew-tour,

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and eventually securing a handle at their bar—happy the thirsty jetsetter. And Sentinel Peak’s story does sell: founded by three firefighters with beers inspired by Hildebrand’s time spent in Germany, where he was stationed while serving in the Army as a Russian interpreter in the last years of the Cold War. Sentinel Peak’s Dewpoint Dunkel, which is traditionally a black lager, though Sentinel Peak brews it with Kolsch ale yeast, replicates the smoothness of a lager, but with extra body. Hildebrand told me that he spent six months—test brewing in his backyard with a turkey fryer—just getting the color down: a clean, dark, acorn brown, which shines a lovely maple when held to the light.

Sentinel Peak’s most surprising beer is probably their Overhaul Chili, which is brewed with five varieties of peppers, including roasted jalapeño, serrano, habanero, poblano, and ghost pepper.

If it weren’t so delicious, it might be undrinkable—nearly stinging on its way down your throat. This is one of the joys of drinking craft beer: large domestic and regional breweries don’t dapple with capsaicin-heavy peppers, but smaller craft operators have the room, and the imagination, to experiment.

Rob Fullmer of the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild explained some of the challenges of starting and running a craft brewery in Arizona. Currently there are 78 state-licensed breweries, with an overwhelming 80 percent of all craft beer sales occurring in Maricopa County. (Pima!— drink up.) Fullmer has been executive director for only three years, and has already seen the number of state breweries double. The Arizona Craft Brewers Guild’s mission is to “promote and protect Arizona breweries,” which may sound a little like the objective of a militia, but, as Fullmer explained, liquor laws are inherently prohibitory in nature, and the guild spends its time “playing a lot of defense” to make laws more brewer- and consumer-friendly. One basic example is allowing restaurants to sell beer to-go in growlers, which was prohibited until the guild lobbied to include new permissions in the state’s 2016 Liquor Omnibus Bill. A more significant victory for the guild was raising the cap of barrel production in 2015 from 40,000 to 200,000 barrels, allowing for midsize breweries to maintain the label of craft, which permits them to pour their beer the same place they make it.

“The best bet,” Fullmer told me, “is to self-distribute for as long as possible … to own your neighborhood,” and establish organic relationships with bars and individual consumers. For small brewers, Fullmer said, “distribution is also a marketing tool”—establishing brand recognition at local bars. Brewers also “get the biggest return per ounce of liquid if they sell their beer at their own bar.”

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Sentinel Peak’s Jeremy Hildebrand (left) says that they’ve had to manage their rapid growth “cautiously.”

(Above) Morgan Hopkins stacks kegs full of beer, ready for distribution.

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ike most new breweries , Dragoon started by

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self-distributing, and did so until June of 2015, after finally succumbing to the persistent courting of Finley Distributing (who also distributes Thunder Canyon and Borderlands). But even after signing with the wholesaler, Dragoon’s sales rep keeps close ties to both the restaurants and the bars that pour their beers. Beer-making, White told me, is a “relationship business.” Despite their surge in growth, White explained how important it was “to have somebody on the street in all of their markets. Otherwise people aren’t going to really care about their product.” In the end, craft beer is small nuts in Finley’s large portfolio, with Dragoon making up what White estimated was less than 1 percent of their sales.

And yet, Dragoon’s handle is near ubiquitous in downtown area bars.

And you’d be remiss if you haven’t started picking up four-packs of their flagship IPA. (With a hoppy slightly citric slap in the mouth, by my judgment it’s the best IPA in town.)

The ultimate goal for both Dragoon and Sentinel Peak is to achieve statewide distribution. To do so they would need to get on board with major supermarkets, like Fry’s and Kroger, which is where most beer in Arizona is purchased.

Another option, though it might seem far-fetched, is to follow the example of Belgian Brewery De Halve Maan (Half

Moon), and build a beer pipeline. De Halve Maan brewery pipes its beer underground to a bottling plant a few miles outside the historic downtown of Bruges. It was important to De Halve Maan owners to keep producing (and keep jobs) inside the city. Instead of moving to an industrial suburb, or continuing to use loud and polluting trucks to transport their beer, they decided on the more efficient, underground option.

It might be something for a few of Tucson’s downtown breweries to consider.

In fact, let this stand as an open call to City Council members and Mayor Jonathan Rothschild: if they want a bipartisan, electoral-friendly, public works project without the controversy of widening Broadway or the wheel-spinning history of Rio Nuevo, why not install a beer pipeline in Tucson?

Imagine, say, how easy it would be for Borderlands to pipe their beer directly to a handle at Tap and Bottle. Or Thunder Canyon to pump to Hotel Congress.

Or Pueblo Vida to Playground. Or—I’m just saying—a direct line from Dragoon to the tap in my kitchen …  My recs from this article: Sentinel Peak’s Dunkel and just gotta go with Dragoon’s flagship I A. John Washington is a writer and translator.

Visit jblackburnwashington.com or find him on Twitter at @EndDeportations.

bAJA bRewS TASTING! Come and taste more than a dozen singular beers made with a distinct local ingredient!

Every eight weeks, Baja Arizona s craft brewers are concocting special beers using different ingredients from plants indigenous to Baja Arizona and based on seasonal availability.

Proceeds from the events will benefit four amazing nonprofit organizations working to improve food security in our communty: Native Seeds/SEARCH, Trees for Tucson, Iskashitaa Refugee Network, and Desert Harvesters.

A $15 donation includes tastings of all beers made by participating breweries. There is no competitive aspect to the tastings.

The third Baja Brews Tasting Event features beers made with locally harvested late summer fruits, such as figs, elderberries, hackberries, quince, and peaches.

WHEN: November 17 from 6-8 p.m.

WHERE: Sentinel Peak Brewing Company 4746 E. Grant Road

HOW MUCH: $15 gets you tastes of all special brews from more than a dozen local breweries.

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TUSD

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Tucson Unified School District s Food Services department is out to change the way kids eat one meal at a time, 30,000 meals a day.

By Megan Kimble Photography by Steven Meckler

10/28/2016 3:17:46 PM

Fourth grade students at Lawrence Intermediate School learn about taste—salty, sweet, bitter, and, in this case, sour lemons—during a food literacy class taught by TUSD’s Farm-to-School chef, Rani Olson (center).

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ne , two , thr ee ,

eyes on me!” calls Ms. Ewy. Twenty-two fourth graders at Anna Lawrence Intermediate School wriggle in their chairs and look to the front of the room. “How many of you have tried an Asian pear before?” she asks. Five hands shoot up. Renee says it was sweet.

Andres forgot what it tasted like. Hayley treads throughout the classroom, offering one pear to each student. The golden pears sit on beige paper towels spread on gray desks. Danny Ewy reads from a worksheet about the Hosui Asian pear. “It says here, ‘This variety contains high quantities of a number of nutrients including potassium, vitamin K, copper, and vitamin C.’” She pauses. “Why does it contain copper?”

“It’s from Arizona!” cries Sarahi.

“That’s right,” says Ewy. Arizona has a lot of copper in the soil, she says, and these pears were grown in that Arizona soil—at a place called Sleeping Frog Farms. On her word, the students cup small hands around the pears and slurp first bites.

“This is just an apple!” Santos cries, indignant. “It’s too cold,” says Sarahi, concerned. “It’s like a sweet apple with

sugar in it,” says Sammy, delighted. “I think it’s a million percent good,” says Lizea, definitive Locally grown produce has started to pop up in classrooms and cafeterias throughout Tucson Unified School District. Since 2015, many of TUSD’s 50,000 students, spread across 86 school sites, have tried pears, lettuce, or tomatoes grown on local farms or in school gardens.

This is no small accomplishment. While as recently as 2012, garden produce constituted a “food safety concern,” since Shirley Sokol became director in 2013, TUSD’s Food Services has undergone a significant transformation in how it views itself in relation to the educational mandate of TUSD. Today, Food Services is becoming a department that does more than make 30,000 meals a day. Through food literacy classes, garden-to-cafeteria, and farmto-school programs, Food Services is educating students about how their food choices impact their health, the environment, and Tucson’s local economy. “We’re not just a scoop and a plop on a tray,” says Sokol. “We’re not educators in the classroom, but why can’t we enrich that education?”

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Shirley Sokol is the director of TUSD’s Food Services department, which is responsible for distributing 30,000 meals a day to 86 sites across a 240-square-mile area. Although the central kitchen produces less food than it did when Sokol arrived 20 years ago, the capacity is still there.

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hen S okol arrived to the central kitchen 20 years ago, “I kind of felt like I had arrived on the planet Mars,” she says. There was a bakery in the central kitchen that churned out loaves of bread 20 hours a day—they called it the “a.m./p.m. bakery”—and a walk-in refrigerator that held the thousands of sandwiches made with all that bread. When she arrived at TUSD, Sokol had no experience in school food services. She grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska; her grandparents were homesteaders. “When you grow up in Alaska, you have to learn how to take care of yourself,” she says. She moved to Tucson in her late 20s “to thaw out,” she says. She ended up at Biosphere 2 during the first closed mission, when eight Biospherians were living inside the self-contained geodesic dome, and developed a K-12 science camp with the goal of “making sure that the students were taught how to be good stewards of the earth,” she says.

When she was hired at TUSD, she was tasked with reviewing service systems within Food Services. “Twenty years ago, a lot of school districts were reaching out to get contracts from Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, fast-food franchises,” says Sokol. “We didn’t want to do that here.” So she developed in-house grab-and-go stands branded like commercial enterprises. “It was, let’s develop things that we think are marketable and trendy that the kids would like, and then let’s work the numbers where we need them,” she says.

Since the 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan defunded school food programs, food service departments have become essentially nonprofit entities, responsible for serving food that meets nutritional requirements set by the National School Lunch Program while generating just enough revenue to keep their doors open.

After a century of city- and state-sponsored programs, the National School Lunch Program was established in 1946 to provide low-cost or free lunches to qualified students through

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Employees in TUSD’s central kitchen prepare 700 daily meals for satellite schools; most food prep now takes place on site in school cafeterias.

federal subsidies to public schools. The program was conceived not only as a way to provide supplemental nutrition to students in need, but also as a means to absorb surplus commodity crops and prop up food prices during the Great Depression. While siphoning excess commodity food into schools might have made sense in the post-war years, today, it means that what students eat is largely determined by federal farm policy rather than local nutritional needs.

And yet, across the country, food served at school is the most important contributor of nutrition for children from low-income families. Nationally, 60 percent of students qualify for the National School Lunch Program, which means their family’s income qualifies them for a lunch provided by the district free or at a reduced price. In TUSD, 74 percent of students are eligible.

Today, Sokol directs a department with nearly 400 employees.

Three hundred are spread out in cafeterias across the district and 75 work in the central kitchen, focused on the daunting logistics of distributing 30,000 meals a day to 86 sites across a 240-square-mile area.

“You have to have the black-and-white operation part working,” says Sokol. The food has to be there when students want to eat it, and it has to meet requirements for child nutrition set forth by the USDA. But in this endeavor, Sokol sees an opportunity to also teach students how to be stewards of a sustainable food system.

“She has a very unconventional view of the role of Food Services,” says H. T. Sanchez, the superintendent of TUSD. “She sees the role as not just feeding the child, but also feeding the child’s curiosity, intellect, and mind.”

Of course, she didn’t get there alone.

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A decade after the first seeds were planted, Manzo Elementary’s garden has become a central part of the school’s identity, integrated in the community as well as into classroom curriculum.

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t 10:24 a.m., in the courtyard of Manzo Elementary School,

Mr. Oswald’s third grade class pours out of the classroom and into the garden. Lola is a composter today, so she draws a long thermometer from the supply station and sinks it into one of six compost piles. “Ms. Blue!” she calls. Ms. Blue—Blue Baldwin, Manzo’s ecology coordinator—bends over the thermometer next to Lola. “If the needle is halfway between 100 and 120 and we’re counting by 10s, what is the temperature?”

Baldwin asks. Lola points out an insect in the compost pile.

Finally, they settle on 110 degrees, and Lola notes the daily temperature on the compost log.

Meanwhile, six students duck into the chicken coop and emerge clasping quietly clucking hens. In the grass-filled courtyard in the front of the school, the relocated chickens graze under a squat, A-frame chicken tractor. Nearby, in the pollinator

garden, a desert tortoise—“It is unnamed, for it is a wild animal,” says Baldwin—lumbers through the underbrush. A yellow-andblack swallowtail butterfly flutters past A decade ago, Manzo Elementary was yet another underperforming school in a low-income neighborhood. When Moses Thompson was hired to be the school counselor in 2006, there were no butterfl es, chickens, or tortoises. There was only an abandoned desert garden across the street. Thompson and Nicole Ramirez, another teacher at Manzo, organized the student council and parents from the neighborhood to clean it up and plant a Sonoran desert biome. “That’s where I started to combine counseling and gardening,” says Thompson. “When kids would come to school in crisis, instead of going to my office we would go to this outdoor space and talk while we were planting, digging, watering, observing.” The conversation flowed more naturally.

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Moses Thompson came to Manzo as a school counselor; after seeing how well students responded to working outside, he rallied the community to build and support the school’s now-thriving garden program. Today, Thompson works to expand the Manzo garden model to schools across TUSD.

Students liked being outside. So Thompson started building garden beds in the school’s courtyards, focusing on vegetable production. “As counselor, my job was to work with the kids that had the most intense behaviors in the school,” he says. “To see those kids connect with gardening was a really powerful thing.”

So he kept expanding the program—he secured grant funding for a water cistern here, a chicken coop there. By 2013, the Manzo community had built a greenhouse for a three-tank aquaponics system, hosted several school-wide tilapia tastings, and started a biweekly afterschool farmers’ market where kids could sell the produce they grew to their parents and community.

“It’s still a school that experiences a lot of stresses related to poverty,” says Thompson. “But once gardening became the identity of the school, you saw kids excited to be there.”

Students stopped acting out; fighting decreased. “Kids felt like part of what was happening there. When kids feel valued, it makes learning happen much more naturally,” he says. After the Arizona Department of Education ranked Manzo as an underperforming school two years in a row, teachers started using the garden to target math and language arts test scores.

“In the span of a year, we went from a low performing D to a mid-range C,” says Thompson.

But while this transformation was still unfolding, in November of 2012, Manzo was included on a list of 14 schools to be closed by TUSD due to a $17 million budget deficit. “I don’t think the district was really aware of the programs that were happening, and how much the community supported those programs,” says Thompson.

Nick Henry, who was then the Farm-to-Child Manager at the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, helped organize parents to tell garden-related stories at a governing board listening session. One parent told a story about her son, Emiliano, reacting to the news that their family would be relocating to Phoenix. “Emiliano was not having it, so he stood up and announced he wouldn’t be joining them,” recalled Henry. “So they said, that’s great, but how are you going to survive? He said, ‘Well, I know how to grow my own food. I’ll plant a garden, build a compost pile, start my own recycling business.’” Henry says this story stood out as a powerful—and positive—moment in an otherwise contentious meeting.

When 11 schools were closed the following fall, Manzo stayed open. Suddenly, the value of a school garden was made tangible.

If a garden could save a chronically underperforming school, what else could it do?

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Students at Manzo examine plant starts in the school’s greenhouse.

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t its best , when you’re getting parents and teachers involved, a garden program can help transform a landscape—the whole environment a student is in,” says Henry, who now directs the Community Food Resource Center at the Food Bank. “Not just when they’re out in the garden and occasionally in the cafeteria, but also when they’re at home. Kids can influence their parents, too.”

But gardens require resources. Like a baseball team or theater department, a garden requires program development, teacher time, and school support. Even today, school-gardens programs are vulnerable, dependent on the energy of one or two people who are inspired to take them on. But garden programs have flourished across TUSD—at the start of the 2016-17 school year, there were 57 active school gardens—mostly because students love them. They love the dirt, the movement, the clucking chickens and smooth eggs. They love watching lanky plants emerge from the ground like magic beanstalks.

And, to the surprise of many adults, kids love to eat the food they grow. Studies show that students who participate in garden or farm-to-school programs are more willing to chose and consume fruits and vegetables in a lunchroom setting, and also more likely to improve their diets outside of school, including eating a larger variety of vegetables and more frequently requesting vegetables at home.

Research also shows that it takes an exposure of eight to 15 times before a kid develops a taste for a new food. “You have to keep trying

with kids before they develop a taste for something,” says Henry.

Pears are easy, but turnips take time. “Poor families can’t afford to do that,” he says. “They stick to foods that they know their kids will eat. They can’t have their kids throw food on the floo , or just not eat it. The cafeteria is where you have that opportunity. There is a huge opportunity to influence kids’ palates.

In 2012, Community Food Bank and TUSD received a $98,000 Farm-to-School grant from the USDA to start the work required to incorporate produce from gardens and local farms into cafeterias. That grant catalyzed the relationships that are literally bearing fruit today, connecting leadership at TUSD with people at the Community Food Bank like Henry and grassroots gardeners like Thompson. In 2014, Manzo became the first school in Pima County to be certified by the Arizona Department of Health Services to serve garden produce in the cafeteria; since then, Borton Primary Magnet, Mission View Elementary, John B. Wright Elementary, and Tucson High Magnet School have also been certified But by design, school gardens don’t produce all that much food. A school like Manzo, which is on the high end of production, might hold five garden-to-cafeteria events in a school year, during which students get to try salads or roasted vegetables made with vegetables grown on site. The other 175 days of school, those students are largely eating USDA commodity crops and prepackaged, processed food. To really change what kids eat, you have to go to the farm.

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at my desk and I’m like, ‘Food Services, this is Rani,’ ” says Rani Olson, TUSD’s Farm-to-School chef. “And she’ll say, ‘Rani, Farm-toSchool Chef! You have to say it!’”

Sokol is understandably proud to have hired Olson, the district’s first Farm-to-School chef and the creator of TUSD Grows, a food literacy, gardening and farm-to-cafeteria program. Olson is an urban planner and a plant-based chef—before starting at TUSD, she was the executive chef at Food for Ascension Café; before the restaurant closed in 2015, she was working with Manzo students to source garden vegetables for the farm-to-table menu.

Today, Olson’s job at TUSD is to incorporate gardening, food literacy, and locally sourced food into the vast and vastly complicated department that is Food Services. She works closely hir ley w ill call me

with Thompson, who now works to support school gardens across the district in a position shared by TUSD Food Services and the University of Arizona.

“For TUSD to take a leap and say, what these guys are doing isn’t scary, but something we should embrace at the institutional level,” says Thompson, “that is powerful. That is where your impact becomes super broad.”

The Food Services department sprawls through an unremarkable building in an industrial park east of Kino Parkway and south of Broadway. Gray cubicles and windowless offic surround a central kitchen that hums with considerably less energy than it did two decades ago. The Food Services central kitchen prepares 700 meals every day for satellite schools—charter and private schools that have contracted with TUSD for their food service—but mostly, save for the

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A school cafeteria is a place like no other. Students at John B. Wright Elementary fuel up for an afternoon of learning.

occasional batch of 10,000 muffin made in cauldron-sized mixing bowls, the kitchen is quiet.

Today, all the action is in the warehouse. “The food has to be here at least five days before it’s needed,” says Ron Tolf, the warehouse manager. “The first day we print, then we pull, then we deliver, then the sites have a day to prep, and then they serve.” Print paperwork, pull food, and load it onto one of the eight trucks that stops at 11 schools every day. To balance each truck’s load, Tolf designs each route so that a truck stops at one high school, two middle schools, and eight elementary schools. “You might have a high school that serves 600 pizzas every day, and they come 24 to a case,” he says. “That’s a lot of cases of pizza.”

Which might be the best way to describe the warehouse: It is a lot of cases of pizza. It is a lot of boxes of frozen Tyson

grilled chicken. It is pallet after pallet of string cheese and strawberry-flavored yogurt and whole-wheat bread. “Today, for distribution on Monday, we have 172 cases of baby carrots, 84 cases of sliced onions, 92 cases of sliced green peppers, 92 cases of sliced red peppers,” says Tolf. He’s not looking at an invoice—he just knows what’s happening in a warehouse that contains, on any given day, $1 million worth of inventory. “Oh, and 180 cases of cantaloupe,” he adds.

Since The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed in 2010, fresh produce has taken up a bigger share of the warehouse space, says Tolf. The bill made the first significant changes to the school lunch program in 30 years, including aligning school meals with the MyPlate nutrition guidelines that replaced the food pyramid in 2011 and mandating bigger portions of whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables.

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The warehouse at TUSD’s food services is a carefully oiled machine. “Overall it seems really easy, food in and food out,” says warehouse manager Ron Tolf, “but there’s a lot that happens between there.”

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here is a substantial space between

wanting to serve local food in a school cafeteria and actually serving local food in a school cafeteria, and that space is the difference between a refrigerated warehouse and a fall morning farmers’ market. It is the differenc between a commodity tomato—uniform, bland, and reliable—and an heirloom tomato—distinct, flavorful, and unpredictable. When a Food Service department gets audited, it must demonstrate that its students were served meals that contain all the nutritionals required by the USDA within a menu cycle. Order a thousand pounds of deliciously erratic tomatoes and it’s suddenly a lot harder to calculate how many slices, sandwiches, and serving sizes you can serve to how many students.

USDA-approved vegetables are arranged by color category: dark green; red and orange; legumes; starchy; and “other,” a category which is not mandatory and therefore usually not reimbursable.

Research shows that it takes an exposure of eight to 15 times before a kid develops a taste for a new food. “The cafeteria is where you have that opportunity.”

“Students have to have a certain number of servings offered to them every week,” says Olson. “The challenge is that what really grows well in Tucson and is culturally relevant falls into the ‘other’ category.

Cabbage, cucumbers, radishes, summer squash—these are key ingredients that fit really well into the cafeteria, but they are optional.”

Depending on the menu, the USDA will reimburse 80 cents to $1.50 per student per meal. “If you’re going over the amount you can be reimbursed for, the department is absorbing that cost,” says Olson. Because food costs are averaged out over TUSD’s five-week menu cycle, “we can streamline and be careful about how we use local products,” says Sokol, the Food Services director.

Most of the food served in school cafeterias comes from high-volume distributors capable of supplying the food required for 30,000 meals on demand. In 2015, TUSD changed its bid structure

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from a single-vendor contract—one source for meat, one source for dairy—to one where multiple vendors could be awarded contracts in each category. That change opened the door for the Community Food Bank to apply and be awarded a contract as a small-volume produce vendor.

“Farmers are only growing on 60 percent of their possible land, so there’s a totally underutilized resource for food production,” says Kara Jones, the local food pathways manager at the Food Bank. According to a survey conducted by the Food Bank, southern Arizona farmers have the capacity to grow an additional 30 million pounds of food on their existing land. In 2015, the Food Bank started working with a group of 15 small farmers to coordinate the supply, storage, and delivery of local food to institutional markets like Tucson Medical Center and TUSD. “But farmers aren’t going to grow it unless they are sure they can sell it,” says Jones.

In September of 2015, TUSD purchased 6,000 pounds of Asian pears from Sleeping Frog Farms through the Community Food Bank. Pears and other fruit-by-the-unit are an easy starting point—they can be distributed as classroom snacks without any processing beyond a quick wash in the central kitchen. And kids like fruit. That purchase was replicated again in 2016, with 2,000 pounds of Asian pears distributed as snacks in schools like Lawrence.

Both Jones and Olson would like to see that purchase grow—a lot. Sokol says that Food Services spends around $1.5 million on produce every school year. To redirect even a fraction of that purchasing power to local farms would offer economic stability to local farmers who desperately need it.

In 2016, the Food Bank opened a purchase order for the district at the Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market, enabling Olson to buy local food for special events or education.

But there’s only so much food available at a farmers’ market. The goal, say Jones and Olson, is to place preseason orders three to four months before an anticipated harvest— time enough for a farmer to plant and grow a crop specifically for TUSD. It’s an ambitious goal. Although other states have successfully managed to “forward contract” food purchase orders to give local farmers a jumpstart on planting, this kind of procurement has yet to get off the ground in Arizona Rani Olson is TUSD’s first Farm-to-School chef. She started TUSD Grows, a food literacy, gardening and farm-to-cafeteria program.

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At Tucson High Magnet School, science class sometimes unfolds in the garden. To learn the relationship between soil, microbes, and plant growth students collect soil samples from locations around the garden; later, they’ll learn how to collect, plate, and identify microbes on agar Petri dishes.

Breakfast and lunch menus are typically planned a year in advance, with constant shufflin as the school year progresses.

“Last year, the things that they had on their menu were not in line with seasonality,” says Jones. “Rani has worked really hard to align the school lunch program with local seasonality. For example, in the last school year eggplant was being served in December.

This year, it’s in August. So that’s a huge structural shift that was made to enable local food purchase.”

Olson has also been working to cross-reference the 2016-17 school lunch menus with a list of seasonal local crops. She’s noted possible high-volume crops that could be substituted in reimbursable meals for each menu cycle—summer squash, green beans, and apples in October; radishes, orange, and winter squash in November. “The idea is that these are planted items,” says Olson—items planted specifically to fulfill an order for TUSD. But these crops weren’t ordered, so they weren’t planted, so they weren’t grown in sufficien volumes to fulfill a district-sized order. Ever optimistic, Olson is now looking ahead to December and January menus for preseason orders of broccoli, lemons, and Swiss chard.

“This is such a different way of working with food, particularly in a culture that’s been functioning for so long in the way that

food is just there, and so much of it that you don’t know what to do with it,” says Olson. She compares preseason ordering to a friend inviting you to a party on a Friday night six months from now. “You’re like, that sounds amazing! I don’t know—I’ll know more a month out, when I have a better idea of what’s going on in my life,” she says. “Meanwhile, the farmers are like, we can’t throw the party until you tell us right now. That is what’s difficul to communicate to these larger institutions.”

Jones also recognizes that the Food Bank is asking TUSD to form a fundamentally different relationship with a food vendor. “In the industry of big business food, the mode of operating is super transactional,” she says. “I’m going to send an email to our big food distributor that I need 10,000 pounds of potatoes tomorrow and it’s just done. And here we are saying, ‘Sit down with us! We want you to meet the farmers! Let’s have a potluck!’ We’re changing it from transactional to: What does it mean to truly be in a partnership?

“There are other districts that really benefit farmers and do this successfully with just three products,” says Jones. They could be local heritage foods, or nutritionally significant foods—or foods that kids just really like to eat. “I don’t think a huge district like TUSD would ever even go majority local,” she says. “They

“We’re not just a scoop and a plop on a tray ... We’re not educators in the classroom, but why can’t we enrich that education?”

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Sleeping Frog Farms is one of 15 local farms selling produce to TUSD through the Community Food Bank’s brokerage program.

could still do a dollar volume that would be significant for farmers and significant for students.”

The dollar volume that will be mutually beneficial both for southern Arizona farmers and TUSD is still being determined.

But the significance of making even a small amount of fresh, local food available in a school lunch is less about today’s lunch and more about the choices a kid will make about lunch for the rest of their life.

It’s a daunting task to redirect the inertia of an institution as large as TUSD. But ask anyone pressing into that force why they’ve stuck with it, and the answer is simple. Kids inherit the earth. Change a kid’s relationship to food, and you can change that kid’s relationship to their environment. Grow a garden and you can change the tone of a community. Change what’s on a cafeteria tray and you can inspire parents, teachers, and desk-bound administrators.

“The biggest thing is getting the community involved in the school again,” says Ann Kobritz, the principal of Lawrence Intermediate. Lawrence occupies a far-flung corner of TUSD, on the threshold of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe Reservation. Ninety percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunches; most of

the school’s 367 students are Pascua Yaqui or Hispanic. “The school used to be a cultural and community focal point,” Kobritz says. “Food is a mechanism to bring families back to the school.”

She hopes to revive a long overgrown school garden “to bring people back together—to watch the garden grow and take care of it together.”

“If students learn to be good stewards of the earth, they are going to be the ones who are going to make a decision about what the agricultural system looks like when they are adults,” says Sokol. “Hopefully they’ll do it with the right intention. We’re planting a seed for their future.”

Back in Ms. Ewy’s fourth grade classroom, the students slurp their Asian pears until only stems and seeds remain. Lizea has an idea about how she’s going to procure more pears for their next snack. She gathers up the remains of her pear and announces, “We should plant the seeds so that we can have more snacks. I’m going to put the seeds in a cup, and ask Ms. Ewy for soil, and then I’m going to take it home and grow it.”  Megan Kimble is the editor of Edible Baja Arizona and the author of Unprocessed: My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food.

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Benjamin Supply $25 off purchases of $150 or more.

Falora 13% off entire purchase

Native Seeds/SEARCH 10% off at retail store (15% off for NS/S members)

Boca Tacos Happy Hour prices all day

Gringo Grill + Cantina 10% off entire purchase

Book Stop 10% off entire purchase

Hamilton Distillers 20% off a Saturday Tour and Tasting *except Second Saturdays

Café Marcel 10% off entire purchase Cafe Desta 10% off entire purchase The Coronet 10% off entire purchase Downtown Kitchen & Cocktails 10% off food purchases (excludes Happy Hour)

Petroglyphs 20% off Mexican-style furniture Pop-Cycle 15% off entire purchase Primo 20% off food purchases

HF Coors-American made dinnerware Free soap bar lounge with $50 purchase, olive oil dipping dish with $100 purchase, hand-painted mug or Mimbreno mug with $250 purchase.

Qilosophy 15% off services

Incredible Snacks Buy 5 bags for $20, get 3 more for $10

Rincon Valley Farmers’ & Artisans’ Market 10% off gift certificate purchases

Jellywink Boutique 20% off selected items

Red’s Roasters $2 off one bag

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Tucson, continued

Bisbee

Silver City, New Mexico

Rustic Candle Company 15% off entire purchase

Bisbee Coffee Company 10% off all coffee drinks

Silver City Food Co-op 10% off one entrée

Savaya Coffee 12% off entire purchase

Bisbee Olive Oil 10% off storewide

Tapas Tree Grill 10% off entire purchase

Sidecar 13% off entire purchase

Bisbee’s Table 10% off entrées

Tubac & Tumacacori

Street Taco and Beer Co. 10% off your entire purchase (*Not valid during happy hour)

Contessa’s Cantina 10% off one entrée

Trocadero de Tubac 15% off entire purchase

Old Bisbee Roasters $2 off one pound of coffee

Tubac Jacks Restaurant & Saloon 15% off entire purchase

Susan Sensational Scents 20% off a purchase of $50 or more Tap & Bottle 10% off entire purchase Three Wells Distilling Co. 50% off your first cocktail Tucson Hop Shop $1 off your first draft beer Tucson Village Farm 20% off produce at our U-pick Market!

Yikes Toys!

15% off entire purchase (not including artworks or jewelry)

Santiago’s Restaurant 10% off entrées Screaming Banshee Pizza & Wine Bar 15% off entire purchase Tavolo 10% off entrées

Oracle Arizona Zipline Adventures 20% off admission Rammed Earth Solar Homes Free tour of a passive solar rammed earth home, including an 8,000 sq. ft. vegetable garden and fruit orchard

Tumacacori Mesquite Sawmill 10% off entire purchase Untamed Confections 10% off entire purchase

Sonoita, Patagonia, & Elgin Dos Cabezas Wineworks 10% off bottle purchases Mesquite Grove Gallery 10% off entire purchase Sonoita Vineyards 15% off 3 bottles

Sue & Jerry’s Trading Post 10% off one item

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Somewhere

The power of place-based labeling to support a local food economy.

By Jonathan Mabry and Gary Nabhan Logo designs by Lyric Peate

I

with shelves stocked full of food products labeled as made in Baja Arizona. There’d be packages of velvet mesquite pod flou , beer made with White Sonora wheat, whiskey made with barley malted over mesquite wood smoke, sourdough bread made with heritage grains, olive oil smoked with pecan wood, and soup mixes with dried cholla cactus flower buds and tepary beans.

A compilation of currently available artisanal products made with native plants and desert heirlooms shows an impressive list of options that few Tucsonans have fully explored—more than 100 artisanal products made by more than 40 producers, some of them indigenous food products made in Baja Arizona’s indigenous communities the same way they have been for thousands of years.

Place-based food labeling would empower consumers to support local food producers in ways that rebuild our food economy while allowing more income to remain in our community. It would help construct a local food system based on a shortened, m agine walk ing into a m ar k et

transparent food chain with more alternatives to the dominant food system. And it would strengthen our sense of place and identity by encouraging recovery of traditional food knowledge and reinvention of our farming and food traditions.

Research has shown that local food economies that successfully compete against the industrial, globalized dominant food system tend to reconnect local producers and consumers, and to protect and promote traditional ingredients and production techniques in a specific region. An important lesson from communities that have successfully rebuilt their local food systems is that relocalizing food involves relocalizing knowledge. Local traditional knowledge of how to grow food and local food culture has been largely lost in the wake of globalization of the food economy. This knowledge can be recovered and rebuilt through the expertise of the keepers of artisanal food traditions, their oral histories, innovative contributions of new producers, and sharing knowledge of food provenance, quality, and preparation through face-to-face interactions between producers and consumers.

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In Baja Arizona, our local food system has been largely disrupted since the railroad arrived in 1880, connecting us to the global industrial economy and its nonlocal products. But we are rediscovering that many of our traditional food ingredients, food production techniques, and food knowledge and culture have survived despite the pressures of the dominant food system.

Parma, Italy, never lost those local connections, and has become an international success story of how to build a local food economy through place-based branding of food quality and authenticity through the second pattern. Parma was also designated a UNESCO City of Gastronomy in December of 2015, and six Tucsonans traveled there last spring to learn from a city with a highly developed local food economy that flourishes in the face of competition from the global food system.

Parma has built its economy on the reputation of its food quality and authenticity through place-based branding of its Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, Prosciutto di Parma ham, and other traditional food products. Italy is a leader in the European

Union (EU) with 269 Geographical Indications (GIs) of food origins—the most for any EU nation. Italy’s GI-classified agricultural and food products are diverse and include varieties and versions of extra-virgin olive oils, aged balsamic vinegars, cheeses, lemons, tomatoes, grains, dry-cured hams, beef from indigenous cattle breeds, and others—each produced in an identified zone.

With 43, Parma is Italy’s epicenter of food GIs. Established in 1963 in Europe based on existing national systems of denominations of origin, GIs are place-based food labels that define the geographical origins, and traditional cultural identities, of agricultural and food products. Based on the concept of terroir, with both environmental and cultural dimensions, they seek to recognize and promote traditional local ingredients and artisanal techniques that offer a distinctive “taste of place.” They have been found to simultaneously support rural economic development and conserve valuable crop and livestock varieties and the traditional knowledge associated with them.

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GIs protect agricultural and food products as collective intellectual properties and help distinguish distinctive “foods from somewhere” from the undifferentiated and placeless “foods from anywhere” produced by the global food system. This differentiatio gives them a competitive advantage—and the region supplying them a monopoly.

And this adds value. A 2013 study found that European Union GIs were worth about $71 billion worldwide, and that GI products on average were sold at 2.23 times the price of similar, non-GI products.

“The economic value added by certification labeling passes down the food chain to the producers and ensures the survival of traditional foods and food knowledge that UNESCO calls ‘intangible cultural heritage,’” says Giuseppe Biagini, a part-time Tucson resident and president of the U.S. chapter of the International Traditional Knowledge Institute.

Although 90 percent of GIs are in the EU, developing countries are adopting place-based food labeling to replace the price-support role of agricultural subsidies, foster rural development, and protect local products and traditions. Mexico was the first non-European country to adopt the approach, creating a GI system for tequila in 1974. Brazil, Peru, South Korea, and India passed GI legislation in the 1990s, and Colombia and Chile followed suit in the 2000s.

With all of the apparent benefits, why don’t we have similar types of geographic labeling closer to home? GIs have become a topic of dispute between the EU and the United States in the World Trade Organization, with the EU seeking to have them be legally protected as collective intellectual properties. U.S. resistance is widely perceived to be the result of lobbying by major U.S. food corporations and food industry associations that prefer brands to be privately held and trademarked as properties that can be bought and sold.

While the U.S. food industry does not want to recognize place-based brands, several states, cities, and tribes have developed ecolabeling as a means to the same end. Idaho potatoes, Florida citrus, Vidalia onions, Hatch chiles, Vermont maple syrup, Olathe sweet corn, and Chimayo chili powder are examples of this trend in the United States to link specific foods to culture and locality in the marketplace.

These trademarked labels indicate regions of production of specific crop varieties, but they differ from European GIs because they do not imply any specific methods of production or standards for quality. Kentucky Bourbon—made in the same way since the late 1700s, and with standards of production set by federal legislation in 1964—more closely resembles a GI-protected product.

In Arizona, the underfunded and poorly recognized Arizona Grown label indicates foods grown anywhere in the state; the Grand

Canyon Sweet Onion trademark promotes sweet onions grown across the state; and the Canyon Country Fresh label is used by two dozen restaurants and markets in the northern part of the state to help consumers recognize locally sourced foods. The Sonoita American Viticultural Area (AVA) was established in 1984, and the Willcox AVA was designated in 2016. These labels specify that at least 85 percent of the grapes were grown in the named region.

There are many other opportunities to use this proven approach to benefit our local food economy and food culture. In a 2005 book, Linking Arizona’s Sense of Place to a Sense of Taste: Marketing the Heritage Value of Arizona’s Place-Based Foods, former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano endorsed the use of collective trademarks, certification marks, brands, and ecolabels to increase the value of Arizona’s place-based heritage foods. In southern Arizona, the nonprofit Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Alliance developed a brand called Santa Cruz Valley Harvest that could be used to mark food packages, grocery displays, farm stands, and restaurant menu items that feature traditional native crops and other locally grown foods tied to the culture and history of the watershed of the Santa Cruz River in eastern Pima County and Santa Cruz County.

Across the United States, and in our own backyard, farmers and artisanal food producers are beginning to recognize the worth of increasing awareness of the connections between place, people, knowledge, and cultural identity through place-based food labeling. Producers and artisans have an opportunity to promote their distinctive place-based food products as the essential tastes of our City of Gastronomy. An initiative to create a labeling system could apply best practices from models such as Parma and existing GI-labeling systems, and adapt them to our particular place through conversations among producers, consumers, chefs, markets, and other community members. This would be just the kind of initiative for sustainable economic development that the UNESCO designation was intended to inspire.

To see a list of more than 100 artisanal food products made with local ingredients, and to submit additional products, visit EdibleBajaArizona.com.  Jonathan Mabry is Historic Preservation Office and archaeologist for the City of Tucson. He manages heritage-based economic development for the city, and coordinates Tucson’s UNESCO City of Gastronomy designation. Gary Nabhan has worked on community food solutions for a quarter century, and is developing an ethnobotanical nursery and a canning kitchen for shrub beverages in Patagonia. He initiated the City of Tucson’s application to UNESCO. Visit GaryNabhan.com to access his most recent book, Ethnobiology for the Future.

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Artisanal Foods and Beverages Made in the Tucson Region with Unique Local Ingredients

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his list includes more than 100 regional products processed with nonindustrial techniques by more than 40 Native-American, Mexican-American, and Anglo-American artisans. Products processed with indigenous traditional techniques are indicated with an asterisk (*).

Company or Organization Flours BKW Farms Cheri’s Desert Harvest Desert Harvesters Flor de Mayo Arts The Mesquitery Native Seeds/SEARCH San Xavier Co-op Tortilleria Arevalo

The products on this list are available for purchase at places of production, stores, farmers’ markets, and online.

Retail shops where you can find a sele tion of these items include Five Points Market & Restaurant, Food Conspiracy Co-op, the Native Seeds/SEARCH store, Plaza Liquors, San Xavier Co-op

Store, Time Market, and others.

This list is not comprehensive as there are constantly new products and producers. Visit ediblebajaarizona. com for an up-to-date list. Submit additional artisanal products for listing to info@ediblebajaarizona.com.

Locally Sourced Products

Ingredients

White Sonora wheat Flour Old Pueblo Pecan Bread Mix Native Arizona Mesquite Flour Heirloom Organic Whole Kernel Mesquite Flour Native Arizona and Sonora Mesquite Flour Apple Mesquite Muffin Mix, Golden Mesquite Cookie Mix, Native Arizona Mesquite Flour Mesquite Cookie Mix, Mesquite Flour, Pima Club Wheat Flour

White Sonora wheat flou White flour with southern Arizona pecan Velvet mesquite pod flou Velvet mesquite pod flou Velvet and honey mesquite pod flou

Local Mesquite Pancake Mix

Mesquite pod flou Velvet mesquite pod flou , Pima club wheat flou Velvet mesquite pod flou , sweet Sonoran flou , and other ingredients

Beers, Wines, and Spirits

Pueblo Vida Brewing Company Sentinel Peak Brewing Company Sonoita Vineyards

How About Them Apples Gose, Gose On and Get It, Sour of Discord: 8th Circle of Hell La Morena, Prickly Pear Wheat Beer, Smoke & Irons Scottish Ale La Rosa de Catalina Cream Ale, Mesquite Agave Ale, Mesquite Smoked Pecan Dopplebock, Half Moon Dunkel Weisse, Scout Porter Ojo Blanco Mesquite-smoked Whiskey del Bac Figgy-Piggy Fig Pumpernickel, Rye Dark Lager, Fire & Flavor Green Chile Ale, La Llorena Mole Stout, Masa Cheve Green Corn Masa Lager, Nutty Lu Mesquite Brown Ale, Saison de Jukhi Sonoran Saison Nelson IPA, Prickly Pear Pale Ale Heatwave Hefeweizen Angel Wings Mission grape wine

Three Wells Distilling Company

Mt. Lemmon Gin

1912 Brewing Company Borderlands Brewery Catalina Brewing Company Hamilton Distillers Iron John’s Brewing

Mesquite-smoked malt, White Sonora wheat, pomegranate Toasted southern Arizona pecans, prickly pear juice Prickly pear juice, Velvet mesquite pod meal, agave nectar, southern Arizona pecans, White Sonora wheat, mesquite-smoked malt Barley malted over mesquite wood Local figs and pumpernickel bread from Beyond Brea , mesquite-smoked mild Anaheim chiles, traditional mole and dried chiles, Lerua’s green corn masa, cobs, husk and silk, velvet mesquite pods, southern Arizona pecans, Emory oak bellotas, creosote blossoms, white sage Local sage, prickly pear juice White Sonora wheat Mission grapes Alligator juniper berries, juniper tips, creosote bush, chiltepin peppers

Breads Tortilleria Arevalo Barrio Bread Company Coffees, Teas, & Juices

Desert Tortoise Botanicals

EXO Roast Company Iskashitaa Refugee Network

Gluten-free Mesquite Tortillas, Mesquite Pecan Bread Local grain sourdough breads

Autumn-Winter Tea, Sonoran Cocoa, Sonoran Spring Tea Sonoran Summer Tea, Wild Mint Medley, Desert Flower Tea, Prickly Pear Juice Concentrate Chiltepin Cold-Brewed Coffee, Mesquite Cold-Brewed Coffee Prickly Pear Juice

Mesquite pod flou , southern Arizona pecans Local grains Yerba mansa, holy basil, elderberries, Velvet mesquite meal, Santa Cruz mild chile powder, desert lavender, desert willow flowers, estafiate prickly pear flowers, ocotillo flowers, elder flower wild mint, desert willow flowers, ocotillo flowers hollyhock flowers, prickly pear fruit juic Wild native chiles, Velvet mesquite pod syrup Prickly pear fruit juice

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Native Seeds/SEARCH San Xavier Co-op Fermented & Pickled Foods San Xavier Co-op Fermented Tea Company Bajo Tierra Kitchen Meats Papa Mikes Homemade Jerky Sausage Shop Meat Market and Deli Oils & Vinegars Iskashitaa Refugee Network Local Southwest Tubac Olive Oil Sauces, Salsas, & Relishes Bean Tree Farm Chiltepica/Huemac & Gloria Badilla Iskashitaa Refugee Network

Desert Mint White Sage Tea, Pomegranate Cranberry Tea, Prickly Pear Cactus Tea, Saguaro Blossom Cactus Tea Roasted Bahi Cu:wi Wheat Flour for pinole* Pickled Cholla Buds (regular and hot) Prickly Pear Kombucha Sonoran Kimchi Chiltepin Homemade Jerky, Mesquite Homemade Jerky Dragoon Beer Brats, Whiskey del Bac Fennel Sausage Local Date Vinegar Mesquite-Smoked Olive Oil, Pecan Smoked Olive Oil, Prickly Pear Balsamic Vinegar Mesquite-Smoked Olive Oil Barrel Cactus Chutney, Mesquite Barbecue Sauce, Mesquite Chocolate Chile Sauce, Mesquite Mustard, Prickly Pear Barbecue Sauce, Prickly Pear Cactus Mustard Chilttepica Salsa Balsamic Fig Onion Chutney

White sage, peppermint, Pomegranate, Prickly pear cactus fruit, Saguaro cactus fruit and blossoms Pima club wheat for pinole Pickled cholla buds, jalapeños Prickly pear fruit juice Chiltepin peppers, cilantro, and other ingredients Chiltepin peppers, mesquite liquid smoke Dragoon Session Ale, Whiskey del Bac Local dates Extra virgin olive oil, mesquite wood, southern Arizona pecans, prickly pear fruit juice, aged balsamic vinegar Extra virgin olive oil smoked with mesquite wood

Barrel cactus fruit, Velvet mesquite, chile, velvet mesquite pods, prickly pear fruit Wild chiltepin peppers with other ingredients Local figs, barrel cactus fruit, locally roasted garlic, date vinegar, wild chiltepin peppers Prickly pear fruit and chipotle sauce

We B Jamin Soups, Beans, & Porridges Bean Tree Farm

Prickly Pear Chipotle Sauce

Arizona Cactus Ranch

Pomegranate Syrup, Prickly Pear Cactus Nectar Pomegranate arils, concentrate of prickly pear fruit juice

Tepary Bean Tempeh Bo:sol Corn, Pima Club Wheat, Kernels San Xavier Co-op with Tepary Beans*, Ciolim Soup Mix, Ga’iwsa Roasted 60-Day Corn* Syrups, Jellies, Marmalades, & Candies

Cheri’s Desert Harvest Southwest Bee Supply Iskashitaa Refugee Network The Mesquitery Tohono O’odham Community Action We B Jamin

Agave Nectar, Prickly Pear Cactus Syrup, Candy, and Jelly Agave Nectar Pomegranate Syrup, Cactus Fruit Chips, Calamondin Lime and Pomegranate Marmalade, Candied Barrel Cactus Fruit Pixie Sticks: Mexican Candy, Beer Salt, PricklyPear, and Calamondin Lime Marmalade Prickly Pear Cactus Popsicles Saguaro Cactus Syrup Prickly Pear Cactus Syrup and Jelly, Mesquite Syrup, Pomegranate Jelly, Tequila Sunrise Marmalade

Varietal Raw Honeys Dos Manos Apiaries; True Love Honey; t.o.n.e. nutrition; Malcolm’s Honey Company Dos Manos Apiaries t.o.n.e. nutrition; Lusby Apiaries; Southwest Bee Supply; Cheri’s Desert Harvest Malcolm’s Honey Company Cheri’s Desert Harvest; Dos Manos Apiaries; Lusby Apiaries; Southwest Bee Supply; ReZoNation Farm; Malcolm’s Honey Company; San Xavier Co-op; t.o.n.e. nutrition; True Love Honey; Tucson Honey Company Wild Foods San Xavier Co-op Chiolim Dried Cholla Buds* Chiolim Dried Tohono O’odham Flor de Mayo Arts Cholla Cactus Buds*

Fermented and processed tepary beans Posole corn, Pima Club wheat kernels, red tepary beans, dried cholla buds, whole wheat Pima wheat grains, Pima lima beans

Organic agave nectar, prickly pear fruit juice Agave nectar Pomegranate arils, cactus fruit, Calamondin limes and pomegranates, barrel cactus fruit, local citrus juice, dried chiles/chiltepins, prickly pear Prickly pear fruit juice Syrup from saguaro cactus fruit Prickly pear fruit juice, syrup flavored with mesquite, jelly from pomegranate juice, tequila marmalade over prickly pear fruit jelly Honey from Catclaw acacia blossoms Honey from Creosote bush blossoms Honey from desert wildflower Honey from Ironwood blossoms Honey from Velvet mesquite blossoms

Dried Cholla cactus flower bud Dried Cholla cactus flower bud

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EDIBLE INK

by Bambi Edlund

Beets were used by the ancient Romans as an aphrodisiac. In fact, the nitrates in beets increase blood flow, and they contain high amounts of boron, which aids in the production of human sex hormones.

Beet leaves were used by Hippocrates to bind and dress wounds.

“The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity.

Beets are deadly serious.”

Beet juice can be used to determine the acidity or alkalinity of a solution.

The juice turns pink in an acid solution, and yellow in an alkaline solution.

—Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

The world’s largest beet was grown in 2005 in the Netherlands.

It weighed nearly 157 pounds.

Sliced pickled beets are often served on burgers in Australia.

Bumper beet crop?

Make beet chips!

Thinly slice beets using a mandoline.

Toss with olive oil, place on a non-stick baking sheet, and put in the oven immediately. Bake at 300ºF for about 20 minutes, then reduce to 225ºF and bake for about an hour. Remove from the oven just as they begin to brown to avoid overcooking.

Toss with sea salt and serve.

Beets are said to have grown in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Tractor tires are often filled with liquid to increase traction and allow them to pull heavier loads. Beet juice is commonly used, as it weighs about 30% more than water, and resists freezing to about -37ºC. Beet juice is also added to rock salt for de-icing roads—it can melt to lower temperatures, and its stickiness helps keep the salt on the road. edlundink.com

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EDITORIAL

Barrio Sustainability Giving back to the ’hood and to the earth.

By Nelda Ruiz and Claudio Rodriguez Photography by Dominic AZ Bonuccelli

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Claudio Rodriguez (left) and Nelda Ruiz plant seedlings in a Barrio Sustainability Project demonstration garden.

S

eeds represent hope , survival, and resistance. They repre-

sent a healthier future for our barrios, for our pueblo. Seeds affir that nothing is too small to make significant change.

They teach us that nurturing something as small as a bean in a pod can lead to the growth of a great mesquite tree: a habitat for many forms of life and the source of future seeds. Seeds teach us that the harvest can nurture a whole community, as well as the next generations.

Since 2001, Tierra y Libertad Organization (TYLO) has invested in generations of leaders who work within their communities to create more sustainable barrios to fight poverty, violence, deportation, poor health, and gentrification. TYLO strives to save, plant, and nurture seeds for healthy, empowered barrios, self-determination, and autonomy for our people. Since Tucson was designated a UNESCO City of Gastronomy last year, that work has become more complex and more important.

This is a story about our contribution to the food justice fight on the south side of Tucson.

In 2001, a group of educators, health workers, activists, and artists came together to organize, protect, and build our communities in Barrio Chicano at Sixth Avenue and Ajo. The need to spread community-organizing practices stemmed from the vast economic, health, and political injustices faced by our people in the barrios. Today’s educational systems do not teach our youth and young adults how to heal and build our communities, so we responded to create a healthier narrative for our people.

TYLO came from many manifestations and programs. The first was a health education program named Omeyocan (a Mexican ideology of a place based in duality) Youth Empowerment and Sexuality. Youth from this program formed Movement Achieving Youth Activism (MAYA) to create more autonomy and build a stronger youth movement. In 2005, the group became Tierra y Libertad Organization. This transformation came about by responding to the community’s needs and the urgency for community-based solutions with a strong focus on sustainability and migrant rights.

From there, TYLO created a summer youth program called Freedom Summer where we trained more than 150 youth in community organizing, health, and sustainability in the barrio.

We tackled issues of border militarization and the rapid increase of deportations during a swell of mass anti-immigrant sentiment that culminated in the proposal of federal legislation that criminalized not only the entry of undocumented people into the United States but also the assistance given to any undocumented individual by U.S. citizens. TYLO members used their skills in community organizing to help focus a message of resistance; over time, that message developed into community action. We partnered with other organizations to create the We Reject Racism Campaign, as well as Know Your Rights workshops given by barrio promotoras (community health promoters), and established a protection network known as Comite del Barrio, composed of neighborhood moms.

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A mural on Fourth Ave. and 29th Street brings beauty to the streets of South Tucson.

In 2006, members wanted to create a model that could be replicated in other barrios by addressing the needs of the community. These needs included increasing access to aff rdable, healthy foods; establishing programs for neighborhood kids; planting trees for shade; food; and habitat, capturing positive images that truly reflected our communities and building a place where value was given to its residents.

Based out of Barrio Chicano, TYLO members were able to create a safe space for barrio residents by investing in and buying property in the ’hood. The space was the beginning of new growth, a new seed planted. This home in the barrio was converted from a brothel to a living space and a demonstration site where indigenous land management practices were retaught to the community through regenerative food systems. Barrio Sustainability Project emerged from this effort. Barrio Sustainability was our first step to achieving autonomy in an urban setting that addressed and taught environmental justice, social justice, and economic development.

Barrio Sustainability began to break down barriers and create a bridge for communities that have often been ignored to gain access to quality services and resources. Through Barrio Sustainability, we disproved the notion that poor people of color do not care about the environment, and that “green living” is a “white people thing.” We reclaimed our ancestral practices, plot-by-plot, block-by-block, starting in one ’hood and expanding into others. Reclaiming our ancestral practices came with the responsibility to share our skills and empower others in our barrio. We introduced and trained more than 50 youth and adults in intensive Barrio Sustainability practices through water-harvesting, seed saving, composting, medicinal herbs, food production, and political education.

The seeds we had planted were growing and we began to receive recognition. Our work and intentions were now “validated” to the point that people and politicians uninvolved in the south side were now offering us a seat at the table. By creating these

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spaces we facilitated the process for other organizations to create equitable partnerships. Barrio Sustainability is just like a seed, with different phases and transformations, and with the ability to be replicated in many places.

After years of work in Barrio Chicano, Barrio Sustainability began replicating in other barrios around Tucson. We began to create satellite groups in the barrios we lived in, creating regenerative food systems all over the south side. Today, we face the next chapter in our journey—gentrification, a method of modern colonization.

In December, Tucson was designated a UNESCO City of Gastronomy, making our communities even more susceptible to gentrification. Tucson’s downtown expansion will soon expand deeper into South Tucson; indeed, it has already begun. This expansion creates an opportunity for some but a misfortune for many more. When higher-income people invest in the barrio by purchasing low-value property, they inflate property values, which

often leads to urban renewal projects that in turn lead to rent and tax increases, making it unaffordable for residents to live there. Whatever the reason, one outcome of this movement is the displacement of low-income people and erasure of the history and culture of a neighborhood, continuing the same destructive cycle of the last 500 years wherein Mexicano/Chicano families lose their land.

We hope the City of Gastronomy designation brings creation into our barrio instead of out of it. What do we hope to create? A hub for business incubators, for one, and related opportunities for people who do not currently have the resources to start a business. Those could include training programs about how to start a food business or lessons on safe food handling and how to obtain important licenses. Most important, we seek admission and support for the actual people preparing and picking foods and crops, and an acknowledgment of Mexican and Tohono O’odham people for preserving their foods, and recognition of the displacement that has happened

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Rodriguez and Ruiz harvest peppers and squash from a Barrio Sustainability Project demonstration garden.

here, on these lands that we call home. The designation can bring many opportunities if navigated properly by organizing at the community level. It risks being exclusive when so many people in our community have no idea what the designation is or that there was even one to begin with.

As a community, we propose to fight gentrification by building our own power through education, beautifying our ‘hoods, and producing our own foods, in order to have ownership of our lives. We cannot, and will not, wait for someone to save us. Our communities were systemically designed so that many resources are inaccessible. We live in someone else’s model and through our work we challenge these social constructs to create a reality we want to see and leave for our future generations. As warriors for Mother Earth we will continue to share our knowledge; our work will continue to grow and expand in many different manifestations.

We will continue planting seeds wherever we go.

For us, Barrio Sustainability is a way to build communities, to reconnect with abuelas, to connect to the stories that the barrio holds, and to spotlight the inequalities that have been experienced, from the militarization of our barrios to the effects of systemic injustices, to the beautiful seeds that have been passed down from our ancestors. Our work is a seed that belongs to everyone; it is always growing, connecting the past, present, and future.  Visit Facebook.com/TierraYLibertadOrganization.

Nelda Ruiz is a South Tucson resident originally from Ambos Nogales.

She started organizing with Tierra y Libertad in 2010 and continues to cause desmadre (ruckus). Claudio Rodriguez is a South Tucson resident from Sonora, Mexico. He’s been organizing with Tierra y Libertad since 2007. An ex-gang member, Claudio found himself while working with Mother Earth; he now farms and is an educator who shares his skills working with Tucson youth.

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BUZZ

A Tale of Two Harvests For Kent Callaghan, grape harvest season means hard labor and worried weather watching.

Text and photography by Seth Cothrun

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n L abor D ay in 2015, I arrive at Kent Callaghan’s winery, Callaghan Vineyards, in Elgin. I see Kent unloading six large, half-ton white plastic bins off a trailer and onto the crush pad, employing a pallet jack and brute strength. He is working by himself—pretty common for him and fellow Arizona winemakers. Callaghan notices me, and waves as he wrestles another bin off the trailer. Without looking up he says, “This place is f›››››g insane.” He does not elaborate.

Once he gets the bin off the truck, he shakes my hand and expands on his statement. Elgin had been pounded the last few days with heavy rains. Indeed, harvest season for the last couple years has seen heavy rains as tropical storms and hurricanes out of the Gulf of California have pounded the region. These deluges complicate harvest. You don’t want to pick grapes right after a rain as they will soak up some of that rain and dilute the flavo .

However, the longer you delay picking, the more susceptible the grapes become: to mold, or being eaten by birds, or whole clusters getting destroyed by hail.

After Callaghan has the bins off the trailer, he uses the forklift to lift one to about eye-level and place it alongside a stack of wooden pallets. On the other side, he has an empty bin. Taking a large pitchfork, he climbs on top of the stack and begins bailing grape clusters out of the half-ton bin into the empty bin. When the second bin is one-third full, he reconfigures his set up with another full bin and bails out one-third of those grapes into the once empty bin. He is taking grapes from multiple bins and reconfiguring them to create a sample more representative of the vineyard. Grapes are grown and picked in linear rows and therefore can vary in quality and ripeness depending on where they are in the row or vineyard. This mixing is important when you are fermenting in small batches.

Once he has his first mix-bin full, he moves it to his destemmer, hops on top of another stack of pallets, and heaves 1,000 pounds of grapes with his pitchfork into the destemmer. Over

the next six hours, Callaghan repeats this process until all 6,000 pounds of grapes have been processed.

As Callaghan moves to pick up the last bin of destemmed grapes with the forklift, I hear the sound of running water.

It starts as a trickle and then becomes steady. I look around to see where it is coming from and notice grape juice and grapes running out of a growing crack on the bottom of the bin Callaghan has just lifted. I yell to him and he jumps off the vehicle and runs to drag an empty bin, shoves it flush with the leaking bin, and anxiously begins bailing the grapes out with a five-gallon bucket as juice (read: money) leaks onto the ground.

Monsoon clouds forming over the Santa Rita Mountains in the late afternoon begin their march across the Sonoita Plain. We hear occasional rumbles of thunder. The day has begun to wane and it begins to sprinkle. Callaghan covers the bins hurriedly to keep them from collecting rain. Over the next week or two, the grapes will ferment in these bins.

A couple weeks later, I return and watch Callaghan and his youngest daughter, Claire, press the wine. They load the grape must using five-gallon buckets into a fine mesh cage that has a bladder in the middle filled with compressed air. As the bladder expands, it presses the grapes against the mesh and separates the solids from the wine. After the wine is pressed and pumped into a holding tank, Callaghan removes the grates covering the opening and rotates the press to dump the pomace on the floor and shovel it back into a bin.

The wines will sit in holding tanks to settle before they’ll be pumped into barrels to sit for the next 10 to 24 months before they are blended and bottled. All told, the 2015 harvest ran just over four months and Kent processed around 50 tons of grapes, which eventually yielded 3,000 cases of wine.

Kent Callaghan working in the vineyard at the start of 2016 harvest.

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(Clockwise from top) Callaghan Vineyards following heavy rains over Labor Day weekend in 2015. Kent Callaghan hurries to cover bins as rain approaches. Callaghan’s harvest notes will influence the next round of winemaking.

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t ’ s L abor D ay of 2016. I am back at Callaghan Vineyards as another grape harvest has commenced. When I arrive, Callaghan is again hard at work, processing the first of the whites that had been picked in late August. He is once again weather watching as Hurricane Newton marches north through the Gulf of California and is worried about the forecast three to five inches of rain. I ask him about the harvest so far. “So far, so good,” he says. “We’ve had about half the rain we had last year, which makes everything a little easier. Definitely less rot pressure this year and no hail—yet. The [June] heat really tested the vines early, which is good. This made for tougher skins and earlier cessation of vegetative growth.”

Callaghan is excited by the growing focus on locally produced food and drink. Arizona wine is the ultimate local product. Wine grapes are 100 percent dependent on the place they are grown; more than just about any beverage, wine is a direct reflection of

the environment in which it was grown: the water, the soil, the weather, the terrain, and the tradition in which it was made. In many ways, Callaghan has defined that tradition. In the Arizona wine industry, he has been the mad scientist who planted vines and then ripped them out, tested new methods, helped out the newbies, and continued to refine his process His goal, as a winemaker, is to grow grapes that he does not have to mess with; he wants the vineyard to be where he tinkers, not the winery. Over the last 26 years, he has continually tinkered with what he is growing. He has also focused on diversification: “Something is going to get f›››››g every year. It could be heat, or a late freeze, or birds, or hail, or rot, but it is going to happen.”

Through diversification, he has been able to hedge his risk.

Through constant research and exploration of other regions, he has figured out inventive ways to blend varietals that are atypical of other wine-growing regions.

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(Clockwise from top left) Grape pomace that remains after pressing. After pressing the grapes, Callaghan tidies up, moving bins back outside for another round of grapes. Before pressing, Callaghan samples the grapes with a refractometer. After fermentation, the wine is pressed through a fine mesh cage to separate solids from the wine. Callaghan slowly fills the bladder press with air, and secures the hatch on the bladder press.

Over the past year, Callaghan has also been involved in launching the Arizona Vignerons Alliance (AVA), a group of winemakers working to promote authenticity and ensure quality of Arizona wines. Winemakers can submit wines for AVA-inclusion. If the wine meets the AVA’s criteria, it allows the producer to use the AVA designation on a particular wine from that vintage. “The Arizona Vignerons Alliance data collection”—on soil composition, acre yield, pH, and brix at harvest, among other factors—“on wines submitted for inclusion will encourage growers to plant things that make sense for Arizona and steer people away from what is marketable,” he says. For example, Arizona is not well suited for pino noir, even if pino noir is extremely popular with drinkers. Part of the work of the AVA is to shift the drinker’s perception. “I hope we can get

people to focus on wines, maybe three-to-four varietals, that are high-quality and help move Arizona’s wine industry forward. I think we need to explore atypical blends, that are not seen in other wine growing regions.”

What excites Callaghan about Arizona wine, and making wine in general, is a continuous search for the right varieties that are best suited for our region. He turns to me and says, “We should head in for some research. You know anything about Grüner Veltliner?”  Callaghan Vineyards. 336 Elgin Road, Elgin. 520.455.5322.

Callaghan Vineyards.com.

Seth Cothrun, a native of the Sonoran Desert, has documented his nomadic wonderings for more than 20 years. His photos can be found on Instagram @sethcothrun and at SethCothrun.com.

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BUZZ

Border Brew In 2015, Nogales Brewing Company became the first craft brewery operating in Nogales, Sonora.

By John Washington | Photography by Bill Steen

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ik e ev erybody , the people of Nogales, Sonora, love their beer. What they love about it, however, isn’t exactly obvious. Besides being cold and wet, what’s so great—really—about a can of Tecate? In the summer it’s nice to hold one against your temple, and they certainly help wash down tacos. Cracking a can, clinking a cold one with your best bud—these rituals are not dependent on quality or taste, and as long as the beer is cold, as long as it chalks up an ABV of at least 3-point-something, and as long as there are no better-tasting alternatives, people are going to keep downing it.

In the last 10 years, craft breweries in Mexico—Cucapá in Tijuana, Tempus in Guadalajara, and Minerva in Mexico City, to name a few—have been playing catch-up to the hoppy popularity achieved by craft brewers in the United States. In the Mexican state of Baja California, Mexicali is home to over a dozen craft brewers, Ensenada has the delicious Agua Mala (Dirty Water), and Tijuana has Border Psycho Brewing. Sonora, however, has hardly dipped a toe into the craft brew kettle, and border boomtown Nogales boasted nary a single microbrewery—that is, until 2015, when two young brew maestros opened Nogales Brewing Company.

Andres Vega Romero and Rene Garayzar Chavez, 24 and 25 respectively, have been friends since high school. In July of 2015, they became business partners, opening the brew company in a small offic space next to the venerable Trocadero restaurant in Nogales, Sonora. Despite their youth, they both have a concentrated calm to them, what I’ve come to recognize as a “brewer’s focus.” Vega is gym-chiseled, with paint-black hair

and a strong jaw. He answers questions slowly, carefully, with an about-to-chuckle smile to his face, as if still surprised he’s actually making a living by brewing beer. Garayzar, preternaturally gray, with tufts of hair poking out of his fitted, backwards-facing, Nogales Brew baseball cap, has all the trappings of a diplomat: serious, amiable, and constantly turning the conversation back to the business at hand, which is beer. I caught them on a hot day this summer while they were washing out a brew tank with sudsy water, splashing about and sweating.

Though still a relatively tiny operation (they’re more nano than micro), Vega and Garayzar are Sonoran trailblazers hacking into the wilderness of large Mexican domestics. A year in, and they are already finding that they can’t make their beer fast enough to meet demand. There is a nascent foodie movement in Nogales (a host of hip restaurants are opening up on or around Avenida Hermosillo, including La Llorona and Taco Bar, as well as a coming-soon food truck park). These restaurants, and their more food-conscious patrons, are looking to drink something more interesting than Corona or Tecate. The young people of Nogales “want to try different things,” Faviola Flores, a server at La Llorona, told me.

Rene Garayzar Chavez (left) and Andres Vega Romero raise a beer to the statue known as Mono Bichi. In the ‘60s, the Spanish sculptor Alfredo Just Gimeno was brought to Nogales to create the sculpture. The man represents an indigenous individual, presumably Yaqui, who is killing a beast that represents ignorance. A Nogales Brewing beer is named for Mono Bichi, and features the figure on the label.

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Andrea Valeria Coco (left) manages online marketing and publicity. Vega (center) and Garayzar (right) welcome walk-in visitors to the brewery.

But despite a growing desire for something besides the typical Sonoran flavors, Nogalenses simply aren’t used to drinking craft beer. Grupo Modelo (which brews Corona) and Grupo Moctezuma (which brews Tecate) have an effective duopoly on hangovers in Mexico.

I went into a Modelorama, a beer store on Calle International, to talk to Ana Laura (she declined to give her last name) who runs the shop along with her husband. Modeloramas are one of a number of brand-specific beer stores in Mexico owned by one of the major beer companies, which pay the rent and the bills while shop managers sell beer in return for a small cut of the profits, usually between 8 and 15 percent. The managers typically also sell abarrotes, or convenience store items and snacks. A young girl came in to buy a three-pack of diapers; on her heels were two young sisters trading in a liter Coca-Cola bottle. Ana Laura told me that about 80 percent of her beer sales are Bud Light, which actually operates a brewery in Mexico, which means that when thirsty Nogalenses go for the foreign label—Bud Light—many of them are drinking a Mexican domestic.

The next customers were two men who asked for “dos botes,” or two cans. Without hesitation, Ana Laura went straight to the

fridge and grabbed two Bud Lights. The brief moment helped me grasp the challenges facing Nogales Brewing Company: when “a bote” is standardly, and safely, assumed to be a Bud Light, and you’re trying to sell a complex, zesty, 6.5 percent ABV pale ale, as Vega and Garayzar are trying to do, you have your work cut out for you.

But part of the problem is logistical as much as it is cultural: bars in Nogales aren’t built for keeping kegs cold—that is, for serving beer on tap. Vega pointed out the bar in La Llorona, where we were enjoying an array of delicious enchiladas and seafood cocteles: there was no “underbar”—the space below the top platform—to stash a keg. There was, however, a Tecate Light mini fridge in the corner. Though La Llorona also sells bottles of Nogales Brewing beers, a lot of bars in town have exclusive contracts with Tecate. In the United States, so-called tied-houses (bars which only sell one brand) are illegal.

Vega and Garayzar are realizing that they don’t only need to make and sell their beer; they also need to create the market for it. One of the best ways to do that is to brew consistently delicious beer. “We want to grow slow and grow small,” Garayzar told me.

“And we want to grow with our community.”

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You can find Nogales Brewing beer at seven restaurants in Nogales, as well as at the brewery.

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n 1907, Jesús García, a railroad brakeman, saw that a car on the train he was riding had caught fire as it was passing through the small Sonora village of Nacozari. The car was full of dynamite. Instead of jumping off the train, García put the engine, nicknamed Máquina 501, in full-steam reverse and rode the train six miles out of town, where it exploded, blowing García to smithereens, but sparing the villagers. Nogales Brewing Company’s Máquina 501, named in honor of the celebrated Sonoran martyr, is a dark, coffee-and-chocolate laced porter.

It is malt-heavy, has a touch of chocolate sweet, but is light on the mouthfeel. For a porter, it’s a surprisingly good summer beer. Faviola Flores of La Llorona told me it was her favorite of Nogales Brewing beers because it was “different.” This slightly ambivalent appreciation is a crucial first step. As brewers north of the border have often expressed, getting customers to try craft beer is the first crack in the light-lager ceiling. Most beer drinkers, after they’ve learned to love the complexities of stouts and IPAs, don’t turn back.

I asked Vega and Garayzar what first got them into craft beer.

For Garayzar it was a growler of SanTan’s Hop Shock, which he first tried when he was 21, while an undergrad at Arizona State University. He told me it changed his outlook on what cerveza could be. For Vega it was a trip to Barcelona, where he studied for a semester (both Vega and Garayzar were engineering students).

There he found brewpubs replicating the craft beer model that’s taken off in the United States. Garayzar later studied brewing at Central Washington University’s craft brew certification program.

Directly next to Nogales Brewing is a Six store, which, like the Modelorama model, is a tied-house owned by Grupo Cuauhtémoc and sells only their brands’ beers, including Tecate and Dos Equis, as well as gummy candy and Coca-Cola. A beer store next door could be seen as an overwhelming shadow of competition for Vega and Garayzar, but their business is not just about quenching thirst, or even educating Mexicans about beer, though that’s certainly at the heart of their project. “We want to invest in Nogales,” Garayzar told me.

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N

ogales , like many Mexican border towns, lived through

years of calamitous turbulence, from 2008 to about 2012, when a wave of drug-related violence crashed into the city and people were scared to go outside, especially at night. Businesses closed and “people just shut down,” Vega told me. The Mexican state, urged with both dollars and a draconian antidrug ethos from the U.S. government, basically declared an open war against drug cartels, while the cartels themselves were infighting for control over traffickin routes, which included Nogales. Civilian life was caught in the crossfire and casualties reached more than 100,000 people. Though ongoing, the crisis is now more isolated in parts of northeastern and of southern Mexico, though other parts of the country remain vulnerable.

Like other aspects of life, the violence primarily targeted the most marginalized members of society, and the city was (and remains) safe for American tourists.

The disorder and the fear during those years combined with the economic recession, and businesses in Nogales suffere tremendously. “A lot of shops and restaurants closed, especially in downtown,” Vega told me. Overt violence in Nogales has largely diminished since then, and stores have reopened, but the city is still undergoing major changes—rapid growth, continued

poverty, and unemployment; Sonora is still one of Mexico’s states with the highest levels of unemployment. Vega told me that “the city is recuperating, but not at the pace most of us would like to see.”

Through Nogales Brewing Company, Vega and Garayzar want to help the city keep healing, and growing responsibly.

They’re part of a team working to bring a farmers’ market to Nogales to offer healthier and fresher food, and are fiercel devoted to their hometown. I asked them if they were interested in exporting to the U.S., or to other parts of Mexico. “What I always say: first in Nogales,” Garayzar responded.

Their investment in their city is primarily liquid, which is how Vega and Garayzar hope to heal Nogales: by raising a glass to it.

My personal favorite was their Bellota Amber (bellota is Spanish for acorn; the label has an oakish Emerson quote: “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.”) It is perhaps their most interesting concoction: it’s a honey-colored, malty thing that does a few flips in your mouth and then ends in a wash of bitterness. It’s complex and terrific. Their Mamacitra India Pale Ale, their most popular beer, has an edge more than a bite, with a bit of sugar (coconut?) on the tongue. Garayzar called it “muy friendly.”

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Find their suds at Hotel Fray Marcos, Berde Salade, La Llorona Cantina, Restaurant El Marcos, Pancho Villa Bar, Los Generales Bar, and Cafeteria Leo’s. You can also fill up your growler at their brewery. 

Nogales Brewing Company. Avenida Álvaro Obregón, San Carlos. Nogales, Sonora. Facebook.com/NogalesBrewing.

John Washington is a writer and translator. Visit jblackburnwashington.com or find him on witter at @EndDeportations.

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LAST BITE

Time Will Tell

By T. Clayton Kamm

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I d o , I do for my children. While a rousing game of Candy Land and the Frozen soundtrack might not be my first choice on a Friday evening, the food always is. What I eat has become far better quality now that I am concerned more than ever about its provenance. Unfortunately, I’m a not a hunter, a gatherer, or a farmer. I don’t even know how to harvest the prickly pear cactus from my backyard—can it be harvested?—let alone how to hunt my own meat and grow my own produce.

I am part of a family of five in which both my spouse and I have full-time jobs in air-conditioned offices I can only imagine what would unfold if I ever killed an animal: My oldest child would weep over the death of the animal, my middle child would chase and collect any nearby insects to store in her bed for later, and my youngest child would grab at the animal’s carcass.

But wanting a connection to our food, last Thanksgiving, my wife and I took our kids to Double Check Ranch, a working cattle ranch with its own slaughterhouse visible from the guest cabin. We cooked with cast iron on gas camping stoves, explored the ranch and the surrounding land, and communed with the cows.

The day before Thanksgiving, we pulled up to the ranch and found our way into our tiny cabin. Laying mattresses and blankets on the floo , we built a nest for the family (and the family dog) to sleep on. With the mattresses and blankets, it was impossible to open the cabin door—which, we learned later that night, would make midnight bathroom trips particularly difficul for our 3-year old. So it was that we spent five days and four nights living outdoors on the ranch and sleeping cozily under one roof. We brought our fruits, vegetables, grains, coffee, and beer from Tucson, and Paul Schwennesen, the owner of the ranch, provided us with plenty of grass-fed beef raised and processed right there by our cabin.

Possessing a mildly obsessive personality, I went back … twice. The first time back, my family I brought friends and we walked the land where the cattle ranged, toured the slaughterhouse where the animals are processed, and saw the bull scheduled to be slaughtered the following day. True to form, my 11-year-old was mildly uncomfortable o s t o f w h at

knowing which animals were about to be slaughtered, my 3-year-old did in fact love looking for bugs, and my baby picked up whatever she could and put it in her mouth.

The bull set to be slaughtered was obviously angry, scared, and capable of destroying anything or anyone that got in its way. Paul and I watched the bull as it stared at us while pawing the ground, snorting warnings, and swinging its horned-head side to side. While sitting with me on the hood of my minivan, far out of the bull’s range, Paul said, “I feel really bad for that bull.” Although I’ve known Paul and his family for years, and I know them to be thoughtful, kind, intelligent people, it was refreshing to hear the owner of a ranch and slaughterhouse feel empathy for the animals he slaughters.

Intrigued, I went back alone to Double Check yet again to watch how the animals are slaughtered and processed.

As I pulled up to the slaughterhouse, I was met

by Garret, Double Check Ranch’s operation manager. The first thing I noticed in the slaughterhouse was the enormous bull lying belly-side up on two steel rails. The next thing I noticed was the clean smell of wet concrete and the musty smell of wet fur. No smell of blood, death, or chemical cleaners in the air. In fact, until the processing of the bull began, the slaughterhouse doors were open letting in fresh air and sunlight. The processing was quick, efficient, and respectfu One day, I’d like to take my family backpacking. I’d like to live off the land as much as possible. I’d like to show my children what foods can be gathered from our surroundings, and I’d like them to learn from and appreciate the sacrifice of the animals we eat on a daily basis. Until that day comes, my family takes part in our CSA, pays attention to the seasons, and visits our local slaughterhouse where we pet and feed the animals we will later eat for dinner. I want to have a connection to my food and I want my children to grow up expecting this connection.

Either I’m doing it right or I’m scarring them for life. Time will tell.  Clayton Kamm is a criminal defense attorney in Pima County. He began cooking at the age of 4 when he created a marmalade and mayonnaise toasted sandwich. It tasted awful. Since then he has had slightly more success with his creations.

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