With the summer heat soon to give way to the monsoon, some view this as the perfect time to celebrate the Sonoran Desert.
“It is ironic, because when it is really hot for many in Tucson, things get slower — fewer people in town, less traffic, easier to park — but for Desert Harvesters, this is our harvest season. Right before the monsoon is when native plants try to produce their fruits and get their seeds out into the desert, so we are very busy and very excited about it,” said Nicholas Garber, a member of Desert Harvesters, a grassroots effort dedicated to grounding people in the nature of the Sonoran Desert by promoting, celebrating and enhancing the use of local native food sources and harvesting natural rainfall and runoff.
The nonprofit encourages the planting of edible gardens around homes with native trees such as velvet mesquite, foothills palo verde and desert ironwood along with prickly pear, saguaro and barrel cactus.
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“We are really connecting through food. There are so many unique plants in the Sonoran Desert with tastes and flavors that you can’t get anywhere else,” said Garber, a post-doctoral research associate with the University of Arizona School of Plant Sciences.
“So many cultures that have passed through this area and remain here today have utilized these plants and herbs for food and medicines, and we want to encourage people to make edible gardens that really celebrate this place.”
Garber emphasized that Desert Harvesters is dedicated to preserving the unique nature of the Sonoran Desert, which some consider “too wet be a desert, although we do receive all of our water in a few big bursts.”
He said native plants capitalize on these natural weather cycles, producing cooling shade along with seeds and fruit. Desert Harvesters offers guided harvest tours and workshops to teach the pubic about identifying the best-tasting mesquite pods and then harvesting the pods safely, ethically and responsibly.
It provides milling services at events such as the Annual Mesquite Milling and Wild Foods Fiesta from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Santa Cruz River Farmer’s Market at the Mercado San Agustín, 100 S. Avenida del Convento. The organization also provides wild native food demonstrations and has published “Eat Mesquite! A Cookbook” with recipes utilizing mesquite and other wild foods.
Garber said the ability to appreciate native foods can be an acquired taste.
“We highly recommend that if someone wants to harvest (mesquite) pods, they taste them first. There are some very bad-tasting trees, and you don’t want to spend the effort harvesting a bucket of bad-tasting pods that are chalky or bitter. If they remind you of graham crackers or chocolate and are sweet and spicy, those are the ones you want,” he said.
He also said there is more to mesquite milling than many people realize and stressed that safety is paramount. He encouraged those who are interested to visit www.desertharvesters.org/ for detailed harvesting information and offered a reminder of the importance of harvesting directly from trees as opposed to gathering pods off the ground in order to avoid contamination by bacteria, fungus and toxins. Additionally, the pods should be milled into flour as soon after harvesting as possible.
“Mesquite flour is a nice stable product if you store it in your house at a cool temperature,” Garber said.
Ultimately, the upcoming fiesta will provide a place for people from all walks of life to interact and appreciate native plants and unique foods.
“This is trans-generational: We have young kids and older people, hippies and non-hippies, people interested in organic food and ecology and how we should be designing modern cities to live in a sustainable way with the environment. And of course, people who just like food and have an interest in tasting and trying new things. All are welcome,” Garber said.
Another signature summer fundraiser that seeks to bring Tucsonans together is The Hottest Day of the Year Bike Ride & Pool Party to benefit BICAS, Bicycle Inter-Community Art and Salvage.
“This is a really fun, family-friendly thing to do in the middle of summer when there are not a lot of events going on in Tucson. For the last couple of years it hasn’t actually been the hottest day of the year, but it has been warm enough to make the pool really enjoyable,” said Troy Neiman, an organizer of the third-annual fundraiser, which features a 14-mile bike route followed by swimming and food .
The event also helps to boost awareness about BICAS, which Neiman said numbers among the oldest continually operating bicycle co-op projects in the nation.
For almost 27 years, the nonprofit education, art and bicycle recycling center has worked to make bicycle transportation accessible to everyone while encouraging community and diversity with programs such as Community Tools, which offers shop time and tools for bicycle maintenance on a sliding scale of $6 to $12 per hour.
