Renowned Tucson chef, Janos Wilder, also on the Native Seeds/SEARCH Board of Directors, spoke at the recent Tastes of Santa Cruz Valley conference about the tradition he learned in France, involving the relationship between chefs, gardens and local foods or “cooking with things closest to you.” He is committed to incorporating local foods into his menus at the Janos and J Bar restaurants and estimated that 90% of the dishes he serves have some local ingredients.

In 1983, before advertising for staff, Janos advertised for gardeners to begin planting seeds for the foods that he would later serve.   He likes to use ingredients that have stood the test of time so that the food he offers resonates with local flavors, nutrition and cultural values.  “The food of the region also describes the culture of a region. Take its great ingredients and put them back on menus and back in stomachs, then they really stay alive,” he said.

However Janos (who just finished a book about chile rellenos) shared that, “As a chef, I don’t follow recipes very well.”  For example the first chile relleno he served, (which he referred to as the region’s cultural culinary icon), was made with lobster and brie.

Barbara Rose and Jill Lorenzini from the Dancing Rocks Permaculture Community of five rammed earth homes north of Tucson presented Harvesting Food in the Wild.  They design, consult and teach about permaculture, natural building and water-harvesting to create native backyard food gardens.  Water harvesting strategies including dams to slow rain water down can enable native food bearing plants to increase production of edible fruits, flowers and herbs.

Barbara spoke of a successful partnership with the town of Marana to implement water-harvesting and solar strategies with Solar Energy International and their hands-on workshops in solar and wind power and natural building technologies.  The methods used by this community can be employed by all.  She invited everyone to learn about the bounty of the desert and to re-inhabit desert backyards and community gardens with water frugal plantings, solar cooking and drying methods. Contact her at brosearth@aol.com.

Farmers market manager, Roxanne McElmell, spoke about her work co-developing and co-managing the Oro Valley, St. Philips Plaza, U of A and Tubac Farmers Markets. “Where else can you start a business with $500 or less?’ she said citing Meschel McClain a vendor who also sells her 5 Star Jerky at the Sierra Vista Farmers Market.

Lunch by Desert Diamond Casino’s Agave Restaurant included a delicious and unusual spinach salad with a citrusy dressing and baked chicken with Santa Cruz chili. While dining we were treated to commentary by Jim Griffith who ran the U of A Southwest Folklore Center for years and started the annual Tucson Meet Yourself Festival.  Jim read an entertaining account written by Jesuit missionary to the region, Father Pfeffercorn, about encountering food spiced with hot chile tepins and how even 300 years ago chiles were used in “a  universal sauce.”

Writer and conservation scientist, Gary Paul Nabhan, concluded the workshop with a brain storming discussion on regional food branding.  As the outgoing Director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at NAU, he started the Canyon Country Fresh regional food initiative on the Colorado Plateau.  The Canyon Country Fresh network promotes purchasing locally produced foods in the 4 Corners region and can serve as a model for branding the heritage foods of the Santa  Cruz Valley.

Gary said that by coalescing an image of the heritage area which stretches from Tucson to Nogales and telling a better story about what is unique about the region’s food products, money can be obtained “to rebuild infrastructure that has been lost such as wheat mills, slaughter houses for local meats, olive presses, cider houses, community orchards, gardens and kitchens.”

Through similar work on the Colorado Plateau Gary said local food sales which were initially negligible are now over $600,000 annually.   He called for the collective promotion of the Santa Cruz Valley region that still has more heritage foods grown in it than anywhere else in the US. He described these foods as “Native American, with a rich Hispanic overlay, and (raised by) newcomers who have signed up for life as good desert citizens. This heritage area designation is the best mechanism in over a century to revive these foods.” 

This Week at the Farmers Markets

Sierra  Vista Farmers Market

Agua Linda Farm will offer spring lettuce mix, spinach, Thumbelina and Sugar Snacks carrots, rainbow beets, collards, purple mustard greens, arugala, cilantro, turnips, fava beans, leeks, spring onions, purple baby onions, sweet peas and snow peas.

Grammie’s Garden will have the first Picacho watermelons, its own garlic and cherry tomatoes, as well as heirloom purple and regular tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, egg plants, bell peppers and certified organic produce from Mexico.

At the info booth look for rhubarb from Beatty’s Apple Orchard as well as sweet onions and garlic by Jim Woodruff.

Be sure to stop by for a sample of new Salsa Time Salsa made in Hereford.

Stout’s Cider Mill will bring fresh apple cider, along with its sky-scrapper apple pies, cakes, and preserves all from the apples the family raises in Willcox.

Esperanza Arevalo will bring four kinds of tamales (beef, chicken, pork and green corn) all made with local green chile from Ochoa Farm as well as her signature mesquite flour tortillas, and mesquite cookies sweetened with the natural sweetness of mesquite and mesquite bread.  She also makes regular flour and corn tortillas and healthier corn chips fried in olive oil.  A new product is a “nopal” tortilla made with the cactus pad nutrition good for diabetics.

Hereford grower, Yvonne Jingle will have fresh radishes as well as sweet bell pepper, zucchini, red cabbage plant starts as well as black currant plants, gooseberries, miniature and regular peach trees and lots of succulents.

Burnt Orange Gourmet Foods will be back with its award winning fresh guacamole that is all natural, with no additives, no preservatives and will not brown like most guacamoles do.  Try its pickled red onions perfect for BBQ season and on hamburgers and sandwiches.  For some extra zing select the coffee salsa.  Burnt Orange is the only salsa company in the US to make salsa with coffee and has a patent pending on it.

Fiesta Growers will have a large selection of tomatoes, other vegetables and herbs for gardeners and growers. Try New Zealand spinach, a hard-to-find but easy to grow leafy green vegetable.

Large brown eggs will be brought by Coyote Corners.

Jump start your afternoon with a cup of hot coffee from Adventure Coffee.  Get a free cup by buying a pound of its organic, locally roasted, fair-trade coffee from around the world.

River Organica offers bread, cookies as well as brownies and lemon squares all made with health-promoting, ancient emmer grain.  Sun dried mushrooms and tomatoes and whole emmer grain and emmer flour are also available.

RPMS Jams harvests the beans from mesquite trees on its farm to make jelly and syrup which have the flavor of a light honey. It also makes rubs from mesquite meal (ground mesquite beans) that gives them a sweet nutty flavor. Try the Mesquite Rub with brown sugar, the Mesquite Pepper Rub with a blend of peppers or the Spicy Rub with cayenne pepper or the Mesquite Sauce, great as a marinade or grill glaze.

Bisbee Farmers Market

Event:  Spring Plant Sale by Sierra Vista Area Garden Club & Sheep Shearing, Weaving & Spinning by the Bisbee Fiber Arts Guild

Music:  Nancy Weaver & Friends

La Buena Vida Farm will debut at the market with Loma lettuce, mesclun mix, kale, pac choy, braising green mix, radishes, green onions, baby beets and baby spinach.

Burda Farm will bring lettuce, spinach, radishes, spring onions, sugar snap peas, red and yellow onions, tomatoes, English-style cucumbers, an assortment of fresh herbs (cilantro, dill, lemon thyme, spearmint and lime mint) as well as local pecans, walnuts, pistachios,  pinto beans and soup mix, European style breads and pastries from La Baguette Bakery and an assortment of gourmet oils and vinegars great for salad dressings. Bubba Burda’s Bountiful Biscuits.

Elvia Villa and her family will serve her great Mexican food including home-style vegetable soup and menudo, steak and cheese burritos, chicken and beef tostadas, tamales (beef and corn), breakfast and shredded beef green chile burritos as well as fresh blended or chunky salsa.

Fiore di Capra, Arizona’s only Grade A Dairy and Creamery, located in Pomerene outside of Benson, will offer many flavors of gourmet goat cheeses in bites, logs and spreads as well as dessert and savory tortes.  Raw goat’s milk is also available and creamy goat’s milk soaps and lotions.

Welcome back to small grower Bob Berry who will bring gorgeous cabbages, collard greens, heirloom tomato plants, hanging baskets and Valley Honey from the six hives he tends in McNeal.  (Also at the SVFM.)

Spadefoot Nursery will bring more of its native oak seedlings and larger sizes of Bigtooth Maple, Emory Oak, Gambel Oak, Apache Pine, a Baja  California pine called Coulter Pine, known for it’s huge cones and long needles as well as an assortment of native shrubs and perennials. For plant lore sure to keep you well entertained take home “The Best of Growing Native” CDs featuring Petey Mesquitey.

Angel Food Produce will bring lettuce mix, spinach, radishes, sugar snap peas and Magenta Spreens or lambs quarters which can be eaten lightly cooked or raw like any other green.  McNeal’s Keith Johnson will offer asparagus and artichokes, snow peas, Swiss chard and tomato, hot chile and eggplant seedlings.

Circle T Emu Ranch from Huachuca City will offer all natural emu meat and emu oil products. Emu oil promotes healing and skin rejeuvenation. Emu Sports and Muscle Rub does wonders for aching muscles and arthritis sufferers and pure Emu Gel Caps assist in lowering cholesterol and maintaining a healthy immune system.  Emu meat, the “other red meat”, is 97% fat free.  Try a fresh emu egg for that perfect omelet. (Also at SVFM.)

Dragoon Marketplace has a new batch of its organic and sugar-free chutneys as well as sugar-free lemon marmalade.  It also carries local tomatoes (red, orange, yellow and green) and baby lettuce, jams and jellies, honey, chile powder, pinto beans and 9 Bean soup mix, Grandma Koyote’s BBQ and hot sauces,  local pistachios, fair-trade, hand-woven African basketry and natural therapeutic health & pain-relieving balms & sprays. (Also at SVFM.)

Azmira pet food and holistic remedies will be sold at both markets. Vendor Alice Coleman will also have her wheat-free mesquite crunchers, 5 Star jerky, mesquite flour from Argentina and Peru, gluten and dairy free flour and prickly pear jelly and syrup. 

Ranchers from the San Ysidro Farm and the 47 Ranch will offer grass-fed beef and jerky, lamb, natural pork and pastured chicken and eggs as well as nitrite-free bacon, chorizo and sausages. (Also at SVFM.)