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Taste Buds Ready to “Rejoice in Local”–at Mission Garden!

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Gluten-free black tepary brownie-cockaigne for a desert dessert!

Yum!–Gluten-free Akimel O’odham Black Tepary Bean brownies with pinyones — a truly desert dessert served at the Farm-to-Table Picnic Feast at Mission Garden

Indeed, there is no doubt Tucson should be given the designation as an International City of Gastronomy!  Where else in the world could we enjoy a finer, more diverse, perfectly indigenous, more delectable and nutritious PICNIC-FEAST than here in Tucson?  Delicious dishes were the pieces de resistance by some of Tucson’s most renowned chefs for……the first-ever Farm-to-Table Picnic at Tucson’s Mission Garden.

Picking heirloom figs at the Mission Garden for the Farm to Table Feast.

Native-foods cook and author Carolyn Niethammer picking heirloom figs at the Mission Garden for the Farm to Table Feast for her gone-to-heaven fig-bar postre.

At the base of our landmark A-Mountain–the very birthplace of Schuuck-shon–set in a scene of verdant orchard trees heavy with fruit, and heirloom vegetables bearing their colorful autumn harvest, we feasted this past Sunday, October 18, on the tried and true fruits of our desert land.    The community registered for this edible fundraiser via the two hosts of the Farm-to-Table Picnic Feast–our Tucson-born-and-bred organizations– Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace and NativeSeeds/SEARCH.   The cost of $75 covered a magnificent repast–not just a dainty little taste of hors d’oeuvres but a sumptuous serving of at least 7 gourmet entrees, plus a variety of hand-made desserts and some locally fermented beverages!  Either website can guide you to ways of supporting or volunteering for these worthy outfits–http://www.tucsonsbirthplace.org or http://www.nativeseeds.org.

At our special outdoor feast, we learned and appreciated where every single bite comes from!  Every ingredient was LOCAL–grown on our own Baja Arizona soil, bathed by our own Arizona sun, watered by our own Pleistocene aquifer, tended by our own neighbors’ hands not to mention those of Mission Garden and NSS volunteers and staff.

To recognize them from the source….the beautiful Native Tohono O’odham Ha:l squashes, grown at the NativeSeeds/SEARCH Conservation Farm, in combo with I’itoi’s Onions and other heirloom veggies, morphed into betacarotene-rich chile with Loew’s Ventana Canyon‘s Chef Ken Harvey’s magic.   Mission Garden’s heirloom pumpkins and greens transformed by Chef Doug Levy at Feast Tucson to a superb salad-supreme.

Traditional and delicious--Tohono O'odham Ha:l winter squash with magic inside--and curry pumpkins (MABphoto)

Traditional and delicious–Tohono O’odham Ha:l winter squash with magic inside of them–with curry pumpkins (MABphoto)

Akimel O’odham pearly black teparies from Pima farmer Ramona Button‘s fields  and locally-harvested cholla buds transformed with culinary sorcery by Chef Janos Wilder’s Downtown Kitchen into the most gourmet vegetarian delight.

S-Chuuk Bavi from Ramona Farms

Padre Kino’s White Sonora Wheat from BKWFarms‘ organic fields became the most flavorful and delicately marinated wheat-berry salad by the hand of Chef Rebecca Ramey at Blue Willow Restaurant.  And speaking of transformation, BKWFarms’ organic white Sonora wheat, with the magic of friendly microbes at Dragoon Brewery, became a festive brew with an amazing back-story to delight all samplers.

Ripened seed heads of organic heirloom Padre Kino White Sonora Wheat from BKWFarms in Marana (MABurgess photo)

Ripened seed heads of organic heirloom Padre Kino White Sonora Wheat from BKWFarms in Marana (MABurgess photo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farmer Frank’s Crooked Sky Farms‘ GMO-free fresh corn expressed itself in a fresh-from-the garden casserole by Proper’s Chef Kris Vrolijk.    Tohono O’odham traditional melon with other fresh corn and tomato, evolved into a gourmet gazpacho created by the Chef at Desert Diamond Casino, our major event sponsor.

 

Tia Marta here thanking ALL who came to the Table–the Farm-to-Table outdoor Picnic Feast at Mission Garden–to enjoy this enriching experience of Tucson’s traditional foods, cultivated with love in our own “desert terroir.”*  THANKS TO ALL our local–yet world-famous–culinary talent who prepared these sacred foods with care and dedication!  THANKS ALSO to the supporters and volunteers who made this event such a success!   Was it a sign of its significance at that moving moment culminating the feast when the heavens blessed us with a glorious sunset?

The public is invited to visit the ever-changing setting of this feast–the very garden and orchard where many of the heirloom foods are still hanging on fruit-tree boughs or ripening on the vine.  The Mission Garden is open for tours every Saturday with knowledgeable guides to take you through this special desert oasis–a living agricultural history museum.  (For info see http://www.tucsonsbirthplace.org).

For your own table, you too can source the heirloom foods served at the Picnic Feast, at the NativeSeeds/SEARCH Store, 3061 N Campbell, Tucson, http://www.nativeseeds.org, or at the Flor de Mayo booth (online at http://www.flordemayoarts.com) and other farm booths at Sunday’s St Philips Farmers’ Market (www.foodinroot.com).

Native Black Tepary Beans from Flor de Mayo at St Philips farmers market Sundays

Native Black Tepary Beans from Flor de Mayo at St Philips farmers market Sundays

Join NativeSeeds/SEARCH as a member and stay in touch with seed-savers, gardeners, and cooks as we keep these desert-adapted foods alive and well into an unknown future.

Yours truly, Tia Marta, have also honored these heirloom foods artistically by documenting them from my garden in their harvest splendor as watercolor images.  I invite you to view them firsthand at two upcoming OPEN STUDIO events:  ART TRAILS on Saturday, Oct 24, and the TPAC OPEN STUDIO weekend Nov.14-15 at Carolyn Leigh Studio.  Search by my studio name, Flor de Mayo Studio, or by artist’s name, Martha Ames Burgess, at  http://www.ArtTrails.org , and at http://www.tucsonpimaopenstudiotour.org  for directions, and do come by for a visit.  You can also check out some of my Southwest Native heirloom food images on my website gallery http://www.flordemayoarts.com — enjoy!

NativeSeeds/SEARCH heirloom Navajo Cushaw Squash watercolor by artist Martha Ames Burgess

NativeSeeds/SEARCH heirloom Navajo Cushaw watercolor by artist Martha Ames Burgess

 

What will Tucson's top chefs cook for the Heritage Picnic?

Tucson’s top chefs cook for the Farm-to-Table Heritage Foods Picnic Feast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Desert Terroir,  by renowned author and co-founder of NativeSeeds/SEARCH, available at the NSS store, is a great read about the deep significance of LOCAL.  We can “internalize” his messages by shopping at farmers’ markets,  growing our own, and honoring long-successful desert traditions, seeds, and foods.

An Invitation to Celebrate El Dia de San Ysidro Labrador

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With White Sonora Wheat waving its ripening seed heads in May’s wind, it’s time again to celebrate our local agriculture–our ability to feed ourselves locally.  Yea!.. harvest time now for our winter gardens’  bounty as it dries…

Ripened seed heads of organic heirloom White Sonora Wheat from BKWFarms in Marana (MABurgess photo)

Ripened seed heads of organic heirloom White Sonora Wheat from BKWFarms in Marana (MABurgess photo)

Tia Marta here inviting you to return to the hallowed soil of Schuk-shon–Tucson’s Birthplace “Black Spring”–at the foot of “A” Mountain, in the new Mission Garden, to the very site of the original garden supporting Mission San Augustin de Schuk-shon.  The Feast of San Ysidro Labrador is approaching.

May 15 is the traditional Dia de San Ysidro, Saint Isidor, patron saint of farmers and gardeners.

According to legend, San Ysidro Labrador was so hard-working and generous with his produce to all in need—people or animals–that angels would plow next to him to triple his crop. In my artistic interpretation, San Ysidro lies exhausted under a tree from working his field while an angel guides his ox to finish his plowing.

Heirloom bean mosaic of San Ysidro Labrador created by artist/ethnobotanist MABurgess

Heirloom bean mosaic of San Ysidro Labrador created by artist/ethnobotanist MABurgess

Here in my big-scale heirloom bean mosaic, the “medium is the message”–in part.   It was assembled using more than 21 colorful varieties of Southwestern heirloom beans and seeds, grown out from the Native Seeds/SEARCH Collection, in Tucson, Arizona.

The ancient seeds used to “paint” this image pay homage not only to San Ysidro but also to the generations of traditional farmers who have selected their seed and labored to grow the best for feeding family and community. Their seed-saving has provided us today with priceless heirlooms, fitting genes, and hope for a food-secure future.  (Notecards of my San Ysidro mosaic will be on sale at the fiesta as a fund-raiser for Mission Garden’s good work.)

This year, our San Ysidro fiesta will be celebrated on Saturday, May 16, within the adobe-walled orchard of living agricultural history, Tucson’s newest “museum park” sponsored by the non-profit Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace.  Planted in this living museum are representative crops that have fed the sequence of Tucson residents over the last 4100 years.  Seeds of these ancient crops were blessedly conserved by the caring staff and volunteers of NativeSeeds/SEARCH over the past 34 years.

The new Mission Garden--living agricultural history

The new Mission Garden–living agricultural history

 

Vaquero in the Orchard of heirloom Mission Period fruit trees at San Ysidro Fiesta 2014 (MABurgess photo)

Vaquero in the Orchard of heirloom Mission Period fruit trees at San Ysidro Fiesta 2014 (MABurgess photo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dia de San Ysidro celebration will officially begin at 9am with a procession from the future Tucson Origins Heritage Park next to the Santa Cruz “river” channel to Mission Garden’s east gate at 929 West Mission Lane, just east of  Grande (Mission Road.)  Festivities will include music by Mariachi Las Aguilitas from Davis Elementary, Alabanza with Bobby Benton, a presentation by historian/author Dr. Tom Sheridan, Native American four-direction prayers and blessing of the fields, food, and animals, and the Tohono O’odham Desert Indian Dancers from San Xavier.  Designs for the new cultural theme gardens (Chinese, Mexican, Afro-American, and Medicinal) will be unveiled.

Activities will culminate with a tasting of Pozole de Trigo, the traditional Sonoran stew for the feast-day prepared by talented volunteer cooks from Tucson’s Hispanic community.  For a fabulous recipe to try in your own kitchen, check out Bill Steen’s article for Sonoran Wheat Posole in Edible Baja Arizona–here’s the link to directions with his mouth-watering photos:

http://www.ediblebajaarizona.com/a-personal-posole

Or, for an even more local recipe, try this Akimel O’odham (Pima) recipe for Heirloom Wheat Posole with Tepary Beans:

Pima Posole Stew with Tepary Beans and White Sonora Wheat, served at Heard Museum

Pima Posole with Tepary Beans and White Sonora Wheat, served at Heard Museum

The combination of high protein Native Teparies and delicious low-gluten Heirloom Wheat Berries makes this a rich and nutritious stew.

 

 

Heirloom Wheat Posole with Tepary Beans—Pilt’kan ch Ba’bawi Posh’oldt

Ingredients:

2 cups dry tepary beans *

Water to more than cover the beans for initial soaking and cooking

1 large marrow bone (or beef broth as substitute for ½ the water when simmering, omit for vegetarian)

2 cups dry whole wheat berries (wheat kernels) **

3-4 cups drinking water or stock

Sea salt to taste (1-2 Tbsp.)

Black pepper or native chiltepine peppers***, to taste

Directions:

Carefully sort dry beans to remove stones. Wash, rinse, and cover with good water to soak overnight. Drain when plumped and ready to cook.

In big cooking pot, put beans, marrow bone, and drinking water to cover. Bring to a boil then simmer for 2+ hours.

Separately, rinse wheat berries and drain. Add wheat berries and salt to the cooking teparies. Add more water and/or stock. Bring to boil, then simmer an additional 1 ½ hours or until wheat berries are round and tender, and teparies are tender(not chewy).

Reserve excess water for later soup stock. Remove bone.  For serving, posole should be moist with broth. Add black pepper and sea salt to taste. If picante bite is desired, add one or two crushed chiltepine peppers.

Enjoy this traditional taste of the desert! ***********Here’s where to find these traditional ingredients (being grown anew in their home turf):

*Native tepary beans are available at www.nativeseeds.org or at www.ramonafarms.com .

** Organic White Sonora Wheatberries are available at Flor de Mayo tent at Sunday St Philips Farmers Market, Tucson, or at the NativeSeeds/SEARCH Store, 3061 N Campbell Ave, Tucson.

***whole wild-harvested chiltepine peppers are available at Flor de Mayo tent, Sunday St Philips Farmers Market, Tucson, or at the NativeSeeds/SEARCH Store, Tucson.

*****************************************************************************************

Seed packets of heirloom wheat varieties grown at Mission Garden

Seed packets of heirloom wheat varieties grown at Mission Garden, for sale to plant in your own winter garden.

Sheaves of heirloom White Sonora Wheat hand-harvested at Mission Garden

Sheaves of heirloom White Sonora Wheat hand-harvested at Mission Garden

Because Dia de San Ysidro especially heralds the wheat harvest, the staple grain introduced by Padre Eusebio Kino and other missionaries over 300 years ago to the Native Tohono O’odham community living here, this year’s festivities will include a ceremonial wheat harvest, guided by expert plantsman and Desert Museum staff person Jesus Garcia, to take place around 8am, Saturday, May 16, before the procession.

Support organizations, such as NativeSeeds/SEARCH, San Xavier Coop Association, BKWFarmsInc, and Tucson Herbalist Collective will have booths with demonstration items, tastes of native foods, solar cooked White Sonoran Wheat berries, traditional food products packaged for sale, and resource people to talk with about desert gardening for real food.

Invitation to the 2015 San Ysidro Fiesta

Invitation to the 2015 San Ysidro Fiesta

The event is free with a donation requested.   Find out more details of the San Ysidro Festival at  www.tucsonsbirthplace.org.   Hope to see you there!

[For more great recipes and stories about White Sonora Wheat, you can search with the box above using those key words, thru the last 2 years of this blog.]

Here’s to the Budding Desert!

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red staghorn cholla flower and bud (MABurgess photo)

red staghorn cholla flower and bud (MABurgess photo)

Can you almost hear them?  I mean the sound of buds swelling and bursting with life out there is the rain-soaked desert?  This spring the wildflowers are a joy, for sure, but the perennials this season will really be in their glory.  Tia Marta here with some wonderful ideas about how we can share in the coming cornucopia of cholla.

Cholla cactus flower buds emerging, covered with spines--brimming with goodness for all desert creatures….

Cholla cactus flower buds emerging, covered with spines–brimming with goodness for all desert herbivores….(MABurgess)

It should be a bountiful bloom this year–the buds are off and running already.  Every branch on our Sonoran Desert chollas is loaded with little buds, and they seem to double in size every day.  It looks the same in the western part of Arizona, the Mojave….a zillion buds on the golden branches of Cylindropuntia echinocarpa.

While the chollas are preparing for their yearly reproductive ritual–a wildly colorful show for attracting pollinators–many desert creatures will be benefitting from this flamboyant event, including Native Desert People who have always shared in the bounty.

cholla feeds many desert creatures (MABurgess photo)

cholla feeds many desert creatures (MABurgess photo)

You can learn traditional and modern ways of harvesting, preparing and cooking cholla buds in one of several classes coming up soon in April.  With the guidance of ethnobotanist of Tia Marta (yo,) we will get out in the bloomin’ stickery desert, get up close and personal with chollas, get to know their lore, their anatomy, their culture, learn to carefully de-spine them, cook, dry, pickle, and prep them into the most unusual and fun recipes.  Their health benefits are off the charts–we’ll learn about those too.

prepping cooked cholla buds with I'itoi's onions for White Sonoran Wheatberry salad

prepping cooked cholla buds with I’itoi’s onions for White Sonoran Wheatberry salad (MABurgess photo)

The biggest kick will be impressing your family and friends with off-the-wall gourmet recipes that no one else makes (other than some wild and wonderfully creative foodies like Janos Wilder, Chef of the Downtown Kitchen, not to mention NativeSeeds/SEARCH staff cooks!)

 

rusty orange flower of the various-colored staghorn chollas

Rusty orange flower of the various-colored staghorn cholla, Cylindropuntia versicolor (MABurgess photo)

We have many cholla varieties in the Sonoran Desert—each with its own distinct characters and timing of flowering. The cane cholla (Cylindropuntia spinosior) is found in a few places in low desert but is more typical of higher desert and desert grassland. It’s the one with the persistent round yellow fruits, and gorgeous magenta flowers. The jumping cholla (C. fulgida) always has long clusters of green persisting green fruits hanging like bunches of grapes. It typically blooms with the monsoon rains of summer with a lovely deep rose flower. If you can find the buds of either of these chollas in their season, their buds are great tasting too.  The buds of both are spiny, but the first-mentioned staghorn cholla (C.versicolor) bears easily-removable spines, so that’s the one my Tohono O’odham “grandmother” and mentor Juanita preferred to pick. I will be demonstrating her teaching at our upcoming workshops in April.

cane cholla in bud with last year's persistent yellow fruits

Cane cholla (C.spinosior) in bud with last year’s persistent yellow fruits

fruits of jumping cholla clinging to former years' fruits

Fruits of jumping cholla (C.fulgida) clinging to former years’ fruits

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tongs specially designed for harvesting cholla buds and prickly pear--available at Flor de Mayo tent Sunday St Phillips farmers' market

Tongs specially designed for harvesting cholla buds and prickly pear–available at Flor de Mayo tent Sunday St Phillips farmers’ market

The best instrument for safely harvesting buds is simply a pair of tongs. Long barbeque tongs can help you maneuver through hazardous cactus branches at a safe distance. We commissioned a young woodworker from Sedona to fabricate the right size tongs for us out of fire-killed ponderosa pine—available at the NativeSeeds/SEARCH store and in our selection of handmade wooden utensils at our Flor de Mayo booth at the Sunday St Phillips market.

Cholla buds from yellow and red flowers--de-spined and ready to cook

Cholla buds from yellow and red flowers–de-spined and ready to cook (MABurgess)

After de-spining, the buds must be further prepared by roasting or boiling before eating them either plain as a tasty vegetable or fixing into other delectable dishes.

 

 

Here’s an easy sure-fire winner for pot lucks……

delectable cholla bud and white Sonora wheat-berry salad

Delectable cholla bud and white Sonora wheat-berry salad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marinated Wheat-berry Salad with Cholla Buds!                                                                                         

Ingredients:                                                                                                                                                                                                                    2 cups cooked and cooled White Sonora Wheat-berries**                                                                                                                                1/4 -1/2 cup of your favorite Italian vinagrette dressing

¼ cup chopped celery
¼-1/2 cup chopped colorful sweet peppers
¼ cup minced I’itoi’s Onion bulbs and tops, or minced red onion
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes cut in half (optional)
½ cup cooked and cooled cholla buds.                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Romaine lettuce leaves as bed

Instructions: Marinate cooked white Sonora wheat-berries in the dressing overnight in frig, stir once or twice.
Mix in all fresh chopped veggies and cholla buds.
Serve on a fresh romaine leaf.   Makes 6 generous servings.

first cut into cholla bud cornbread--yum!

first cut into cholla bud cornbread–yum!

At our up-coming Cholla Bud Harvesting Workshops you will joyously taste cholla in a variety of gourmet recipes. You will a;sp learn how to preserve them, dry them for storage, learn their survival strategies and how those natural “tricks” can help us. Come “internalize” a deeper appreciation of these desert treasures!

For more photos and interesting details, please check out my Edible Baja Arizona article from April 2014 online at http://www.ediblebajaarizona.com. You can view a neat short clip about cholla harvesting created by videographer Vanda Pollard through a link on my website http://www.flordemayoarts.com.  Best of all, you can attend one of our scheduled Cholla Bud Harvesting Workshops to learn the process first-hand!  From there you can harvest your own–and bring these nutritious and off-the-wall taste treats into your home and party menus.

 

Workshop Dates (find a downloadable flyer on the website http://www.flordemayoarts.com):
Saturday April 4, 2015, 7:30-9:30am—register at 520-907-9471
Wednesday, April 8, 8-11am, Pima Co Parks & Rec 520-615-7855 x 6
Saturday, April 11, 8-11am, Westside, sponsored by NativeSeeds/SEARCH, call 520-622-0830×100                   Saturday, April 18, 8:30-11:30am, Tohono Chul Park, 520-742-6455 x 228

Hoping to see you at one of these fun classes!  Happy harvesting–to all budding harvesters and cholla aficionados!

**Certified organic heirloom White Sonora Wheat-berries from BKWFarms are available at the Flor de Mayo booth at FoodInRoot’s Sunday St Phillips Farmers Market, St Phillips Plaza, N Campbell Avenue, or online from http://www.flordemayoarts.com in ½ lb, full pound, kilo bags, and greater quantities for chefs. Also available from the NativeSeeds/SEARCH Store, 3061 N Campbell Ave, Tucson.

Dry cholla buds for reconstituting to cook are available at San Xavier Coop Association booth at Thursday Santa Cruz Market and at NativeSeeds/SEARCH.

Sweet Roasted Mesquite for a Happy Valentine’s

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Valentine's Roasted Mesquite and Heirloom White Sonora Wheat Oatmeal Cookies

Valentine’s Roasted Mesquite and Heirloom White Sonora Wheat Oatmeal Cookies

 

[If only this were a scratch-and-sniff site….]

‘Tis the season for the sweetest, rarest, and heart-healthy mesquite treat of the whole year– Roasted Mesquite! During this relatively cool and occasionally soppy “wintery” weather, stored mesquite pods, which may have drawn in moisture from the humid air since harvesting last summer, can be roasted or toasted for ease of milling into a fine meal. The result is a transformation into something even sweeter than the already-yummy natural raw mesquite meal.

 

 

Tia Marta here to introduce you to Roasted Mesquite and to share some creative ideas for celebrating Valentine’s (and beyond).

 

When mesquite pods are roasted, their complex sugars burst with an almost chocolat-y bouquet. Roasted mesquite has hints of its “botanical cousin,” the carob, from the Near East (known as Saint John’s Bread in the Bible, as it fed St. John so well through his desert wilderness retreat). Those soluble complex carbohydrates that make mesquite such a heart-healthy food–giving sustained energy, helping with cholesterol, balancing blood sugar—come flavorfully to the fore when mesquite is roasted. Take note: all fitness fans, hypoglycemics, diabetic and gluten-free cooks! Roasted mesquite is a super booster-food especially for you. Its complex sweetness and its nutrition make it a gift for everyone you love.

Comparing roasted mesquite flour and natural raw mesquite flour (MABurgess photo)

Comparing roasted mesquite flour and natural raw mesquite flour (MABurgess photo)

You can use roasted mesquite meal in so many ways. In addition to baking with it, the distinctive aroma and richness puts it into the category of seasoning or spice. Shake roasted mesquite through a big-holed spice shaker to jazz up bland dishes or for sprinkling atop coffeecakes, muffins, sundaes, custards, frapaccinos, salads….Yum, it is waiting for your inventions. I make a little mix of garlic powder, sea salt, and roasted mesquite meal, then put the combo in a shaker and keep it handy by the stove or on the table to sprinkle on about everything. Try it on your steamed greens or in quinoa. When corn-on-the-cob season rolls around, there isn’t anything better than my roasted mesquite salt dusted on it. (Mesquite orchardist and agriculturalist Mark Moody will have fresh corn with roasted mesquite at Flagstaff farmers markets this summer—don’t miss it.)

Add a tablespoon of roasted mesquite meal to any hot cereal. It does wonders for oatmeal. Mesquite is the tastiest of all nutritional supplements. Whatever you add it to, you know you are boosting flavor and nutrition—making hearts happier!

Taste the glorious nutrition of a roasted mesquite and berry smoothie! (MABurgess photo)

Taste the glorious nutrition of a roasted mesquite and red berry smoothie! (MABurgess photo)

Try this delectable and easy Desert Delight–Roasted Mesquite & Red Berry Smoothie—so colorful it can make breakfast into a Valentine’s feast. So rich it can be a Valentine’s dessert served with a spoon. (You can double or triple this recipe for company):

Presoak: 1 Tablespoon chia seed in 1 Cup organic apple juice for a few minutes.

In a blender, mix:

1 cup organic plain or vanilla non-fat yogurt.

2 Tbsp. Roasted Velvet Mesquite Meal*

1 cup frozen raspberries or blueberries

2 Tbsp. prickly pear juice or nectar

your pre-soaked applejuice-chia mix

½ or whole ripe banana

1 Tbsp agave nectar (optional as desired for more sweetness)

A few ice cubes (optional as needed for chill or dilution)

Blend on medium ½ minute until smoothie is gloriously pink. Serve in parfait glass with a thin sprinkle of chia seed or pinch of roasted mesquite meal on top as a garni.

Valentine's gluten-free roasted mesquite/almond coffeecake (MABurgess photo)

Valentine’s gluten-free roasted mesquite/almond coffeecake (MABurgess photo)

Ingredients for gluten-free roasted mesquite and almond coffeecake looks like an ad for Bob's Red Mill

Ingredients for gluten-free roasted mesquite and almond coffeecake looks like an ad for Bob’s Red Mill

And here’s a wonderful gluten-free recipe to share with wheat-sensitive friends:

Muff’s Gluten-Free Roasted Mesquite/Almond CoffeeCake:

(This is a heavier cake that sometimes turns out more like an energy bar when sliced.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil or butter an 8×8” pyrex baking dish and dust with rice flour.

Sift together:

½ cup Roasted Velvet Mesquite Meal*

¾ cup organic brown rice flour and/or amaranth flour

½ cup almond meal

¼ cup tapioca flour

2 tsp guar gum or locust bean gum (for leavening)

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp sea salt

Mix In:

¼ cup agave nectar

¼ cup canola or other cooking oil

¾ cup soy milk, rice milk, or almond milk

Beat separately then add in:

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

Pour into baking dish. Bake 25-35 minutes or more until cake tests done. Serve with thanks to the nutritious bean trees of the desert!

Roasted mesquite cookies in valentine iron pan

Roasted mesquite cookies in valentine iron pan

Roasted mesquite cherry oatmeal cookies

Roasted mesquite heirloom wheat & cherry oatmeal cookies

Now for a relatively “healthy” cookie try this celebration treat with roasted mesquite—

Muff’s Roasted Mesquite & White Sonora Wheat Valentine Oatmeal Cookies (with pinyones and dried red cherries to honor George Washington’s birthday too)—a great cookie for any time of year.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together: 1 cup (2 sticks) organic butter softened, ½ cup organic brown sugar firmly packed, and ½ cup organic white sugar

Beat in and mix until creamy: 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla

In a separate bowl, sift together: 1 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp sea salt, 1 cup organic White Sonora Wheat flour**, and ½ cup Roasted native velvet Mesquite Meal*

Mix dry ingredients with moist ingredients until smooth.

Add, and mix in: 2-3 cups quick oatmeal (uncooked), ¼-1/2 cup pine nuts (pinyones) shelled, and ¾ cup dry cherries or dry cranberries.

Onto a well-greased cookie sheet, drop 1-tsp glops of cookie dough well-spaced. (You could use a heart-shaped mold or heart cookie cutter.) Press a dry cherry on top of each glop for décor.

Bake 10-12 minutes until barely golden brown, and enjoy the festive desert flavor of roasted mesquite with your Valentine!

Roasted Mesquite and Heirloom White Sonora Wheat Oatmeal cookies droozled with prickly pear juice (MABurgess photo)

Roasted Mesquite and Heirloom White Sonora Wheat Oatmeal cookies droozled with prickly pear juice (MABurgess photo)

*For purchasing Roasted Mesquite Meal–seek and ye shall find. There are only a few places where you can source this seasonal culinary treasure, if you are not roasting and milling it yourself! Find it at the wonderful NativeSeeds/SEARCH store (3061 N. Campbell Ave, Tucson, www.nativeseeds.org). Our roasted mesquite is from native Arizona velvet mesquite, Prosopis velutina, grown and milled with the highest standards. For tastes, visit the Flor de Mayo booth on Sundays at St.Phillips Farmers Market (SE corner River Rd and Campbell Ave), or order at www.flordemayoarts.com via PayPal. It is also online at www.mesquiteflour.com and from the Prickly Pops booth at Thursday Santa Cruz Farmers Market.

**The special local ingredient for the cookie recipe above, heirloom White Sonora Wheat flour, is available at two Tucson locations. Several different grinds of Hayden Flour Mills’ heirloom flour is at the Native Seeds/SEARCH store. For super-fresh-milled “live” White Sonora flour, from local, certified organic whole grain grown by BKWFarms, you can contact Tia Marta by phone or email by the Friday before pick-up at Sunday’s St Phillips Farmers Market, along with the roasted mesquite meal.

For more ideas on how to cook with mesquite—roasted or natural–check out the recipe book Eat Mesquite! published by www.desertharvesters.org, and available at the NativeSeeds/SEARCH store. Visit www.bajaaz.org, the website of Baja Arizona Sustainable Agriculture, for more mesquite details.

Newcomers as well as confirmed “desert rats” can see the actual plants which produce the local ingredients of our Valentine Cookies—mesquite trees and heirloom White Sonora Wheat growing at our special Baja Arizona parks. See and appreciate them in their winter-spring glory at the Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace Mission Garden (base of A-Mountain, Saturdays), at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and in the ethnobotanical garden at Tohono Chul Park.

Enjoying roasted mesquite treats is indeed another way of rejoicing in the desert’s natural bounty, and of supporting appropriate, sustainable desert agriculture. Happy Valentine’s, and may your heart be happy cooking with roasted mesquite!—from Tia Marta and Rod at www.flordemayoarts.com.