MESQUITE MILLING and Fiesta

Desert Harvesters’ Tenth Annual Mesquite Millingand Fiesta (See other upcoming events in our new calendar!)

Bake sale times: 9 am – noon
Milling times: 8 am – 2 pm
Where: Dunbar/Spring Organic Community Garden, Tucson, AZ (see directions at bottom)

On Sunday, November 18, 2012, we at Desert Harvesters will be hosting our Tenth Annual Mesquite Milling and Fiesta at Dunbar/Spring Community Garden! Last year’s mesquite bake sale was such a hit, we’re bringing it back again this year.

The milling event will continue as in years past. See below for details.

In addition, local organic and wild foods will be for sale. These can include local mesquite flour; prickly pear syrup, jam, juice, and popsicles; mesquite pancake mix; baked goods; chiltepines; cholla buds; olive oil; cured olives; fresh mole mixes, and more. You’ll also find native herbal medicines, organic Desert Harvesters t-shirts, and rainwater harvesting books for sale. Plus we’re inviting community members to set up a booth to educate and inspire us to celebrate desert living in new and traditional ways. Last year this included a wide range, from desert tortoises to desert teas, with lots in between. Interested? Stay tuned for more information.

There’s also great live music, and a playground for all to play in. If it rains, we move the event just north of the garden to the Dunbar Auditorium.

If you haven’t already, you’ll be able to purchase a copy of our amazing cookbook, Eat Mesquite! In addition to Amy’s famous pancake recipe and nearly 50 other delicious recipes in celebration of mesquite flour, this cookbook contains information about the culinary and medicinal uses of Prosopis in arid lands, secrets for cooking with mesquite flour, and how you too can harvest, store, mill and enjoy mesquite pods with tasty, fun and nutritious results. Click here for more information, including the cookbook’s table of contents, reviews & testimonials, photos, and more.

If you’d like to be part of the crew that makes it all happen, we need many hands to make the event run smoothly!

Are you an adventurous or experienced baker, ready to whip up something mesquite-y, for the first time or for the nth time? We love it! Send an email to pancakes@desertharvesters.org.

Want to help with pod inspection and the mesquite-milling operation? Great! Drop us a note at chaff@desertharvesters.org.

If you have a sensitive spam filter, remember to set it to allow emails back from these addresses. Your help will be very much appreciated, and anyone who volunteers for Desert Harvesters at least 4 hours on Fiesta day will receive a free Desert Harvesters t-shirt.

About the milling: You can bring your harvested pods (up to 15 gallons) and get them ground them into flour for an additional donation. Again this year we will have three hammermills in operation to speed up the milling. The minimum milling fee is $5 for any amount under 3 gallons of whole pods (broken pods may be weighed instead). If you have 3+ gallons of whole pods to grind, you pay $2 per gallon. We want to encourage folks to bring at least 3 to 5 gallons of whole pods (5 gallons of whole pods will provide you with about 1 gallon of fine, edible flour in about 5 minutes of milling). Click here for more on how we run our millings.

If you do not want to wait in line to mill your pods, after we have inspected them to ensure they are clean enough to mill, you can prepay for the milling and leave the pods with us in sealed containers labeled with all your contact info. We will then grind them within a week and give you a call when your flour is ready for pick-up.

The milling/fiesta event is hosted by, and is a fundraiser for, Desert Harvesters.

Directions to Dunbar-Spring Community Garden: The garden is located at the corner of 11th Avenue and University Blvd. The nearest major intersection is Speedway & Stone. From Speedway & Stone: Go south on Stone 3 blocks, and head west onto University Blvd. Go 3 more blocks to 11th Ave. The garden is at the northwest corner of University and 11th.