Sample nopales, sip yerba mate
at World Desert Fair February 26, 2011
Maybe you've already sampled Apache Junction author Jean Groen's ocotillo blossom tea or her mesquite ginger cookies – but we're betting you've never tried her "Dandy Dip," made with fresh desert greens – preferably dandelions, but sometimes with nettles or chickweed when dandelions are unavailable. Jean is a popular Arboretum volunteer tour guide, and arguably among a select few we know who can use "nettles, chickweed and appetizer" in the same sentence. Jean will have a tasting table showcasing Sonoran desert foods Saturday, February 26, as part of our annual World Desert Fair event; bring friends for a walk around the main trail between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm and you'll have a chance to sample foods, arts and culture from around the globe today.
Editor's note: The Renaissance Festival is now open with the highway 60 traffic that comes with it, so be sure to give yourself extra travel time if you are driving here on a weekend day in February or March. Leave early, have breakfast in Superior, then join us for this workshop!
Deserts
of the world are fertile and ecologically diverse - despite the common misconception
of parched sand dunes and barren environments. Prickly pear cactus fruits
from our own Sonoran Desert, pomegranates and apricots of central Asia and
Mediterranean olives are all examples of foods from deserts around the globe.
Arboretum visitors are invited to sample food
and drink, listen to music from indigenous cultures and learn about desert
ecology at our World Desert Fair event Saturday, February 26, 2011. From 11:00
a.m. until 3:00 p.m. Arboretum staff and volunteers will have exhibit tables
set up at various points around the main trail. Exhibit stations showcase
the deserts of South Africa, North and South America, Central Asia, Australia,
the Mediterranean and the Saharo-Arabian region.
World Desert Fair offers a chance to sip the stimulating
Argentine drink yerba mate and learn about arid regions of South
and Central American. Sample sizes of food and drinks served at each of our
tables are free, this event is included with regular daily admission of $7.50
for adults or $3 for ages 5-12.
Familiar flavors from closer-to-home will include
cactus fruit jelly and nopalitos: those pickled strips of young
prickly pear pads from the opuntia family of cacti familiar throughout Arizona
and the southwest.
World Desert Fair explores the importance of
desert plants to everyday life. This event highlights the Boyce Thompson Arboretum
mission to instill in people an appreciation of arid land plants through education,
recreation, research and conservation. Turn-of-the-century Arizona mining
magnate and philanthropist Colonel William Boyce Thompson founded the Arboretum
three miles west of the town of Superior in 1926.
His vision was of "creating the most beautiful
and most useful garden of its kind in the world." During a Red Cross mission
to Russia, Colonel Thompson realized the importance of plants as the ultimate
source of human food, clothing and shelter. He used his wealth to found the
Arboretum and also the Boyce Thompson Institute for plant research in New
York, fostering public education about the interrelationship of plants and
people in arid and semi-arid parts of the world.
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