Desert Foods Festival Celebrates Local Ingredients

On Saturday, Nov. 3 UA Cooperative Extension’s Garden Kitchen will host the sixth annual Desert Foods Festival from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at The Garden Kitchen. The celebration is free with demonstrations and tasting of foods native to the Southwest.

Learn how to create healthy meals using ingredients such as cholla buds, tepary beans, mesquite flour, nopales and prickly pear fruit. There will be a variety of activities and information on native foods and community resources from community partners.

Enjoy the physical activity station, salsa with Ritmos Latinos dance club, dance with the Arizona Swing Cats, create sugar garden skulls with the Pima County Public Library’s Seed Library and participate in other fun and informative garden activities, such as plant-a-seed with a chance to win gardening prizes. All are welcome. Free admission.

5 Facts About The Garden Kitchen:

1. They serve over 50,000 community members every year.
2. They encourage Pima County to make healthy choices and build community wellness through food, fitness and gardening education.
3. They host Fit First Saturdays monthly and offer a physical activity class, a food demonstration and a gardening class.
4. They work to implement Policy, Systems and Environmental changes throughout Pima County to tackle health issues like obesity, diabetes, cancer and other chronic diseases.
5. They partner with a variety of organizations throughout Pima County to make healthy choices more available and practical in the community by providing guidance, resources and technical assistance.