1. Podcasts
  2. Arizona Spotlight podcast
  3. Right in Your Backyard: Foraging for Food in the Sonoran Desert
 June 16, 2017 / Modified jun 16, 2017 11:47 a.m.

Right in Your Backyard: Foraging for Food in the Sonoran Desert

This week we learn to harvest cholla buds, speak with expert Gary Nabhan and visit an urban farm that's doing a lot more than growing vegetables.
by Vanessa Barchfield

Cholla bud harvest 2 A dove nests in a cholla cactus.
Vanessa Barchfield, AZPM

The blossoming of Tucson’s foodie scene in recent years, and its designation as a UNESCO World City of Gastronomy, has raised interest in the city’s rich agricultural history and native food lineage. This week, Arizona Spotlight heads outside to learn how to forage for one food that the Tohono O'odham people have eaten for many generations, and that itself is going through a culinary renaissance: the cholla bud. We also visit the San Xavier Coop Farm to learn how buds are processed for consumption.

MORE: Agriculture, Arizona Spotlight, Environment, Food, Indigenous Affairs
By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona