Santa Cruz Farmers Market
The hours are from 3 to 6 p.m. As usual the market brims with garden fresh produce such as green beans, melons, chilies, tat soi, mustard greens, winter squash, (I’m getting hungry), spinach, bok choy, beets, pomegranates, apples, locally roasted coffee, honey, red and sweet potatoes, hot peppers, and more. Fresh eggs are available for $3/dozen. Mark your calendars because next week – November 19, Desert Harvesters will be here grinding dried mesquite pods into flour.

What’s Tat Soi?
Tat soi or tatsoi is an Asian green that is also called flat cabbage, rosette bok choy, and spoon cabbage. It’s a member of the brassica family which includes broccoli, brussels sprouts, collards, and kale. Tatsoi can be used in salads or sautéed, steamed or braised and mixed with sauces, chicken, tofu, and pasta. Tatsoi is low in calories and high in minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants.

Mesquite Pancakes
Last week I reported about Desert Harvesters mesquite pancake breakfast on November 7. This was their most successful breakfast ever selling over 2,000 pancakes, and milling over 960 pounds of mesquite pods with three mills on the pancake fiesta day and two mills the next day.

Sprouts Goes Green
Sprouts Farmers Market has joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership and voluntarily committed to decreasing refrigerant emissions through innovative HVAC, refrigeration design and leak-tight practices. Sprouts wants to be your  environmentally conscious neighbor and grocer. Sprouts is located at 7665 N. Oracle Road.

Please send your Tucson farmers market and grocery news to eat.tucson@yahoo.com

Mesquite pancakes here we come

On Saturday, November 7, the Desert Harvesters present a mesquite pancake breakfast, raffle, live entertainment, and milling of mesquite pods at Dunbar Springs Community Garden.

Mesquite Pancakes: The breakfast features homemade mesquite/whole-wheat pancakes made with organic, local ingredients. The mesquite flour is made from native Velvet mesquite pods hand picked by Desert Harvesters around Tucson. The organic wheat is from Crooked Sky Farm in Glendale, AZ, and is ground just a week before the event.

The pancakes ($1 each) are served with prickly-pear syrup, mesquite syrup, agave nectar, local backyard honey, and homemade jams. A variety of locally made teas and organic coffee will also be sold. Please bring your own plate, fork, and cup to help make this a zero waste event. Pancakes are served 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
 
Mesquite Milling: In addition to serving pancakes, three hammer mills will be on site to grind pods into flour for the public. Community members can bring pods they’ve harvested. Pods must be clean, dry and free of stones, leaves, and other debris. The milling of pods costs $3 for three gallons or less of whole pods, then $1 for each gallon of whole pods over that.

Five gallons of pods yields about 1 gallon of fine, edible flour in just five minutes! 

Or you can also drop off pods for later milling and pick up as long as your pods have been inspected by the Desert Harvesters staff and you have prepayed. Please pack your pods in sealable, food-grade containers and label them clearly with your name and phone numbers. For information on how to collect, store, and prepare beans visit  Desert Harvesters . Milling occurs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
 
The event will also feature live music, roving entertainers, and local foods, crafts, teas, and gift certificates as raffle prizes. Informational tables from other local food efforts including Iskashita Refugee Gleaners and the Community Food Bank. In case of rain, the event will move to the Dunbar Auditorium, just north of the garden.
 
Desert Harvesters Mesquite Milling Fiesta and Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser
Date: Saturday, November 7
Time: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: Dunbar/Spring Community Garden, Northwest corner of University Blvd. and 11th Avenue

Desert Harvesters is a non-profit, volunteer-run grassroots group that promotes, celebrates, and enhance local food security and production. Desert Harvesters provides the public with information on how to harvest and prepare native desert foods such as prickly pear fruit and pads, cholla buds, ironwood seeds, and more. The organization’s flagship activity is the harvesting and milling of whole mesquite pods into flour, valued for its natural sweetness and high nutritional value.