Programs
Back Yard Gardeners Program
Promotes 21st century Victory Gardens so everyone can have access to nutritious, safe, fresh food. Workshops & Backyard Garden tours teach and encourage householders to use sustainable methods in their vegetable and fruit gardens, enabling them to raise food all year round in a way that is resource saving and earth protecting. Composting, vermiculture, rain water harvesting, drip irrigation, greenhouses, covered beds, cold frames, organic fertilization & pest control.
Chiricahua Pastured Meat Producers
An affiliation of farms throughout the Chiricahua Mountain Range in southeastern Arizona that raise animals the old fashioned way, on pasture, not confined to feed lots and factory farms. Sheep and cattle are raised on irrigated and native pastures. Pigs and poultry graze on pastures all day. Because animals are grass fed as nature intended, their meat, eggs and poultry are more nutritionally dense with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), beta carotene and vitamin E. They are also free of antibiotics and synthetic hormones and steroids. BASA works with Chiricahua Pastured Meat Producers to promote the raising of animals humanely with environmentally sound agricultural practices such as controlled grazing, rotation and water conservation that yield more nutritious and flavorful products. For more information on monthly meetings and events contact Nathan Watkins at nathan.watkins@bajaaz.org.
Community Gardens
Help creating community and school vegetable gardens. BASA will work with any group to create sustainable vegetable gardens to teach children where food comes from and how to grow it and to demonstrate best practices in the desert. In 2007 BASA helped start "El Jardin Paraiso" or Paradise Garden at the Douglas High School.
Community Kitchens & Food Business Incubation
Establishment of community kitchens for culinary classes and for rent by local small food entrepreneurs and householders. Classes to include cooking with fresh vegetables and fruits and solar cooking. Value-added food preparation classes to include pickling & jam making to preserve the harvest as well as yogurt, cheese and bread making. A food center ideally will include business incubation for value-added food production. This program is in the planning stage. Encouragement of local small food entrepreneurs with expertise in specialty and ethnic food preparation for sales at farmers markets and other venues to help preserve and offer a diverse cuisine prepared by Hispanic, Native, African, Asian and European Americans. Direct sales vendor workshops for small food producers and food entrepreneurs.
Composting
Promotion of worm and regular composting to increase soil fertility, moisture and organic matter and to keep food and yard waste out of the landfill. Annual composting demonstrations, school field trips, information booths and handouts at Earth Day Celebrations, farmers markets and by special arrangement. Contact Judy Goodenough, Baja Arizona's Worm Woman at judy.goodenough@bajaaz.org. Contact the Sierra Vista Worm Guy, Richard James, RAJAMES@cox.net or at (520)249-5670 for worms, vermi-compost and compost teas.
Desert Heritage Foods
Desert heritage foods are not only well adapted to our dry lands and tie us to a sense of place, but are very tasty. Many also provide exceptional health benefits to those who consume them regularly, such as controlling or preventing diabetes and heart disease. Find out more about cooking with the high protein, aromatic and sweet mesquite meal that can be added to baking as well as with the magenta fruits "tunas" and pads "nopales" of the prickly pear cactus. Gather and dry your own mesquite pods and bring them to mesquite millings at local farmers markets and other gatherings.
Taste the Desert
Presentations by experts with desert heritage food refreshments and cooking demonstrations, for example Cooking With Cactus demos at Bisbee Farmers Market.
Desert Foods for Diabetes & Health
Presentations geared towards health aspects of the foods with cooking demonstrations and sampling.
Desert Foods Handouts with Recipes, Info & Harvesting in Spanish & English.
Desert & Heritage Foods Handouts:
Chia Info, Chia Recipes
Mesquite Info, Mesquite Recipes, Mesquite Meat Recipes
Prickly Pear Cactus Recipes
Desert Foods Harvesting Workshops
Check calendar or contact Martha Burgess, BASA’s Desert Foods Coordinator for cholla bud, mesquite, prickly pear, saguaro & "bellota" or acorn harvests and additional information.
Establishment of Farmers Markets & Events
Help establishing or enhancing farmers markets in the region & putting on agricultural & culinary events at them. See Calendar for events at farmers markets.
Hay Mountain Watershed Group
Four neighboring ranches in Cochise County are working together to demonstrate sustainable ranching through watershed restoration and erosion control. This includes reseeding with native grasses and building check dams to slow rain run-off so it soaks in. The group was awarded a sizeable grant from Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to pay for 1,000 check dams on the 4 ranches. A 5 year study with USDA's Ag Research Service has concluded that check dams increase soil moisture, vegetation, plant cover, species diversity and sediment deposits. These dams will continue to improve 62,000 acres of watershed feeding into White Water Draw Wildlife Refuge. For more information on sustainable ranching contact rancher Dennis Moroney at dennis.moroney@bajaaz.org.
Local Food Directory
A directory of local food producers in Baja Arizona is included on this web site on the Find Local Food page to assist residents & visitors in locating farmers and ranchers that raise food locally as well as grocery stores, restaurants, CSA’s or farmers markets where local food is sold.
Local Meals
BASA will work with any organization to help it incorporate locally raised foods on its menu or at its community event so residents & visitors can learn about the joys of eating foods produced close to home.
Local Producers Programs
Sustainable grower workshops & field trips for producers in lower Arizona including vegetable, fruit, and cut flower production. See Chiricahua Pastured Meat Producers for pastured poultry and grass-fed meats in Cochise and bordering counties. Natural soil improvement (nitrogen-fixing cover crops, composting, vermiculture, animal manures, crop rotation) to increase its fertility and capacity to hold moisture. See calendar for organic farm and backyard garden tours as well as other events at farmers markets or presentations by experts on rain water harvesting, growing drought-adapted crops, drip irrigation, mulches, crop protection and season extension strategies (row cover, cold frames & greenhouse.)
Local fruit and vegetable growers can become authorized growers in the Arizona Farmers Market Nutrition Program (AZFMNP) which makes them eligible to accept AZFMNP coupons at approved farmers markets. In this program designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, women and children who participate in the WIC program and seniors who participate in the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) receive a booklet of coupons that can be redeemed for fresh, locally grown produce. These purchases of locally grown fruits and vegetables support farmers markets, provides income to growers and keep consumer food dollars in local communities. See calendar for free, one-time, 2 hour AZFMNP Market and Grower Training classes.
Mesquite Millings
Milling dates for southern AZ will be listed on the Calendar. BASA holds an annual mesquite milling with mesquite pancake breakfast & mesquite bake sale at the Bisbee Farmers Market.
Organic Farm & Ranch Tours
Tours throughout the year to celebrate those who raise our food, inspire others to eat locally & encourage producer net-working and learning from each other.
Solar Cooking Program
BASA promotes sustainable solar cooking. Its solar chefs put on solar cooking demonstrations at Earth Day Celebrations, farmers markets and schools. It offers an annual Solar Cook-off & Expo at the Bisbee Farmers Market where solar cooks show off their skill at cooking with the sun. Solar ovens can also be purchased as well as solar cookbooks and plans for building ovens and other solar cookers. (At this event information is available on solar water pumps, solar water heating, solar electricity and solar air coolers.) See Calendar for more information about Solar Cook-offs and other solar cooking demonstrations and Growing Minds for a list of solar cookbooks. Multiple reflector solar ovens can reach temperatures over 350 degrees so breads and cookies can be baked and meats roasted till they fall off the bone. All this happens outside with free sunshine which there is plenty of in southern Arizona. In summer extra energy does not have to be used to cool down homes after preparing meals. Order a Sun Oven at a discounted price through BASA by contacting Valerie McCaffrey. Thirty-two families in southern Arizona are now cooking with the sun through this program.
Sustainable Agriculture Presentations
Local sustainable agriculture power point presentations available for showing to any organization. "The Joys of Coming Home to Eat", "Pasture Perfect: Raising Animals on Grass (the way they were meant to be raised)" and "Sustainable Ranching or Anticipating the Moisture" presentations by Baja Arizona’s professional grass-fed ranchers. Contact board members to schedule a presentation or see Calendar for scheduled presentations.
