Desert Foods and Inspiration

Welcome to Bean Tree Farm!

There's a lot going on inside and out: cooking up desert food delights, building with earth, harvesting rain, growing soil, planting abundance, stewarding our watershed, 

sharing the bounty with the community.

We're in the Tucson Mountains foothills not far from downtown Tucson.

Check out our products, workshops and events.

Sign up for our monthly newsletter (below).

Thanks for visiting our site!

Our Products

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Our small-batch, solar-cooked, farm-made foods are packed in re-usable containers.

 

  • Mesquite or Prickly Pear/Chocolate Chile Sauce  try on ice cream, chevre, fruit  
  • Mesquite/Prickly Pear Barbeque Sauce/Rub  sweet, tart, spicy  
  • Chutney  Barrel cactus, Nopal, seasonal ingredients  
  • Kimchi & Pickles  traditional lacto-fermentation with desert ingredients 
  • Prickly Pear Juice  fresh-frozen 
  • Salsa  seasonal, fresh, desert fruits, chiles, lacto-fermented  
  • Honey  Mesquite and mixed florals 
  • Saguaro / Prickly Pear Elixirs  cordials with Agave spirits, cactus fruit, spices  
  • Herb Salts, Rubs, Oils  Barrel fruit, Olive, Chile, desert herbs, organic Olive oil
  • Herbal Tinctures, Bitters, Salves & Liniments  Chaparral, Passion Vine, Vitex & more 
  • Ironwood Tempeh, Miso, Edamame, Palo Verde Bean Products   
  • Other Products as available  cactus cuttings for propagation, buds, fruit & pads of Opuntia/Cereus varieties, desert seeds and plants 
  • Locally made Arts & Crafts, Pottery, Desert Foods Calendars, selected books 

 

We are a small farm, not open to the public, selling directly to our members. Products are limited.

Pre-paid farm cards and shares of our seasonal products are available. Give the gift of a farm card to a friend, 

or contact us to create a gift basket or a selection of desert foods for your event.


Many of our products are live culture and lacto-fermented, and require refrigeration. 

Pricing varies depending on season and ingredients. 


We offer farm tours and tastings by appointment, and schedule seasonal farmstands-  

subscribe to our monthly newsletter (below) for updates.


Bean Tree Farm is a United Plant Savers Botanical Sanctuary. 

2020 WORKSHOPS, EVENTS, COLLABORATIONS Coming Soon!

We're working on so many projects in the neighborhood watershed and in town 

that we've not had time to plan or schedule 2020 farm events so far!

 Updates can be found in our monthly newsletter.


CURRENT 2020 WORKSHOPS, DEMOS AND OPPORTUNITIES


2020 DEMOS at SANTA CRUZ RIVER THURSDAY FARMERS MARKET

We collaborate with Community food Bank and Desert Harvesters to produce the 

DESERT HARVEST AND HOME-MADE DEMO SERIES held on Thursday afternoons.

These are free and open to the public. 

See poster image below right for schedule 


PIMA COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTATIONS

From the Delicious Desert: April 7, 4-5:30pm, Main Library, Children’s meeting room

Recipes for Re-wilding Your Kitchen, Back Yard and Neighborhood

Bean Tree Farm, AHA and Desert Harvesters will be offering desert food demos, talks and presentations throughout 2020 at various libraries. 



SONORAN PERMACULTURE GUILD 

SPG offers day and weekend workshops as well as the annual 72-hour  Permaculture Design Course each February, which we highly recommend.


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2019 WORKSHOPS: EMPOWER, BUILD COMMUNITY & ABUNDANCE


All workshops of the 2019 series include:

  • Workshop materials   
  • Luncheon of desert foods at each event- our luncheons are legendary!  
  • Pricing varies with workshop time, materials and preparation
  • 15% discount for registering for 3, 20% discount for series of 6
  • Workshop size is limited. Details and directions will be provided to confirmed attendees.  
  • Partial scholarships are available


Registration & Info: beantreefarm@gmail.com


Workshops build desert living skills, awareness and understanding in a beautiful and inspiring Sonoran Desert Botanical Sanctuary. 

Relationships emerge between planting, building, sun, rain and resource recycling to enhance cooling, comfort and culinary creativity.

 

COB BOTTLE WALL BUILDING, SPRING HARVEST & FEAST 

March 23, 8am-2pm, $125

Learn to build a beautiful little cob/bottle structure. Planning,  design, building tips will empower you. Plenty of time for a desert  harvest walk and feast.

Partial scholarships are available.


COBBING & COOKING WITH CHOLLA

April 20, 9am-1pm, $75

There will be mud, straw, sand, water, and spring in the air. And there will be cholla buds to harvest, prepare and enjoy with other seasonal delights.

Partial scholarships are available.


SAGUARO SOLSTICE CELEBRATION &  HARVEST

June 23, 5:30-7:30pm, $50

Come thank the desert, stand with saguaros, hear the wind make music through their spines.

Sample cooling beverages and desert artisanal foods, including saguaro- our favorite Sonoran Desert fruit.

Partial scholarships are available.


PARTY WITH PRICKLY PEAR FOR FOOD AND PLASTER 

August 17, 8am-12pm, $75

Explore and enjoy the luscious fruit and prickly pad of Opuntia. As food, drink, medicine and building ingredient it is unsurpassed. In this late summer heat, cool off and clean off with a spritz from the hose at this mud-loving event.

Partial scholarships are available.


A BERRY MERRY  BRUNCH BUNCH

October 19, 9am-1pm, $75

Enjoy cooler fall weather, wolfberry/hackberry harvesting, possible plaster finishes, the fruits of our labor, and of the delicious desert. 

Have your building skills inspired you to begin a back yard or community project? Share your plans and dreams with the group, and invite them to a work party!

Partial scholarships are available. 


BARREL CACTUS & WINTER SOLSTICE WONDERLAND WALK

December 14, 9am-1pm, $75

How many holiday treats and gifts can we create with barrel cactus fruit, fiber and seeds? 

Explore the many culinary and other uses of barrel cactus, walk the site as we gather aloysia and winter herbs, share a feast, and celebrate the beginning of another season. 

Partial scholarships are available.



Sign up for the monthly farm newsletter (below) for updates and new listings

Opportunities

Retreat Testimonial


In April of 2013, I had the honor of being the first participant in Bean Tree Farm’s new retreat program. I had planned on staying for 5 days but on arrival and a tour of the grounds by Barbara Rose, I immediately decided to stay for 3 WEEKS.

I’m a permaculturalist living in Joshua Tree, CA. I picked Bean Tree Farm for my visit because I wanted a deeper understanding of drylands permaculture that I could take back and teach to my community. I could see that this would happen for me on BTF and that I needn’t look any further.

The drive from Joshua Tree to BTF was disheartening to say the least. More like heartbreaking. Mile after mile of exploited and left-for-dead desert due to exploitative agricultural practices that have depleted and salted the soil. And then there’s the endless urban sprawl. I was feeling pretty low right up until the moment I turned onto the BTF property. It honestly took my breath away. There, glistening in front of me was a fully intact permaculturalist’s dream with a healthy, diverse, and abundant Sonoran desert ecosystem. And the birds were singing! Everywhere!

What did I learn? Where to begin?? I learned about the amazing health giving properties of desert-harvested food. I learned about the simplicity and common sense of processing humanure into deep rich compost. I saw firsthand how it works to integrate all the systems so that they support each other – water harvesting, solar energy, composting,native food production, and buildings. And so much more! And then there are the people who live there. Smart, sweet and deeply knowledgeable. I love those people. And I send my gratitude again to them all for making me feel so welcomed. Barbara Rose, the permacultural designer of BTF, should be designated “A National Living Treasure”. I followed her around for 3 weeks, picking her brain. I’ve already passed a great deal of her information to my community and will continue to do so with my upcoming public talk on Drylands Permaculture. I hope to talk a bunch of my friends into coming with me to next year’s retreat.

Thank you BTF friends!       - Jill G.

Contact Us

Keeping up with social media is not one of our strong points!

If you want to get in touch, sign up for a farm share or workshop,

email us and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. 


Please note: the farm is located in a small private residential community. 

We keep pretty busy with projects on the farm, and are not available for drop-ins.

Please contact us to schedule a visit or attend an event.

Thanks for visiting our web site!

Tucson, Arizona, United States

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