We seek to empower and inspire:

Desert Harvesters nurtures the next generation of desert lovers and stewards by welcoming inclusion and partnership, creating a succession model that promises a delicious, healthy, wild food future

See NEON for more info!

We encourage folx to re-wild yards and neighborhoods: basin by basin, seed by seed, season to season, harvest to table

See Desert Seedballs on STORE page

We organize and create community events: Farmers Market Demos, public Library presentations, seasonal guided neighborhood harvest walks, tastings, trainings, mesquite millings, and more

We create written educational materials: award-winning cookbooks Eat Mesquite! and Eat Mesquite and More: A Cookbook for Sonoran Desert Foods and Living!, educational and visual aids, hand-outs, posters and textiles, artwork, Desert Harvest Series templates, etc. Some items are available on the STORE page

We teach and train: to ensure that safe, high-quality desert foods are available to the community, DH trains millers, pod inspectors, and volunteers for community milling events, and also offers hands-on, how-to classes and videos about harvesting, processing, and cooking desert foods

We innovate and celebrate recipes and desert foods: a sampling of La Cocina's desert-inspired food plates created for a Desert Harvesters fundraiser. Find these and other recipes in Eat Mesquite and More: A Cookbook for Sonoran Desert Foods and Living! and get inspired to create your own new recipes

We collaborate with partner organizations and local businesses: Community Food Bank of Southern AZ, Santa Cruz River Farmers Market, Las Milpitas Farm, Pima County Public Library, BASA (Baja AZ Sustainable Agriculture), GARDEN Inc, Bean Tree Farm, Beacon Foundation, La Cocina etc

We cook and play with our food: Experiment by substituting desert ingredients into favorite recipes (like replacing beets with prickly pear fruits in Prickly Pear Borscht), by attuning to seasonal harvests (Dry-Summer Salsa), and by savoring colors, textures, flavors, and desert  superfood nutrition