The End of May

Prickley pear fruit frozen into cubes dunked into a bath of local grapefruit juice with a good measure of your favorite tequilia. A lovely Tucson summer beverage.

A 14 year old, 14 pound resident of my casa sniffs out the Cleveland mint

Yellow crook-neck basking in the sun.

Sabine, owner of Cafe Passe, enjoys serving locally grown salad to her chlorophyl starved customers.

Local Meat

Trapped with chicken pellets as bait, these six pigeons are 1/2 female and 1/2 male of varying ages.

To butcher a pigeon, apply the same skills as if it were a chicken, with the exception that feather removal requires no boiling water.

Pigeon has little to no fat, so a drier meat, therefore, less time to cook. First, marinate in olive oil and numerous herbs, followed by stuffing with what is available seasonally. Apple, fennel, onion and garlic were our choices. Bart with bacon, using dental floss (avoid mint flavored), insuring that the legs and wings are tucked in. Forget the salt, because it will toughen the meat and didn't require any after cooking. Do not overcook these darlings. Fifteen to 20 minutes at the most at 275 and broil afterwards for a minute or two to crispen the bacon.

The legs and wings are stringy but have soup stock potential.

Eatting my first pigeon. The results: breasts are the best; dense in flavor and high in qi.

In My Kitchen

These local, free-range pigeons lived on my roof and dined in my chicken coop daily. Guess who's coming to diner?

Local olives, arugula and beets combined with homemade goat cheese make the perfect meal.

Acorns before they are washied,boiled, dried, and ground into flour.

To make goat feta, you add rennet, separate the curd from the whey, add some salt and maybe some fresh garlic and basil from your garden. Yum!

Today I want to show you some awesome shit!

Hey peps, you know I love shit, dung, turds, frass, biscuttes, poo, crap, caca. You name the shit and it's alright by me. Most recently I scored on some zoo poo, you know the giraffe, rhino, zebra and yes, in my hands in the picture below is my fave - an elephant turd. My tomatoes are loven' it and so are my red-wigglers. The next hot shit on the block is pigeon poo. Donning my respirator on an early Sunday morning to go scrap up from underneath a bridge some pigeon poo makes my weekend. It is better than rabbit and chicken shit for N-P-K

Great for citrus, and all fruit trees. go light on the veggies but not the tomatoes. They eat it up!

O Hoe

As April fades away and the radient, hot days of May loom before us, spring anounces the joy of a tender spring season.

Howdy Farmers!


Mr. Redmond is one of Tucson's senior farmers. At 89, he cranks out truck loads of collard greens, English peas and fresh eggs from his 100 plus hens. Kelly, his partner in crime, bakes pies that puts the 'p' in pleasure.

At Pachamama's Garden, there is a mighty fine brew made from worm castings, rain water and molasses. Air is pumped into the brew for several days and a party of numerous species of beneficial soil bacteria arises, making plants drunk with growth. Worm poo rocks!

Arizona is noted for her sunsets and rainbows. At Pachamama's Garden, you can find a rainbow in the nesting box.



A truck load of Zoo Poo! The best shit around!

Gardens love zebra, rhinoceros, giraffe and elephant shit!

Pullet Pile-up

It is early morning rush-hour traffic here at Pachamama's Garden. Pullets are piling up at the entrance to the laying boxes. They are anxious to get to work and produce some eggs.

Lemons for Lemonade

It's citrus season in Tucson and lemons abound. My kitchen is filled with the scent of fresh-squeezed lemons. The juice goes into ice cube trays and once frozen, into freezer baggies. When the temperatures rise above 100 degrees F and the cost of lemons at the store follows suit, I drop a hand full of lemon cubes into a vessel of water and sugar and relish in tasty, local lemonade.

Pachamama's Garden

Hello from the Micro-Urban Farm!

With the return of sunlight, the chickens are popping out the eggs. Check-out the chocolate egg from the 6 month old cuckoo maran. Breakfast at Pachamama's Garden is full of pleasures and surprises.