Walk through 4000 years of the agricultural history of Tucson
In 2015 Tucson became America’s first City of Gastronomy in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Mission Garden, a project of a non-profit organization Friends of Tucson's Birthplace, was a part of the effort to recognize the agricultural heritage of Santa Cruz River valley.
“That [the City of Gastronomy title] created a renewed interest in the cultural and the food diversity that has been here in Tucson,” said Kendall Kroesen, Mission Garden outreach coordinator. “We're seeing a kind of a Renaissance in multicultural restaurants and in local organic food production and in renewing our acquaintance with this really deep, interesting history, both cultural and agricultural history of Tucson.”
Since 2012 Mission Garden has held tours and events devoted to the history of local agriculture. “The vision always was to teach about Tucson’s origins through recreating a living garden, a living museum of heirloom plants that grew in different eras of history and by different cultural groups over 4,000 years,” Kroesen said.
Explore the Garden as a Volunteer
Walking into the walled garden at the foot of “A” Mountain feels like entering an ancient temple. It’s so peaceful that volunteers from the non-profit Beyond go quiet to listen to birds singing in the trees. Over the next hour, they will weed the walk paths between the garden beds.
Beyond partners with the local organizations and events to promote exercise, being outdoors, eating local foods, and connecting the community. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, once a month they would organize volunteer work programs in the Mission Garden.
“Working in a garden does give you benefits for your physical health as well as mental health,” said Diego Martinez Barrera, a Beyond community outreach coordinator.
People who come once, usually return, becoming a part of the community around the project.
“In 2019 we had about 190 different volunteers who helped with the gardening, with the greeting the public, with special events, with work in our kitchen, with building things,” said Kendall Kroesen, Mission Garden outreach coordinator. To encourage volunteering, Mission Garden organized special events for the volunteers and also shared the harvest. The rest was either sold to the public to raise funds, or donated to the Iskashitaa Refugee Network, an organization that helps refugees in Tucson.