Barbara Rose, Bean Tree Farm

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Bean Tree Farm is a 20 acre saguaro/ ironwood forest, conservation area and ecological community, where we harvest, care for and teach about Sonoran Desert perennial edible plants, herbs, and more!

(clockwise from upper left: chiles, eggs, mesquite flour in jar, saguaro fruit, jujubes, ironwood seeds, tepary beans, cholla buds, chiltepin chiles)

2012 Workshops

January 14- Winter Cooking Class and Harvest Dinner

February 11- Ferments: Kombucha, Kvas, Kimchi and more

March 24- Cob Sculpture & Building

April 21- Natural Plasters, Inside & Out

May 25- Spring Cooking Class & Harvest Dinner

Half harvesting and cooking, half feast, this Friday evening event incorporates our favorite aspects of celebrating and partaking of local desert foods.

June 16- Bean Tree Harvesting, Sprouting, Cooking Etc.

July 14- Saguaro Harvest, Cooking, Storing & Recipes

August 18- Prickly Pear Harvest, Recipes & Tasty Treats

September 29- Sun-Cooked Salves & Herbal Oils

October 27- Fall Cooking Class & Harvest Dinner

November 10- Cob Sculpt &Build

December 8- Tinctures & Tasty Teas

To Register for workshops, or more

information: beantreefarm@gmail.com

~ Multiple workshop package: Register for six workshops at a 15% discount on each workshop (prepaid). Register for all 12 events and receive a 20% discount. Groups may sign up for packages.

~Early registration discount: 10% if registered one month or more prior to class date (does not apply to packages).

~ All workshops include a delicious local and native foods meal

~ Workshops vary between 4 & 5 hours, and cost $50-60 per workshop (w/o package & discounts)

~ Workshop Hours are subject to event & weather; summer morning hours begin at 7am or earlier, evenings 4-8pm

To register and for more information: BTFwkshpReg

Added and guest workshops will vary with the season, check with us for updates, or to schedule a special educational event for your family or group!

“Tasty”monial:

“The prickly pear workshop taught me about the abundance of fruit it offers us and it’s healing properties. I felt empowered that I have this harvest at my doorstep. I now have some confidence that I too can follow recipes and partake…” “I loved walking through the desert with Barbara…her knowledge is amazing! I would like another workshop with more recipes.” “I would recommend this workshop to my friends…and my grandchildren… Thank you for opening up my world to the desert harvest!”

Location: Bean Tree Farm is about 15 miles northwest of downtown Tucson. Directions and more info sent with registration

Want to enhance your educational experience?

Workshop participants may add a study-stay at Bean Tree Lodge, a solar-powered, rammed earth home, to learn about green development, solar earthen building, appropriate technology, hands-on water and energy conservation in the Sonoran Desert. E-mail us for more information.

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News and Current Opportunities: Bean Tree Farm Update

Weekly farm stand goodies: local and native foods, cactus fruit products, syrups, chutneys, mesquite treats, heirloom and native plants in pots, and more. Time and day subject to change with the season. Farm tours are also available, email us for current schedule. We are currently interviewing for residence & internship opportunities for 2012 and beyond. Contact us for more info. The following updated reports and documents (below) may be of interest: Dancing Rocks Community Homeowners’ Manual and CCRs, Bean Tree Farm brochure, and a report on the North Safford Peak Watershed Scenic Drive Project. If you’d like to purchase any of these documents with higher resolution, please contact us.

Link to community CCRs: drpcCCRs

Link to homeowners’ manual: DRPCHOM’11

Link to Bean Tree Farm brochure: btfbroch’11

Link to watershed report: ScenicDriveReport’11

Here’s an interesting link to a KUAT Arizona Illustrated show about wastewater- and compost toilets: http://ondemand.azpm.org/videoshorts/watch/2009/10/7/kuat-wastewater/

Dancing rocks, bean trees….what’s going on here, anyway?

Bean Tree Farm is a 20 acre saguaro/ ironwood forest, conservation area and ecological community, where we harvest, care for and teach about Sonoran Desert perennial edible plants, herbs, and more.

This land has been my home since 1985, when our family moved here as caretakers. In the late 80′s, I began to study and practice Permaculture, and with family, friends and students, the community and farm plan began to grow. We’ve now been harvesting, researching, eating, caring for and teaching about native foods and herbs for more than 20 years.

We (residents, students and volunteers) harvest water, build soil, plant trees, garden, harvest and prepare native foods on a 20 acre farm and residential community. Nested in a lush Ironwood/Saguaro forest in the northern Tucson Mountains, we work to support ourselves on the farm, as well as support larger community efforts for regional food security and local food production, such as Desert Harvesters, Santa Cruz Heritage Alliance, Pima County Food Systems Alliance, and Community Food Bank Farm Program.

I teach with the Sonoran Permaculture Guild team, and also organize, host and teach educational events on site. Bean Tree Farm is not a conventional farm- we don’t grow row crops, although we do maintain small household intensive organic vegetable gardens and fruit trees like heritage figs & pomegranates, jujubes and citrus. Our main focus is the harvest and preparation of seeds, fruits and herbs of the native perennial forest that has grown here for centuries, the seasonal bounties of tree legumes, sweet cactus fruits and pads, berries and herbs. We provide our farm products to the community as available for workshop feasts, catering engagements and educational events. We care for this place and enhance agricultural production by welcoming rainwater into the landscape through gently placed rainwater harvesting earthworks, cisterns, and organic mulches, increasing soil health and native habitat for a multitude of native and drylands-adapted plants and animals. As we grow, harvest and teach about the cornucopia of delicious and nutritious foods and herbs that grow in the Sonoran Desert, students and visitors try new foods and recipes, understand the added benefits of eating local, and get excited about re-wilding their homes and neighborhoods.

And:

~ I consult and design with clients who want to reduce energy and water use, and to integrate their dwellings into the larger landscape (new and retrofit). Often I work as a team with Bill Cunningham- www.southwest-solar.com, Technicians For Sustainability- www.tfssolar.com, and others for natural building, waterharvesting and solar projects, including earth plastering, adobe, rammed earth, cob, and straw (new construction and renovation). ~ I co-manage Bean Tree Farm and Lodge, the educational (f)arm of our community, which facilitates workshops, tours and coordinates Permaculture projects with the Sonoran Permaculture Guild, Prescott College, ECOSA, NAU and others. ~ I love what I do, and invite everyone to explore and enjoy this kind of work/play. I’m especially interested in creating a succession model that will enable my old age (coming soon!) to be spent fiddling around in the garden, singing, dancing and playing with small children! Over the last decade, midwifing my parents, family and friends on their Hospice final journeys, and becoming a grandmother to Madeline Grace, I am amply reminded that what we have is Now, even though we work for a future we can believe in. So I savor the 100+ degree heat that brings on the summer harvest of native desert food and monsoon rains, the morning and evening skies, laughing with friends and family over a shared meal, and am grateful to be here.

Selected Projects- where we’ve been and where we’re going: Completed (c), works in progress (wip), simmering (s)

Uplands in bloom, bean trees (Palo Verdes and Ironwoods) and Saguaro- a beautiful, delicious and nutritious harvest!

~ (wip)- Bean Tree Farm and Lodge, 2008, expands our non-profit educational activities, and provides incentives for diverse cultural/agricultural cottage industries arising from Permaculture ethics and practice. Our offerings include ongoing seasonal workshops with native food/feasts, herb craft, earthbuilding/sculpting, music/instrument making, in the larger context of earth care and conservation. We offer extended stays for student and family groups at Bean Tree Lodge, a rammed earth solar home built in 1989, and a historic 1930′s stone cottage. Bean Tree Farm’s name (made famous many years ago by the fine author and farmer Barbara Kingsolver’s title “The Bean Trees”) raises awareness that virtually all native Sonoran Desert trees and many large shrubs are legumes, fixing nitrogen for understory plants, and providing all who partake with delicious, healthy foods, growing and thriving without tilling, irrigation, or toil beyond, perhaps, a little low-tech rainwater harvesting and mulching; increasing the harvest by caring for the land. Bean Tree Farm evolved from Sol Food, a wild and native natural foods/sustainable living/catering/teaching/design business hatched in 2003.

~ (wip)- Dancing Rocks Community, 1994-present, an eco-logical residential community of 5 homes and guest cottages clustered within a Saguaro Cactus/Ironwood Forest Farm preserve. Currently three families are owner-residents. If a home becomes available, we offer a 6 month- 1 year trial residency prior to sale. Internships and work study programs for students are ongoing. The community barn is nearly complete and provides space for classes and workshops, and includes a native plant nursery and community garden. B.Rose, designer/builder, and many helpful hands.

~ (c)- Scenic Drive Pilot Project: A Model for Water Harvesting, Watershed Restoration and Education: Report and Recommendations. Prepared for the Town of Marana, 2007 (see file above).

~ (c)- The Stone House at Bean Tree Farm, a passive solar earth /straw renovation of 1930′s historic stone well house. B.R. designer, contractor, 1994/95.

~ (c)- Sylvester House, historic adobe renovation for Native Seeds S.E.A.R.C.H.- project planning and coordination, 1993/94.

~ (c)- Silverbell Trading, 1985-2010, a gallery/trading post featuring local and native arts, crafts, and books about sustainable living. Also featured passive solar design, green/recycled building materials, and natural plaster and finishes. Renovation of historic Casas Adobes storefront, 2002.

~ (c)- Kino School, conceptual design project for 10 acre site, permaculture class, teacher/consultant, 1995.

~ (c)- Pauline Mitchell Residence, permaculture landscape renovation for 1 acre site, designer, project manager, 1996/97.

~ (c)- “Becoming Beneficial Developers in our Own Backyards”, a 17 minute video/dvd about the Safford Peak Watershed Education Team (SaPWET) project, 1999-2002.

~ (c)- Northern Tucson Mountains Resource Conservation/Education Project, funded by Pima County, Marana and Pro-Neighborhoods. A 3 year project to envision and promote healthy communities while restoring Sonoran Desert habitat. Project coordinator, 1997-2000.

~ (wip)- Ryan Residence, permaculture landscape restoration for .15 acre homesite in urban adobe subdivision, consultant, designer, project coordinator, 1999-2000.

~ (wip)- Safford Peak Watershed Education Team (SaPWET) ongoing, seasonal workshops, work parties and social events to promote relationship/stewardship within our neighborhood watershed and larger community. Connecting urban and rural communities by the water resources that flow through them.

Articles

The Explorer, Ancient Common Sense, Aug 30, 2006 Builder News Aug. ‘O4- Dancing Rocks: Living Lightly In A Land Of Little Rain Tucson Weekly- Permacultural Shift, November 12, ’97 Az Daily Star- Harvesting Water, July 31, ’97 The Rain Harvesters, September 26, ’97 The Tucson Citizen- Resident Pushes Benefits of Natural Run-off, October 28, ’97 Permaculture Drylands Journal- Ferment and Human Nutrition, a review, August 94