Tucson’s Local Food Rave
These days, the world’s rapidly growing population has got a lot of people thinking about resources. Concern about where the food and water will come from to meet our ever-increasing demand has swept across America, and especially Arid-zona, like a sandstorm, and as a result, more and more Arizonans are looking to sustainable local sources for their comestibles.
Maynard James Keenan, owner of Merkin Vineyards and Caduceus Cellars
photo courtesy Speak Easy PR
Maynard James Keenan, owner of Merkin Vineyards and Caduceus Cellars, moved to northern Arizona near Jerome in the mid-1990s. He says the small-town environment “kind of set better” than the fast-paced lifestyle of his rock star peers in L.A. and New York, and so he snatched up a plot of land and settled in more-or-less off the grid. After just a few years on the property, Keenan realized that the environment was “not unlike” a lot of areas in the Mediterranean, and so he planted his first crop of grapes. He says of his transition from artist to vintner, “My practical side and my artistic side got together (when) I saw the communities around Europe that are based around vineyards and wine, and it just seemed like they were a tighter knit community—there seemed to be a lot more going on (in those communities) that was kind of ‘weatherproof’.”
As the front man for bands like Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer, it is no wonder that Keenan rapidly became the best known face among Arizona’s agriculturalists. But, rocker status aside, Keenan’s take on food sourcing is common sense enough. “Just putting stuff in your body to fill a hole is not acceptable behavior,” he says. “The sooner you can wrap your head around that, great. You know, treat yourself to some snacks now and then—who doesn’t?—but, come on; pay attention to what you’re putting in yourself.” As well as the Arizona wine market, Keenan also has his hands in local food as owner of an organic produce market in Cornville, Arizona.
Here in Southern Arizona, one organization responsible for bringing local growers and vendors together at open-air markets around town is Heirloom Farmers Markets. Most notably, their farmers’ markets at St. Philip’s Plaza sees about 3,000 shoppers every weekend. When Heirloom’s owner Manish Shah found out that St. Philip’s was planning an art fair for the weekend of April 5, he looked at the market’s temporary displacement as an opportunity. “The idea was to throw a big food rave,” says Shah. “It was something that I had been contemplating for a long time.”
So, Heirloom and company is packing everything up for a one day celebration at Rillito Downs called the Viva La Local Food Festival. The festival, says Shah, will feature the biggest farmers’ market in Southern Arizona, with more than eighty independent vendors as well as thirty-plus local restaurants serving up some local delicacies alongside a number of Southern Arizona wineries and breweries. But if it all sounds too lavish for your blood, not to worry. “We’re trying to really keep (Viva) accessible to everybody,” says Shah.
Delectable offerings await at the Viva La Local Food Festival.
photo: Michael Moriarty
Instead of the hundred-plus-dollar entrance fees charged just to get into similar all-inclusive food events, Shah is offering free admission to his “pay-to-play” festival, where every vendor, vintner, and brewmaster on site has been asked to serve plates at a cost of five dollars or less. How vendors choose to use the real estate on those plates is up to them, Shah says.
In addition to a spectacular array of local food and drink, Viva La Local Food Fest will also be showcasing some of Tucson’s best local music with acts like Sergio Mendoza y La Orkestra, Carlos Arzate, and Naim Amor providing the entertainment.
Shah sums up the party with glittering eyes that telegraph his unbridled excitement: “Amazing food, beer, the farmers’ market, the party… it’s gonna be insane—I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like it!”
Viva La Local Food Festival is Sunday, April 6 at Rillito Downs, 4502 N. 1st Ave., from 9am-5pm. Parking is free until 10:30am and $5 per vehicle after that. Find more info at VivaLaLocalFoodFest.com.
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