The Land With No Name Sanctuary Presents:
Foraging & Fundraising
Sunset Dinner
Saturday, May 13th 2023
4:00pm – 8:30pm
We're thrilled to have hosted our first-ever fundraising event: we were joined by friends and new faces for a special evening of learning, tasting, experiencing, and appreciating. We ate from the desert, learned about the history and culture of Sonoran biodiversity, and sipped wild-crafted beverages while the sun set over our new roasting pit.
Wild foods, wild spaces
The Land With No Name Sanctuary 501(c)(3) is a registered non-profit dedicated to the arts. Our mission is to gather land, art, and people together to create unbound experiences, engaging those who make and those who appreciate. We are located 35 miles southwest of downtown Tucson on land surrounded by open range. What started as a space for sculptures looking for a home has transformed into a living, breathing, sanctuary for art and artists alike. The Sculpture sanctuary now includes a large network of walking trails with sculptural works living among native plant life, and a solar powered straw-bale Studio House with rustic outdoor dining space.
Co-directors Ted Wade Springer and Kate Long Hodges have invested so much, growing this project into a true labor of love. Now, we are asking for help from our community to continue to make this incredible project possible. We have teamed up with some generous folks who are serious about plants and food to offer you a remarkable combination of place, people, and gastronomy. The experience will include some light refreshments as we welcome you to the Land, followed by a combined sculpture tour and botanical hike with LWNNS co-directors Ted Wade Springer and Kate Long Hodges, and expert naturalist Jack Dash. Dinner will include handcrafted, wild-sourced beverages (both with and without alcohol) and a gourmet, wild-sourced four course meal of foraged native and introduced plants and local AZ beef, all prepared by chef Krem Miskevich. There will also be some take-home treats!
For more specifics and to RSVP for this event keep scrolling down, and click here to learn more about our partners.
Menu
Welcome - hors d'oeuvres and cocktail
Dinner - four-course plated service using native & naturalized foraged plants including, as available,
barrel cactus fruit & seed
ocotillo flowers
sumac berry
palo verde blossom & bean
mesquite flour
cholla bud
sotol stalk
tepary beans
agave
nopal
mulberry
yucca stalk
Mt Lemmon mushroom
thistle flower
desert willow blossom
dove meat
i'itoi onion
60-day corn
blue corn masa
sonoran heirloom wheat
Main course - local AZ beef from Forbes Meat Company, and hearty vegetarian foraged alternative
Dessert - roasted agave
Getting Here: We will meet at Kestrel Kafe: 10390 S Sierrita Mountain Road, Tucson AZ 85736. From I-19 go west on A-86/Ajo Way for 35 miles. Turn left onto S. Sierrita Mountain Rd. Kestrel Kafe will be on your Right after 2.4 miles.
From there you can join a carpool or take your own vehicle, and we will all caravan out to the Land. Roads can be rough and parking at LWNNS is limited - high clearance vehicles are preferable, and carpooling is encouraged and will be arranged from the cafe parking lot. We ask that you wait to use the restroom until you get out to the Land With No Name; the owner of Kestrel Kafe is a valued neighbor and we do not want to take advantage of her hospitality. For more information, visit This Page
Dress Code: long pants, closed-toe shoes, and a hat are suggested, and high fashion is always appreciated!
Cost of Registration: tickets are $250 per guest – this will help us raise some of the funds needed to continue operating–but additional donations are welcome and encouraged! If you are in a position to donate more than that, please do, and all donations of any amount will directly support the Land With No Name Sanctuary non-profit organization.
An Important Note: We recognize that this region is traditional Tohono O’odham land, and we have been actively working to open our gates to the Tohono O'odham community and create a space where different cultures can begin to have dialogue, offering an opportunity to move forward with open conversation. The Tohono O'odham Connections workshops are a large part of what we hope to sustain through donations and grants. All of the plants native to this land that you will eat are foraged with respect and educated care, and you will learn some of each plant's place in history.
Schedule of Events for Saturday, May 13th:
4:00pm - Convene at Kestrel Kafe to join our carpool or the caravan if you are driving your own high clearance vehicle. Please wait to use the restroom until you get to the Land!
4:45 - Arrive at the Land
5:00 - Welcome by your hosts Ted and Kate, with refreshments at the Gathering Tree
5:15 - Come along for the sculpture and botany tour with Jack Dash, Ted, and Kate. The leisurely walk is over rough terrain in the open desert. You will enjoy sculptures by some of our 30+ artists and learn about many of the plants, fruits, and blooms that you will be eating for dinner. Or, enjoy the beautiful sights and sounds of The Land With No Name Sanctuary while relaxing under the Gathering Tree.
6:30 - Dinner is served!
8:00 - We will end the evening gathered around a traditional outdoor agave roasting pit, and will uncover and eat the agave together as a group.
8:30 - Caravan home with your gift bag – thank you for coming!
Please feel free to contact us with any questions regarding this event at totheland@gmail.com or (520) 975 - 1965
This event is now sold out!
Our Partners
Chef Krem Miskevich (they/them) was born in Warsaw, Poland and received their culinary education in Los Angeles, CA. They have since worked in Copenhagen, Warsaw, Barcelona, Los Angeles, and Martha's Vineyard, MA. Now they are in Tucson, falling in love with the Sonoran Desert's amazing bounty, and excited to use all of their culinary knowledge to transform the beauty that surrounds us into meals that nourish us.
Our guide, Jack Dash, is a naturalist and writer based in Tucson, Arizona. His work combines botany and horticulture to bring people closer to the distinct flora of the Southwestern United States. Jack’s work has been featured in Emergence Magazine, High Country News, Plant Press Arizona, and Butterfly Gardener Magazine, he is also the co-creator of Atascosa Borderlands an interactive digital archive of the ecology and history of a portion of the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands, and author of the Arizona Native Plant Society’s GROW NATIVE plant list. Jack has over a decade of horticultural experience and is a member of the Botany Department at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. He is also the current President of the Tucson Chapter of the AZNPS.
You can learn more about chef Krem Miskevich's plans in Tucson in their article in This Is Tucson
you can hear more from Jack Dash in this feature from AZ Public Media's Arizona Illustrated series