Arizona Food Service Network

The Arizona Food Service Network connects all people, events, resources, and organizations associated with Arizona food, food service, and food science.

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The Little Farm That Could, But Didn’t

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A message from Agave Farms from their Facebook page.

“Dear Agave Farms Community,

Thank you for a great Spring 2021 season! This offseason we are making some BIG changes and want to keep you all up to date. Moving forward, we’ll be expanding our Community Outreach and Community Garden Plot missions. To achieve these goals, we’ve began looking for a new location! We will announce our new address in the coming months.

Our business number will be changed, but we can be contacted by email at: info@agave-farms.com. With our Community Outreach goal being our highest priority, we’ve decided not to carry over the retail sales nursery to our new location.

We would like to thank the landowner for the opportunities and support over the last 5 years. Thank you for allowing us to share our knowledge and skills on urban agriculture.

We will continue to build new gardens and community gardens through our nonprofit, Urban Farming Education, which will be mobile to serve several community gardens. Please follow them and keep an eye on our socials for updates.

We look forward to being of continued service to you, and I hope you will enjoy the benefits of Agave Farms at our new location.

Sincerely,

Agave Farms and Urban Farming Education Team”

It was such a great venue, and one that will be sadly missed. Not sure why they closed but glad to hear they have plans to continue with their goals for our community. When we hear an update on their next chapter, we will post that as well.

We wish the Agave Farms team the best in their new location.

March 21-28 Observations

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Here are a list of food related observations for the week of March 21-28 and the connection to Arizona foodservice.

21- National Crunchy Taco Day. Visit Phoenix has posted a list of the best places for tacos from Bite Magazine on their website and upon review, great list.

21- National French Bread Day. National Today expands on the background of French bread and the best list I could find for French bread and Arizona is from Yelp, yet the list isn’t defined to just French bread, you’ll see a variety of specialty items listed.

21- National Healthy Fats Day. A good review of healthy fats, avocados are a favorite in Arizona and thankfully they’re good and good for you. Here are five recipes from the Food Network for avocado toast that look fantastic! Enjoy!

22- Bavarian Crepes Day. The most well known crepes restaurant in Arizona is the Crepe Bar in south Tempe.

22- World Water Day. The University of Arizona has information pertaining to World Water Day 2022 yet not see a

22- National AG Day. The Arizona Farm Bureau is a great resource for Arizona Agriculture and their blog, Fill Your Plate filled with great information and recipes. The Arizona Department of Agriculture has a breakdown of Arizona agriculture information here.

23- National Tamale Day. According to Visit Arizona, tamales are Arizona’s unofficial delicacy and one of course most popular tamales are from The Tamale Store, which is located on Cave Creek Road in Phoenix, you can also purchase ready to eat or frozen packs of tamales at local farmer’s markets. Here is their Farmer’s Market Calendar.

23- National Cheesesteak Day. Yum! Such a great sandwich, and here is Yelp’s list of the 10 best Cheesesteaks in Phoenix.

23- National Cocktail Day. I think it’s safe to say, if you’re reading this, you know what a cocktail is and if you enjoy these libations, here’s Phoenix Magazine Best of the Valley Drinks, Beers, Cocktails and Bars from July 2021. Here’s list from Yelp of the Best Cocktail Bars in Phoenix. Cheers!

24- International Waffle Day. Again from Yelp, here is a list of restaurants that specialize in waffles and from All Recipes, a page fill with waffle recipes.

26- National Spinach Day. According to the Arizona Farm Bureau in 2014, spinach was almost a 90 million business for Arizona. We’re ranked 2nd in the nation for quantity of production.

27- National Spanish Paella Day. According to Yelp, these restaurants service the best paella in Phoenix.

28- National Black Forest Cake Day. What a cake. Here’s a brief history of the Black Forest Cake, and once again I refer to Yelp for a list and look forward to compiling a list of our own as this develops.

28- National Something On A Stick Day. They have a day for everything. A quick search brought up a list of 50 kebabs recipes from the Food Network and it’s a good list.

Arizona Bats, Online Event

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From the University of Arizona Extension Did you know that bats are our friends?  Learn everything you wanted to know about Bats:

  • Bat Facts
  • Bat benefits
  • What bats eat
  • Where bats live
  • Diseases bats carry
  • Species of bats in Yavapai County and the Sonoran desert

Hosted by Yavapai County Master Gardener Speakers’ Bureau in conjunction with the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension presented by Laurin Pause.

Event Date

March 22, 2022 6:30pm

Location

Online event link

https://arizona.zoom.us/j/89908748826(link is external)

P.O.W.W.O.W Price Increase

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From their newsletter, Produce On Wheels With – Out Waste (P.O.W.W.O.W.) has been forced to increase their pricing to make up for the rising costs with fuel.

“The Arizona average diesel price as of today is between $5.15 – $5.25 a gallon, an average increase of 27% from November 2021. We are in Nogales, AZ, this is where we rescue the produce that goes to all our P.O.W.W.O.W. program sites. Our tractors travel every weekend an approximate 400 miles to the Phoenix areas and our reefers also use diesel. We can no longer afford the transportation cost for our Arizona Program – Produce on Wheels With-Out Waste. The contribution asked of our supporters for the 70 pounds of fresh produce has been $12 for six years it barely helps us cover our transportation costs, so now we must increase it to $15 effective with our 3/19/2022, P.O.W.W.O.W.s. This amount is still only .21 cents per pound and is a little under the 27% increase of fuel. Also, remember to tell your families and friends that for the last 3 months we have been increasing the distribution poundage to above the 70 pounds; on average 80-90 pounds.

We do not receive Federal or State dollars to help us get this produce to our Arizona families, we need your help! A $100 donation to Borderlands helps to supplement nutritiously an approximate 168 meals also keeping an approximate 35 pounds of bad gas emissions out of our environment. We all need to do our part to curb food waste and help save our planet!”

Our mailing address is:

Borderlands Produce Rescue
270 W. Produce Row
Nogales, Arizona 85621
Telephone: (520) 287-2627
www.borderlandsproducerescue.org

Donate

Food Systems Career Panel (online)

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“Join us for the virtual annual career panel hosted by the ASU Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems. This event will give students pursuing careers in food systems, sustainability, and agribusiness a better understanding of their career options after graduation.

Panelists with experience in private, non-profit, and government organizations will offer insights into the field.

With remarks by:

  • Ashley Schimke, Food System Specialist at Arizona Department of Education
  • Cameron (Cam) Petersen, Staff Assistant, US House of Representatives
  • Kenneth Steel, Healthy Communities Programs Manager at Pinnacle Prevention
  • Sarah Nathan, V.P. of Business Development at ReGrained”

Friday, March 18, 2022
1:00 – 2:00 p.m. AZ Time

Online event. Register here.

Information and photo Source.