Living Landscapes: Food, Memory, and the Sonoran Desert

Chef and Artist Jeffrey Lazos Ferns invites you to explore Arizona’s Indigenous Foodways and the Sonoran Desert as a living archive of cultural knowledge, focusing on how Indigenous foodways and ecological relationships have shaped Arizona communities over generations. Through stories of indigenous plants, including the Sonoran Desert tree pantry, Sonoran Desert cactus pantry, and the Sonoran Desert shrub apothecary, the presentation highlights how plant, food, and wildlife traditions are deeply tied to land, identity, and survival. Ferns connects desert ecology to themes of history, migration, and cultural resilience. Audiences will see Arizona’s landscapes not as passive settings but as active forces shaping community life, offering insight into sustainable practices and cultural continuity in the face of environmental change. Note: This presentation will include tasting samples from the Sonoran Desert plant scape.