Transitions Magazine Spring 2013 - Prescott College

The Last WordA Guide to Southern Arizona’s Historic Farmsand Ranches: Rustic Southwest RetreatsReview by Chef Molly Beverly, Prescott College Food Service DirectorThe dream of the West is alive,and Lili DeBarbieri ’09 tells youhow to get there in this guidebookfeaturing 22 southern Arizonaranches and farms. Travelingthrough the pages, I want to jumpup to make reservations and grabthose experiences on historichaciendas, working cattle ranches,organic farms, and artist retreats.I’m itching to immerse myself inthe combination of charm,history, Hollywood Westerns, desertenvironments, organic farmsand gardens, hot tubs, and gregariousowners who live to sharetheir world with other people.I’ve lived in Arizona nearly 40years and never imagined I could:• Stay on the oldest cattle ranch in Arizona, and spend time “riding,feeding and shoeing horses, calling and moving cattle, roping andbranding … or clearing brush.”• Share an adobe hacienda with the memory of former guests JohnWayne, Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, Walt Disney, and PresidentJohn Kennedy, among others.• Steep myself in the movie and TV locations of Red River,McClintock, West of the Divide, the original 3:10 to Yuma, Tombstone,and Andy Warhol’s Lonesome Cowboy, and, at the sametime, stay at the cottage where the Marshall Plan was written in1947 or where Japanese Consul, General Nagao Kita, and staffwere held after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942.• Stay in an adobe hacienda built and furnished with materialsfrom a cantina that might have been “the second oldest buildingin Arizona, dating to the late 1600s.”• Ride horseback or hike through natural preserves and wildlifecorridors where “desert flowers and cacti are everywhere. Habitatareas for wildlife, such as hawks, ravens, rabbits, roadrunners, quail,chipmunks and javelina, bobcats and coyotes … with theoccasional hint of a mountain lion,” and then relax with agourmet meal, hot tub, and massage.• Stay on a 63-acre organic farm where I can enjoy harvesting andplanting parties, hayrides, farm tours, and sustainable living classeson gardening, water harvesting, animal husbandry, canning, solarand alternative energy, and then “harvest the season” for mymeals.• Or stay at the Farm of the Turkey Vulture, Almuniya de losZopilotes, with respected author, ethnobotanist, and PrescottCollege alumnus Gary Nabhan ’73 and his wife Laurie,experiencing this high desert experimental farm planted withMission Era fruit and nut trees and Southwest heritage vegetablesand animals.Sonoran Desert HummusCourtesy of Almuniya de los ZopilotesThere are recipes peppered throughout thebook, and the one I found most intriguinguses Southwest native and Spanish heritageingredients:1 pound Sonoran white tepary beans, boileduntil tender and drained¼ cup Mexican lime juice4 tablespoons sesame paste½ teaspoon sea salt2 tablespoons Mission olive oil2 tablespoons ground lemonadeberry seeds1 teaspoon Mexican oregano leaves orcumin seed1 chiltepinAfter completing cooking of the teparybeans, drain; then put in a blender or in alarge molcajete grinding stone. Add limejuice, sesame paste, olive oil, salt, chiltepin,and the oregano leaves or cumin. Blenduntil whipped into a frothy paste. Refrigerateuntil cold, then place in a ceramic bowland sprinkle lemonadeberry—an Americansumac—in a spiral pattern over the hummus.Garnish the edge with pomegranate seeds.Serves six.Lili has written a guide that opens up iconic experientialniches. (I’d say she has a great job.) Now, ifonly I had enough vacation time to visit them all!Lili is already committed towriting another book,Location Filming in Arizona:From Stagecoach to Star Wars,the Screen Legacy of theGrand Canyon State, forthcomingfrom The History Press in2014. More information atwww.lilidebarbieri.com.The Last WordTransitions Spring 2013 29