I've fallen in love with Southern Arizona, thanks to the contributors and guests of today's show. San Francisco-based journalist Breena Kerr shines a light on the colourful, quirky afterworld of old copper mining town, Bisbee. I love this piece. Megan Kimble of Edible Baja Arizona reveals Tucson's rich, inclusive, community-based food scene, of which great restaurants are just one thing. And the writing of award-winning author/journalist Tom Miller beguiles me. Even if you never go to Southern Arizona, you'll be better off for having read one of Tom's books. I know I am. Nine more to go.
Writer, Breena Kerr
Author/Journalist Tom Miller
The voice of all things food in Tucson,
Edible Baja Arizona
Tucson Becomes an Unlikely Food Star // Kim Severson, The New York Times
A great overview of why Tuscon has been catapulted onto a world foodie stage.
There are food deserts, those urban neighborhoods where finding healthful food is nearly impossible, and then there is Tucson.
When the rain comes down hard on a hot summer afternoon here, locals start acting like Cindy Lou Who on Christmas morning. They turn their faces to the sky and celebrate with prickly pear margaritas. When you get only 12 inches of rain a year, every drop matters.
Coaxing a vibrant food culture from this land of heat and cactuses an hour’s drive north of the Mexican border seems an exhausting and impossible quest. But it’s never a good idea to underestimate a desert rat. Tucson, it turns out, is a muscular food town.
Images of Bisbee Arizona
(Thanks to Breena Kerr and the Town of Bisbee)
Linda Ronstadt's Borderland // Lawrence Downes,
The New York Times
We love the insight here, both into the borderlands of Southern Arizona and Linda Ronstadt.
We are driving outside Naco, Ariz., near the Mexico border, on a two-lane blacktop under a half-moon and stars. The distant mountains are lost in shadow, and there’s not much to look at beyond the headlight beams and the rolling highway stripes.
In the middle seat of the minivan, Linda Ronstadt is talking about her childhood.