We are very excited to safely return (with all CDC recommended precautions) to an in person festival this year and are also excited to be expanding our offerings.

This year festival will be broken up into 2 days. The first day will be for eaters, cooks, and anyone else will a love and taste for prickly pears featuring cooking demonstrations from Tina Archuleta, creator of Native and plant based food company Itality, chefs Lois Ellen Frank and Walter Whitewater of Red Mesa Cuisine, and chef Marie Yniguez of Slow Roasted Bocadillos; prickly pear beverage demo with Michael Sedillo and Joe Romero of Three Sisters Kitchen a market with vendors selling all kinds of prickly pear products: food, drinks, bath & body products, art…and more; a recipe competition with home chefs battling it out for best sweet and savory prickly pear recipes; and live music featuring local artists Jordan Wax (of Lone Pinon), Bill Palmer (of Bill Palmers' TV Killers), Future Scars, Prism B!tch, and Lindy Vision.

The 2nd day will be for farmers, ranchers, and gardeners featuring talks and workshops for how to incorporate prickly pears into your systems. This will include a presentation by Isabelle Jenniches of the Healthy Soil Working Group about the Healthy Soil Program and how to incorporate prickly pear and other native plants into your growing for soil health; Nancy Flores of NMSU talks about how to start and grow your food business with an emphasis on prickly pear products; Prof Jose Dubeux of the University of Florida discussing how to use prickly pear for livestock fodder; and a prickly pear harvesting field trip.