Schedule
We're very excited to be back for our 5th New Mexico Prickly Pear Festival. The festival will be on Saturday Sept 23th from 10am-4pm
and will take place at the Gutierrez Hubbell House
6029 Isleta Blvd SW, Albuquerque, NM 87105
September 23th, 2023
Outdoors Activities
10:00 - 10:30 AM
Opening
Our festival and vendor market opens, with vendors selling all kinds of prickly pear food, beverages, arts, and crafts. For a full list of vendors visit our vendor page
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10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Prickly Pear Print Making
OffCenter Arts will lead festival goers in making their own prickly pear silk screened prints with block prickly pear ink. Create your own beautiful prickly pear inspired art, at one of two sessions throughout the day.
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10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Prickly Pear Salsa Demo
To start off the day’s demos, Lilia Avila of the Three Sisters Kitchen and owner of Fiesta Food on Wheels will be showing festival goers how to make a roasted prickly pear and jalapeno salsa using a Molcajete.
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11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Prickly Pear Cochineal Dye Workshop
Led by Gutierrez Hubbell House contributor Kalyn Finnell, in this workshop attendees will dye fabric together with cochineal insects, which live on the pads of the nopal and have been harvested for dyeing for centuries. While getting their our hands dirty, festival goers will learn about the history of dyeing with cochineal, as well as the processes involved in natural dyeing. (The workshop is free, but spots are limited. Sign up to reserve your spot here)
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11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
From Tradition to Health: The Role of Prickly Pear in Indigenous Communities
Come learn about the nutritional benefits of prickly pear and its traditional and continued use in Native communities with Denee Bex award-winning Registered Dietitian from the Diné (Navajo) Nation and owner of Tumbleweed Nutrition.
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12:30 - 1:30 PM
Prickly Pear Print Making
Another round prickly pear silk screen prints with prickly pear ink led by OffCenter Arts. Create your own beautiful prickly pear inspired art, final session of the day.
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12:30 - 1:30 PM
Prickly Pear Cocktails & Mocktails
Come learn how to make some refreshing prickly pear drinks, both with and without alcohol. Paige Alvarez of Sugar Moon Syrups will whip up some stunning prickly pear mocktails that festival goers can recreate at home and the folks from Hollow Spirits Distillery will be showing attendees how to make a boozy prickly pear drink.
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1:30 - 2:30 PM
Prickly Pear Vinaigrette & Prickly Pear Butter Demo
Festival goers will learn how to make some delicious prickly pear spread and dressing with Israel Rivera, chef and owner of The Shop. Israel will be showing folks how to prepare a prickly pear vinaigrette for dressing a salad, as well as a spreadable prickly pear butter, that will go on top of crostini with some pork loin and prickly pear vinaigrette dressed greens for attendees to sample
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1:30 - 2:30
Prickly Pear Cochineal Dye Workshop
The last arts and crafts event of the day, Kalyn Finnell, will lead a second natural dye workshop using cochineal insects, which live on the pads of the nopal and have been harvested for dyeing for centuries. (The workshop is free, but spots are limited. Sign up to reserve your spot here)
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2:30 - 4:00
Prickly Pear Cocktail Class
In addition to the free prickly pear cocktail and mocktail demos at the festival, Hollow Spirits will also be doing a full prickly pear cocktail class where attendees will get hands on experience making 3 delicious Prickly Pear inspired cocktails featuring spirits by Hollow Spirits Distillery! Tickets are sold separately and can be purchased here.
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2:30 - 4:00 PM
Welcoming to the Prickly Pear Stage:
We have an awesome line up of local artists to grace our prickly pear festival stage including
Ailani
Almost, Always, Never
Gold Tides
Inside the
Gutierrez Hubbell House
Programming for farmers, ranchers, and gardeners
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Prickly Pear Propagation & Care
Former Albuquerque Botanical Garden curator and local Opuntia expert, Dave Ferguson, will show folks how to properly propagate and care for young prickly pear cacti.
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11:30 - 12:30 PM
Growing Regenerative Landscapes and Getting Them Funded
A conversation around using prickly pear and other arid adapted crops in agricultural systems and receiving funding for these kinds of sustainable practices with Lorenzo Dominguez owner of Hacienda Dominguez & Chelenzo Farms
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1:00 - 2:00 PM
Starting or Growing an Added-Value Prickly Pear Food Business
Lean how to create or grow an added-value food business using prickly pear with NMSU’s Bernalillo County Extension and Family and Consumer Science Agent Amber Benson-Lehmer. She’ll be talking to folks considering using and growing prickly pear for added value products like pickling, preserving, and more about where to start, including a prickly pear preserve tasting.
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2:00 - 3:00 PM
Innovating with Prickly Pear Nopal
Hear from father and daughter team, Jose and Regina, about how they’ve grown and created products using powered prickly pear nopal. Since 2005, their company, Nopamex and Kactas Foods, has been a pioneer for the cactus industry in Mexico; innovating in their dehydrating technology, developing new nopales crops, and uses for the plant.