Following a successful series in June, Encuentro de Mezquite is returning next month with a three-day celebration of South Texas native foods, ecology and culture timed to coincide with CaminARTE.<\/p>\n
The event takes place Aug. 7-9 at multiple locations throughout Laredo.<\/p>\n
Opening night will be held from 6-9\u00a0p.m. Aug. 7 at Casa Ortiz and feature Maite Gomez-Rej\u00f3n alongside a mezquite demonstration by Luna Vela.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 8, up to 100 attendees will gather for a symposium and luncheon at the Laredo Center for the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery. The program includes a Mercado de Mezquite, a keynote address by Gomez-Rej\u00f3n, a conversation with botanist and herbalist Tony Ramirez and a moderated panel featuring Marcella\u00a0Juarez, Servando Leal and Elsa Arguindegui.<\/p>\n
The symposium will also feature a Native Foods Lunch prepared by South Texas chefs and a presentation by Lucille Contreras of the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project.<\/p>\n
The evening concludes with a Carne Asada, Mezcal & Barbacoa en Pozo preparation from 6:30-9\u00a0p.m. at La Pita Mangana Ranch. The event wraps up Aug. 9 with a Barbacoa Unveiling & Closing Brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the ranch. Registration is required for both ranch events.<\/p>\n
Encuentro de Mezquite is hosted by Laredo Urban Agriculture with support from the Texas Indigenous Food Project, Humanities Texas and numerous local partners and chefs. The event is co-organized by Ryan Cantu and Virginia Elizabeth.<\/p>\n
Cantu said he hopes Encuentro de Mezquite encourages people to reconnect with South Texas’ ecology and the region’s Indigenous history.<\/p>\n
“In Laredo, places like Webb County, there’s a very poor knowledge of the native past,” he said. “We wanted to do this, because the Mezquite … is a symbol of this past and in addition, is a nutritious staple that grows all around us.”<\/p>\n
Cantu said the inaugural event in June focused on teaching participants how to identify quality mezquite beans, harvest them and process them into foods such as flour.<\/p>\n
This year’s event expands on that foundation by highlighting mezquite alongside other edible plants found throughout the South Texas monte.<\/p>\n
“We’d like to educate people on that, have a lot of tastings with foods like Mezquite,” he said, adding that many ranchers consider the tree to be invasive. He and co-founder Virginia Elizabeth are looking to flip that.<\/p>\n
“We’re trying to start a dialogue. … Mezquite is so resilient, it’s hard to combat or eradicate. How can we instead learn to live with it in our land?”<\/p>\n
To register for the events, scan the attached QR code.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a successful series in June, Encuentro de Mezquite is returning next month with a three-day celebration of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-395588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}