No muss, no fuss, and plenty of food: Native perennial food plants for the Tucson desert garden

The Sonoran desert has supported human settlements for at least 12,000 years. The incredible biodiversity of the area meant that there were plenty of foods available for Indigenous people to harvest. Today, many of these foods are still available to us — it just takes a little step out of our comfort zone.

The plants listed are a small sampling of the native foods we can grow in our area. All of these plants are extremely drought-tolerant, ideally adapted to our desert conditions, and will require little care once established. They are all perennials, which means you only need to plant them once. They’re a great option if you want to grow your own food but don’t want to fuss with vegetable beds and the high maintenance they entail — fertilizing, irrigation, transplanting, shade cloth and all that jazz.

Prickly pear (Opuntia spp.) Prickly pear cacti offer two options for tasty food: pads (nopales) and fruit (tunas). The young, green pads must be harvested while very tender, otherwise they will be tough. They can be grilled, sauteed, fried, pickled, and marinated. If you want to try them out, you can usually find them in grocery stores in the spring. They taste similar to green beans, but have a mucilaginous texture like okra. The fruits can be processed and made into syrups, juice, jellies, and sauces.