Elderberry Edibles is a human-scale homestead CSA & market garden located in the Tanque Verde Valley on the East side of Tucson, Arizona.

In 2009, with our desire to live a life more harmonious with nature and her systems, we began construction of a yurt which is a Mongolian nomadic housing structure. We left our small gardens and grid-tied house and moved to a friend’s property in town. While living there in tents, we finished building the yurt and in the spring, we moved to the beautiful mesquite bosque on the East side of Tucson. Here, we have minimized our dependence on fossil fuels while working to improve our homestead, lifestyle and selves in accordance with our hearts’ desire for a peaceful, healthy Earth.

In fall of 2010, we were invited to be the caretakers of the one acre garden space on this land. For the past 20 years it has been tended by a multitude of lovely families and we wanted to see what we could accomplish here. Drawing on knowledge from our past food-growing experiences and dreams of providing healthy food for our family and community, we created Elderberry Edibles.

Healthy soil and healthy plants have been our focus from the beginning. While incorporating some concepts of Permaculture, Biodynamics, Grow Biointensive and natural farming, we experiment with no-till, double dig and hugelkultur bed preparation. We also add compost, compost tea and grow compost crops to strengthen soil structure, cultivate active soil life and increase food vitality. Our time here provides valuable lessons about how to be good stewards of the earth as we continue toward our goal of creating personal sustainable abundance while improving local food security.