Why does food taste better when you know where it comes from? Because history--ecological, cultural, even personal--flavors every bite we eat. Whether it's the volatile chemical compounds that a plant absorbs from the soil or the stories and memories of places that are evoked by taste, layers of flavor await those willing to delve into the roots of real food. In this landmark book, Gary Paul Nabhan takes us on a personal trip into the southwestern borderlands to discover the terroir--the taste of the place--that makes this desert so delicious.

To savor the terroir of the borderlands, Nabhan presents a cornucopia of local foods--Mexican oregano, mesquite-flour tortillas, grass-fed beef, the popular Mexican dessert capirotada, and corvina (croaker or drum fish) among them--as well as food experiences that range from the foraging of Cabeza de Vaca and his shipwrecked companions to a modern-day camping expedition on the Rio Grande. Nabhan explores everything from the biochemical agents that create taste in these foods to their history and dispersion around the world. Through his field adventures and humorous stories, we learn why Mexican oregano is most potent when gathered at the most arid margins of its range--and why foods found in the remote regions of the borderlands have surprising connections to foods found by his ancestors in the deserts of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. By the end of his movable feast, Nabhan convinces us that the roots of this fascinating terroir must be anchored in our imaginations as well as in our shifting soils.

Gary Nabhan, Ph.D., W.K. Kellogg Chair in Southwest Borderlands Food and Water Security,  is an ethnobiologist, agroecologist, conservation biologist and cultural geographer trained at the University of Arizona and Prescott College. 

He is author or editor of 26 books translated into 6 languages, a number of which have won awards. In addition to his research, teaching and community service on sustainable food systems, Nabhan farms during the summer in Patagonia, Arizona. Political Ecology of Food, Conservation Ranching and Ecosystem Services, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Sustainable Food Systems, and Science Writing. 

Current Projects: Tumamoc Hill phenology change; Sonoran Desert oasis initiative (with Susie and Paul Fish); Sabores Sin Fronteras Foodways Alliance; Stitching the West Back Together working landscapes initiative (with Tom Sheridan and Susan Charnley); biodiversity of desert oases (with Rafael Routson and Amadeo Rea); Renewing America's Food Traditions agrobiodiversity inventory (with Collaborative, American Livestock Breeds Conservancy and Western Folklife Center); climate change adaptation and agrobiodiversity (with the University of Arizona Institute for the Environment).

Source: The University of Arizona