Cooking with our desert plants is similar to cooking with grocery bought plants when you know which plants are kin and have the same chemistry, in other words, the taxonomy of the plants.

For example, which of our common desert plants is related to licorice and carob?
Is desert ocotillo most closely related to the rose, the rhubarb, or the cranberry?
You can use the fruit of one of our desert plants as a substitute for beets; which fruit is that?

In this workshop, you’ll get a complete, albeit brief, outline of the modern genetic based synthesis of plant taxonomy. These examples of the important food plants of the desert will help you begin your exploration of our desert’s 2,500 ingredients through the art of cooking.