The Greenest Party

On South Tucson Boulevard, in an abandoned special needs school, resides Merchant’s Garden. Outside of a large greenhouse on what could have been a playground at one time, there is no indication that a farm actually exists. At first I thought I was lost but when a modular classroom door opened, a slender man in a distressed ball cap waved and welcomed me in.

Chaz Shelton is the founder and CEO of Merchant’s Garden, who started the company with his father in 2015.

“Honestly, before this, I had zero agriculture experience,” says Shelton with a bright smile. “I was in health care and I just saw a big need for healthy food. So together we got this property and built a greenhouse. Then it started to take off from there.”

2017, ArticleGuest UserDecember 7, 2017Tucson Weekly

Tucson Becomes the First UNESCO-Designated Creative City of Gastronomy in the U.S.

It’s official: Tucson is indeed a world capital of gastronomy. UNESCO announced their 2015 additions to the Creative Cities Network, and after the second year applying, Tucson’s application to be recognized as a gastronomic site was approved.

As hashed out in last week’s Tucson Weekly cover story, Tucson’s application for the honor hinged largely on the region’s 4,000 years of continuous agriculture, progressive native seed line preservation programs and the huge impact food-related jobs and businesses have on the local economy. Those reasons, among many others, were enough for the global organization to add Tucson to the network.

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