Discover the Flavors and Traditions of the Sonoran Desert! Ever baked with mesquite flour or tasted pickled cholla buds? These unique desert ingredients aren’t just delicious—they can boost food security, improve health, and protect the environment. Join us for a flavorful celebration of the Sonoran Desert’s rich food heritage! Sample creative bites from local chefs featuring desert-adapted ingredients and learn about the history and future of desert foodways. Come explore how the resilient flavors of the desert can nourish both the body and the land.
Tonight's Schedule:
6:00 - 8:00 p.m. Desert-inspired dishes in the Ironwood Restaurant and Ocotillo Café. Try new dishes prepared by the Desert Museum’s new Chef.
6:30 - 8:00 p.m. Desert Food Tastings in Collaboration with Tucson City of Gastronomy. Explore dishes crafted by local chefs using local ingredients like mesquite, prickly pear, cholla buds, and tepary beans. Discover how the desert’s bounty can inspire delicious and resilient cuisine. Talk to chefs, learn what inspires them, and be inspired yourself! (Limited to one tasting sample per guest.)
6:30 - 7:30 p.m. The Sonoran Supermarket
Join us for a fun and family-friendly presentation where we’ll explore the amazing edible plants of the Sonoran Desert! Discover how desert plants like agave, prickly pear, and mesquite have nourished desert peoples for generations. Through engaging stories, hands-on demonstrations, and interactive Q&A, kids and adults alike will learn how these hardy plants survive in harsh desert conditions and why they’re so important for local ecosystems and food traditions. Come learn how the Sonoran Desert is nature’s own supermarket!
6:30 - 9:30 p.m. Pop-up Chili Sale
6:30 - 9:30 p.m. Educational activities
Learn from our partners — Tucson Village Farm, Las Milpitas Community Farm and more!
Warden Oasis Theater:
8:00 - 9:00 p.m. Chile, Clove and Cardamom: A Gastronomic Journey Into the Fragrances and Flavors of Desert Cuisines — Presentation and Book Signing.
Throughout the Night:
Look for Museum Docents around grounds interpreting live animals, celestial desert skies, fluorescent minerals, bats, kissing bugs, scorpions, rattlesnakes, and more!
6:00 - 9:30 p.m. Stingray Touch Exhibit
Admission: $2 Members / $4 Non-Members
Visitors are able to create their own moments with these captivating creatures at the Stingray Touch experience. The pool features cow nose stingrays that guests can interact with. Be touched by a ray!
6:00 - 10:00 p.m. Packrat Playhouse
This indoor play space allows children to discover the desert through the eyes of a packrat! Packrat Playhouse may reach capacity. 30-minute reserved play times are available at the Packrat Playhouse entrance.
6:00 - 9:00 p.m. Art Exhibits
Make sure to check out 'Camouflage' in the Ironwood Gallery and 'Desert Textures' in the Baldwin Gallery!
Signature Drink — The Desert Bird
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ABOUT COOL SUMMER NIGHTS:
Open till 10:00 p.m. on Saturdays June 7 - August 31, 2025! All Cool Summer Nights events are included with Museum admission.
The Desert Museum is lovely during the day, but it’s even cooler after dark! Join us every Saturday night throughout the summer to beat the heat while learning something neat! The desert comes alive at night as nocturnal animals awake. Bats perform aerial acrobatics in pursuit of dinner, otters splash around in their pond, and scorpions glow green under black light. Bring your flashlight and explore, grab a refreshing drink and wander, experience a live animal encounter, scamper in Packrat Playhouse, feel the touch of a stingray, or participate in special nightly activities.
Learn more:
https://www.desertmuseum.org/visit/events_saturday_csn
Consider joining our membership program. A lot of bang for your buck! Learn more:
http://www.desertmuseum.org/members/
You may also like the following events from Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum:
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Food & Drink events in Tucson,
Kids events & activities in Tucson,
Arts events in Tucson.
