Registration is now open for this year's Local Food Brunch featuring Melissa Sevigny, author of Mythical River: Chasing the Mirage of New Water in the American Southwest. The brunch will take place at The Commons (The Volunteer Center), and provides a wonderful opportunity to taste local foods that you never thought to eat, engage in imaginative and thoughtful exploration of what rivers mean to us, and support the conservation of the Gila River.

The Wild Resilience Collective, a newly formed Grant County group dedicated to "re-wilding agriculture as a cooperative business," will prepare a delicious, home-cooked meal made with locally-produced and foraged foods. Author Sevigny will discuss the historic quest for navigable rivers in the American West, early explorers' obstinate, optimistic belief in nonexistent rivers, and the unending search for "new" waters.

In Mythical River Sevigny writes about a 1776 Spanish expedition that, while exploring a safe trade route to California, named a river "El Río de San Buenaventura." Subsequent mapmakers depicted the Buenaventura River running west to the Pacific Ocean. No less an explorer than Alexander von Humboldt perpetuated this mythic river in a hand-drawn map.

Sevigny employs the Buenaventura as a metaphor for Americans' undying frontier mindset in our search for "new" water to exploit. Gradually, though, this paradigm is changing, as increasing numbers of people realize the value of wild rivers and the imperative to protect them from overuse and development, as evidenced by half a century of Wild and Scenic River designations. Sevigny will talk about one such designation in her home state of Arizona: Fossil Creek in the Gila basin.

This brunch, featuring locally-grown and foraged foods, may introduce you to some new foods, but won't take you out of your food comfort zone. Mesquite pancakes with prickly pear syrup and local sweet-potato crusted quiche are just a couple of the tantalizing treats you'll savor. At the traditional Gila River Festival brunch, you'll enjoy camaraderie, a beautiful garden, an excellent meal, a fascinating presentation, and a chance to help the Gila Conservation Coalition protect the free-flowing Gila River.

Thank you to Brunch sponsor Cissy McAndrew, United Country Mimbres Realty.

The event is $50 per person and is a fundraiser for the Gila Conservation Coalition. Sunday, September 23, 2018 at The Commons (The Volunteer Center), 501 E. 13th St., Silver City at 10:30 am.

To register visit: https://www.gilariverfestival.org/native-food-brunch/
Full schedule and registration available at www.gilariverfestival.org.

Thank you to our major sponsors: New Mexico Humanities Council, National Endowment for the Humanities, McCune Charitable Foundation, the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Institute for Lifelong Learning (WILL), Defenders of Wildlife, WNMU, Chiricahua Apache Nation, Cissy McAndrew United Country Mimbres Realty, AMALAYA, New Mexico Wild, Fort Sill Apache, and funding from the Town of Silver City Lodger's Tax.