“The idea for the Seed & Sow pop up started with really good pigs,” says Kevin Fink, Director of Operations at Zona 78. “We had been feeding our whey and vegetable scraps to the pigs at Five Sons farm for a while. Five Sons’ Brian Heller shared that the pigs were also eating the spent grain from Iron John’s Brewing and Whiskey Del Bac. We thought it might be interesting to have a pop up dinner all around the pig.”

What started as a playful meal around a pig and its dinner quickly grew into an expression of Southern Arizona. Zona 78 partnered with Edible Baja Arizona and the word spread.

“Our goal was to make the menu as close to 100% Arizona ingredients as possible – a community inspired kitchen,” Fink said. Bringing together farmers, ranchers, beekeepers, distillers, brewers and winemakers, Zona 78 essentially closed for two days as Seed & Sow took center stage.

“We were blown away by the community support. It just shows us how hungry Tucsonans are for local high quality products and what is exciting is that there are plenty out there for them to chose from.”

Zona 78 will do it all over again on September 17 and 18 at the River and Stone location. Part two of the celebration of local will be in partnership with Heirloom Farmer’s Market and Edible Baja Arizona. Stay tuned to Tucson Foodie for more information.

For a personal account of the pop up, check out the latest post on restaurantwife.com.