Tucson’s Iskashitaa Refugee Network (IRN) and Borderlands Brewing Co. have teamed up to created a date-based beer.
Titled the “Harvest Tucson Date Dunkelweizen,” the beer features fresh Medjool dates, harvested right here in Tucson by Iskashitaa’s network of UN refugees and local volunteers. Tonight, the brew will be unveiled at the Local Date Beer Launch Party at 6pm at Borderlands Brewery.
According to Iskashitaa, this type of date is originally from Iraq, “but date palms are sprinkled all around Tucson in backyards, neighborhoods, business districts, and even downtown.”
Like much of the fruit that the organization collects from around town, these dates often drop to the ground and eventually end up in landfills.
With help from Barlett Tree Experts, IRN harvested hundreds of pounds of dates this past Fall, and a portion went to Borderlands to be brewed in their new dunkelweizen. This collaborative effort evolved into a plan to continue brewing with locally-grown produce, to use ingredients that would otherwise go to waste, and to educate the public about fermentation, brewing, and sustainability.
The “Harvest Tucson” Dunkelweizen is also part of IRN’s ongoing “Harvest Tucson” campaign, which aims to discourage food waste. Iskashitaa’s vast refugee and volunteer network consists of people from all over the world; enabling knowledgable harvesting teams to collect over 40 unique species of fruits, vegetables, and nuts from hundreds of backyards, businesses, farms, and orchards.
A small portion of the Iskashitaa harvest is sold to restaurants who want to buy local, decrease their carbon footprint, and community integration of refugees. You can even purchase the fruits of their labor (quite literally) for yourself, in the form of fresh and dried herbs, vinegars, granolas, butters and more.
For more information, visit iskashitaa.org.
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