Have fork will travel - Mesa, Arizona’s Fresh Foodie Trail®

Tasty New Culinary Adventures on Mesa, Arizona’s Fresh Foodie Trail^®

Mesa, Arizona is garnering lots of national attention as the culinary gateway in the Southwest with a flourishing collection of charming, neighborhood farms and food-centric outposts providing a year-round bounty of seasonal goods for visitors to enjoy. These linked experiences create the Fresh Foodie Trail^®and carve out the ultimate foodie road trip for those travelers with a penchant for good eats. This guided path will find them dining on homemade ice cream, peaches, heritage grains, olives, and so much more.

The trail stops share more than just great food, it’s also a chance for the gourmands-in-training to dive a little deeper and discover why dining local matters and they should get to know their farmer.

Just around the corner, guests can learn all about what makes Arizona BBQ different from the rest at Jalapeno Bucks. This roadside restaurant fashioned out of a container-ship is nestled in the middle of one of Arizona’s oldest orange groves dating back to 1915.

At Superstition Farm, ice cream is the central focus where guests can belly up to the Moo Bar and get milk in dozens of flavors and taste their signature Udder Delights ice cream. Also stop into their country store.

Or, look to the future at True Garden Urban Farm where bio-diverse produce is being grown on less land and using less water that most factory farming. This ‘living produce’ is starting to appear on menus across the Valley and tours here illustrate to visitors how they can grow rich-tasting produce using no soil.

In the Town of Queen Creek, it is education-plus-experience that makes their ‘agritainment’ stops memorable.

An assortment of salivating, epicurean activities can be enjoyed including watching the cold-pressing of fresh olives and tasting early harvest and late harvest EVOO at the Queen Creek Olive Mill, or foraging for the freshest produce with the farmer at Schnepf Farms.

A visit to Agritopia is a great way to cap off your road trip tasting Arizona wines at the farm winery, Garage-East, and the ever-changing craft beers at 12West Brewing.

On Saturdays, if you find yourself in Downtown Mesa, head to the Cider Corps tap room which is a showcase for apples and other unique local flavors that reflect their partnerships with area coffee roasters, farmers and more. Even Mesa’s Beer Research Institute is known to unveil their coveted peach beer every summer with local peach grower, Schnepf Farms.

For a complete list of Fresh Foodie Trail^® stops or to download the Arizona Agritourism guide, go to www.FreshFoodieTrail.com.