Gary Paul Nabhan Books

An homage to the useful and idiosyncratic mesquite tree

This fascinating approach to bees shows readers an entirely new perspective - seeing the world through a bee's eyes.

The book highlights the critical loss of plant species and its implications for biodiversity, emphasizing the importance of traditional Native agricultural practices. It explores the rich diversity of tropical plants and their contributions to modern crops, while detailing how agriculture and logging threaten this diversity. Through local Native American agricultural stories, it underscores the urgency of preserving endangered plants and maintaining a wide gene pool for resilient crop varieties. The new foreword by Miguel Altieri enhances its focus on sustainable agriculture and indigenous methods.

An acclaimed ethnobotanist and a pioneering restaurateur beautifully capture the unparalleled diversity and distinctiveness of artisanal mezcals

Climate disasters, tariff wars, extractive technologies, and deepening debts are plummeting American food producers into what is quickly becoming the most severe farm crisis of the last half-century. Yet we are largely unaware of the plight of those whose hands and hearts toil to sustain us.Agrarian and ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan--the father of the local food movement--offers a fresh, imaginative look at the parables of Jesus to bring us into a heart of compassion for those in the food economy hit by this unprecedented crisis. Offering palpable scenes from the Sea of Galilee and the fields, orchards, and feasting tables that surrounded it, Nabhan contrasts the profound ways Jesus interacted with those who were the workers of the field and the fishers of the sea with the events currently occurring in American farm country and fishing harbors.Tapping the work of Middle Eastern naturalists, environmental historians, archaeologists, and agro-ecologists, Jesus for Farmers and Fishers is sure to catalyze deeper conversations, moral appraisals, and faith-based social actions in each of our faith-land-water communities.

Delve into a collection of delectable recipes that showcase the rich culinary traditions of some of the world's hottest and driest regions. Featuring aromatic dishes and unique cooking techniques from Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and the US-Mexico deserts, this book highlights the adaptability of flavors in arid environments. Compiled by two acclaimed James Beard Award-winning authors, it offers a vibrant exploration of diverse cuisines that celebrate the resilience and creativity of these cultures.

"The desert inspires wonder. Attending to history, culture, science, and spirit, Everything That Stings, Clings, or Sings celebrates the bounty and the significance of desert places"-- Provided by publisher

Gary Paul Nabhan takes the reader on a vivid and far-ranging journey across time and space in this fascinating look at the relationship between the spice trade and culinary imperialism. Drawing on his own family’s history as spice traders, as well as travel narratives, historical accounts, and his expertise as an ethnobotanist, Nabhan describes the critical roles that Semitic peoples and desert floras had in setting the stage for globalized spice trade. Traveling along four prominent trade routes—the Silk Road, the Frankincense Trail, the Spice Route, and the Camino Real (for chiles and chocolate)—Nabhan follows the caravans of itinerant spice merchants from the frankincense-gathering grounds and ancient harbors of the Arabian Peninsula to the port of Zayton on the China Sea to Santa Fe in the southwest United States. His stories, recipes, and linguistic analyses of cultural diffusion routes reveal the extent to which aromatics such as cumin, cinnamon, saffron, and peppers became adopted worldwide as signature ingredients of diverse cuisines. Cumin, Camels, and Caravans demonstrates that two particular desert cultures often depicted in constant conflict—Arabs and Jews—have spent much of their history collaborating in the spice trade and suggests how a more virtuous multicultural globalized society may be achieved in the future.