TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Saturday on the Westside, the San Ysidro festival was held at Mission Garden located at 946 W Mission Ln.
The annual festival is used as a time to not only remember San Ysidro as the patron of laborers and farmers, but also to do some harvesting.
The event started at about 8 in the morning with a procession which was led by a priest blessing the garden.
It was followed by a few speakers who shared the significance of the festival.
Then it was time for the work to begin.
After a demonstration, visitors began harvesting the plot of Pima Club Wheat with the same techniques that were used over a century ago. From there it was threshed by horses walking on it and then winnowed and milled.
The goal of the festival and the garden as a whole is to help educate. Mission Garden’s Community Outreach Coordinator, Kendall Kroesen said, “The whole mission here is to recreate in different plots around the garden the agriculture of many different eras of our long, long agricultural history — over 4,000 years, maybe as much as 5,000 years.”
Mission Garden is open Wednesday through Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to noon. Admission is free.
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Madison Thomas joined KGUN 9 in July of 2023 as a multimedia journalist. She graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2023 with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She has lived in Arizona her entire life and grew up in Douglas. Madison is thrilled to share the stories from the community she grew up in. Share your story ideas and important issues with Madison by emailing madison.thomas@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
