As the southern Arizona heat approaches, our food choices change. We want something lighter. We even tend to move outdoors to grill rather than heating up the house and jacking up the air conditioning bill. Perhaps there is a little more ice cream on our menu. Regionally food has always been different. Even with the internet and fast air flight our food choices differ from place to place. You’ll struggle to find real Mexican food in Pennsylvania, and clam chowder soup, while almost there, isn’t the same in Tucson. One of the early partners who owned the Empire, Herbert Hislop left us a series of letters. His notes on food offer us a comparison of the “civilized” eastern U.S. versus our desert home. In June of 1876, Hislop was in Chicago, staying at the swank Tremont House. There he recorded getting four meals a day for $3.50. He noted his variety of choices. “…it has been nothing but strawberries and cream every day,” and he noted “all sorts of fruit.” He complained about eating “so much meat” and was glad to have the fruit as “it does not heat one so…” Herbert soon left by the transcontinental railroad, traveling for 5 days and nights before reaching San Francisco. By July Herbert was in Arizona and coming south by stagecoach through Florence, Arizona. The coach carried 24 gallons water for the horses and he noted they “had to fill our canteens with putrid water.” Stopping for two hours in the evening, he reported that they ate canned oysters, hard bread, canned meats and melons, a very different menu from the Tremont. Herbert was experiencing Arizona before the railroad, far distant from the life he knew and preferred. The Empire Ranch would offer even less, and he would, to his regret, have his fill of “so much meat” from the cattle he owned. Image: Tucson in the 1870s (fb)

Have you heard?! Stop by the Historic Empire Ranch Headquarters on your way! (fb)