Walk, Taste and Cook Your Way Through This Immersive Arizona Food Retreat
We’ve all heard of farm-to-table dining, but sometimes the journey from seedling to plate is just as rewarding as the final dish. Castle Hot Springs’ Sonoran Epicurean Escape series invites gardening enthusiasts and gourmands alike to taste, tour and tinker alongside the pros. Stroll the sunflower-dotted farm with executive chef Chris Knouse and third-generation Arizona agronomist Ian Beger, sampling sun-warmed tomatoes, peppers or whatever experimental crops are thriving—be it tart Sonoran passionfruit, rat-tail radishes or a newly cultivated cucumber.
Just-picked ingredients are the highlight of dishes at Castle Hot Springs. 
Craft cocktails are made with garden-grown herbs and florals. Soon, a nearby agave farm will allow the resort to craft its own homegrown spirits. 
Between garden rows, mixologist Gavin Peña shakes up foraged cocktails, as Knouse and Beger hand over bites of the day’s bounty. Come nightfall, a chef’s table dinner showcases those same ingredients reimagined—picture a blackberry tart with Buddha’s hand marmalade, Blue Spice basil and crème fraîche ice cream—while sommelier Sarah Foote curates global wine pairings.
For hands-on culinary adventurers, Knouse also offers private cooking classes where guests can turn the crops into fresh salsa, artful charcuterie boards or other seasonal small plates. Even when there’s no room for another bite, the cycle continues: all scraps are composted back into the soil to nourish the next harvest.
Fifty percent of the proceeds will benefit Fresh Start Women’s Foundation, a Phoenix nonprofit that empowers women through education, resources and support services. This immersive culinary retreat runs Nov. 30–Dec. 4 and Dec. 14–18, with more dates on the horizon for 2026.
