Ian Beger is the lead agronomist at the historical luxury resort Castle Hot Springs located in Morristown near Lake Pleasant. He oversees the cultivation and harvesting of more than 150 varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs and florals on the 3-acre organic farm and green house.
What does a week in your life at Castle Hot Springs look like?
We have a diversified farm operation, so no two days or weeks are the same. Every day, I do a quick walk-through of the farm to make sure that a pipe didn’t break or the javelinas didn’t get in or anything like that – there’s a lot that can go wrong. I also typically check in with the kitchen daily to see if there’s anything they need. A lot of times, I’ll also communicate with the chef on what the third course – which is a small, farm-inspired bite that’s new every day – will be for the restaurant.
Then, every week we do a walk-through to identify the plantings that need to take place or adjustments that need to be made. Mondays are more project-oriented, Tuesdays are a harvest day, Wednesday is what we call “bed prep” where we remove anything that needs to come out of the ground, Thursdays are usually for planting and then Fridays are another harvest day. Saturdays and Sundays are usually more guest-oriented.
What activities do you recommend for guests staying at Castle Hot Springs?
There are two free activities that I think really help guests enjoy the property to its full extent and that we recommend doing as soon as possible when you arrive. The first is the farm tour because it’ll help you identify what’s on your plate at the restaurant. I recommend taking it multiple times, even if you’re a repeat guest, because we have different farmers that do things differently, different seasonality, and we change year to year – the farm is constantly changing. I would argue the farm is a central part of this place and feeds the other departments – not just the kitchen and bar, but also the spa.
The second is the documentary screening. You don’t necessarily need to do it on property, but it does a great job of giving you a brief history of Castle Hot Springs. You can go down a rabbit hole with all the history here, but the documentary is only about 30 minutes and does a really good job of expressing the history.
The other activities depend on what you want to do. You can climb mountains, you can hike all of our trails, go horseback riding, or check out our agaves. The farm-to-bar mixology is also great – you go out and harvest stuff from the farm to use in the class.
Are you seeing a greater interest in culinary tourism?
For sure. You also see excitement from people who didn’t really know what to expect. Farming has been around for so long, and humans evolved farming, but people have lost connection with where their food comes from, so simply reconnecting the dots is a powerful thing and something I think we do at a high level here. People have even told us that they were looking at different places to visit but our farm sold them on coming to Castle Hot Springs, which is cool to hear. It also brings a really impressive clientele – they’re here to nourish themselves, and they show a lot of care and interest in what we’re doing.
What’s something people are usually surprised by when they visit the farm? When we point out some of the produce – asparagus, for example – people don’t know what those vegetables really look like in the field. We also grow our tomatoes in our greenhouse – it’s called high wire culture where we grow them vertically on strings – and a lot of people are really wowed by that because it’s a different way of growing tomatoes. We get a lot of comments like, “I haven’t had a tomato like that since I was a kid at my grandma’s house.”
Your family is tied to the history of Castle Hot Springs – how does it feel to have a career here now?
My great-great-grandfather was the last territorial governor of Arizona and was a big part of Arizona’s statehood and Castle Hot Springs was a part of that as well, being a meeting spot for those conversations. There’s a lot of pride that comes with it, and pride in this state as well with being a fifth generation Arizonan. There are a lot of things about Arizona that I love, and I think we should accentuate those – I’m trying to make it a sustainable place, and overall, as good of a place as I can help make it.
There’s something special about being at Castle Hot Springs – I didn’t even know my family’s full history until I started working here – but I’ve found it brings a certain type of person, and there are so many small-world situations happening out here that are incredible – it’s beyond coincidence.
