Saguaro Fruit Harvest is Here!

It's here!!! the Saguaro fruit harvest in the Sonoran Desert. Saguaro fruit are delicious but as they grow at the top of a tall cactus, harvesting them is an art. I posted more about the traditional saguaro harvest here. We did a reconnoitering trip Thursday and went out picking Saturday and Sunday at "O'dark thirty", as my mom calls our pre-dawn departure. We got enough to fill a 9-tray dehydrator each morning. This evening we found two trays worth of sun-dried saguaro fruit. The fruit actually dries on the cactus and it is much easier to knock down and nature has done all the processing work for us--sun-dried saguaro fruits are to die for.

A typical saguaro top this weekend. Many are still green but some are ripe and burst open.

Dehydrator full of saguaro fruit leather drying.

A tray of sundried saguaro fruit.

My mom and I working as a practiced team. I knock them down. She catches. The pole is made from saguaro ribs in the traditional manner.

Jasmine takes a turn at knocking down.

An unopened fruit held in the saguaro rib pole.

Jazz and Grandma opening fruit

The saguaro fruit comes with it's own knife. The dried flower bud at the end of the fruit easily slices through the shell.

And reveals the beautiful red flesh inside.

Jasmine loves nurse trees and was impressed that this old Ironwood has nursed four saguaros. Saguaros grow very slowly and often are most successful in the shade of a desert tree--called a nurse tree. Here these saguaros have outgrown their old nurse.

We stayed out until nearly dark hunting the bonanza of sun-dried saguaro fruit and got treated to an incredible Sonoran Desert sunset.

Last night instead of blogging I enjoyed browsing through a couple of really awesome blogs I found and will add to my blog roll: Green and Crunchy and Flow of Love. And I loved this post from Ordinary Life Magic inspiring me to a different kind of blog post. Ain't it beautiful! I'm also inspired by Thankful Anyway Thursday post I found at My So Called Homeschool. I may have to add my own Thankful Anyway post. I'm still finding my rhythm in this blogging thing but I am enjoying it immensely. I started a blog for two big reasons--to chronicle our Unschooling journey and even bigger for me is to put myself out there--all the different pieces including my spiritual path, my journey to vibrant health, my joys and sorrows, my artistic journey and more. And although this is probably too much for one blog I like having it all here. Well someday it will be. I hope.