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Harvesting Desert Cacti
BY JASON WILEY DIRECTOR OF HORTICULTURE
As much of the country celebrates fall harvest time with a cornucopia of gourds, fruits, and nuts, we do it a little differently here in the Sonoran Desert! Our time of abundance is around monsoon season as the fruits of cacti are harvested. The ripening of the saguaro fruit is so important to the Tohono O’odham people that the harvest time in July marks the beginning of their New Year. August in Southern Arizona is time to gather prickly pear fruit to eat raw or turn into syrup or candy.
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Remember, too, the importance of these fruits to wildlife in the desert, many of whom rely on them for moisture. Saguaro and prickly pear fruits are favorites of jackrabbits, woodpeckers, doves, bats, javelina and coyote.
If you have an abundance of prickly pear or saguaro fruit in your yard, try harvesting them. Remember to use tongs on prickly pear fruit! Both fruits can be eaten raw but prickly pear fruit is usually processed into syrup. There are many different recipes to turn the fruits into syrup. Simply put the fruits into a clean pillow bag, freeze them, unthaw them, crush the fruit, and let it drip into a pan or bowl. Once all the juice is gathered, bring the juice to a simmer, and add agave nectar to sweeten and lemon juice for tartness. The syrup can be then used to flavor drinks, added to the top of ice-cream, turned into candy, used as a salad dressing, or incorporated into any other dish that you want to try. When all is done, add some syrup to a margarita, sit back, relax, and enjoy the abundance of the Sonoran Desert. And use any leftover pulp in your compost pile!
For more information, read Saguaro Fruit: A Traditional Harvest at https://www.nps.gov/sagu/
