Olives, October, and Arizona Harvest Time

It's 98 degrees today, but no one seems to mind. A cold October here means you have to wear a sweater with your Halloween costume.

It's one of the reasons we live here.  And as I was designing gift packaging for the holidays, I couldn't help but notice the olive tree is loaded with free gourmet treats for the picking...if anyone was willing to go to the trouble!

Most places I've lived are forage-friendly.  In Central America you could almost always find mangos in forgotten corners and public parks.  In Georgia, I gleaned walnuts and pecans, and Virginia was lousy with blackberries and apples in the fall.  Just glean and eat!

But here in the desert, fruit is ornery.

It has to be, to survive our summer!

So "Free" Gourmet Olives means cleaning, soaking, and brining, with some seriously caustic chemicals.

"Free" Prickly Pear means hours of singeing barbs, peeling, mashing, and straining.

"Free Pine Nuts"---have you ever tried to dislodge those suckers? Do you have any idea how long it takes to collect a cup of piñons, assuming you can get to them before the birds do?   It's a wonder Pesto isn't $50 an ounce!

But oohhhh - when all the processing is done, the Autumn harvest here is amazing!

**Honey coated medjool dates stuffed with toasted pecans;

**Dead ripe pomegranates, so sweet they make your nose hurt;

**Have I mentioned the chiles, maiz and home-made tamales for Christmas?

I discovered a woman on Flickr today, named Korina Adkins.  She is a hobby gleaner here in the valley.  If you pull up this photo on her flickr site, it has notes all over it, telling what things are:

 

  Her "foraging Phoenix" photos are tremendously inspiring to me.  I hope they will be for you too.

If you enjoy gleaning and using some of our recalcitrant local fruits and veggies, I'd love for you to leave your favorite Arizona recipes here, as comments.  

Thanks!