So, maybe I have missed yet another fall, my favorite
season, but I have not missed out on the opportunity to harvest fruit. Although
I do love apple picking in the fall, with the combination of fall odors, the
cool temperatures, the turning of the leaves, the apple cider and apple pie, I
do also simply enjoy the activity of plucking fruit from a tree and letting it
resound with a ker-plunk in my basket. For my 27th birthday, I had my fill of
harvesting fruit, from passion fruit vines. Grenadilla is so sweet and full of
minerals and fiber. It is a beautifully complex fruit that looks lovely as it
grows and refreshes the body as it is consumed.
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| Inside of the grenadilla: the seeds are even edible and have a delightful crunch to them. |
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A view of the volcano Imbabura and the grenadilla harvest
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Grenadilla can be harvested twice a year, and depending on
the quantity of the crop, can be harvested over a period of six weeks or so. I
think we will have a long harvest, as our crop of grenadilla is thankfully
quite extensive. We harvested about 800 pounds of grenadilla (32 cases of
first-rate fruit and 8 cases of second-rate fruit, estimated at about 20 pounds
per case) for our first round of harvesting. I look forward to the upcoming weekly
harvests of more grenadilla.
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| We harvested it all by hand. It took about four hours. |
Harvesting is my favorite part of the growing cycle. All of
one’s efforts are tied into the harvesting and distribution of the produce that
had been growing for a determined amount of time in the field or garden.
Whereas the marketing and distribution of produce can be frustrating, the
harvesting itself is a celebration of abundance and diligent labor and
attention to the environment in which the produce had been grown. Even though I
did not labor to bring forth this grenadilla, I am able to participate in its
bounty; just as I am preparing a garden from which I will never see a harvest,
but someone else will reap the bounty of my labor and care. I love this cyclical
aspect of farming. I have the beautiful opportunity to be able to step into the
best part of the cycle, harvest time, and to invest in what will ripen for
another person’s pleasure and benefit.
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The birds ate some of the grenadilla before we were able to harvest them.
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