Harvesting Grenadilla (Passion Fruit)


 
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.
Inside of the grenadilla: the seeds are even edible and have a delightful crunch to them.


A view of the volcano Imbabura and the grenadilla harvest
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.
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. 
The birds ate some of the grenadilla before we were able to harvest them.

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