Your Guide To Green

I had an epiphany of sorts back in 1978 when we had a tree full of ripe peaches. I was only 17 at the time but my love of fresh fruit generated a deep desire to preserve the abundant peach harvest we were enjoying. As you might imagine, I had no idea where to begin. I mentioned to a friend’s mom that I was interested in learning how to can peaches and she immediately offered to “teach” me.

That day 30 years ago launched two lifelong passions: the art of preserving my own food, and a deep appreciation of building a “community” approach to sharing knowledge and supporting each other. This is the kind of thing our ancestors did naturally in knitting or sewing circles and barn raisings, and is not really all that different from today’s networking.

Call it what you will, working together—on everything from work projects and the kids’ sports teams to neighborhood associations—and learning together strengthens and preserves community. As the green movement builds momentum, to my delight, we are rediscovering such arts as growing our own food and learning to preserve the bounty from our gardens and orchards.

While we are blessed with a long growing season here in the Valley, canning classes, such as the one recently offered by the Phoenix Permaculture Guild, help us to enjoy local, fresh and natural foods year-round and to capture fruits and vegetables that have fleeting availability.

The canning class stemmed from a conversation I had with Guild members Dawn and Heather, who were learning how to preserve food and make pickles. I offhandedly suggested that they offer a class to share this knowledge and promptly forgot about it. But they didn’t.

Suddenly, in mid-June, I found myself prepping the patio at the Urban Farm (also my home) for a canning class. Thirty-five gals, guys (yes, there were a few guys there) and kids showed up and after some brief instruction the class evolved into learning and sharing. Moms showed their children how to peel a peach while four or five others sat around a bowl peeling their own peaches and talking about recipes. We ended up making dozens of jars of peach preserves and, as an added bonus, prickly pear syrup.

The intent was to offer a learning experience. What resulted was a much broader experience in building community. I am continually delighted with the increasing numbers and variety of classes offered by the Phoenix Permaculture Guild. The classes are designed to educate and inspire: the creation of our own gardens, the making of our own mulch and the keeping of our own chickens. Magic happens when someone who has spent a lifetime learning then shares that knowledge with a community of those eager to learn. The process sparks an inner fire to share and inspires the passing of valuable knowledge from generation to generation. It preserves both our produce and our community.

As a side note:

I have childhood memories of driving down off of the Mogollon Rim coming home from Payson and stopping along the way in late August to pick prickly pears. We would stop, Mom would dig out the gloves (gotta use them) and tongs (never touch the fruit with your hands) and we would proceed to pick buckets of prickly pears and make them into juice, jelly and syrup. These days after a good rain in August and September—so the prickly pears are nice and juicy—I head out to a couple of places I know of in Paradise Valley and pick buckets of them. Once home the process is simple. I start with a large-mouth gallon jar, hold the pears with tongs, rinse them at my outdoor sink (so the water goes into my landscape) and place them in the jar. I mash the fruit down, then repeat the process until the jar is 3/4 full, then stick it in the freezer. Freezing accomplishes two things: It releases the juice from the fruit and it breaks down the tiny stickers (glochids) from the skins. When you are ready to use this distinctive magenta-hued juice, thaw it out, strain it very well and voilà, you can use the strained juice to make lemonade, margaritas or preserves. For the jelly: 3 cups prickly pear juice 1 to 2 cups sugar to taste 1 package Sure Jell pectin Then follow the simple directions on the Sure Jell box.