Internet has been installed in my house and I am back in business! Thanks for your patience, friends.
When I found out that I was moving to Tucson for my fellowship placement, one of the first things I thought of was how awesome it would be to make prickly pear sorbet. I shipped my ice cream maker all the way across the country with this idea in mind. When I landed last week and asked where I could find prickly pear cactus fruit, I was informed that most of the cacti around stopped producing fruit the week before. My dreams quickly came crashing down on me inside an hour of landing! I kept my eye out for some prickly pear fruits but none could be found.
Last week, Raquel (my field site partner) and I went to our Mennonite Volunteer Service (MVS) friend's house for dinner. They told me that their prickly pear cactus had fruit left, but when I went out to check they had all been harvested earlier in the day. Again, my plan had been foiled! So I asked if they knew of anywhere that still had some fruit growing and I was informed that the gas station by my house had tons left.
So I left the MVS house complete with a bucket and tongs in hand (the fruit has tiny thorns on its skin so you can't pick them with your bare hands) in the middle of the night (actually more like 8:30, but it was dark out and I was still on east coast time). And much to my delight, there were hundreds if not thousands of prickly pear fruits growing all over the cacti in the gas station parking lot! And we harvested those fruits like crazy...almost an entire bucket full!
Now to make the sorbet. I had to run each fruit under cold water and wipe the thorns off while wearing a rubber glove and then again into a dish towel. Once that was done, I cut a half inch slit into the skin length wise on one side and peeled the rest of the skin away.
The fruit was then thrown into the blender and then the seeds and flesh were strained out, leaving only the juice. I took a half cup of the juice and put it in a pot with 1 cup of sugar and heated it for about 10 minutes to make a simple syrup. The syrup was then mixed back in with the rest of the juice with a splash of orange juice (since I didn't have lemon juice which is usually added to sorbets to help with the flavor), chilled, and then went to freeze in the mixer.
The sorbet has a a very unique taste. The fruit itself has very little flavor so the sugar and orange juice helped a lot. Te taste really can't be compared to anything I have ever had. It is sweet and tart. The only bad thing is that it leaves a funky aftertaste in your mouth. But it is such a gorgeous color!
On another note, the garden we planted is coming along well. Much was added since my post last week. We now have three types of basil (sweet, lemon, and thai), rosemary,sage, two strawberry plants, a habanero pepper, and 5 green bell pepper plants. Our onion seeds started sprouting today, which is so exciting, along with some mesclun and winter squash. There are also carrot, cilantro, parsley, chives, spinach, kale, sugar snap peas, and a few other seeds we are waiting to sprout.
My field placement for the fellowship is at the Community Food Bank here in Tucson. This food bank is so amazing and incredibly progressive in the field! They don't only pass out emergency food boxes, but they have their own farm which grows for their own farmers markets, garden classes, home garden instruction, and little grocery store, and so much more. I am working in the Community Food Security Center and most of my work will involve promoting all of the amazing work of the Center and creating a publication about the southern Arizona food system to show people how their food choices have a large impact on the community around them. Before starting on my project, though, I have been working all around the food bank to get a better understanding of how all their programs work. I am also working with Raquel on a project to show people just how much food can be bought with a $10 voucher at the food store and recipes they can use with those food lists.
So overall, things are amazing here in Tucson. I miss my family and friends so much, but I have never felt like I am in the right place as much as I do now. I know that I will be doing work that will help the Commuity Food Security Center, the food bank, and the community around me while giving me such invaluable experience. I know that I have learned an unbelievable amount during the week and a half of training and my week here in Tucson. I am looking forward to seeing what else I will learn over the next 5 months!
So, does anybody have any ice cream flavor ideas? Let me know in the comments!!
Thanks for reading and thanks for your patience while I was training/moving/getting settled/getting internet!
-Eric
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