It is time to harvest from the native bean trees planted throughout our neighborhood

Today, May 28, the green seeds within the green foothills palo verde seed pods are ripe and sweet. Soon they will become starchy, then hard and brown.

And next will be the mesquite pod harvest.

To get more info on all this and more check out the Calendar of Events at DesertHarvesters.org, which all started right here in our neighborhood with our annual tree plantings and the mesquite milling fiestas we used to have in the community garden.

Now many of the events occur at the Santa Cruz River Farmers Market as we are collaborating with the Tucson Community Food Bank. This year the Mesquite Milling and Fiesta is June 23 to ensure a safer harvest before the rains come we pods are more susceptible to invisible molds.

At the Fiesta we will also have a smoked mesquite apple craft beer and another with creosote blossoms - both from Iron John's Brewery here in Tucson. The mesquite in the beer was grown and harvested right here in Dunbar/Spring.