The Prickly Pear are fully loaded for fruits this year. These particular species are called "Indian Fig" or, in italian, "Fichi di India". In fact, in Sicily (whose climate is quite similar to Tucson), they farm prickly pear fruit for various culinary uses...I am starting to plan ahead and pulling recipes for granita di fichi di india
"Teddy Bear" sunflower
Here are our grape bunches just after the flowers have 'shattered'...Rob spent the day trimming excess bunches and thinning the fruit from individual bunches in hopes that the fruit will grow bigger and juicier and more flavorful! Another trick is to 'girdle' the vines. That is a technique wherein you cut away the outer 'bark' of a vine circumferentially just before the fruit. It is supposed to limit the amount of nutrients that return from the fruit to the vine while retaining the nutrients that the come to the bunch from the vine. Sort of like the human venous system! (Rob is trying that technique on just a couple of the vines!)
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