12 Fruit Trees that Thrive in the Desert with Little Care

Alright! This is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com! Today we have another exciting episode for you. And I’m here in the desert. One of the hardest places to grow, it gets over a hundred degrees pretty much every day in the summer time. Today in the shade it is a 100 and even out of the shade today today I’m like sweating bullets.. . And where we’re at, we’re here in Phoenix, Arizona. And as you guys could see, I can’t believe in 2016 people still have lawns! Lawns are a waste of space, specially in the desert, specially when you have to use so much water to keep your lawn green, right. And people think ponds they waste water. There’s a study by the University of Arizona that shows a pond actually saves more water than having a lawn. Plus it actually attracts and provides a home for beneficial birds and insects and other creatures that can help you guys grow more food. I mean, here’s another, here’s another front yard of a house. We’re in a standard 70s neighborhood here. And I mean, this is way better. So they have rocks, way better than lawns. And yeah, if you guys still have a lawn, you’re you know giving water to your lawn, put in rocks! That’s a move in the better direction. Because guess what? With rocks you don’t got no labor, right. You don’t got any nothing, maybe you got to pull some weeds, don’t spray that nasty round of stuff. That stuff will actually screw up your property, and create health hazards for the creatures. But better than rocks, what’s better than rocks? Rolls! You know, rock and roll! No wait. Better than rocks, better than grass, is what we see right here in my friend Jake Mace. He’s done something totally different here in Phoenix. He’s growing fruit trees! So fruit trees are the easiest thing in the entire world to grow, just a little bit harder than having some rocks. And the benefit of the fruit trees is guess what? They make things for you guys to eat! We need to eat every day, right? Why have to go to the store? It’s so inconvenient. You’ve got to drive 15 minutes to the store, you got to pay your hard earned money for stuff, when you could invest money in your property that you own or are renting or whatever to grow your own food! And so what I’m going to show you guys today at Jake’s place, because I have videos that I’ve done here before, check the links down in the description below where I give you guys a full tour. We’re going to give you guys a full tour today, but more importantly we’re going to focus on the fruit trees and the trees that grow the easiest in the hot desert climate, no matter what kind of desert you live in. Whether it’s here in Phoenix, Las Vegas, you know, Arizona or New Mexico, South Texas, or even deserts around the world! We want to focus on the easiest to grow trees , specially if you guys are lazy, right. Because I want you guys to get rid of that lawn. And even if you have rocks, dig some of the rocks back, or actually take the rocks out and do what Jake’s doing here to create fertility, and make your property even better than when you bought it, right. For the creatures! For not just the birds, the bees, the dragonflies and the insects of the area, the retiles that live here, but also the soil microbes and the microbium. All the creatures that are living in the soil as we speak doing work right now. So he has, he has a big place with a little arbor, kind of looking like the one I built at my place. And he’s got it decorated real nice. He’s got edible and natives here planted in the front. But I want to take you guys inside and share with you guys not every tree, because I mean I could be here everywhere, this is this, this is this. Go to Jake’s channel if you guys want to see like the full tour, because he does amazing jobs at that. I want to just focus on the easiest trees to grow in the desert, right. So that’s what I’m going to get into, and the ones that are the most valuable to you guys, right. So I mean, with that we got to stop right here. If you’re Indian you guys will call this the drumstick tree, because these guys look like big drumsticks. If I had some drums I could probably play them with these sticks. If these ones were really small they’d be edible raw. You could open these guys up and just start eating the seeds out of it. The seeds also can purify water and do so much. But as much as these pods are eaten and stuff, you know, that to me is like secondary. What’s more important on this tree are the greens. As you guys know, or may not know, my channel is called Growing Your Greens. Because besides eating fruits, which I eat plenty of, the greens are even more important than fruits in my opinion. And this is a unique tree that actually has all the greens. You could just come and eat, just like spinach, just like kale out of the grocery store. So imagine if you had all the trees in your property, you could eat the greens. This one you can. It’s known as Moringa. And some people say it’s even more nutritious than kale. And you guys know how nutritious kale is. And this one is even easier to take care of than kale. Because kale might get aphids and have hard challenges in times with the heat in Arizona. But this guy, like there’s no bugs affecting it. Oh check it out man! Here’s some of the flowers, the moringa flowers. Not only are they beautiful but they’re also edible. Mmmm. They’re good! They have actually a nice mild sweetness, but then you get that like potency of the moringa leaves. Plus when you eat flowers, you get the pollen. And the pollen instead of letting the bees collect the pollen and we eat bee pollen, we’re not really eating bee pollen, we’re eating flower pollen that the bee is collecting. So eat your pollen directly by eating edible flowers. I have a few videos on my channel actually on edible flowers. But anyways, the flowers are edible. And then inside these pods, each of these pods has numerous amounts of seeds. Let’s see if I could count them, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, probably like 10 or 12 seeds in this very pod right here. That can be used to grow more trees. And to spread these to other people. So I want to encourage you guys, besides just growing the fruits and the vegetables is to save, collect and spread your seeds out to other people and to, you know, other places. So that you could grow more edible trees around. You know, I want more people eating this moringa. It’s so delicious. Last time actually in the video link down below, I actually had moringa shots like wheatgrass shots. But you guys could see. Look at this! This tree is loaded with pods. You could also open these guys up and strip out the inside. You could also eat the insides of the moringa pods as well. But yeah there’s so many. This thing is like loaded up. And the cool thing everybody has always asked, John where do I get the seeds for that cool moringa tree that you showed. Well, check it out, man. These trees, Jake has been growing for 3 years. All these seeds that he’s growing, like he won’t let me harvest any of these otherwise he might, he might drumstick whip me with the moringa. But he’s saving these to spread out to other people. People in the local area and you guys over the internet. So if you guys want to get some of these seeds, visit his website, jakemace.com. He sells like 25 seeds for a very affordable price. If you guys live in Phoenix, they’ll grow outside year round. If you guys live in other desert climates, as long as you guys don’t get below freezing or, you know, near freezing, they should do fine. If you guys live in a place that does freeze, you will need to protect them, at least minimally cut them back, mulch them heavy or grow them in a pot, take them outside in the summer and pull them inside in the winter time. Or just, you know, keep growing them as an annual every summer season. The other thing I want to show you guys actually on Jake’s property, he doesn’t have rocks or dirt or grass on his ground. What he has is this stuff. As you guys could see, there’s just tons of wood chips all around. And the benefit of the wood chips is that they retain moisture. So these wood chips retain the water so well that Jake has not even watered his moringa for several years since they were established. Once they’re established, he does not water these guys. So these are water saving landscape tree that you guys could be growing. We’re going to actually have to go over to his star fruit that he does water, to show you guys the benefits of the wood chips here. So the wood chips, you know, not only retain the moisture, but also over time the wood chips break down. And check it out right down here as I peel this back here. The wood chips are breaking down. And look at this! Black, rich stuff right here. This is known as fungal dominated compost because the wood chips are breaking down slowly over time and they are adding fertility back into the soil. This is some rich, black stuff right here. And this is what’s really important in a desert environment is to not only retain the moisture but also create fertility, because the soil here does not have the organic matter as most soils even on commercial farms, even organic farms, they’re losing their organic matter. So we want to bring that back. Super critical. Now the one recommendation I would make to Jake, as good as the wood chips are, as much as these break down and add fertility, you know, you could get one better by actually, you know, planting like cover crops that are actually covering the land. Because not only like a nitrogen fixing cover crop, not only will they add nitrogen and create fertility but also they’re going to provide more root zones, more root area for bacteria and fungi to colonize on. Because right now, as much as he is providing a good base, he could do better by adding some nitrogen fixing crops. I could see in the background he has some, some weeds here growing. And that’s good because those are alive active roots that are encouraging more microbium. but side from the trees coming up, he has lots of wood chips, which is good. But hey I want to have a few more, you know, roots planted in the ground to encourage more of those microbes, to give them a space to live beside just encouraging them and feeding them with the wood chips. Alright, let’s go ahead and walk around a little bit more and share with you guys some other really easy to grow fruit trees. So another crop you guys definitely want to grow in the desert is this guy right here. This is the fig. And I think this is a Brown Turkey Fig. And let me see if I could find a ripe one here for you guys. Here’s one that’s like so ripe it’s gotten eaten by the birds. And I’m really particular about my figs. Like I will not harvest no figs until it’s time. And how do you know the fig is, it’s time for the fig? Let me see if I could find one to show you. Alright, so here’s a, here’s a good, a pretty good indicator over on this side here. You guys could see this fig. And number one, it’s a bit soft. This is maybe means a little bit dried out, maybe not so good. But over on this side, this one’s not quite where it needs to be but maybe it’s the ripest one here today. But what happens is when the figs are ripe, as you guys could see, like on this green fig, it actually sticks out straight, right, like a backwards arrow, like this an arrow and it’s connected to the tree. And then this one over here, if you take a look at where it’s connected to the branches. Instead of coming out straight anymore, it’s actually, it’s, it’s bent down. So that’s one good indicator, like the fig should be bent down even if it’s soft but it’s not bent down, it’s not ready to pick it. The other thing that it’s kind of soft. Now this should probably be even softer. And optimally I like to like look down at the little base here and see like some sap coming out. That’s not happening. But it’s soft and I’m hungry, so I’m going to go ahead and pick it and see. Another indicator when you pick it, if it’s really ripe it’s not going to ooze too much sap. Now this sap is actually is the reason why your tongue burns when you eat figs. I think it’s called the ficin, and it’s a, it’s an enzyme that breaks down proteins. And the enzymes are in here to basically break down the proteins of worms and bugs that try to eat the figs. And if you guys got warts, you could take this little white sap that’s coming out and put it on your wart, man. Put it on there every day. It’s going to freaking eat your wart up. Because it’s protein. Protein dissolving enzymes. And don’t do this, don’t like take that and uhh and put them on your tongue. Bad idea. Alright. So let’s go ahead and rip this guy open. Look at this side inside this little fig right here, nice juicy flesh. I mean I knew this one could have been a little bit riper, but I’m hungry, and I’m going to eat all of Jake’s fruit today. Mmm! Amazingly sweet actually, for not being as ripe. I mean, this for me, I mean, I’m a fruit like connoisseur, like fruits snob extraordinaire, although I met one guy who’s more of a fruit snob than I am. But he has like 10 acres and he grows like all his own stuff. But this fig is actually quite good. At least 10 times better than the figs you guys buy at the store. Figs in the store are heresy. They’re like so picked unripe just so they ship them because if you picked them ripe they expire so fast. But yeah, figs, one of the best crops you guys could grow in the desert by far. Super easy. I mean, think about it. Where did figs come from? Figs came from a desert climate. So we would just want to model that in the, in the modern desert wherever they, they may be at today. And don’t worry if you don’t live in the desert and you love figs, there are kinds of figs that you could even grow in the cold weather, right. Desert King Fig! You could grow those in Oregon. Even though it’s called Desert King, it’s one of the best varieties to grow in Oregon. I’ve talked to many rare fruit growers up in Oregon, right. And if you guys live in Chicago, there’s varieties of figs and I’m not aware of them, that will even do good in Chicago and around the country. But make sure you get the proper variety for you. Variety is everything and variety is also the spice of life. So the next tree that you guys have to grow, even more than the fig, and I like these actually more than figs believe it or not, it’s relatively an unknown fruit in the US. It’s actually known as the jujube. And the jujube makes these little fruits that look like apples. And you could harvest these little guys that look like apples, like right now and eat them in their fresh state. And they, they kind of taste much like an apple. But I would say you know why eat these guys int her fresh state when you have fresh figs, because the fresh figs are way better. And we want to use every fruit tree to our advantage. And when you have tons of fruits in the summer time, you don’t need to eat your fruits in the summer, you’re trying to preserve those. Whether it’s in the fridge, whether you’re dehydrating them, whether you’re freeze drying them, whether you’re turning it into juice, whatever. You want to have fruits for the winter time when you don’t have anything. And that’s why I really love the jujubes, because come over and I want to show you guys what’s going on in this tree. Check out this rack right here. Look, look, it’s a jujube tree, it’s packed full. Number one, the jujube, you know, is so fertile and creates lots of fruits, as you guys could see. The other thing is that it’s a, you know, it’s drought tolerant. So this tree does not need a lot of water. It’s also been naturalized much like the fig to grow in places where it’s quite dry. Now in the beginning you might have to establish it and give it some water. Don’t just like plant the tree and forget about it. But once it is established, pretty drought tolerant. The other thing that I really like about the jujube, which is a pro for me but a con for many is that it will reproduce like mad. it will send out runners, it will come up in all these places that you may not want, and grow more trees. But hey more fruit trees is a good thing. Another thing people may not like is that it does have some little sticker things thorns that may get you occasionally. But that’s not a big deal unless you’re trying to get stuck with them. But the reason why I like them is because, as you guys could see, we got the fresh fruit on here. And then we got ones that are like this one’s half dry, and then we got ones that are full dried and kind of getting wrinkly on one side. This other side’s still not quite dry yet. This guy right here, if you guys could see it, it’s still like, you know, dehydrating on that side and still like lighter on that side. Not quite ready. But the thing you want to do is look down at the ground. So if we look down on the ground, I like when trees self prune and some of the damaged fruit has been dropped, you know, that they got bird pecked and what not. But you’re bound to find one, something like this. And this one looks more like an optimally dried fruit. Now when they’re in this stage, what Jake likes to do is actually pick them and take them out of the full sun, 100 degrees sun or in the shade of the leaves of the tree, and he takes them inside and he just dries them on his counter where it’s a lot more cooler. So they dehydrate at a slower rate. You know, I think that in, in the desert, the jujube may dry out too quickly and that’s not a good thing either. You want to these at the right, you know, moisture percentage on the inside, because when you do that and you dry them properly they’re going to taste amazing. Like to me these taste like Angel Food Cake, like that spongy consistency. But it’s in a fruit. These also, if you look up in Chinese medicine, have crazy healing properties, right. I don’t even know all the different properties. They’re anti this, anti that, probably anti inflammatory, longevity, you could make tea out of these guys. But I just like to eat them because they’re so good. And these store! These will easily store for 6 months! You could probably store it for even longer, a year. These have probably been found in mummies tombs in China for all I know, right. And this is the moisture level I like it to eat them. But even if you dehydrate them more and get them more dry, they’ll last for even longer, right. So I’m going to go ahead and bite into this to show you guys what it looks like. Mmm! This one’s a, could be a little bit less dehydrated. But look at that! It’s like, it like totally compresses and it like sponges out. So this is like totally spongy, look at that. And there’s so many, there’s like different varieties of jujube. Try to grow them all. Some are better fresh, some are better dried. I like the jujubes because, once again, you know, they store really well, really easy tree to grow and more people should be growing jujube fruit in my opinion. Let’s go ahead and continue on our tour and show you guys other fruits that Jake’s growing that’s super easy. Alright! So let’s go ahead and continue on our tour, like honorable mention we’re growing in like Phoenix or Las Vegas, apricots. I like apricots in like, you know, Phoenix, Las Vegas, desert climates with similar climates. Not super extreme and maybe it gets a little bit cold. They do need some chill hours. I like apricots because basically they fruit and come on and the fruits are done before it gets really hot. So yeah, if you guys lived in one of these climates, grow some apricots. Now if you guys live in Phoenix, not that I’d recommend this for all desert climates, because if gets really cold, this guy is not going to do well. But another honorable mention are these guys. This is actually I think like one or two passion fruit vines that Jake planted. And I don’t know if you guys could see this like underneath the canopy. But look at this. Looks like all these fruits just after a few years, like hanging. There’s like 2 there, here, there’s like 3 here, there’s like 3 more here, 2 there. But like, you know, I don’t want you guys to, I don’t want you guys to harvest the fruit off the, off the plants, right. You always want to get the ripest fruit for the best quality, the best taste and the most nutrition. Because the fruit will drop, in many cases will drop the fruit when it’s ready, when the tree has fully developed the seeds and the fruit pulp, because the fruit’s only making, the fruit tree or plant or vine in this case is only making the fruit so that it could reproduce. And it’s only going to drop them, in most cases, when they’re fully ripe. So we’re going to look down on the ground. And if we look down on the ground here, we could see a bunch of different passion fruits on the ground. We’re going to go ahead and pick this one. It’s colored up really nice. And passion fruits are amazing. And we’re just going to go ahead and take my nail and see if we could open this up bare handed. Oh man, these guys are quite strong in the desert. Oh! I have a passion fruit explosion in my hands. So we got a little hole. Let’s go ahead and open this guy up for you guys. And look at that nice, rich, passion fruit pulp in there. I’m going to suck that out. Mmm! Definitely sweet tart. Mmmm! I love the juice on a hot day. This would be good to make like a passion fruit lemonade. Juice some passion fruit with the seeds, with some sugarcane stalk. Combine it together. That’d be out of this world. Alright, let’s head around and show you guys some vegetables. And share with you guys some of the fruit trees that are easy to grow in the desert in Jake’s back yard. So now I want to share with you guys some more fruiting crops that grow in the desert. Now this is the side of Jake’s yard, and he’s got a couple raised beds. We’re not really going to go over that because he’s in the middle of replanting this bed here. But over here he’s got grape vines, which basically he doesn’t water. Having some challenges, you know, in the heat of the summer. But he’s got some fruit on here that’s very special. It’s a variety of grapes that I’ve never tried before. And if we go back over here and we reveal it. Look at this, I think that this might be the only bunch on this whole place. These are actually known as blueberry grapes. Yes, that’s a variety, blueberry grapes. These aren’t concords, these are called blueberry grapes. We’re going to go ahead and pick off one or two. That’s what they look like. I really want to encourage you guys to grow deeply pigmented grapes instead of the green grapes, you know. Grow the purple or the red grapes. Definitely better. And try to grow seeded varieties, right. People don’t understand that in the seeded varieties there’s more nutrition. The seeds contain the substance known as Pycnogenol, which is very anti oxidant and anti oxidative. Gives you anti oxidants so basically it keeps you young and it disease proofs you. And people don’t eat these seeds. So. Mmm! These are actually quite good. They got some small seeds. Not super seedy. Quite good. But yeah, grapes another, grape fruit, grapes and other grape fruits, great fruit, that grows in the desert. Let’s go ahead and head back over here. And we’re not really going to talk about vegetables too much today. He’s got some fennel and some artichokes going to flower. But some other fruits that are hanging on because it’s, you know, gotten so hot are his tomatoes, black cherries, definitely a good variety that I’ve found grows in the desert. And Jake’s plants are loaded. Of course, the number one vegetable fruit that’s grown in the desert, Jake’s planted, he has some beautiful striped eggplants there. And let’s head back through, through here. Oh, guavas, a good one for Phoenix here, that’s an honorable mention, not, not really in the video. Of course right here as we walk through this gate, he’s got this vine with more passion fruits that’s doing really good. This is one plant. And if we go in here, he has it all trellised up on the back and it’s just dropping all these fruits on the ground. Let’s go ahead and show you guys some more, oh, fruit trees, including this fig right here. I’m going to go munch on more of Jake’s fruits. Alright, so another variety of fig we got is the maybe Texas Blue Giant, I think. And we’re going to, oh and find a ripe one here. So let’s see we got, this one’s ripe, this one’s, there’s so many choices here at Jake’s house. And the amazing thing is this thing is only like a couple years old. But still it’s got some ripe fruit. Look at that, nice and cracked and ready to eat. I’m going to go ahead and break that open for you guys. I love figs, right. Ripe figs, one of the best fruits to grow in the desert. Mmm! Wow! That’s really a good one. This is like really ripe , really sweet, really delicious. Oh! Check it out! Good thing I didn’t eat that guy. We’re going to like let him go. Alright spider go back and eat some more bugs. Yeah, the other thing, very important when eating figs, specially the ones you grew, is don’t just like shove them in your mouth, like break them open and see what’s on the inside first, to make sure you’re eating any spiders, or larvae even worse, or other bugs. Yeah, figs got to be one of my favorite crops for the desert. And grow different varieties. I think I got one more variety to show you over on the other side of Jake’s yard. And I got to get out of the sun before I’m eating sweat instead of figs. So now I’m in Jake’s back yard. I want to show you guys some more trees that produce fruits. Maybe not noticed fruit trees. And I want you guys really to grow some of these guys because some of these guys are native and are going to do well in the area, and are drought tolerant. Very important if you want to conserve water because I know many people have different goals. One of my goals was growing my own food, to grow the highest quality and most varieties of food that I can. Because this is what nourishes me so that I could be the healthiest person, have the most energy, be able to go on long 3 day hikes without collapsing and barfing stuff. And have a mental focus in my older years or younger years, because I’m getting younger every day. And have the energy to do what I want to do, right. And yeah, so all the varieties of foods are likely to do that. And this one’s a native. It’s known as the Ironwood. It actually has these like little thorns on there. And you know, Jake’s growing this for it’s edible flowers. So it’s like out of flowering season right now. These could be just bought at like and are normally used for landscaping. And be, and may be known as endangered actually. So you’re encouraged to plant them. But not only does it encourage native insects and pollinators and bees and butterflies and birds, but it also produces the edible flowers. And before the seeds fully mature, when they’re pretty young, you could actually open them up and eat them like you would raw edamame beans or the soybeans. So yeah, so Jake really tries to focus on some of the natives of the area as well for their edible properties. Let’s go around and actually show you guys a few more edible natives that are going to do well here in the desert. So the next native style tree that I want to share with you guys that’s water saving is right here. You guys could see this thing is huge. This started off as a $7 tree for Jake. And it’s a Palo Verde Tree, more specifically a native florida blue palo verde. And he was told by a botanical expert that this has the best tasting fruits and flowers. So this guy, once again, before it makes the mature seeds that are up on the tree somewhere maybe, actually fallen down on the ground here, it makes flowers that are edible and also the immature little bean pods on the inside that you guys could eat. So yeah, I really want to encourage you guys to eat your legumes, really rich in protein. And besides just having protein, they also have phytonutrients and phytochemicals and are anti-disease and actually will help melt fat off you. Because they help to increase your microbiota or your own internal probiotics. Much like we want to increase the probiotics in the soil, when you eat things like beans with all kinds of non digestible fibers, they increase your probiotics which make you more efficient in digesting your food but also increase your immune system. Yeah, this is water saving. Oh one of my favorite cactuses, he has many different kinds. Actually I kind of like how this one looks. This one like looks really cool. It’s all like little bumpy things. Hey you could probably like back up against this and like rub up and down for a back massage. it’s like one of those back massager roller things. But actually one of my favorite kinds is actually over here. I haven’t seen these too often. And I’m getting stung by all these agaves and cactus thorns and everything around Jake’s place. And I got to like get a work out by squeezing through stuff. But this is a peruvian columnar apple cactus. And these guys I wonder if they’re really ripe yet. Oh! That one’s so ripe it’s getting eaten by the birds. Ow! It got me. Alright, so anyways, this is what they look like on the outside. And this is what it looks like after the birds eat it on the inside. Nothing! There’s a few small seeds on the inside. So this is going to go to maybe feed the turtle that lives underneath this habitat somewhere. Alright. This one’s kind of small. I don’t know if it will be so good. Kind of like not mature. Maybe we’re going to have to pluck one off Jake’s tree. Don’t, don’t tell him I’m picking like one of his, one of his two only peruvian apple cactuses here. I’m sure he won’t mind. Alright, a little bit green, a little bit green. I mean, if I don’t pick them the birds are going to get them, and I’m sure Jake will want me to eat it before the birds do. Alright. Pluck this guy off. And we’re going to go ahead and show you guys what that looks like on the inside. Now unlike standard cactus fruits that you may be able to buy at a local Mexican market and eat or grow yourself in the desert, I do encourage you guys cactus fruits is one of the most under utilized fruits in the entire world. Cactus fruits are so nutritious. And here at the store in Phoenix they sell like 12 oz of prickly pear juice, pasteurized, for like 22 bucks! So that’s how much I want you guys to value cactus fruit juice and cactus fruits of all kinds. They’ve done research on it and they’re one of the most anti inflammatory fruits in the whole world. Prickly pear, cactus fruit in particular. And this is a Peruvian apple cactus. So unlike standard prickly pears that I’m used to, this kind of more looks like a dragon fruit on the inside with smaller seeds that are softer and more edible. But unlike the dragon fruits that are white, you know, these guys are way sweeter. So we’re just going to go ahead and eat half of that. We’re going to save the other half for the girlfriend. Mmmm! Warmed by the summer sun, it’s got a little bit of that like gelatinous aloe vera cactus fruitness in there. Nice, sweet texture, delicious. I mean, not only are these cactuses beautiful, not only do they save you guys from watering them, they also make some amazing fruit if the birds don’t get them. So grow some cactus today. So now I want to share with you guys the Brazilian Red Pepper, Brazilian Red Pepper, Brazilian Red Pepper, Brazilian Red Pepper, right. Say that five times fast. It’s not really a tongue twister. I just thought it would be funny. Alright! So anyways, what we’re looking at is a tree that’s mostly grown for shade, and many actually landscapers use this tree. And if you guys see this tree around in the desert, wherever, whatever desert that may be, this produces an edible fruit! And let me tell you, these guys are amazing. And you guys should just grow one of these so that you guys could grow your own pepper like spice. So you guys know like you grind up black pepper. And I want to encourage you guys to eat your black pepper, right. Now you might have to buy your black pepper if you’re not in the tropics and you have to like, you know, order that and stuff. But these make these like pink pepper corns that taste similar to that black pepper so you could boost your anti oxidants, right. I want you guys to be all about your spices. Herbs grow really well here. Some herbs will grow also really well besides the fruit trees. So that’s the second thing you guys should grow for an easy garden besides the fruit trees that I’m showing you guys today. Grow some herbs. But this an herb and herbs are high in anti oxidants and ORAC values. So what this is, it’s normally used for landscaping, it’s drought tolerant, uses low water, also produces edible fruit that many people don’t know. So let’s go up and show you guys the fruit here over on this side. This is a Brazilian Red Pepper. Look at this! I’ll pull down this branch and if you guys look closely, look at that. There’s like all these little clumps of pink pepper corn things. And we’re going to go ahead and pull one of those off for you guys. Look at that! And basically what you do is you just pull of some of these little pepper corn things. And these will , you know, persevere and dry. You could put these in little like spice grinders. IKEA has a good one that has ceramic blades for like $5.99. Take one these little balls, put it in your mouth, crunch it up. It actually tastes like the pepper that you know and love. But these ones that Jake is growing in the rock dust and the worm castings are actually kind of sweet. So it’s actually quite delicious. So I can see myself sprinkling these on top of the salad, grinding them up, putting it in dressings, adding them in soups. I mean, if I was here I would be collecting all these guys. Mmm. And using them on a daily basis, not only for an influx of phytochemicals, phytonutrients, and anti oxidants but also to eat more food out of my back yard instead of the grocery store. Instead of buying that black pepper. Yeah, so grow one of these guys. Alright! Let’s go ahead and show you guys a few more trees actually over here. They’re kind of duplicates of before. This is another jujube tree here as you guys could see. This guy has a smaller fruit and these guys are even drying, you know, at different rates. Some of these guys are really dry. Some of them are still kind of moist. And yeah, you know, Jake is growing different varieties of different fruit trees to see which ones grow the best and which ones he likes the best. Over on this side is another fig. And fig is something that could easily propagate or get your own tree from. All you got to do is go out with a black hoodie at night with your sharpest pruners, make sure they’re sharp, don’t get no dull ones. And go and see if there’s a fig tree in your neighborhood that you really like. And like look around, take out your snippers and snip off a branch. It’s best to do this time. Do this in the winter time, not in the, in the middle of summer right when the tree is dormant. You’re going to take that branch off, snip it off. And then you’re going to come home in your house, put it in the ground, stick it in the ground and it’s going to grow like this tree behind me like Jake did. The tree that Jake built, I mean Jake grew. And this is a fig tree from a local cutting. And as you guys could see this is probably one of his most prolific tree, trees, or his most prolific figs, lots of figs on there getting eaten by some of the birds. Let’s see if I could find one that’s not been eaten too much that’s nice and ripe. There’s so many choices here. Jake eats about 10 of these during a day in the season. And I could see why. They’re nice and vibrant colored. Let’s go ahead and break that guy open for you guys to you guys, to see what it looks like. Oh look at that! This is nice and juicy, even more juicy than the other ones. We’re going to go ahead and eat it underneath the shade of the tree. Mmmm! You know what? This has to be my favorite fig in his whole yard. Maybe a little bit small, I really like because of it’s vibrant color. But also it’s like really juicy and wet. I mean, the other thing too is that this tree is more mature than some of the other trees growing. So, you know, once a tree gets more mature and has been growing for a couple years, it’s going to start producing better and better fruit every year, providing you’re feeding it like Jake does with the wood chips, the rock dust, the fungal dominated compost that he’s making in place and worm castings. Mmmm. Once again, man, if you guys live in the desert grow some figs. You will not regret it. And then when they’re ripe, send me a message. I’ll come over to your house to eat them with you. So another fruit tree that you guys will want to plant in the desert is this guy right here. Doesn’t look like much now in the middle of the summer. It like defoliates and looks like heck, doesn’t look so good. But in the spring and fall it’s resurrected. Kind of like Jesus was resurrected in Easter, wait no I mean, Christmas, wait when was He resurrected? I don’t know. But anyways, this plant will resurrect itself in the spring and fall, I do know that, and make you tons of little fruits known as the goji berries. Wolfberries are native to this area which are similar to the goji berries. So plant either one. And if you want to get some seeds, go to your local health food store, buy some goji berries. And be careful while you’re eating the fruit and just pull out the seeds and sprout them up and plant them in your garden. And after a couple years they’re going to grow to be this big and give you guys tons of fruit. Like I grow the goji berries in my garden. And literally I don’t have to do anything to it and it just keeps growing if even I neglect it. And actually I encourage you guys to neglect your wolf berries or goji berries. Don’t over water them. They don’t like it because they’re like a desert native. Alright, let’s ahead and head back and show you guys a few more fruit trees before I sweat out all my water and dehydrate here in the desert. So another fruit tree that I want you guys to grow in the desert, this is one of my favorites, is right here. This is known as the pomegranate. And as you guys could see, Jake’s got some nice pomegranates growing right here. Pomegranates are an ancient fruit. So don’t just grow, you know, modern hybridized fruits, grow some more ancient fruits. And there’s a lot of varieties of pomegranates. So if you guys want to go to a place that has lots of varieties of pomegranates, actually 200 varieties, you want to check out Exotica Fruit Nursery. I’ll put a link down below to a video I did at Exotica. But they have over 200 varieties of pomegranates. They got yellow ones, they got ones that are white on the inside, they got ones that are sweet. Pomegranates aren’t all tart like that POM Wonderful juice stuff you guys drink. There’s so many different kinds. So if you guys live in the desert, I encourage you guys to grow a lot of different kinds, and the kinds to meet your needs. Like I really love the sweet pomegranates. They’re not tart, you know, and they tend to be not quite as deeply pigmented. I personally like really deeply pigmented fruits. And the pomegranates will store for a good while in the fridge even unused. So like I actually have some pomegranates from last year’s harvest, 2015’s harvest. They’ve stayed into 2016 for me. I didn’t check them recently but about a month ago I checked them or maybe two months ago, and they are still good. Like not everyone but like 80% of them were still good. I juiced some on up and the juice tasted amazing, you know, for a spring time pomegranate juice drink. Another way people preserve the pomegranates is you could dehydrate them. So you could dehydrate the arils and the fruit pulp around the aril. I want to freeze dry them actually one of these days. I like really want to get a freeze dryer because like freeze drying the arils is probably the best way to preserve them. And when you freeze dry and take the, the liquid out of the seeds, they actually become chewy or not chewy but they just almost dissolve in your mouth. Like I’ve eaten rambutan seeds that have had like freeze dried rambutan. The seed is freeze dried with the fruit and it’s just, just crunches up and dissolves in your mouth. It’s amazing. But yeah, oh people also juice these guys. Juice them and then just freeze the juice like you would an apple juice. But yeah, really rich in phytochemicals and phytonutrients. And once again, it’s a drought tolerant crop or fruit tree to grow in the desert. Let’s go ahead and continue on, show you guys another area of Jake’s garden where he’s growing some drought tolerant, desert approved fruit trees. So another amazing desert fruit tree I want you guys to grow, grows really well, is the mulberries. I have friends with mulberries here in Arizona, in Nevada. I grew them myself in California and they grow in many other places too besides just the desert. These are one of the most tolerant trees. I like the Persian mulberries that are nice and black and long. Jake’s got white ones and purple ones and all different kinds of ones. And mostly right now he’s got ones in his freezer that he harvested and then preserved in the freezer by freezing them. So he could make mulberry smoothies. Mulberries are really deep rich and pigmented. The big challenge you’re going to have with mulberries is not it growing and growing free of bugs and pests and diseases, but the problem you’re going to have is with the birds. Because the birds, they also love the mulberries and other creatures. So yeah, you want to get them at their peak ripeness. Don’t harvest them too early. Get them when they’re full peak dark rich colors. Check out my Instagram for some pictures of what they should look like when they’re ready and ripe. Alright, so besides the mulberry, another thing you guys got to plant in the desert depending on where you are in the world, I mean, these guys. These are date palms. Jake has, you know, a new one planted right here. It’s been in the ground for a year or two. And then over here he just planted some up that he’s hardening off. So he’s got to basically put this burlap around it so that the tip growth point doesn’t get burned. Then he’s actually also watering this every day. And so the date palm has produced dates. Each date palm can produce like hundred pounds of dates a year. And the reason why I like the date palm is because they produce edible fruits but more importantly these are like, besides the jujubes, one of the best fruits for storage. And they have a high value. So if you’re growing dates in a place where you could grow dates in the desert, you could store those for a full year in the fridge, even longer right. There’s dates been found in like the pharaohs and tombs of Egypt. And their seeds are still viable. I don’t know so much about the fruit. But the seeds, the date seed is probably one of the longest kept seeds that will still germinate after thousands of years. And actually I think I have date seeds germinating actually in my compost bin that I pulled out and put in dirt. So I have a few little baby seedlings that I grew from seed. But the dates will stay for years. Plus they’re very expensive if you go to buy dates, right. So they have a good trade value. So you could trade your dates with somebody that say lives in Florida that can’t grow dates to get their tropical fruits and you could swap them some of your delicious dates. So yeah a high trade value. They’re super delicious and one of these days I want to try to freeze dry dates like when they’re fresh and ripe, like dates that are so like so moist and juicy and I freeze dry it and see what the heck happens. I think it’s going to be really good. Another really good use of dates is if you get the dried variety like Deglet Noor varieties that are nice and dry. And specially here in the desert in Phoenix where they will dry out on the palm tree, which is actually more related to a grass than a fruit tree. You could dry them out and then you powder them up. And then you powder them up into date powder or date sugar. And date sugar in my opinion is the best sugar. If you’re still eating white processed sugar, get that out of your diet. Instead substitute date sugar, which is basically just powdered dates. So it has the fiber, has the sugar, has all the phytochemicals and phytonutrients that would be in the dates. Whole food, not just some white extracted product that’s void, null and void of the phytonutrients and just has the carbs. Carbohydrates, not that important. Phytonutrients, they are the most important ingredient to me in my life at this time. Alright! So yeah, Jake’s also a kung fu martial artist. And I’m going to hit this and punch this and maybe go over to this guy with an ugly face and bam we’ll punch him back, and oh you’re going to steal my fruits, that’s what I think of you! Alright. Anyways, let go ahead and go down this area. Jake’s got some more cool things going here, you know. This is like not part of the regular desert video. This is actually part of like the tropical fruit video you could grow in Phoenix and I’m going to cover really quickly for you guys. Let’s see, Jake, Jake’s got all these different kinds of mangoes that have been growing in this protected area next to a wall. This is a, a pineapple pleasure mango and Jake’s got banana palm, banana herbaceous trees. And they’re not, they’re not really trees, but bananas, I mean, he’s got a ice-cream bean, that’s one of my favorites, right here. Oh and then he’s got of course papayas he’s growing. Oh and I got to show you guys this over here. This guy has got to be one of my favorite trees to grow. And if you guys live in like a desert climate like Las Vegas, like Phoenix where it doesn’t get super cold, you want to go over, where is it, oh it’s over here. So this is a tree I want to show you guys right here. This, this is a tree guys, if you guys live in like Phoenix, a desert, or like Las Vegas or somewhere with a similar climate, like not super extreme, you guys want to get this kind of avocado. Avocados are one of my favorite fruits in the whole world. And this is known as the Aravaipa avocado that was actually found here in Arizona out in the wild, not even in a developed area. Just a random tree out in the wild. They got cuttings, they started propagating it. And now they’re making it available. And it grows, you know, for the first few years it might need some protection but once it’s established its not going to need any protection and it’s going to make avocados for you even in the extremes of the desert. Now one of the things I want you guys to do is to grow foods that cost a lot of money to buy in the store, right. Like I don’t necessarily grow carrots because carrots are really inexpensive to buy. But how much, when you price avocados how much are they to buy in the store? Well, depending where you live, you know, in some places avocados would cost a buck, two bucks each, right. You could have your own tree that could be loaded with avocados. You could have like a hundred avocados on there. What’s that worth? 100, 200 dollars? Maybe when your tree is even older it has 300 avocados. What kind of value is that, you know? Now the big question is John, but you know, I’m a proper man, and I want to store my avocados. And avocados they don’t store well. Well, you know, you could pick an avocado right when it’s in it’s ripe most or when the skin kind of gets dull. You want to harvest it even if it’s still hard. You could keep it off the tree and preserved in a fridge at the right temperature, not too cold, and it could store for a couple months. Pull it out and it’s still going to ripen up for you. So that way you could kind of extend your harvested avocados. You could freeze them but then they kind of get all funky. You could do that if you do like it and pull the air out in a zip lock. But the best way, you could dehydrate them but they turn black. The best way to preserve your avocados, freeze drier. You could take your avocados, take out the pit, freeze dry the flesh, and then seal it with an oxygen absorber packet. And then, you know, suck the air out of that package. And then actually those avocados you put water in it and then it, you just rehydrate it and tastes just like an avocado. Amazing. And you could make your own guacamole, freeze dried dips that you could take on hikes, do anything with, you know, just make the guacamole then freeze dry it. And then that preserves in, right. Just like astronaut foods. So yeah, freeze drying, I’m going to hopefully have videos on it one of these days, best way to preserve your avocado for long term use. And specially on hikes, right. Avocados are, are really rich in protein and also calories. So a really rich food to take on hikes to concentrate food in a small amount of space. So I can’t wait till Jake’s Aravaipa avocado is producing here in Phoenix and I may get to try some. I think what we’re going to do next is because I could like be here all day going over stuff and I didn’t get to show you guys the vegetable garden but I’m getting really hot. I would actually want to sit down with Jake and actually talk to him more about, you know, some of the fruit trees, some of the crops that he grows in the desert that’s super easy, super simple. And share with you guys some more of Jake’s philosophies about gardening life, kung fu and fruit trees. John: So now I’m sitting down with Jake Mace in the shade. And I’m glad I’m in the shade. I don’t know if you guys could see this on the camera but my shirt like this top half it’s like a little bit darker in color than the bottom half. So it’s like, it’s just sweat. It’s like I don’t know if this, I mean I could handle Las Vegas heat, not a problem, but man that extra 10 degrees here in Phoenix, that will get you man if you’re not used to it. So Jake: There’s like 20 lbs of sweat in your shirt. John: Yeah like I’m, I could come out to Phoenix and like I don’t know if I’m eating enough to even gain the weight that I’m losing in water by sweating. Jake: Shade is. And that’s a good lesson for gardeners out there, to plant shade trees that will shade your other stuff John: Actually yeah that’s important. So Jake let’s go over some of the tips. I mean, my viewers saw some of the fruit trees that I liked the most here in the desert. It’s you know, the standard date palm, the jujube fruits, the fig of course, the pomegranate. And why don’t we talk about some of the native and water saving, you know, foods that I showed in this video. Like the iron wood, the Brazilian pepper and that, that other, what is that one? Jake: The Palo Verde John: Yeah the Verde. So tell everybody about those things and why they’re so valuable for your landscape, and what you’ve seen when growing them Jake: You know, in my opinion, you know, on my Vegan Athlete youtube channel I talk about my favorite fruit trees to grow in the Phoenix area. And a lot of them are the same as people in the Middle East are growing because our climates John: yeah Jake: are similar, right? So guavas and figs, pomegranates. All these things you already mentioned, and dates. People underestimate the power of date palms. And plant it now because they take a few years to fruit. But once the date starts fruiting it’s an enormously important food source for hundreds of years. But that being said, I’m also really big into cactus that fruits and that are edible, and the trees that don’t ever have to be watered once they’re established. They’ll, like John mentioned, Palo Verde, any variety of Palo Verde. I like the Florida Blue Palo Verde. The flowers and the pea pods are in the legume family and they’re edible. Ironwood, same thing. Ironwood has delicious flowers, and the Edamame pea pods are also edible. Get them before they turn into hard seeds. Get them while they’re green. Mesquite. John: oh, do you have a mesquite here? Jake: I have , that whats the big ones are back here right there, big mesquite trees John: oh, yeah man, yeah no no I should have included that in the video, mesquite, my, one of my favorites Jake: Well it’s a race between me and my dogs, who can collect the mesquite pods first. Because those yellow mesquite pods are super rich in nutrients, carbohydrates, proteins. And the ancient people who lived in Phoenix, like the Hohokam and other native peoples, would use the mesquite, grind it into flour and that would be their tortillas and their, and their chips of ancient days John: Wow Jake: Yeah John: Yeah and somebody should come out with mesquite chips, man. That would be cool. Jake: And answer me a question down in the comments below. Why doesn’t every grocery store in the Phoenix area carry mesquite flour? It’s so abundant here. It makes no sense. John: Yeah, there’s like, they’re totally dropping on the ground, cars roll over them and they like, it’s so lame. Like I know there’s a, there’s an organization in the area that has a grinder that will rent it out to people. And like collect it Jake: There’s a guy in Tuscon named Brad Lancaster who does that John: Tuscon yeah Jake: Yeah. He’s a great guy, great information from Brad. But those kind of programs and those kind of grinders should be way more abundant because there are so many mesquite trees here. But Palo Verde I am with mesquite. Great trees. But also I love the cactus. Like the, the prickly pear called the nopales or nopaletos. All of my friends who are Mexican, who have Mexican heritage in their family come over, when we do a vegan barbecue, they grab the prickly pear pads and put them on the barbecue and grill it up. John: Really? Jake: It’s amazing John: Wow! Man, like barbecued prickly pear pads instead of hot dogs. Jake: And then they put it in a hamburger and they eat like a prickly pear hamburger instead of a regular hamburger John: No way! So like what do they season it up with? Jake: Just regular seasoning. Yeah John: So just like barbecue seasoning just like you’d put on a hamburger but they do that cactus pads Jake: And then we put some, some kale and spinach and tomato from the garden, some onions. And it’s a fantastic, you know, way to eat out of your yard. Plus when the prickly pear cactus grows the fruit, they call it the tuna, tunas sort of the, not tuna fish John: Right, no Jake: But the tunas are so delicious. And I go out into the desert every year and sustainably harvest prickly pear fruits from my yard and from the desert , the hikes I go on. And then I freeze them all season long in my freezer. Because like you say they are super important for smoothies and as an anti inflammatory. John: Yeah. I like to juice them myself. Like I just drink the drink the juice fresh made actually mixed with some coconut milk that I make, extract fresh and straight, along with the cactus fruit. So when you add some fat to the anti oxidants you get a greater uptake of the nutrition. Plus it just tastes way better. Jake: You know and one thing every time I am with John, he’s so hospitable. He brings out fresh squeezed squeezed cactus and coconut juice and I John: or some, some other kind of juice for Jake. Jake: I just love it. I love it. It’s the reason why I call this guy my friend is because he’s, he’s bribing me with fresh juice out of his garden. I just love it John: Cool. So Jake, let’s talk about some of the different things you do to keep your trees that my viewers saw today alive. Because I know, I know you just don’t like put down tons of manure or something like that. You, you guys saw that he puts down wood chips. But what other kind of particulate do you add on a regular basis to, you know, get these healthy trees that I showed you guys today? Jake: You know, I would say if you’re new to fruit trees or if you already have them planted, mulch. Mulch is the most important thing. And veganic mulch. If you can combine a good ratio of leaves, food scraps, straw like bales of straw, I get organic straw, and wood chips. I get it all for free. I get my wood chips, my straw, my food scraps are just food scraps. And my leaves. All for free. And I mis it all up together and then add some of the rabbit poop and chicken poop from my chickens that I have on site, and I mix it all together. I throw in some azomite, I throw in some worm castings and I throw a little bit of biodynamic locally made compost. And I mix it all together in my wheelbarrow and that become the top ground cover around each tree. And if you do that, the worms, the earwig, the roly-polies and the mycelium just find their way into the tree roots. John: Cool. So do you add also worm castings and what kind do you use? And the rock dust of course, what kind do you use? Jake: Yeah. I mean, John’s way more of an aficionado, an aficionado of rock dust. But I just use straight azomite. I get it in the micronized powdered form. If you guys want to try a small bag, I have it at jakemace.com if you want to try it. But John always has great advice on his youtube channel, showing you where to get it around the city you live in. Add that in. I usually add the worm castings and the azomite in seasonally. John: How much do you add though? Jake: You know, I feel like this tree behind called the Barbados cherry, it’s an Acerola cherry tree, and it’s about maybe 10 feet tall. And I would say 4 times a year, every time the seasons change I just take about maybe half a dozen handfuls and put it around the trunk of the tree. And then kind of massage it in a little bit and then water it in. John: Cool Jake: And specially now in the Phoenix area, it’s monsoon season, so feed your trees with the worm castings, the azomite, compost, straw, leaves and mulch and wood chips now, right. Because then Mother Earth will monsoon rain it in for you. And you’ll have healthy trees all summer long. Plus when you use lot of wood chips, like I’ve brought over 40 landscaping trucks full of wood chips in my yard so far. John: Wow! Jake: And each truck is like, you know, dozens and dozens of regular truckloads full, all for free. I just spread it myself. That’s why I get the gun. And the point of this is that it build the soil, a healthy nutrient dense soil for my trees but also it can conserve an infinite amount of water. We try that, do anything we can to make this area to prevent evaporation and keep the water in our fruit trees and root system. John: Awesome Jake. So talking about water evaporation, man, you got this nice pond behind me. And water must be evaporating out of that pond as we speak. So why don’t you talk about that? Because I know a lot of people like a against ponds because you’re wasting water. But what, what, why is that pond more sustainable than having a lawn? And why is that pond good for you, your garden, your fruit trees and your vegetables and all that? Jake: Well, first of all the fish is very relaxing. So selfishly, I don’t take drugs for relaxing or anxiety, I just watch my koi fish and all my koi fish were adopted off Craigslist from families who couldn’t keep them anymore. So all rescued fish. Number two, there’s a study from U of A, that you guys can look up yourselves on Google, that showed that a lawn compared to a pond in somebody’s yard, the pond was a way better usage of water because it used less water to maintain the level of the pond. Plus the dozens and dozens and dozens of different varieties of native birds, native dragonflies, different native insects, that used the pond as a lifeblood source were so much more abundant than a lawn. Because a lawn was only bound to attract the pest bugs and the pest birds. And there was no use of the lawn besides, and most people don’t even use their lawns John: Yeah Jake: Their kids don’t really play there, their kids go somewhere else. So a total waste, it’s all just for ego. The pond is great because I also use the water to water my trees as I call it, I call it Jake-aponics. So I, I’ve put a pump in there and I pump the water out with a hose on all my tropical trees once a week. Then I fill the pond back up again. So it uses no more water than a pool, and everybody has a pool in Phoenix. So if you’re going to have a pool, you might as well get rid of your pool and do a pond. You can use the water for your trees, you can have fish, you can provide a lifeblood source to all the native wildlife. And truly I have great blue herons, cranes, I have kingfishers, cactus wrens, I mean so many birds I don’t even know what they are. And the amount of different colored dragonflies is amazing. I mean, I’m so happy with this pond, I built it myself from scratch. I’m about to upload a video on my VeganAthlete Youtube channel. I spent three and a half years in the making. It’s going to be an hour and a half long video of my pond from beginning to end. I’ve just been editing it John: Time lapse Jake: No, well it’s just me John: That’s how you made it ? Jake: How I made it from scratch John: oh wow Jake: over a 3 year period. And I built the pond from scratch. It has a rubber liner in it so all the water stays in. And I just, I think it’s a great use of water. John: Yeah Jake: Plus I harvest rain water off my house John: Oh into the pond Jake: into the pond John: that’s great. Yeah water collection. Cool! So Jake, talking about water, how much do you water your different fruit trees that we, some of ones that we talked about and some of the ones that you just have rowing that we actually didn’t mention in this video? Jake: You know, I would, depends on the tree. All the natives I don’t have to water. The Moringa trees, I don’t have to water those anymore. They’re already big enough and they can take it on their own. But since my property is pretty young, this whole property full of over 200 fruit trees and several thousand square feet of raised bed gardens, was just a clay lot 5 years ago. So I’m watering a little more than I have to just to push off new growth to get my trees into fruiting stage. So I could probably water less than I do. But as my water bill increases 1 dollar, my food bill decreases 3 dollars. So I save a lot more money on my food bill if I have the fruit here at home. And then grow things that are water conscious. Like grapes, dragon fruit, edible cactus, and native trees. John: Cool. So how much is your water bill? Because I know people are wondering about that Jake: I, I think that’s kind of like a personal question, that’s kind of like how much do you make? So I don’t want to say the exact thing. But you know in the winter time, it’s probably about a 100 bucks. And in the summer time it does get to several hundreds in the heat like right now in the heat of summer. But once the monsoon season begins, I can water less and all the water from my roof and my solar panels goes into my water catch system. And again, I really believe in this. If you’re growing your own food at home, it doesn’t matter how much water you’re using. Because those of you who are not even vegan out there are using way more water for meat food than for plant food first of all. John: But, but you’re not using it directly. You’re just buying the Jake: Correct John: in the meat they use so much water to grow meat and animal products Jake: And so this is not John’s opinion, this is my opinion, that having a vegan diet as part of your life is infinitely good for, for conserving water. Number two, growing the food at home should be what the water is for. John: Yeah Jake: you know. And then if you are going to grow food at home, use the wood chips to keep it in the soil, the water in the soil. And also grow drought tolerant trees like the moringa, ironwood, Palo verde, mesquite, grapes, dragon fruit. Even like carob and, and those kind of trees are really low water. John: Yeah Jake. So it maybe your, your opinion on that topic but it’s also actually a fact that vegetables take way less and fruit trees take way less more water per calorie than animal products. Because we got to grow the crops for the animals, then we got to feed them, and then we got to feed the water, the water to more animals. So if you’re an environmentalist, right, you should be minimizing or eliminating all the animal products in you guys’ diet. And grow your own. Even if the water bill is more expensive. Jake: Yeah John: Because that water has to come from somewhere. And California may be in a drought, but a lot of that water for California is going to animal agriculture. And if it was going to vegetable agriculture they’d be able to grow far more. Or if that vegetable agriculture that’s being fed to cows i.e. corn soy, went to grow food for people, you know, I believe we wouldn’t have a food shortage if it’s being done very efficiently due to government subsidies that I don’t actually believe it. So Jake: You know, because we’re, we’re growing incredible food as a human population. And we’re giving it to animals instead of to ourselves. And so I think that growing at home is not only is growing your own food at home, like John talks about, really good for the planet, but it’s also good for you. Because the nutrients are there in the foods you’re eating, right? Plus it doesn’t have to be shipped. Plus, I’m really thinking of this lately, all my, I do gardening classes and gardening tours now in addition to martial art classes. I’m like, kind of like a Mr Miyagi, where we do the gardening and the, and the martial arts. But, but I painted a fence, I painted. And I waxed the car on and waxed the car off like I sat on the floor . But what I’ve been teaching lately is that, I lost my train of thought here, I’ve been teaching lately is that John: oh it was when you waxed off that you’re like losing your train of thought. Jake: we were talking about water usage. I went into the brain fun. Oh yeah, I say that, you know, that water that we are using should be for growing your own food at home. And the more food that you guys out there can produce in your own front and back yard will free you from work, okay. Those of you out there that have to work two jobs or over 40 hours a week because the economy is still not good, you’re working a job that pays you too little and you got to work way too many hours. If all your food is grown at home, you will find that you could actually work less hours because you’ll be healthier and you’ll have more money to go spend on other things. And so I really would encourage you guys to grow your food at home like John says, keep on growing because it’s a way to free yourself from the slavery that is modern day capitalism. That’s getting kind of creepsy but John: Yeah I know that the tyranny of capital , I agree, you know. I want you guys to be producers instead of consumers. And you know, as much as you guys think oh man Jake’s water bill, that’s too expensive, I couldn’t afford that. Dude, you guys are buying food! And still like okay so you’re cheap food at the dollar store and it’s like cheap food. That’s even worse because now you’re ruining your health and now your healthcare bill is going to cost you more money. It’s like where do you want your money to go, right? You could invest it in your health yourself. And, you know, not having to work. Or you could invest it in cheap food, you know, expensive healthcare later. But John, I got insurance that pays the health bills. Well somebody is paying it. That’s one of my dad’s saying is John there’s no such thing as a free lunch, somebody’s always paying, right. The money has to come from somewhere. So I want you guys to take responsibility, right Jake: If you have a heart attack, I got to pay for it indirectly, you know John: Everybody pays indirectly. Yeah if you are insurance system, that once again that’s something that I want, that Obama care that I don’t necessarily believe in either, where we got to pay this bs crap Jake: yeah John: because I don’t need healthcare, man. Health is about if you eat healthy you’re not going to have to go to the doctor. I rarely ever get sick. And when I do got to go to the doctor, I pull money up and pay right. Maybe once a year I broke my arm. A couple years ago actually. It was at my brothers house. So actually insurance covered that, I didn’t have to pay. But you know, otherwise I never get sick, you know. Most people go to the doctor for things that they need, that they don’t need to go to for. Like you know, things, problems with their heart and cancer and things that may be able to be prevented and probably be able to prevented it in my opinion, by eating proper and not eating junk foods. The other thing is, you know, even if you’re paying your water bill, you got to like bring in wood chips and you can’t get them free like Jake does, and you got to buy rock dust, it’s expensive. Jake gets it for like really cheap like I do. Or you know, whatever, and you got to build infrastructure bringing in compost to build your raised beds, this is an investment. Jake: Yeah John: And it’s an investment in your property, it’s going to make your property value more for those people that appreciate it. So yes that’s going to be a little bit smaller of a market. But also it’s an investment in your health and your future. And your kid’s future, right. And being able to have food in case shit hits the fan, right Jake: yeah John: And so invest in yourselves, in your property, in the food you’re growing. And don’t think of it as an expense, right. Oh it’s just so expensive my water bill. Like my water bill growing vegetables, because let me tell you guys, vegetables are a lot less thirsty and take less water than the trees. If you’re going to grow the trees, grow the trees that I showed you guys in this episode because those are the ones that are water conserving because they’re the best ones for the desert climate, right. Not some of the extra curricular bonus trees and things that I showed you, but some of the core trees that we talked about. Or grow some vegetables because, you know, vegetables take a lot less water than the trees because why? Trees are huge! They got to feed their whole vascular system water so that they don’t dehydrate. Vegetable plants are a lot smaller. And that’s why I like growing your greens. You could grow greens inside, micro greens. A couple spray, sprays of water, you know, to spray your seeds down, to keep them a little bit moist, will grow them a lot compared to that not much water is not going to do crap for a tree. So yeah, grow vegetables if you’re like one of those water saving fanatics who are like, like Jake does. Catch your water, have it run off the house into, you know, big ivc totes like he does, or run it into your pond so that you, you could reuse the water and use it properly, you know, when it’s monsoon season or when it’s raining out. Jake: Yeah. And then I even personally in my opinion about my vegetable garden is I put a little more coconut coir than I should have because I want to keep the moisture in the soil. John: Another thing for moisture Jake is, you know, add organic matter. So Jake: yeah John: like, if you guys are tilling up your garden everyday you know or every season with a rototiller, you’re losing organic matter, you’re losing the microbes. The microbes actually allow you to use less water. Mycorrhiza I think it’s like 20% you could use 20% less water if you have a good mycorrhizal colonies and activity and a whole bunch of different microbes and bacteria in your soil. And also getting, you know, more drought tolerant crops in your garden. I mean, this, this video was more about the fruits. but hey Jake let’s talk about vegetables since you guys, you grow some amazing vegetables here in Phoenix. Like, what are some of your tips for the water saving vegetables that grow well here in the, in the summer time? Jake: Well, plant them in a micro climate two of them in a John: Like you’re under a big tree Jake: Mesquite tree, yeah. I use the mesquite tree to diffuse the light, you know, specially seasonally. So I plant it in a way where in the summer time the mesquite tree plays more of a role for shade than in the winter time. I put a little more coconut coir when everybody tells me to put this amount of peat moss, coconut coir, I use coconut coir, I want to be more sustainable, I put a little more, I just think it really keeps the moisture in the soil better. And I will even once my plants get established and they’re looking pretty good and they’re producing tomatoes and peppers, I put a little bit of mulch on top of the soil to keep the water in the root system. Some of my tricks. And then I also I did an irrigation system which the last time John was here, he made fun of me for not having any irrigation system and I couldn’t let this little raw vegan guy John: little?! Jake: make fun of me. So he’s pretty big. I couldn’t let him make fun of me so I put an irrigation system the next week. And it’s been conserving water because I can turn it on during, you know, little incremental periods during the day. And then it also saves me a lot of time. And also what you were saying, you know, along the lines of money, you know, vote with your dollar. John: yeah Jake: in today’s world. I think that the ability that we have to vote for politicians is infinitely less important in today’s world than voting with your money. So take this stuff and spend it on you. And do that in the form of your garden. Because in ten years, your garden is worth a lot of money, and that money goes into feeding you and everybody wins John: and specially if food’s starting to get scarce in the future, which you never know what’s going to happen with companies being in control of your life basically. Jake: That’s why we have the martial arts and, to defend us all John: So yeah like if shit hits the fan, Jake’s got martial arts to kick your ass Jake: my wife has guns John: and he’s growing his own food. oh yeah and the wife has guns yeah , so don’t mess with Jake Jake: I think though if we get to that point we’re it’s going to be in a bad state John: and if the aliens come like your shirt, then we’re just screwed anyways Jake: I think that, oh my god, if aliens come I’m the first to go. I’ll be the first in line saying, you know on this shirt it says I want to believe. So I want to believe that you guys can grow your food at home. But I think that, you know, guys like John, look at John. I mean, he’s a 20 plus year plant based raw guy that grows his food at home and he’s in great shape. I mean, he’s trim. John right now could run several miles if he needed to, to get away from something. And that’s what health’s all about is, eating for health, doing hobbies that are healthy so that if you had to run or be athletic and be an animal again, you could. And 90% of people that I meet, they, they couldn’t run anywhere. They’re, they’re, they’re too unhealthy to be a real animal. So growing food at home is step one to getting yourself into a really healthy state inside and out. John: Yeah I mean, besides just growing the stuff at home too, I want you guys eating it! And actually there was a video that Jake and I made last time together, you know. Jake: Yeah John: As much as like a lot of people grow food at home, I mean, they’ll grow food at home in a garden thing and then they’ll go out to eat McDonalds or a fast food place. Or like in a gardening event they will have like all this cake and cookies, man. No let’s eat, let’s bring the stuff from the garden! Jake: Yeah John: Like I really want you guys to eat that. So, so Jake, what’s a tip, like one, your best tip for people to eat more out of their garden, like why should they do it? Jake: Because if you put the work into growing the food in your garden, you, you’ll be so stubborn you won’t let it go to waste. Seriously, you will eat more healthy because you will force yourself to eat the food that you worked hard to grow. It sounds dumb, but kids too, you know. Kids will eat the food if it comes from the garden. My little niece, Lilian came over the other day and she was like I want to go to the garden. We went where do you want to go? She goes, I want to go to the carrots. She knew where, where they were. And she knew to go the garden bed for carrots instead of a fast food bag for food. John: Cool Jake: I thought that was so cool. So I always say grow the food at home so that you actually eat it and then put it in this hole and let it become all of this. Because if you let it go to waste then it does nobody any good John: Yeah and a lot of people might say, John how do you use you know, this food or that food, right? One of my favorites ways to use pretty much any food if I got too much is to juice it. Because Jake: yeah John: juicing it, you’re going to compress down the nutrition and you’re going to get rid of all the fiber Not that the fiber is not good. We do need fiber, right. But we need more nutrition is more important in my opinion than just simply fiber that feeds our bacteria in our guts and actually keeps us clean as a broom, right. We need phytonutrients and phytochemicals. So juicing it reduces it, you know, so you could actually get that into you. I could take 5 lbs of carrots and it reduces down to like 5 cups of juice. And I got all the nutrition for me and my worms get all the fiber. And then it, you know, indirectly feeds my next season’s garden. Jake: And whenever I see you’re always juicing stuff. And juicing number one I would say juicing is one of the most important ways to consume your veggies. And then also dehydrating John: Yeah dehydrating. But yeah, don’t become dehydrated. So that’s why I like juicing because it has the water rich, water richness. But juicing first, yeah, even like make some juice and then freeze it, right. And then if you got to of course dehydrate your food. And if you’re going to re-eat your food after you dehydrate it, soak it in water first, you know. And Jake’s getting one of his special foods for you guys. Jake: Some of the stuff you guys could juice the stuff like this. So you can juice beets that you grow. John: That’s a beet that Jake grew. And this is one that I’ve brought from my house! Jake: what? lies John: Look at that, man! That thing’s huge! Alright, just kidding. Alright, Jake, what is this beet man? Jake: These are some beets that I got from Baker Creek’s seed company. And I just had not seen them in the garden. The other day I went I saw them in the garden and they were hiding from me. And boom! An over ripe crazy big beet that’s grown in rock dust and worm castings. John: So Jake, what to you do if your beet’s this big? Jake: Well, probably juice it, honestly, juice them up. John: Yeah, juice. Beet juice, really good. Specially if you have some, you know, problems with your blood pressure and, and heart stuff. And, you know, also you cook up your beets, right Jake: or kung fu weapons John: Yeah i mean, i’ll beat you over the head with it, boom! Jake: But you know, it’s fun. Gardening is fun, it’s a healthy hobby physically. Like John says all his muscles come from his composter and from his garden John: yeah Jake: I really think that it’s an important thing to do. So I definitely got to say I know this video has got to end pretty soon, but I’ve been inspired by John Kohler’s videos. When I first started gardening, you know, 5,6 years ago, I didn’t know where to go. I took a couple classes in town from some local people that I am not friends with. But the majority of my garden experience was living through John’s Youtube videos because I watched him transform his San Francisco house from a grass lawn into a raised bed system. And I just copied his soil, i copied his arbor, I copied his raised beds. I was, you know, at the time, you guys know me on Youtube for martial arts. If you guys go search Jake Mace on Youtube you’ll find my kung fu and tai chi videos and our Shaolin center kung fu and tai chi channel now has 325,000 followers and 50 million views. When I first started Youtube, I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to make videos. I just copied John’s format. He would say “Alright! It’s John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com!” And then I would say Hey it’s Jake Mace with jakemace.com because he’s the only guy that I knew that was doing Youtube full time. So I want to thank John for putting his life on, online because I’ve learned a lot. Not just with gardening but also with a lot of other things though. Thanks for all that, all the helpful videos. John: oh you’re welcome, Jake. So yeah, this video has got to come to an end. It’s already too long and I know a lot of you guys complain when it gets too long. So Jake, any last words for my viewers today about growing in the desert. I mean, in the extremes here in Phoenix that I can’t handle since I’m totally sweating. In Vegas I’d be fine, but here I don’t know. Jake: You know, I would say specifically grow date palms John: yeah, I agree Jake: grow date palms. I would say grow fig trees. I would grow edible cactus like the prickly pears and any time you find one that has delicious fruit, take a pad off and grow it at home. I showed you some. Grow grapes. Try growing dragon fruit and, and then on the side experiment with some other things like bananas if you want to experiment. But those things i mentioned first are the best things to grow in the Phoenix area. John: Well yeah I would say jujubes Jake: oh the, the jujubes are so good. And moringa. John: yeah moringa, can’t forget that Jake: I mean, I would even say almost more important than wheatgrass is to eat and juice and consume your moringa. And those trees are amazing. I got one behind the camera now that’s gone from seed to 10 foot tall moringa tree in 6 months. You guys get the seeds in 25 pack, a pack of 25 seeds for 4 bucks from jakemace.com John: that’s cool Jake: yeah John: So yeah, oh the other tree that I would recommend, I didn’t get to show you guys because this is fruit video, was the Egyptian spinach. So Egyptian spinach, another really good green, actually better, better tasting than the moringa, more mild to grow in the summer time because, you know, greens are the most important. But anyways Jake, if somebody wants to learn more about you, order the seeds, watch your videos on kung fu or gardening, how can they learn about you and all that? Jake: You got two Youtube channels. You got VeganAthlete on YouTube or Shaolin Center on Youtube. But just in the Youtube search bar, search Jake Mace and you’ll find me. Or go to jakemace.com . You can also join my very popular Facebook gardening group at Urban Gardening In Arizona. John: Cool. cool, yeah. And we did, we did a clip today. You could actually see when I was here, because this has actually been filmed and then probably posted later on my channel. But I did a live shot with Jake this morning Jake: it was live, and also follow John John: yeah Jake: John and I on Instagram John: yeah Jake: That would be a place to get it John: yeah check my Instagram thing, yeah. I’ve tried to post a picture every day Jake: I love the live videos. it’s kind of raw, people like it. And the Urban gardening group, you can kind of get notified when the live video comes out. But you never know who’s going to join me for a live video. It could be John Kohler John: Cool, cool Right on, Jake. Well I’ve had definitely fun here eating some of your fruit. I think I’m going to go ahead and eat some more before I leave. And if you guys enjoyed this episode with Jake hey please give me a thumbs up. If I get enough thumbs up I’ll be sure to actually make a special drive down to Phoenix, maybe not in the middle of summer. Maybe like in September when it cools off a little bit. So I’ll raid through his other fruit trees he’s got going on at that time and share with you guys what he’s doing. Because Jake’s doing some amazing work. And I wish I had a place this big to grow even more fruit trees than Jake’s growing. Because my place is way smaller but, And I hope that one day Jake expands his vegetable garden and grows more greens, you know. I’m sure Jake eats lots of fruits. But, you know, he looks a little bit green deficient to me. But anyways, and I want you guys to grow your greens too. And also be sure to share this video with somebody else that lives in a desert environment. Whether that’s Las Vegas , Phoenix, you know, New Mexico, southern Texas, wherever, because it’s going to allow them to grow things that are easy so that they could get rid of that lawn, get rid of those rocks in landscape and start actually growing some things that’s going to benefit them, and actually save water at the same time Jake: and as a result, freedom from the system John: And yeah, free yourselves from the system. I mean, as much as you guys think I teach gardening, I really want to teach you guys about freedom and having more true freedom than this artificial freedom that we all believe in. Because when you’re a slave to the system, whatever system that is, the food system, the government system, you know, the job system, the corporate system, you’re a slave. Even though we’re free and we abolished slavery years ago. So anyways , let me get on with. So yeah also be sure to check my past episodes. I have a lot of episodes, mostly having to do with how to grow your own food. Jake: And I’m also thankful for these videos on your channel because you came here a year ago. So people can watch our last video and they can see how my yard is changing year by year. John: Yeah, check it out. Link down below in the description. Also be sure to click that Subscribe button right down below! Super important. I have videos every 3 to 4 days. You never know where I’m going to show up in the world and you never know what you’re going to learn. And you’re always going to learn something new because that’s part of my goals every time I film new videos. I want to teach you guys something you guys could use in your life. And not just a stupid 3 minute video, hey this is how you plant a date palm. And then you don’t get the back story on really how or why to do it. And I think that’s a big problem with our educational system and our young people of today. So I appreciate you guys that are younger that have watched through this whole video because you guys are really learning the nuts and bolts of how to really make things work instead of just this quick how to thing where you really don’t get to know stuff. And now I really know why my dad talks so much. So, I love you dad if you’re watching this. My dad doesn’t watch my videos, so. Jake: Hey I’m , I’m 34, my guess is you’re younger John: hey you’re a young kid Jake: Yes John: But anyways, so hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Once again, my name is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com We’ll see you next time, and until then remember- keep on growing.

Channel: Learn Organic Gardening at GrowingYourGreens

Views: 1,266,063

Rating: 4.7591352 out of 5

Keywords: desert fruit trees, desert fruit tree, fruit trees for the desert, fruit trees, desert, arid climate, hot, dry, southwest, nevada, arizona, new mexico, southern california, texas, desert gardening, desert orchard, arizona desert, phoenix, las vegas, greywater, hot desert, fig, jujube, moringa, fruit, fruits, trees, organic gardening, organic, urban, farm, farming, orchard, grapes, ironwood, palo verde, cactus, brazilian pepper, pomegrante, mulberry, date, dates, date palm, palm

Id: VIitNqXI2gU

Length: 77min 44sec (4664 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 21 2016