November 2024
June 2025
[2025] June
The Sixth Month
June Night Watch In the evening sky you can see the “Summer Triangle” of Vega (in the Lyre) Deneb (in the Swan) and Altair (in the head of the Eagle) in the West. Each of these constellations are a pretty good representation of their names. Once you know these three, it is pretty cool to watch them throughout the year. The crescent moon sits just above Regulus in Leo, and slightly below Mars on the 1st. Jupiter will be low in the evening twilight. Mercury is at its brightest in the WNW in mid-month. Summer solstice begins on June 20 at 7:42 PM MST. On the 29th Mars almost seems to touch the crescent moon.
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Moon Phases
First Quarter 2nd Day
Full Moon 10TH Day (Sahuaro Fruit Ripening Moon-O’Odham)
Last Quarter 18th Day
New Moon 25th Day
June Moon Signs
Best Time To:
Bake: June 25,26
Brew: June 7,8
Begin diet to lose weight: June 14,19
Plant aboveground crops: June 7,8
Plant belowground crops: May 17,18
Best Fishing Days (moon between new and full):June 1-11, 25-30
June has 30 days.
“If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance.”
-Bernard Williams
June Weather
The morning heat had already soaked through the walls, rising up from the floor like a ghost of summers past.– Erik Tomblin
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TUCSON WEATHER AVERAGES FOR JUNE
Record High 117 (6/26/1990)
Record Low 43 (6/4/1908)
Record Daily Precipitation 1.56” (6/26/1938)
April Flora and Fauna
Sahuaro cactus finish blooming; fruit ripens and begins to split open.
Datura and Organ Pipe cactus begin blooming if there has been enough rain.
Fruit is being set by Mesquite, acacia, fairy duster, palo verde, creosote, and jojoba.
Lesser nighthawks trill in the evenings and early mornings.
Cicadas emerge from underground burrows, the males buzzing as loud as they can to try to attract females to mate with.
Yuccas and agaves bloom.
Mule deer and pronghorns are bearing young.
Some snakes are laying eggs (gopher and common kingsnake) while others bear young live (Western diamondback and tiger rattlesnakes).
Mormon metalmark, Sonoran satyr and canyonland satyr butterflies are commonly seen this month.
Notable June Dates:
June 1, 1906: the mule drawn streetcar made its last run from downtown Tucson to the University of Arizona beside the electric streetcar which had gone into operation five days before.
June 4, 1871: General George Crook assumed command of the Department of Arizona on this date in 1871.
June 6, 1903: Governor Brodie ordered the Arizona Rangers to Morenci and Clifton where miners were striking.
June 8, 1854: Arizona, south of the Gila River, was obtained via treaty from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase.
June 8, 1880: an executive order reserved lands for the Havasupai Reservation.
June 8, 1942: Birthday of Andrew Thomas Weil, celebrity doctor who is a physician, author, and spokesperson of the alternative medical movement.
June 8, 1970: Birthday of Gabrielle Dee Giffords, an American politician and gun control advocate.
June 10, 1903: After two hours of torrential rain, eleven people were known drowned and many others were missing in Clifton, Arizona.
June 10, 1922: Birthday of Rose Mofford, American politician, 1st female Governor of Arizona (1988-1991), born in Globe, Arizona (d. 2016).
June 12, 1916: Birthday of Raúl Héctor Castro, a Mexican American politician, Arizona Governor, diplomat and judge (d.2015).
June 12, 1930: Tucson celebrated the completion of the Airport at the Davis-Monthan field on this date in 1930.
June 14, 1909: Birthday of Ted DeGrazia, American impressionist, painter, sculptor, composer, actor, director, designer, architect, jeweler, and lithographer (d 1982).
June 15, 2025: 55th Annual Juneteenth Festival Kino Sports Complex 5-10 PM.
June 19, 1915: seventy thousand people witnessed the launch of the USS Arizona at the New York Naval Yard. The ship was christened with a bottle of the first water to flow over the Roosevelt Dam and champagne. Cost of the ship: $13,000,000.
June 21 Summer Solstice begins at 7:42 PM MST.
June 21, 1936: I.A. Eddy of Yuma developed the first home evaporative (swamp) cooler, a device which promised to provide Arizonans some longed-for relief from the intense heat of summer, at least until monsoon season.
June 22, 1892: President Benjamin Harrison set aside one square mile of Arizona Territory surrounding the Casa Grande ruins as the first prehistoric and cultural reserve established in the United States.
June 23, 1881: a barrel of whiskey exploded in a Tombstone saloon, starting a fire that destroyed the business section of town.
June 24: San Juan day which marks the beginning of the indigenous year, and prayers for the coming rain. O’Odham ceremonies include the drinking of Sahuaro fruit wine as a part of the ceremony.
June 24, 1853: US President Franklin Pierce signs the Gadsden Purchase, buying 29,670 square-miles (76,800 square km) from Mexico for $10 million (now southern Arizona and New Mexico).
June 24, 1878: Birthday of W.H.B. (Whiskey High Balls) Kent, forest ranger and western author for whom Kent Springs, in the Santa Rita Mountains, is named (d. 1947).
June 26, 1990: Tucson Record High Temperature: 117 deg.
June 27, 1881: thirty thousand pounds of gun-powder exploded in Zeckendorf's powder magazine at the edge of Tucson, smashing windows and dishes and damaging buildings all over town. Churches were quickly filled with people who feared the end of the world was at hand.
June 27, 1938: Birthday of Bruce Babbitt, American attorney and politician (Governor State of Arizona and 47th United States Secretary of the Interior), born in Flagstaff, Arizona.
June 28, 1942: Birthday of James Thomas Kolbe,Republican member of the United States House of Representatives for Arizona's 5th congressional district, 1985–2003 and 8th congressional district, 2003–2007. (d.2022).
June 28, 1943: Birthday of Ed Pastor, (Rep-D-Arizona) (d. 2018).
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​​June, croon, spoon, swoon, dune, boon, commune, honeymoon. June is the romantic month of love and marriage, and honeymoons. In the Sonoran desert, it is also the month of Sahuaro fruit ripening. So, I thought it might be fun to give you a recipe for Sahuaro fruit mead I made a few years back. Unlike some home brews, mead is relatively straightforward to make, isn’t too temperature fussy, and forgiving of small errors and mild neglect.
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In Celtic cultures, Mead was believed to enhance virility and fertility, while also contributing supposed aphrodisiac qualities. As a result, Mead quickly found its way into Irish wedding ceremonies. In fact, the term “honeymoon” is rumored to have stemmed from the Celtic tradition of newlyweds drinking honey wine every day for one full moon (a month). This lovely story has since been suggested as untrue, but in the Johnson family tradition; “never let the truth get in the way of a good story!”
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First one has to gather Sahuaro fruit; no easy task. It is illegal to gather sahuaro fruit on public lands, so you’ll have to find your own secret spot on private property (sorry, not giving that one out!). Fortunately, there should be a lot of fruit this year as the drought causes the cactus to send out more flowers and therefore more fruit.
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O’Odham natives use a long stick (usually a sahuaro rib called a kuipad) with a cross piece at the top to knock the fruit off. It’s best to get the fruit just before it splits open, but it’s not easy to know exactly when. Fruit is almost always just a couple of inches higher than your pole(!). It’s great if you have a partner with a bucket to catch it as it falls (I’ve never been so blessed), but some invariably lands in the nearest cholla cactus. A pair of tongs can be very helpful. I actually made a stick of long light PVC pipe with a wire snare on the end to grab the fruit, but they still try to jump away. You’ll need about a half gallon of fruit. It will be hot, no clouds or shade, relentless sun, a long way away from your car, and nearby cholla and rattlesnakes. Dress, water, and behave appropriately.
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O’Odham people view sahuaros as other humans,and treat them respectfully. Please follow in that tradition. The true tale of one clod who did not is immortalized in the Austin Lounge Lizard Song Saguaro, which is this month’s music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_9LDLur5P4
You can scoop out the pulp and seed out in the field or back home in the kitchen. In either case I find a small spoon works best. You’ll need about 3 cups of pulp. Cover with water, bring to a boil for 45 minutes, skimming debris that rises to the top, then straining out the pulp and seeds. The juice that remains cooks for another two or three hours, until it’s a thick syrup.
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In a gallon jug pour 3 lbs of honey (~ 3 quarts). Any light honey will do; mesquite honey is perfect. Add the cooled sahuaro juice; then add water up to the neck of the jug. Shake like crazy 100 times to mix it all well. Wine yeast is best (I use either 71-B 1122 or K1-V1116, which you can get at a brew store or online). Mix the yeast up separately with warm water and some honey, and then, once it’s bubbling, add to your jug and keep your fingers crossed that the whole mess will start fermenting. Top the jug with a air lock (though I used a ballon with holes poked it for years!), put it in the sink for the first couple of days in case it bubbles over, and let ‘er rip!
The primary fermentation should take a month or so. Then you decant into another bottle minus the lees (the gunk at the bottom of the jug) for another month or so, and then, when no more air comes out (you don’t want bottle bombs) and it’s crystal clear, you can go ahead an bottle in wine bottles or beer bottles. I like the beer bottles cause this stuff is pretty potent about 8% alcohol. A half a beer bottle of chilled mead in a wine glass is quite mellowing. Keep it in a cool dark place, like the back of a pantry. It gets better the long it sits, so you might want to wait until next year’s Sahuaro harvest to bring it out. It also makes a stunning wedding present. Wassail!
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Sahuaro Fruit Mead
Lyrics to Saguaro written by Ann Clardy & Michael Stevens.
