Corey Loyd
The SaddleBrooke fruit pickers (SB pickers) recently ended their picking season for the year after a spectacular three months of picking fruit throughout SaddleBrooke. The SB pickers is a group founded four years ago by Dotti McKee and Jill Darban with a few others who saw the need for fruit to be harvested in SaddleBrooke. The 75 volunteer residents from SaddleBrooke and SaddleBrooke Ranch pick SaddleBrooke fruit for donation to non-profits, missions, food banks and other non-profit food centers. Their mission is two-fold:
* Provide the SaddleBrooke community an easily accessible resource to harvest the citrus fruit being grown in the community; and
* Provide the less fortunate and those in need in the greater Tucson area with the quality citrus fruit that grows in the SaddleBrooke community.
The 2026 season began on January 16 and each Saturday into mid-April, 15 to 20 of the volunteers would gather to pick locations throughout SaddleBrooke. The 2026 harvest from 16 picking days was nearly 600 boxes of fruit from 134 locations. The estimated weight of the season’s harvest, a staggering 11 tons. Wow!
A huge thank you goes to a lot of people, starting with homeowners who donated their fruit; some each and every year. Without their donation we could not do what we do. Gerta, who leaves us cookies every year, thank you. Del, whose oranges squeeze the best OJ, thanks. And to the many others, thank you.
Thanks goes to the recipients. One of our largest recipients was The Gospel Rescue Mission with Donna O’Shea delivering boxes of lemons. She purchased a commercial juicer and residents obtained community service hours by juicing our lemons; Thank You Donna. The list of non-profit recipients includes: Mammoth Tri Community Food Bank, Hawser Impact Food Bank, Interfaith Community Services Food Bank on Ina Road, Lend a Hand in downtown Tucson, and Primavera Foundation. Without them we would have no purpose and a lot of fruit would be wasted.
When the abundance of fruit exceeded the needs of the non-profits, SB Pickers donated to other community members, including the SaddleBrooke fire stations, Sammy’s, Café Bavaria, Fork and Knife, Mi Tierra, and Carlotta’s and delivered to the SaddleBrooke One Agave Lounge staff. Free fruit boxes were often placed at Desert Pharmacy, the Mini-Mart and at volunteer’s homes curbside for neighbors.
And a special thanks goes to Tom Martin, who picked up oranges on most picking days to squeeze them into juice for delivery to our less mobile senior residents in SaddleBrooke.
And finally, thanks goes to the SB pickers team for their commitment and support they provide to the Tucson community. Thank you to our delivery drivers: Mike and Linda, Dotti, Sally, Tina, Sue, Joanne, Pat (Lend a Hand with his truck), and others. Gratitude abounds and we have many testimonials from those that receive the fruit. It was an amazing and fulfilling season. Your support in volunteering, the appreciation from our fruit owners, and the sincere gratitude from each of our recipients made it worthwhile. Job well done!