When Mexican Americans begin celebrating the extended Christmas season this Saturday on the feast day of Guadalupe, they will enjoy one big change from a few years ago: ample supplies of tejocote, a peculiar crab-apple-like fruit that most people have never heard of but that is an indispensable ingredient in ponche, the hot fruit punch emblematic of the holidays.
Once the most smuggled fruit on the Mexican border, tejocote (pronounced te-ho-COT-e) is forbidden no more. What follows is a photo gallery look at the harvesting of tejocotes in the Pauma Valley, a San Diego County agricultural community north of Valley Center, as well as a closer look at the fruit itself: (David Karp / For The Times)
