The freeze did it!

  The recent hard freeze that hit the Bayou was a nuisance in more ways than one. First, the day before saw Michael and I covering the entire garden with blankets to try to protect my cabbage plants.  Then, there was the chore of cutting firewood to heat the Little Bayou House, the water pump needed tending and the greenhouse lights adjusted. Finally, we had to make sure that each of our pets found a nice cozy corner in the house to call their own.  All that was left was to check things hourly during the night to make sure nothing dire was happening.  There is nothing worse than a mass of broken pipes!  All went well except for one minor problem.

  After the bitter cold had subsided a bit, I checked our citrus trees.  The trees, themselves, seemed to have withstood the chill quite well but the hundred pounds or so of kumquats still on the trees appeared to be frozen solid.  My intentions had been to pick the fruit before the temperatures dropped below freezing but the other chores took much longer than expected.  My kumquats looked like little orange ice cubes! Well, I could not fret over such things as they were out of my control. Still, I could look for a silver lining among the golden ice cubes.

  A good cup of tea helped me to ponder the situation.  Yep, those kumquats were quite solid but perhaps all was not lost.  I still had a chance at salvaging the fruit.  If I picked them before they thawed, cleaned and cut them as soon as possible and cooked them before they soured, things might just be ok.  I passed the idea to Mark and he agreed that we should at least try.  It seemed such a terrible thing to waste the fruit.  Since the trees are quite tall, he opted to trim back the limbs.  We then could pick the fruit without standing on a ladder for hours.  This worked rather well and after two hours we had our pans full.  We managed to do all of this before the temperatures warmed above the freezing mark.  As soon as we toted the pans inside, I set to work washing the billion or so marble-sized fruit and Michael started chopping and seeding.  Marmalade making had begun.

  After another two hours, we had one large bowl full of the readied fruit but four more bowls were still waiting.  Ok, this would never work.  At the rate we were working, the kumquats would definitely sour before we were near finished.  It was then that stroke of brilliance hit! Why not freeze the rest of the fruit until we had time to work with them?  After all, they were frozen on the tree, they might as well be frozen a bit longer.  He and I bagged the kumquats and shuffled stuff around in the freezers to make space.  Whew!  This just bought us at least a few days. Now, on to making the marmalade at hand.

  After six hours of work, there are sixteen jars of marmalade sealed on the shelf and four gallons of kumquats in the freezer ready to be chopped.  As much work as this is, I do feel better about not wasting the fruit.  I guess it just goes to show that you cannot trust the weather and it is best not to procrastinate too long!!  Now, if I could just figure out an easier method of seeding the little jokers, marmalade making would be a snap!