Kumquat picking time!

Today after cutting more firewood, doing the laundry, and cooking a big pot of beans for our meal, my son and I headed out to the kumquat trees. They are loaded with fruit and a few have started to drop off onto the ground. I am not sure if it is a bird or other critter that is knocking them to the ground or if perhaps some are getting overripe, but we decided it is time to pick. These are wild kumquats..ones that came up from seeds discarded during marmalade making in previous years. In all, we have six mature "natural" or wild trees and three young, first-year hybrid type ones. For any who are not familiar with wild kumquats, unlike their altered cousins, the hybrids, these have thorns. Lots of thorns! Many, many thorns!! All of these thorns make it a mite difficult to pick the tiny fruit without being stabbed. After picking for an hour or so, the picker emerges from the kumquat patch looking as if he has just tangled with a wildcat or at least tried to pick up our kitty, Ms. Put. As I said, it was time to pick these little nuggets of sweetness. Son grabbed the ladder (the trees are about eighteen feet tall!) and I grabbed two baskets. We thought this surely would be enough to hold the fruit and we had good intentions of being finished picking by lunch time! In earlier years, we usually only reaped about one gallon of the tiny "orange wannabes". How wrong could we be! We picked and picked..we chatted and chatted..we picked and picked. An hour and a half later, the baskets were finally full! What an accomplishment! We can be proud that we stuck with the job and...only picked one half of one tree????? What is this?? Never before have these trees made this many! I tried to pick up the large basket..ugh! This thing weighed a ton..or at least it felt like it! "Umm..Son, you will have to tote that one! I will get the other!" Once inside, the scale was brought out and the day's work was weighed. Oh my goodness! The baskets had a total weight of twenty four pounds! Now that is a lot of picking when you consider that each fruit is only about an inch or inch and a half in diameter! And to think, we still have five and a half trees yet to pick! I think we will be in the kumquat patch for a while! Not to mention, all of that chopping and seeding that will be needed in preparation for the marmalade. Any volunteers? My oldest son and daughter-in-law and my daughter and son-in-law all live away from here. When they are here on the Bayou, I can always depend on their help with whatever task is at hand. I miss their gracious help at times like this. I am quite sure my youngest son truly misses their help for he is the one that has to climb the ladder or trees! It is a lot of work but so worth it! He and I will pick and chop and make our marmalade..and when they do finally get to visit, they can pack a box full of jars of home-canned marmalade to take home with them!