Tableful of Marmalade!

   Finally, I can put a major chore behind me for at least another year...maybe longer if the hard freeze of a few weeks ago did extreme damage to the citrus trees.  As of now, they are bare of leaves and not looking so good.  Just a month ago, the trees were heavy laden with fruit.  Since (at that time) both Mark and Son were laid up with injuries, guess who lugged out the ladder and picked all of those bushels of fruit?  Yep, me.  Old ladies and ladders are not the best of friends and the constant up/down and stretching made for much achiness.  Then...what do you do with some twenty or so bushels of satsumas, navel oranges and grapefruit?  After pushing off a dozen bushels on unsuspecting folk who said they would take a "few", my work began in earnest.  Satsumas and grapefruit were juiced and then frozen and navel oranges were chopped and turned into marmalade.  The only citrus fruit left in the house now are about a dozen lemons which will be juiced and used in baked goodies and tisanes. 

  Sometimes I wonder if all of this hard work is worth it but, then, I ponder the state of this country and sit back, sigh and feel a bit of relief that the shelves are filled with foodstuffs.  As Son once said, "There is probably enough food in jars and the freezers to feed us for about three years.  It may not be particularly our favorite food but we can eat."  That last sentence is in reference to his tastes not mine.  I can eat just about anything edible.  

  So, now comes the fun of finding shelf space for forty four more jars of food.  Biscuits!  Buttermilk biscuits and marmalade sound mighty fine!  

Huge Oranges!

   Last year saw the citrus trees being pounded hard by the weather.  Late fall saw the trees simply loaded with fruit to the point that the limbs had to be propped to keep them from breaking.  Just as the fruit was about to be ready to pick, along came Hurricane Zeta.  I knew that the heavy limbs would break so, after making storm preparations, I started picking as much of the fruit as I could.  Time was short.  I was so thankful to see my niece and her husband drive up to the house.  I knew I could ask for help.  These two never fail to provide helping hands when needed.  For hours we picked.  We filled every basket, box, crate and bag we could find.  As they prepared to leave, we loaded their truck with fruit and they were able to pawn off the stuff on their many friends.  I was thankful not to have to fret over the well-being of the trees during the storm.  The trees did take a beating but at least they were alive.  Many of the limbs had to be trimmed back.

  Then this spring a late freeze hit just as the trees were setting blossoms.  Most of the blossoms dropped which left very few to form fruit.  The blooms that did set fruit were a welcome sight.  I babied the trees all summer and was happy to see that the satsumas and navel oranges had a few fruit dangling from the limbs.  The grapefruit was a lot worse for wear after the freeze and set no fruit.  All seemed well with the others, however.

  Then...today.  Just as the fruit are about to ripen to their glorious sweetness, the deer have decided to help themselves.  Last night about a dozen navel oranges and all of the lower satsumas disappeared.  Uh, oh!  Time to pick again.  So...early this morning, I picked the remaining navel oranges and any satsumas that I could reach.  Tomorrow, I will haul the ladder around and pick any remaining fruit.

  What amazed me is the size of the navel oranges!  While the numbers are low (only one crateful), the size is huge!  I weighed one orange and it was nigh on two pounds!  ONE ORANGE!  Yep, most were about one pound each, which is considered very large but a few were close to two pounds!  Something went right!  Now, I need to start making marmalade, dried orange peel and candied orange peel slices.   The work never ends but I am thankful.

Huge Grapefruit!

As much as I would rather be working on crafts, duty calls.  The citrus fruit needs tending.  For nigh on a month now, the kitchen has been the site of much canning, jelly-making and dehydrating and it seems it will be for a while to come.  Son picked over a hundred more grapefruit and the remaining dozen or so satsumas this afternoon.  He will pick the remaining grapefruit in a few days allowing me time to work with these. While the dozen satsumas are not needing anything other than being eaten, no one in their right mind could ever eat that many grapefruits before they go bad.  It is my job to see that they do not deteriorate before being consumed so the dehydrator will be running night and day for the next week.  The twelve trays are neatly stacked with the thin slices of fruit.  After about twenty hours, each slice will be crispy and sweet making them the perfect, healthy snack.  Hundreds and hundreds of the crunchy slices will be stowed away in gallon jugs.  There, they will stay fresh for the duration of the winter and will provide us, not only with snacks, but with much needed vitamin C!

  While Son was half way up the humongous tree, he called to me that he found the "Granddaddy of all grapefruit".  He tossed me a fruit that looked to be the size of a pumpkin when it was flying at my head!  It is a good thing that I can catch decently, otherwise, I might have been knocked flat!  Death by grapefruit does not sound like a happy event! When I caught the fruit, I had to agree that it was huge!  Then he tossed another that was the same size.  "That limb had big ones!" he called.  Yep, it seems that way.

Huge grapefruit with a few navel oranges and satsumas.  Dehydrated grapefruit slices are stored in gallon jugs.

   The two grapefruits weighed in at over two pounds each!  The average size of a grapefruit usually is only about 12 ounces.  Sometimes "large" grapefruits can weigh around a pound.  Well, now!  I have two "super-sized" grapefruits!   Most of the ones that Son picked today were well over a pound each.  Even though we have eaten more than we should (if possible!), canned many and given away hundreds, there are still fruit dangling from the limbs.  I do think our two trees are doing well!

A Bit of Cool Weather Does Wonders

  Our recent bout of chilly weather seems to have done the trick on ripening the citrus fruit.  The satsumas are super sweet now and the navel oranges are all turning bright in color  I will have to pull the ladder around to the grapefruit trees to snatch one from the tree for sampling. Those, too, should have sweetened with the frost of the past few nights. While most of the country is snowy and cold, the Bayou is looking for more rain come middle of the week.  Hopefully, I will manage to pick a bit of fruit to can before the thunderstorms roll through the area.  Canning is always a great way to spend rainy days.  Between canning and dehydrating the fruit, the house will smell divine and the rewards for all my labor will be incredibly delicious.  I am ready to get this on the move. Kumquat picking shall commence!

  The plan is to leave dozens of fruit on the lower branches for the grandchildren to pick when they come for Christmas.  They can help MawMaw and PawPaw pick the fruit, then later, may be able to help make orange peel candy.  This is always a holiday favorite around here so the candy jars stay filled.  This year, however, I want to try something new as well.  I found a recipe for candied orange slices! No peeling, removing the pith nor finely slicing.  Just thinly slice a whole orange and go from there.  It should be interesting to say the least.  

  Hopefully, with the unpredictable weather of late, we will not have any hard freezes that will throw my picking plans askew.  I think the grandkids will have a great experience doing a bit of "garden work".  Or, maybe this old lady expects too much from kids today.  That, too, should be interesting.

 
 
 

Look Past the Peel!

  The citrus trees in the back yard are doing quite well this year.  Each tree is loaded with fruit to the point that we had to prop up the limbs lest they break.  Now that is time for the fruit to start ripening, a dreadful thing is occurring!  Just a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that some of the satsumas were turning dark.  On one tree, the outer peels of the fruit were browning quickly and turning rather rigid.  A bit of research by a visiting cousin revealed that my citrus trees were infected by a mite!  A tiny critter, that could not be seen without the aid of a magnifying glass, was sucking all of the moisture from the peels and leaving behind an unsightly mess.  The remedy was to spray the trees with an horticultural oil spray.  No problem there since I make my own safe version of this to use on the peach trees.  It was the loss of all that fruit that bothered me. Then my cousin read further and discovered that, even though the fruit was about as ugly as can be, it was still fine on the inside.  With that bit of information in mind, I peeled a satsuma and found....the fruit was excellent!  Outward appearances can often hide beauty within.

  Not wanting the mites to travel from the infected tree to the mite-free trees, I thought it best to at least eliminate any mites that may be on the ugly fruit.  Basket after basket of the satsumas were picked, hauled into the house and immediately dumped into a sink of hot, soapy water.  After a bit of scrubbing, the peels were removed and quickly bagged for the garbage.  I was not about to take the chance of reinfecting the trees by composting the peels.  Once the couple of hundred satsumas were rid of their mite ridden peels, I had to figure out just what to do with them. Son and I discussed the possibilities and decided that canning some of the slices would be a good start.  Half were canned and half were refrigerated.  Tomorrow, citrus butter will be in the works.

  While most folks would have just discarded the darkened, mite-infested fruit, I just cannot bring myself to waste food.  I was always taught to find a way to make use of what was on hand.  Hopefully, the horticultural oil will do the trick and will rid the grove of all mites but, in the meantime, I will be happy with what I have.  I just have to get past those ugly peels!