You Missed One!

  Here it is March and we are still getting fruit from the citrus trees. While this seems delightful for us, it is probably not the best thing for the trees.  A few are already budding.  Those last lingering fruits needed to be picked.  This is far easier said than done.  While picking the satsumas, lemons, kumquats and navel oranges is relatively easy, the picking of the grapefruit presents quite the problem.  Since the trees are a good forty feet tall, getting to the fruit is quite the ordeal.  Son usually has to climb the tree and then use an extension pole rigged with a hook.  The fruit comes tumbling down and often splits when coming in contact with the ground.  This makes for problems.  The fruit then has to be eaten or canned immediately.  I can only do so much.  The two trees bear over 500 huge fruits.

  At the beginning of this month, Mark took the extension pole and just shook the branches.  Fruit was flying everywhere!  Dozens splatted on the hard ground making them unusable but twice as many bounced and never received a single bruise.  Once again, the kitchen was filled with citrus fruit.  I needed no more.  The jars were already filled canned jams, jellies and marmalades.  Gallon jugs were filled to the brim with dehydrated slices.  Quart jars held dehydrated and pulverized peels.  What was I to do with more fruit?  It was given to any unsuspecting visitor to the Little Bayou House.  

  Then, when we were out on our hike, we spied the Evil Grapefruit!  One large fruit still clung to a limb high in the top of the tree!  I cannot rid myself of these things!  There it hung as if mocking me all the while gleaming in the morning sunlight.  When I saw it, I had to start laughing.  "You missed one!" I told Mark.  He just looked at me in disbelief and murmured what I hope was "It seems that way."  

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!

Smart Thinking!

  Since the weather has turned a tad chilly (at least for one more night), heating the Little Bayou House has become a constant chore.  Stoking the old woodburning stoves, chopping firewood, hauling in enough for the evening kept us all hopping for the last two days.  While it was tiring hauling all of that wood up the hillside, having a toasty fire made it all worth the effort.  The bad part of keeping so busy was that the citrus fruit that needed canning just sat in baskets.  All of the satsumas, grapefruit, navel oranges and kumquats had to be picked prior the nasty freeze that befell the Bayou.  I had good intentions but never found that "round to-it" that everyone keeps referring to when chores are interrupted. Then, I had a stroke of brilliance!  Instead of utilizing the time consuming canning method or marmalade making, I would dehydrate the grapefruit!  

  Simply washing the fruit and slicing it thinly was all the preparations needed for the process.  No peeling...no chopping...no seeding is necessary!  The dehydrator was filled ten racks high and turned onto the highest heat.  Ta-dah!  The chore was complete except that the dehydrator had to do its job.  Mine was finished!  Then I got another bright idea!  Why keep the dehydrator in the kitchen where it is always warm from cooking?  The whole kit and caboodle was moved into the living room.  There the fan-blown heat could add warmth to that created by the woodstove.  Soon the room was a nice sixty-eight degrees and rising!  Plus, twenty-four hours later, we have a gallon jar of tasty treats awaiting our testing. Yum!

  Grapefruit are known to be rather tart but once dried, they take on a bit of a sweetness.  The peels, pith and juicy fruit all become one snack. There is no waste when the fruit is prepared in this manner.  Even the seeds are crunchy!  Since this worked so well, the dehydrator has been filled again and is warming the living room tonight.  Oh, and an added incentive to use this method?....The house smells divinely of citrus!

Being Dealt a Blow

  With Hurricane Matthew bearing down on the Florida coast today, I could not help but think of all of the citrus farmers that would be having problems.  Not only are their lives and homes in danger but they stand to lose their livelihood if any orchards are in the path of the hurricane. The fruit on the trees may not be able to withstand the winds and surely the deluge of rain will cause problems.  It made me sad to think of what it would be like for these people.  Everything could possibly be wiped out in a matter of hours.  Their hard work could be for naught.  With a loss like that, it could be years before these folks recuperate business wise.

  Citrus fruit is one of those crops that is harvested late in the year.  Our trees set the fruit in spring then after a summer of maturing, we harvest in late fall or even early winter. (The grapefruit on our trees are just starting to turn colors!)  Hurricanes and tropical systems can wreak havoc on the trees.  Not only will a lot of fruit be whipped from the limbs, the trees, themselves, can receive devastating damage.  A lot of trees could possibly be uprooted.  This loss can be so severe that it takes years to reestablish the orchards. 

  That said, do not be surprised to pay a bit more for the luxury of eating fresh citrus fruit during the upcoming and even next season.  While most of us only see the inconvenience in the grocery stores, think of the poor folks that will be hurting for years to come through no fault of their own.  Pay that extra without complaint.  Even just a few extra cents out of your pocket at the grocery store can mean all the difference in the world to the folks trying to rebuild their lives.  We have been there and done that so I am speaking purely from experience.  It is not easy and takes years.  The folks impacted by this hurricane will surely appreciate any help they can get and we all should try to be supportive.  Lend a hand, send a few dollars, pray and generally just be there for the good folks in the path of this monster of a storm.

What an improvement!

A great improvement was made to the appearance of the old highchair in yesterday's post.  The addition of my sweet granddaughter turned the chair into the most elegant of thrones to ever be sat upon.  Of course, she could have sat upon any old chair and still been radiant but to me, the old highchair seemed almost jubilant to be holding a little one after all of these years.  Mary Ruth is the fourth generation of babies to use the chair and of those four, three of the little ones were named "Ruth".  Of course, it would have been a tad strange if the fourth was named that since he is my son (also known as, Mary Ruth's daddy!)

While chowing down on some of my homemade chicken and broccoli soup, Mary Ruth was steadily grasping for anything and everything that was within her reach. Since this kitchen has not seen a little one in quite some time, it is not exactly "baby-proof".  My sweet daughter-in-law was forever apologizing for little hands clasping onto the curtains, ladles and wooden spoons.  I just smiled and told her that as long as Mary Ruth was not in danger, she could play with anything she wanted.  It bothered me not that something might accidentally be broken.  This was learning play and I was not about to squelch that in the least.  Finally, my son found the perfect toys!  He handed his sweet little one a homegrown grapefruit and lemon.  Then a few canning lid rings were placed on the tray.  These few items kept the little girl quite entertained for some time!  We decided that she was learning the fine art of home canning.  Perhaps with the lemon and grapefruit, she was going to make a fine marmalade!

It sure feels good to have a little one in the Little Bayou House after all of these years.  Mary Ruth being here has breathed life back into the old place!  Yep, I do believe this has been quite an improvement!

Orange and Red...

I saddened to say that I did not pick all of the fruit dangling from the citrus trees yet.  There was just far too much and far too little time to get it all picked.  Michael and I picked until we were just too tired to climb the ladder again.  I guess that is a sure sign that my age is creeping up on me!  Still we managed to harvest a couple of bushels of the Satsumas and nigh on thirty pounds of kumquats.   It is the kumquats that take forever to pick!  Those little rascals do not fill the basket very fast and the trees are covered with two inch long thorns!  (Today my hands and arms are full of scratches!) I am happy to say that although the temperature dropped well below the freezing mark, the remainder of fruit survived!  It seems that none of it is any worse for wear so we will be back on the ladders in the morning if the rains hold.  As it is, my kitchen is filled with boxes and baskets of fruit!  Marmalade-making is in the near future!  I would also like to try my hand at canning citrus juice!  I am sure it can be done but I have not found any directions as of yet.  At times, I tire of chopping all of those grapefruit, lemons, Satsumas and kumquats required to make the marmalade. I, also, tire of eating that much!  The shelves hold over three hundred jars of jams and jellies and adding another hundred or so of marmalade seems to be a bit of overkill.  Still, I hate to waste the fruit.

After tiring of the fruit-picking chore, I started "undecorating" the house.  If I do not start now to take down the Christmas decorations, it will be well into January before I accomplish that task.  I started in the entryway since it is the smallest area that was decorated.  I took down the tiny village and the garland.  Stepping back to see if I missed anything, I noticed the red bells.  Since they were hung near the ceiling, I asked Michael to remove them.  This is a string of lights in the shape of red Christmas bells.  Each bell is about five inches in length.  The string of lights is not something that I, personally, would have purchased but I do hang them each season.  Why, may you ask, do I hang them?  Well, it all boils down to the fact that they were given to me years ago by an uncle that I simply adored.  One time when I was at my Uncle Lucius and Aunt Betty's house, he handed me the lights and asked if I wanted them.  Sure! He told me that they used to hang in their entry and thought that I should hang them in mine now.  I was honored that he gave them to me so now, each year, the lights come out of storage to adorn the entryway.  Every time I hang the lights, I think of Aunt Betty and Uncle Lucius.  They are no longer with us except in our memories but what wonderful memories I have of them!  Each year, I will hang these bells and smile then at the end of the season, they will carefully be packed away to await the coming of Christmas again.  Memories!

Beware of the Mighty Grapefruit!

Have you ever thought of grapefruit as a potential weapon?  Perhaps you should!  All the hype about the end of the world and zombie attacks, recently was the basis of a dream that I had one night.  Several weeks ago, I dreamt that zombies were attacking the world!  My oldest son (being in the military and my hero!), was in battle with the..umm...enemy!  In my dream, he hurriedly placed a call to me demanding that I bar my self inside the Little Bayou House until the whole ordeal was over.  Ha!  That would never work!  I told him that I had grapefruit that needed picking!  Sounds just about like something that I would deem more important than a zombie attack!  Anyway, the dream continued with Michael up in the grapefruit tree and me on the ground catching fruit that he would toss to me.  Suddenly....ZOMBIES!  EVERYWHERE!  Michael (being my hero in the dream!) beaned one zombie with a grapefruit and the rascal disintegrated!  WHEW!  Well, now we knew!  Zombies are highly allergic to grapefruit!  I called Mark and he informed the big guys in the government that he was confiscating all grapefruit in the country to eradicate the bad guys!  Not too shabby of a dream!  I always knew grapefruit was healthy for you but I just never knew it would save the world!

Seriously, I would be wary around the fruit, though.  I know there are a lot of complications if grapefruit is eaten by folks that are using certain medications but this has nothing to do with such stuff.  Grapefruit can be highly dangerous!  I have proof!  Michael and I headed to the woodpile this afternoon to restock the bins for the night.  It was to be a cold, wintry night on the Bayou and the woodstoves would need stoking a good bit.  As we passed under the two large grapefruit trees, I spied what could have been a tragic incident had one of us been under the tree a few days ago.  On Christmas Eve and then again on Christmas Day, the weather was atrocious. It rained and winds were whipping the about the hillside something awful!  All of that wind knocked a few of the grapefruit from the branches.  Most were retrieved once the weather cleared and will be made into marmalade but one was missed.  Mark has a weight bench sitting under the shade of the trees.  As we walked passed this bench, I noticed that a large grapefruit had fallen from the branch and impaled itself on the upright bar of the bench!  The metal shaft had split the rind of the fruit and literally stabbed almost through it!  If the fruit had fallen with that much force, just what would it have done to my head???  I dread to think of the pain I might have endured!  Michael pulled the fruit from the metal post and inspected it.  Yep..it had sliced the fruit cleanly!  I do suppose the wind whipping about had catapulted the nearly one pound grapefruit with quite some force but still, I would not want one just falling on my noggin!  That would definitely hurt!

So...the moral of the story...if zombies attack....hurl grapefruit!   Perhaps the wholesome fruit might be the answer!  And if that is the case...I am ready as the two trees are still loaded with fruit! On the other hand, I guess Michael and I better get out there and start picking those things.  They can't hang on the tree forever..zombie attack or not!  Marmalade-making time has come to the Bayou.  I will be quite the busy person for the next few weeks!

Nighttime Raid!

The things I do for people!!!  Just after dark, Mark answered the telephone...it was his niece.  She was on her way to our house.  Hmmm...Ok?  It is a rare occasion when someone visits the Little Bayou House much after dark.  I am presuming the long, dark lane that leads to the house might have something to do with that or...perhaps the shrieks and howls of the critters leave some a bit ill at ease.  Anyway, she was heading our way.  I do appreciate the fact that this niece always calls ahead of time to let us know that she will be visiting.  (Again, that might be just out of uneasiness!)  It seems that she wanted a few grapefruit and was nearby, so she thought she might as well make a quick stop.  As soon as he hung up the phone, I grabbed a flashlight and a dishpan.  Out the door and into the darkness I went!  Might I mention at this point, there are not streetlights on the Bayou..only the moon and the stars light the area at night.  Just as I opened the door, there she stood waiting with open arms to give me a much-welcomed hug!  I would do most anything for this sweet girl...even if it means heading out to the fruit trees in the pitch-blackness of the night.   I was elated to see that the grapefruit shone like beacons up in the tree!  This fact sure made it easier to know just what I was grasping!  I would have hated to grab ahold to some old, crabby raccoon instead of the nice, firm grapefruit!  We picked several dozen of the fruit and then moved to the Satsuma tree.  The limbs of this tree are breaking with the sheer weight of the fruit so it was necessary to pick some...I might as well impose a few of those on her!  She seemed mightily grateful which always makes it a tad easier to toss in a few extra!

After she left with her bounty, I decided to head back outside to photograph the fruit at night.  This proved a mite interesting as no sooner had I made the trek to the citrus trees than I heard a strange noise.  Yip...yip...yip.  Wait a minute...coons do not yip!  Fox!  I swirled around and flashed the light in the general area...aha!  Eyes reflected back at me from beneath the blackberry vines!  Reddish-orange eyes stared back at me!  It is unusual to ever actually catch a fox's eyes in the beam of a flashlight.  They are smart and quick!  The only reason that I caught this one is that I fully surprised it by stepping back outside so soon after my niece left.  Perhaps it had little ones out and about which would account of the constant yipping.  If that was the case, I needed to be out of the area.  A good motto is to never tangle with any wild animal defending their young!  Whatever the reason, I decided it was time to head back inside!  The little fox could go about its business without any disturbance from me!

Harvest Time on the Bayou!

Decorating for Halloween rates right up there as one of my favorite things to do!  There is just so many options of what to chose and how to go about adorning the house.  I have said before that I do not like the gore that some folks think is scary.  That trend is not so much scary as it is just plain sickening.  This indeed says something about the way of society.  Things have gone beyond decency and have now stepped far into the mode of pure ick.  Not at the Little Bayou House!  My Halloween decorations shall never be considered sickening nor vulgar!  That, again, does not mean that the place cannot be scary..just implied creep.  I put up just enough cute things to make it an even mix!

The entryway to the Little Bayou House is decorated with scarecrows and harvest items. It is one of the "cute" areas in the house! This is probably more just fall-like than Halloween other than a few lanterns and some Halloween Jack-o-lantern lights.  I kept this simple so that I would not have to "redo" this area on November 1st!  The entryway can stay decorated in this manner until I rip it all out and start with the Christmas theme!  The harvest theme is very appropriate through Thanksgiving if I can wait that long before changing!

Speaking of harvest...the grapefruit and satsumas are about to ripen!  Mark and I went out to pick enough to send the kids since they live far enough north of us that citrus fruit are not grown.  We picked the fruit slightly "unripe" so that it would not get mushy in transit!  These were shipped by overnight transit and they should receive their boxes tomorrow!  While we were out picking, he and I were both impressed and a little bit in awe of how many the trees produced!  The poor satsuma trees are weighted down with their limbs literally on the ground!  The weight of the fruit dragged the limbs down to a near-breaking point.  I am going to have to do some major trimming this winter if we are going to expect the trees to survive much more of this!  The grapefruit trees are in the same predicament!  Their limbs are sagging terribly!  The fruit on these trees are massive and plentiful!  How the pencil-sized stems hold the clusters of ten to fifteen huge grapefruit is beyond comprehension!  Those poor trees!

So....fall really is "Harvest Time" here on the Bayou!  And we have truly been blessed with a good crop!  

Fall colors!

Just when everyone (me included!) is talking about the colors of the foliage, I discover that not all of the hues of Fall are leaves! This morning early, I awoke to the reddest sky I believe I have ever seen. Hopping out of bed, I threw on a pair of jeans and sweatshirt, slipped on my moccasins and grabbed my camera. Just in the five minutes or so that this took, the color had already faded to a greenish brown..not at all camera-pretty! Still, Ezzy, the dog, and I headed to the pier..if the sunrise started pretty, it might just revert back to pretty after a momentary lapse. I was right! After about a ten minute wait, the sun started to rise and wow!..what a difference a few minutes can make! The sky was still dark due to the tremendous cloud coverage but the big, ball of a sun was brilliant! It was quite remarkable to be able to focus strictly on the sun itself without photographing a blob of light! The sky and sun were interesting enough but the dark clouds passing in front of the sun added an extra oomph to the pictures!

Later in the afternoon, the clouds cleared making it enjoyable to be outside! As I meandered the gardens, I noticed more Fall colors! The kumquats were ripe! Oh, joys....let the picking commence. This week will see me on a ladder picking the marble-sized kumquats. Then for the next week, I will be chopping and seeding so I can turn these into marmalade! Last winter, Son and I picked over a hundred pounds and made forty or so quarts of marmalade. Over the year, this was shared with family and friends depleting the stock on the shelves. Time to replenish!

As I turned the corner in the garden, the satsuma trees came into view. The tree was still drippy from the rain causing the bright, orange fruit to glisten in the sunshine! This year, the satsumas are quite large with some being four inches across! I am happy to see the trees doing so well as for the past few years, they have been covered with a black smut. This has disappeared and the trees are healthy once again!

The grapefruit on the other hand, did not do as well this year. The two trees usually will provide us with twenty to thirty bushels of large fruit. This year, however, seems to be an "off" year. It appears that the yield this year will not even be half of that. This could be due to the severe drought that Summer brought with it. I will just be grateful for whatever the tree gives me, though! Most of these will be canned for use later in the year!

I am so thankful that I was able to hike around the gardens but with this came the realization that a lot of work awaits me. For the next week, kumquats, satsumas, and grapefruit will demand my attention! I will be seeing a constant run of oranges and yellows..those Fall hues will soon become a bit redundant! Bring on Winter! I am ready!

More Kitchen Delights!

My life lately seems to be centered in the kitchen! There is something about cold, dreary days that makes me want to cook. I had a craving for potato soup for several days but tried to overlook it as I would be the only one to eat it. My husband is on the riverboat where he works and my son has set tastes in food..chicken and potatoes. Finally, I gave in to the whim and started grating potatoes. Thirty minutes later, I was in "Culinary Heaven"! I know that I probably do not make my potato soup as recipes say to do but this is the easiest way to make it! And it tastes great!

Easy Potato Soup

3 large baking potatoes

1 large onion

2 tablespoons minced garlic

water (enough to just cover potatoes when boiling)

3 vegetable bouillon cubes

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon fresh parsley (chopped)

3 green onions (chopped)

6 slices bacon (fried and crumbled)

6 tablespoons of sour cream

Place water in a large stock pot and heat. Wash, peel and coarsely grate the potatoes and onion. Add these and the garlic to water and boil until potatoes are tender. Reduce heat to low. Add the bouillon cubes, turmeric, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Stir until blended. Slowly add the cheese..stirring until melted and blended. Add parsley and simmer for about 5 minutes, gently stirring. Ladle into bowls and top each with green onions, bacon crumbles and a tablespoon of sour cream! This will make six nice size servings (depending on how large the potatoes are).

After enjoying my soup, I decided it was time to actually get to work. As you know, I have mounds of grapefruit filling every available container in my kitchen. I have been canning the slices and drying the peels for the past few days, but I wanted (needed) to try something a little different. I pondered just what would blend well with the grapefruit??? Grapefruit is notoriously tart and I needed something to counteract that tartness. I peered at the apples still overflowing the baskets in one corner of the kitchen..apple/grapefruit? Maybe. Then another thought hit me..in the freezer was another of my husband's "good deals". Around Thanksgiving time, he bought bags and bags of fresh cranberries! Cranberry/grapefruit! I know, I know, cranberries are tart, too, but the names just fit together! Cranberry/grapefruit marmalade! So..here is the result of my labor! I will be making more of this..it is most delicious and just the thing to slather on fresh baked biscuits on a cold morning!

Home, Home on the Range..with grapefruit!

Yes, I am back on the range again..my kitchen stove that is. I thought that canning and preserving would be coming to a screeching halt somewhere during these winter months, but that just isn't true. Yesterday, it was pecans and today there was a bushel of grapefruit calling my name. This stuff just never ends! My son and I sort of swiped uhhh.. borrowed.. my brother's tall stepladder and started picking the fruit two days ago. (Don't fret over the "borrowed" stepladder.. cranberry/cream cheese bars made everything ok!) Anyway after picking several bushels of fruit, we decided to start canning some. This is not nearly as easy as the pecans and I cannot bribe my son to peel all of these by himself. So we worked all morning, peeling of the thin outer layer of the peel (zest) to dry, then peeling the thick inner lining off, then pulling the grapefruit into sections. Each section has to be skinned and seeded before canning. After peeling and seeding twenty-one of the things, we were beginning to hate grapefruit. Just after twenty-one! And we have probably six more bushels to pick! Oh, my! We will be here forever peeling grapefruit! My son asked.."Shouldn't we be giving some of these grapefruit to someone?" I asked "Who?" Without missing a beat, he responded.."Anyone!" Now to be honest, we have given away probably three bushels of the fruit already..and I am not sure there are that many people around here that will appreciate more. I believe my neighbors are locking their doors when they see me coming. This is sort of like trying to give away masses of zucchini squash..the first few are welcome but after a while no one wants any! So I will continue to peel, seed and can slices of grapefruit. I will continue to dry and grind the peels to use in baking and herbal teas. I will make grapefruit/ginger marmalade. And I will try to sneak some to the neighbors when they are not looking!

I am not complaining about the produce that my little garden keeps providing. Today after we planted out more cabbages, I visited the greenhouse to check on the herbs. This is a funny little greenhouse. My son made it after much encouragement (nagging) from me. To me it looks more like a greenteepee than a greenhouse, but at least it is protecting the plants. I had planted some of my herbs in an old wheelbarrow and this summer Son stuck a branch from a tomato plant in it as a joke. Well, the goofy thing took root and to my surprise, it had ripe tomatoes on it today! Granted they are cherry tomatoes but still fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes in January are a welcome treat! Hopefully, this next year, I will get my large greenhouse. If this does happen, perhaps I shall try growing a few other goodies along side the herbs and tomatoes!

Waiting on a heavy frost!

While it is true that the weather has cooled down a bit and we had a light frost, I am waiting for a heavy frost..a light freeze. Both the kumquat trees and the grapefruit trees are loaded but need a bit of cold to make them to my liking. They are delicious now but..oh, my goodness will they ever be sweet after a freeze! There is a poem with a line about "frost on the pumpkins" well, I am waiting on frost on the kumquats! This is the first year that our kumquats have really had a bumper crop and I cannot wait! As soon as it is cold enough, I will drag the ladder around to the trees (there are five!) and begin to pick! This year there appears that I will get nearly a bushel of kumquats from these trees! After being picked and washed, the fruit will be seeded and chopped. Then with a few other ingredients, the kumquats will be made into marmalade! Oh, the wonderfulness of kumquat marmalade on fresh from the oven buttermilk biscuits..I can taste it already! The grapefruit will need to be picked too but that will be a job for my son and his friends. These trees are about thirty feet tall and the fruit is all the way to the top. My son and his friends will have to climb the trees to pick the fruit. I can get the lower ones with the stepladder but those up high can only be reached by going up the tree. This is no easy task. Grapefruit trees have thorns..big thorns! I am not brave enough to attempt the climb but the challenge seems to intrigue these young men. My son will climb to the top and toss the fruit down like they are softballs. I actually do rather well at catching them before they splat on the ground! Bushel after bushel will be picked. Last year we picked seven bushels off of one tree and it seems as if we will get close to that again this year. Most of these we will give away, some will be made into grapefruit/ginger marmalade and the rest will be dried and ground to be used as a spice and in home remedies. Nothing will go to waste!

I love this time of year..we get the most amazing sunsets on the Bay! The evening sky is almost always a beautiful array of golds and reds. This reflects on the water making the whole thing seem like some artist splashed paint everywhere..it is breathtaking to say the least. I try to catch every sunrise and sunset that I can and I am never disappointed with the show. November always promises quite a performance and always exceeds expectations! I do wish I could share each one with you all!

Fall is here!

Today is the first day of Fall! Cooler weather..brilliant leaves..pumpkins! Yeah..right! I wish someone would have reminded Mother Nature of this..the temperature here on the Bayou was in the high 90's today making it more like midsummer! I have been looking forward to this season for some time now. We have had a seemingly very hot summer and the promise of cool, crisp evenings sounds Heavenly! I understand that this will not happen overnight but..Fall is here and this makes me happy.

Another thing made me happy today. My sweet daughter bought me two new hummingbird feeders and today there were hummers flitting all about them. These are really very pretty feeders unlike the cheap, plastic ones that I usually have hanging around the garden. The bottle part of this one is a gorgeous soft green glass and it has a coppery-tone base to it. I filled them with fresh nectar and carried them to the rose garden. I needed to install new hanging brackets on the posts as the old ones had rusted and I did not trust them to hold my new feeders. The little hummers could hardly wait until I hung them and as a matter of fact..one did not. I placed the feeder on a garden bench as I installed the new brackets. My skills using a screwdriver are

lacking so it took this took a few minutes. I guess one hummer was really hungry because when I turned to pick up the feeder, it was sipping the nectar while the feeder was still on the bench! I had to wait before hanging the feeder as to not scare it. They are such tiny birds and are really quite fearless. Eventually, it flew to the rose arbor and waited patiently for me to finish. After hanging both feeders, I sat on the bench and watched. Within minutes of hanging them, I counted seven hummers hovering about waiting their turn! This hot weather must have them very thirsty, too!

While out in the back, I noticed the grapefruit tree is well laden again this year. The higher limbs are starting to sag with the weight of the fruit making me wonder about the strength of the limbs. Grapefruit trees must have a very strong wood as these fruits are all hanging on a tiny twig of a limb about the size of a lead pencil. When you consider that each fruit weighs in a more than a pound and there are about twenty-five of them clustered on each limb..well???? I just hope they can hold on for another two months. Sometime in November, they will ripen enough for us to pick. It does appear that we will have a good crop this year!