Kumquats!

  Yesterday with the messy weather setting in for the weekend, I figured it was a kumquat kind of day.  I scurried myself out at daybreak before the weather turned for the worse and picked 2 1/2 (give or take a bit) of the tiny, marble-sized fruit from the trees.  This is no easy task as the trees are full of 2 inch long thorns and are quite tall.  My trusty stepladder and I had quite the battle against the rising winds but I managed.  Then came the task of washing, chopping and seeding the little rascals! THAT took forever!  I was so happy that Son came along just at the right time to help.  Between the two of us, the chore did not seem as tedious.  Once every last kumquat was in the cookpot, the whole slew was set to boil for a bit.  The peels take a while to become tender.  Even without sugar, the syrupy fruit smelled divine!  After cooking, the pot was allowed to "set for a spell"...or, in the case, overnight.  At 4am, I set the pot to boiling again, added the sugar and brewed up quite a nice batch of marmalade!  Oh, the eating shall be good! 

  Kumquats are some of those things that I have in a love/hate relationship.  They are a pain to pick and an equally tedious chore to chop and seed.  For only being about an inch in diameter, these things are full of seeds!  Son has no problem just munching down the seeds along with his kumquat but I prefer to deseed mine.  I had fully made a decision to NOT pick the fruit this year as I have far too many jars of jams and jellies on the pantry shelves as it is....but..."waste not, want not" kept roiling through the head.  Added to this, Son had mentioned that he had a craving for buttermilk biscuits and marmalade. 

  Now that these are all finished, I keep looking at the 3 or 4 gallons of fruit that remain on the trees.  I suppose I shall be back out on the ladder again once the weather clears.  Before those can be cooked down, however, I shall have to make a run to the store for more sugar.  I have just about exhausted my stash.    Unless...unless there is something I can make without sugar...hmmm...I shall have to ponder this!  Any suggestions?

Finding Easier Methods

  After the bushwhacking we gave the kumquat trees last year in search of an easier way of picking, I did not expect to harvest any fruit this year.  I figured that the poor trees would need a year of recuperation before producing but it seems as if the pruning did them good.  The trees are loaded with the tiny globes of gold.  Thinking I was going to have an off year of marmalade-making seems to have been a load of wishful thinking.  It did not happen.  So, now we are bound to be picking, chopping and seeding for the next few weeks.  

  The marmalade making is not a terrible chore if there was an easier way to get rid of the seeds.  It takes hours upon hours to chop and seed the tiny fruit.  Mark is home now so perhaps I can convince him to help me pick the kumquats and then Son and I can spend the weeks before Christmas making marmalade and dehydrated kumquat slices.  We always have good intention of seeding the entire lot but about halfway through the hundred pounds or so of marble-sized fruit, we tire.  Then we get creative.  Last year we found that if we slice the fruit and dehydrate them, the seeds become quite edible.  They turn sort of crispy making the entire slice a citrus delight!  I have used gobs of the dehydrated slices in teas mixed with fresh ginger root but we eat these by the handful and have had no ill-effects from the seeds.  Since we have eaten so many, we are down to our last quart jar of the dehydrated slices.  I guess it is time to make more....hehe....this has nothing at all to do with not wanting to spend hours seeding the things!  Dehydrated slices are great!

  It is good to know that the severe pruning we gave the trees last winter had no lasting dire effects on the health of the trees.  Mark and I were out this evening and discussed pruning the trees again.  It sure makes picking the tiny fruit easier if the limbs are within reach and I am not standing on a ladder for five hours!  Clippers shall be used again this year.

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!

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!

Kumquat Time Again!

That one little jar of kumquat marmalade may not look like a lot of work to most of you but then again, not a lot of you stand for hours in front of a tree and pick those little marble-sized fruit. It is not an envious job by far..in fact, it is rather tedious and sure to make you fully appreciate each tablespoon of the golden goodness! Today, Son and I picked sixteen pounds of kumquats and this is only a small portion of what the trees bore. We will be picking for quite some time! Keep in mind, that these are all the wild sort of fruit and not the nice, elongated fruit that comes from thornless bushes. Nope...these are the tiny, round ones that are full of seeds and come from bushes that can sometimes seem downright wicked! All of our trees were grown from the discarded seeds from previous marmalade making times. Each time we seed the fruit before cooking, the refuse would be put in the compost pile. The next Spring, hundreds of the seeds would sprout and from that at least a dozen or so would make nice healthy plants. These seedlings would be potted and then after they are several feet in height, into the garden they would go! New bushes!

Kumquats are some of the most unique fruits in existence! They are one of the only citrus fruits that are eaten whole! To prepare a kumquat for eating all that is required is a shirt sleeve if you are as country as I am! Simply pull one from the tree, wipe on the shirt sleeve to remove any visible grim and pop it into the mouth! Yep...you eat the whole thing with the exception of the seeds and oh, man..are these things ever seedy! I suppose if you have really good teeth, you might even be able to eat them, too! Seriously, though, the peel is the sweetest part of the kumquat. The pulp is quite tart so when you munch the whole fruit, you get a sweet/sour taste. There is nothing else quite like these little golden gems! Trust me, Son and I eat our share as we are picking them! But..most are destined to become marmalade and that involves a lot of slicing and seeding. The hours spent outside in front of the trees will soon seem like child's play. The hours spent at the table chopping fruit will soon seem like an eternity. An eternity well spent, though, once that sweet golden marmalade is spread upon some fresh baked biscuits! Ahhh..just the thought fills the senses! Delightful!

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!

A whole mess of thoughts!

I was out an about today when I noticed a streak in the sky. You know.. those nifty things that are behind the planes. Bing! The brain had another deja vu moment! I remember one time asking my dad what that was and he told me that it was the track that Santa's sleigh was making as he flew through the sky! That stuck in the brain so now every time I see this..my thoughts immediately turn to Santa! My darling daughter just told me that it is something entirely different! When I asked this college graduate the question of what the scientific name for this trail might be, she answered without hesitating.."jet flatulence"! So now, I suppose that every time I view this phenomenon I will start giggling! Oh my!

Another random thought! Just what do hedgehogs and Christmas have in common? I am not sure there is a single thing, but..I have Christmas hedgehogs. They are the cutest little things ever. My dear sister gave two ornaments to me several years back and I do not have the heart to stow them away each year. They sit on the window ledge day after day staring out the window. How cute these little fellows are! My sister always finds the most unusual gifts and she knows that I love these quirky things! I am blessed to have her!

Random thought number three! Have you ever noticed just how sometimes something so commonplace can have such an uncommon beauty? Down in the Bayou and Bay there is a type of mollusk that the otters love to eat. They crack open the shells and leave them littered along the marsh edge. The inside of these shells is gorgeous! Nacre! Almost like a rainbow on the halfshell! I keep flipping the idea around in my head of how I can use these shells in my jewelry designs. It will come some day, when the thoughts are not so discombobulated!

One last random thought for the day..kumquats! Yes, we are still talking kumquats here! Ninety-six pounds of kumquats! Gallons upon gallons of marmalade! I am still chopping, seeding and preserving these little droplets of gold. Since this has put a huge damper on the Christmas gift making, a lot of folks shall receive a lovely jar of homemade marmalade or kumquat syrup as a present! Now there is a thought! Pancake mix and kumquat syrup! That might solve a good many gifts! And to think, I still have the grapefruit to pick...I am sure we will be talking about buckets of them for a while, also! Fruit overload!

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!

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!