My Main Squeeze

Citrus of all types are ripening now and our trees as well as those of our neighbors and friends are full of fruit. The limbs of the trees are bending low to the ground under the weight of the fruit.  We have been eating lots of satsumas.  We've also gotten some nice navel oranges.

Navel Oranges

One of the things we like to do is to make freshly squeezed orange juice.  Fresh squeezed orange juice is one of those things that is so superior to the juice that you can purchase in the grocery store.  We simply cut the fruit in half and place it on top of the old glass orange juicer that we have and twist.  It takes a little elbow grease, but in no time the little glass reservoir is full of orange juice.

Juicy Fruit

We discard the orange half in the compost bucket and move on to the next piece of fruit.

A lot of the pulp remains in the juicer.  

Orange pulp

It's up to preference, but we strain out most of the pulp by placing a sieve in the funnel that we pour the juice through in order to fill up an old timey milk jar.

Straining the pulp out of the juice

It just took 3 large oranges to fill up the old milk container with orange juice.  I placed it on the window sill and let the sunshine filter in.  A beautiful sight indeed.

Fresh OJ

Now it is time to enjoy the fruits of our labors.

Mmmmmm....

Since we have a lot of oranges, satsumas, and tangerines, I'm looking up some recipes now for marmalade. I've never made that and I'm thinking that would be good to eat on biscuits.  We'll eat plenty of the fruit just hand picked and chilled.  They're so sweet and delicious.