Serious Citrus

Saturday morning before getting started for a full day in the garden, I strolled around the yard with my mug of Community Coffee & Chicory.  I was checking out the sights and sounds that I miss out on during the work week.  I was particularly interested in the citrus trees.  Right by the cows' water trough, there is a navel orange tree.  It is the one that is so loaded down with fruit, I have branch supports to keep the limbs from breaking.  The tree has grown a lot and will require some more pruning once we harvest its fruit.

The fruit are all softball-sized and are just starting to change colors from green to orange.  It won't be long now!  Several have prematurely fallen off the tree and I used my pocketknife to cut in half and feed to the cows.  The aroma of fresh cut orange is heavenly!  Rosie and Clarabelle made quick work of the orange and begged for more, but sorry, girls.  Those oranges are for us!

Walking a little to the west, I was checking out one of our tangerine trees.   When the fruit was dark green, it blended into the leaves of the tree and gave me a false suspicion that there weren't going to be many tangerines this year.  Now that the fruit are turning orange and contrasting against the green leaves, I see how wrong my first impression was.

This season looks to be a record crop of both navel oranges and tangerines.

Sadly, our grapefruit tree will not bear fruit this year as it will direct all of its energy toward growing branches instead of fruit.  Next year I'm looking forward to a nice grapefruit crop.  It will still be a couple of months before we pick navel oranges, but Tricia's already begun to pick tangerines.  I like to wait until after a frost as it seems like the cold weather makes them get sweeter!