I started this blog way back when to convince myself that I didn't hate Idaho as much as I thought I did. Going with the philosophy, "Act how you want to feel", I usually focused on the mountains and hiking and cross country skiing - I ended up convincing myself so well that for a good part of the time I've lived in California, my mind has still been in Idaho. It's really time for that to change.
In addition to the hiking and trail running I gushed about yesterday, another thing about my crazy house is completely memorable and over the top exciting - the plethora of citrus trees. The picture at right is of the tangelos - which, according to Wikipedia, "are a citrus fruit hybrid of tangerine and pomelo or grapefruit. Widely known as honeybells, tangelos are the size of an adult fist, have a tangerine taste, and are juicy at the expense of flesh."
"Juicy at the expense of flesh" - love it. Who knew wikipedia was so poetic?
Their juiciness does not, in fact, disappoint. Ours are maybe more on the side of grapefruits in terms of flavor, but it really depends on how ripe you pick them.
Right now my very favorite are the ones pictured at left - what I call the clementines, although I don't technically know what they are - except flippin' fantastic. They can tend to have a lot of seeds, but it's totally worth it. And anyway, who'd want to miss the chance of standing on the deck and spitting seeds? This tree is literally weighted down - even if I ate my weight in them (which I daily attempt to do), I don't think I could possibly eat all of them. It's blossoming right now too. Heavenly.
My mom's favorite on her last visit were the navel organges. The bumblebees are loving this tree right now, too. It unfortunately doesn't produce as much as the others - so we treasure them when they are ready.
I also can really get into the classic tangerines, which I especially crave after a long run. These tend to not have seeds and be on the tangy side - go figure.
And then last but not least - the old standby, the lemon.
These trees have been going full bore since the day we moved in. The thin skinned ones have an incredibly light yet intense flavor and hardly any seeds. You can squirt half of one in a dish it completely brightens it without a strong lemon taste - and yet if you make lemon bars with these, the lemon flavor does not disappoint.
And don't forget the lemonade.
I often spend Fridays doing not much at all after about noon. I look forward to this "nothing at all" tremendously - working ahead so that I can take off for my favorite places - like, the library, La Costa coffee house, and the beach chair by my pool. Today I had a special friend to keep me company.
I have always wanted to live in a place with fruit trees - never dreamed it would be citrus - but we don't always know what's best for us ahead of time.
Anybody have any great ideas for what to do with all the bounty (aside from giving it away - which I am also happy to do)?
4 comments:
You did live in a place with fruit trees for 15 years of your life! We had three kinds of apples, pears,peaches, apricots, plums ,grapes, and cherries! Lest we forget!
I know! That's why I've always wanted my own place with fruit treas!
I love the 2 comments so far. Do you think the smaller lemons are meyer lemons?
So the description of Meyer lemon on wikipedia says: "The Meyer lemon fruit is yellow and rounder than a true lemon. The skin is fragrant and thin, coloured a deep yellow with a slight orange tint when ripe. Meyer lemon fruits have a sweeter, less acidic flavor than the more common Lisbon or Eureka grocery store lemon varieties. The pulp is a dark yellow and contains up to 10 seeds per fruit."
These are certainly thin skinned, but don't seem to have an orange tint. They are definitely sweeter and less acidic. There's no doubt they are not the same as the neighboring tree, I'm just not 100% sure. The trees are both very old.
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