Another gorgeous day in drought-ridden
Sacramento. I started my
annual collection of oranges from the mammoth tree in my yard. The crop
suffered from a long period of freezes, critter munching, and lack of water. I
have picked around two hundred pounds of oranges off this tree each year. Half
that amount seems doable this time.
The frost killed some of the fruit and
scarred some. The scarring has attracted some nocturnal creature who wanders
through nightly to eat the centers out of the oranges. In the past critters do
not mess with the citrus crop—not even the birds. Only if a rotten spot appears
on the fruit left too long on the tree does anything attack it. Seems we are
the only animals who like —at least in Northern California—orange peels.
Now at two in the morning, my dog, Poindexter, makes a dash
outside to try and kill the creature munching an early morning breakfast. I
tromped out there one time with a flashlight in hopes of seeing what had moved
into the yard. If it was there, I couldn’t find it but Dex madly jumped up and
down on the trunk trying to reach whatever it was. Possum? Raccoon? As one-fourth of the crop is
frost damaged the fur bearer has plenty to eat this winter.
I expected to find blossoms all about the tree but the lack
of water has delay the blooms. Citrus can be picked all at once like I do or
can be picked a little at a time. An orange tree can have buds, blossoms, green
fruit, yellow fruit, and ripe fruit all at the same time. I’m not the kind of
girl to tend to the garden all the time. I’m a lazy lady farmer.
I have a drip system on my fruit trees that are less than
six-years young. The orange tree is not. It’s about twenty plus years old and
over fifteen feet high. The fence in the background is ten foot. As it is a mature tree, I leave
it to God, the master gardener, to take care of things. I trim branches away
from the fence once a year and pick the fruit over a period of two weeks. Done.
Weed whacking, lawn mowing, leaf raking, and harvesting,
cover my yard duties. I
have California native drought tolerant plants in the front yard and in the
back, fruit trees, nut trees, and lovely herbs like lavender, rosemary, and
thyme. None of those require any work.
I picked thirty pounds of smallish oranges and thanked God
for them. Most I will give away. Some I will juice. The rest will be in my
marmalade. If you missed the recipes a couple years ago, here they are again.
Almost
Raw Organic Orange Marmalade ala Pam
Into pan on the stove
• 2 cups of fresh squeezed
orange juice
• Zest of 3 oranges sliced in
thin ribbons
• Zest of ½ organic Meyer
lemon
• 2 Tblsp Candied ginger if
desired
Cook on low heat until the
rind is soft and yummy. Shut of the burner and set the pan on trivet to cool.
While warm add
• 1 jar about one pound of
organic honey
• Pulp of 10 organic large
orange sections – no white parts. Double the amount of oranges if they are
small
• Pulp of 1 Meyer lemon—no
white parts
Mix thoroughly
Cool to room temperature
Mix in 1 package No Cook
Pectin.
Stir for
3 minutes
Ladle
into 3 small Ball brand plastic freezer jars or containers you already have
Refrigerate
for 1 hour before eating—freeze or give away the rest.
Organic
Orange Marmalade ala Pam
Into a
clean crock pot
- 2 cups of fresh squeezed
orange juice
- Zest of 3 oranges sliced
in thin ribbons. Okay I was having so much fun with the zester that makes
the thin ribbons that I put the zest of 10 oranges in it and it was too
bitter so I had to pull out much of the zest. So don’t make the same
mistake. If you don’t have a zester then you need to scrape all the white
out of the orange peel and finely slice the rind. Good luck.
- Pulp of 10 organic
orange sections – no white parts. I used 20 oranges because my crop was
small this year. If you buy oranges they will be larger so you will need
less.
- Zest of ½ organic Meyer
lemon
- Pulp of 1 Meyer lemon—no
white parts
- 1 jar about one pound of
organic honey
- I had some leftover
candied ginger from Christmas and threw that in the crock pot
Heat on
low heat until the rind is soft and yummy
Cool to
room temperature
3 Minutes
Mix in 1 package No Cook Pectin (I got that Wal-Mart)
Ladle
into 3 small Ball brand plastic freezer jars or containers you already have
Refrigerate
for 1 hour before eating—freeze or give away the rest.
