This week I will continue to harvest Meyer Lemons, Blood Oranges, and Ruby Red Grapefruit. Citrus trees take many years to mature and produce fruit. Once they hit a certain level, their production power is amazing! I am able to share the sun ripened fruit with several of my neighbors. The rain we are receiving right now from the lates atmospheric river will greatly help next year's harvest. It is also plumping up the citrus that are still hanging on the trees. I like to wait for the rain, and let it do its job.
I am growing mostly fruit right now. I used to plant and harvest more vegetables like artichokes, lettuce, mesclun greens, and potatoes. Since I receive so many of them from the co-op, I really don't need to grow my own at this point. I may plant a few favorites in the spring, like zucchini and pumpkins. I focus mainly on fruit, since it is more expensive in the stores. I studied the prices in the produce section of our local mountain market yesterday. It was shocking. I felt sorry for an elderly man with just a few items in his basket. It made me realize how important it is to be able to feed yourself.
It is very rewarding to produce food in your front and backyard. Building the soil, composting the fruit and vegetable scraps, and spreading straw mulch have made it much easier. So has the plentiful rain.
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I would love to dive right into that pink grapefruit! Just one of my favorite fruits. And, I am impressed that you grow them.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Latane. I bought this tree at Costco, several years ago. It is a standard, so eventually it will give me about seventy grapefruit each year! Wish I could give some of them to you...it is a driveway plant, in full sun.
DeleteThat grapefruit looks lovely! And your pomegranate tree has plenty of flowers, already! Mine is still dormant. I am still picking lemons and oranges, right now. I'm looking forward to the summer fruit, later on. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bless. They grow so well here. I am hoping it will create a nice privacy screen. That photo of the pomegranate flowers is an old one. I just like it, and sometimes recycle my photos from the blog.
DeleteIt's so nice to be able to enjoy homegrown fruit / vegetables.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
Hi Jan, It sure is. Hope your lowcarb cooking is going well.
DeleteIt's not warm enough to grow citrus here but I do love my tomatoes come the summer. xx
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful, Joy. Homegrown tomatoes are delicious.
DeleteWe have such a small lot that the only space for a citrus tree is in a large pot! It is a Meyer lemon and after a few disastrous years of bug infestation, it is finally producing lots of lemons. One blueberry and one set of raspberry canes are also in pots. The vegetable garden, while small, does give us a bounty in the summer. This rain, while doing a nasty job on our roof, has been a godsent for the gardens.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your Meyer lemon is finally producing, Anita. Mine seems to like a lot of space. Yes, the rain we've received has been fabulous for us gardeners!
DeleteI've still got plenty of apples in store from last year. Sadly it's a bit cold for citrus though I do have a variety of citrus saplings. I'll enjoy eating apples, pears, plums, rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and grapes from my garden later in the year.
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing, Cherie. I have planted many of those fruits up at the cabin, where it's colder. Apples take a while to bear...I am still waiting.
DeleteI bought cheap ballerina trees and removed most of the fruit at the bud stage so it didn't exhaust the trees. This year I will leave a few more fruits on the trees
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