Re: [gardeners] Red Passion Flower
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 16 Oct 2001 12:31:41 -0500
It's mostly the grackles around here, they peck them a couple of times and then drop them. they
scraped the rind off of several lemons on that tree too, don't know what makes them do that. The
neighbors feed birds and we've got several full bird baths on this block alone.
George
Ron Hay wrote:
>
> Hello, George,
>
> Ain't it the pits?! In our case, the birds peck at them occasionally,
> without really bothering the simmons any. The squirrels, however, wait
> until they are a brilliant orange, almost totally ripe, and then move in
> for the kill.
>
> Last year, when we had plenty, they didn't snarf a one; but this
> year......
>
> We didn't pick them all, just the ripest ones, and will reevaluate the
> rest of the crop this weekend, in better light than we had after work,
> yesterday.
>
> This morning, I took the morning off, to cope with the flood of passion
> fruit. I sliced open (no easy feat!) over 200 of them, and scooped out
> the flesh-laden seeds. That's about all my back can take at this
> juncture; will give them a whirl in the blender, this evening, and then
> run the mess through a non-reactive stainless steel sieve, to boil up
> and can tomorrow night.
>
> The other couple of hundred that have fallen, will just have to wait
> until next week, after our concert performance of Benjamin Britten's
> "St. Nicholas Cantata," this Sunday, with organ, strings and orchestra.
>
> Enjoy your day!
>
> Ron