Re: [gardeners] Home again
Ron Hay (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sat, 21 Sep 2002 14:32:23 -0700
Hello, George,
Just came in from watering the roses in 90+ heat, and am taking a
breather.
I guess you must be an old hand at angiograms by now. I just hope I
don't have to go through the procedure some day. It always gives me a
strange feeling to talk about such, since my dad died when he was not
even a year older than I am now, of a myocardial infarction.
But, then again, he smoked at least a pack a day for 40+ years, which I
am certain did not help him any.
Our fruit trees are doing very well. We did not know to thin the Fuyu
and lost fully 2/3 of the fruit, which still gives us a fair number.
Many of them, this year, have become sunburned, but I am sure they will
be edible, and have a diskfull of recipes to deal with them.
The passion fruit is coming in like gangbusters. I must have scooped out
about 200 this morning. After whirling the pulpy seeds in the blender to
separate the juice sacs, I put them through a sieve and obtained about 6
quarts of juice.
The pomegranates are beginning to come in. I picked one this morning,
the size of a baseball or larger, that had split open in three
directions. I will clean it up for breakfast as soon as I cool off a bit
more.
The Satsuma Owari mandarins are coming along nicely, as are the
Robertson Navels and Sanguinelli blood oranges. The mandarins will be
ripe before Thanksgiving, followed by the navels, and quite a bit later
by the blood oranges.
The passion fruit will produce, likely, until late January.
The macadamia has quite a few strings of nuts on it, some of a very
considerable size, most of which should be ripe by the end of October,
the beginning of November. In anticipation of these treats, we actually
sprang for a special macadamia nut cracker, made in Oz, and marketed by
the Gold Crown Macadamia Coop, down in Fallbrook, in northern San Diego
County, the heart of our avocado and macadamia country.
It takes a bit of care, to see that they all do well, but the end result
is so rewarding, and we have preserved fruit, and fruit syrups for the
balance of the year.
Well, I have rambled on long enough. Vivian will be back from teaching
the acolytes and lay readers at church in a few minutes, so I had better
get cleaned up a bit, so that I pass muster:)
Have a good, relaxing, recuperative weekend.
Ron