Lemonade and Orange Juice

Despite the “pruning” by our neighborhood deer last summer, most of the citrus trees that have been growing alongside our driveway are being productive this year. It seems strange to have fruit ripening at this time of year when very little else is actively growing. At the same time as the ripe fruit, the trees are putting out blossoms for the next batch.

This morning the orange juice I had for breakfast came from a Valencia orange tree that appears to have much more ripening than what I picked. I guessed (correctly) that number would be about right to fill the pitcher, and so I am set for the next week. The Morro blood orange was last week. It seems odd to have pink “orange” juice. It was not nearly as sweet as the Valencias.

The Meyer lemons are always juicy and the juice is in the freezer to make lots of lemonade for the warmer weather. Likewise, the juice from the Bearss limes went to the freezer. The mandarins were a seedless variety and went well with the orange chicken for dinner. No clue what to do with the Buddha’s hand citron or the Kieffer limes. At present they are just fun to see.

Been a while

It has been quite a while since I posted what I have been cutting. The whole pandemic thing left me unable to feel the level of creativity required to give the larger and more expensive rough the attention it needed. So I ended up cutting left overs from parcels purchased by mail order from the back of Lapidary Journal back when I was just starting to facet. Most were small and included, and my photography skills are lacking. My camera only seems to capture the interior features and not the sparkle, especially with the smaller stones.

Now I am to the point of getting back to the newer and nicer rough. There were only a few pieces left from my 2019 Tucson visit. This 3.36 carat aquamarine cut as a blunt end marquis was from some old stock that John Garsow was offering. It is 15.4 mm. long and 7.0 mm. wide.

I just love the granny apple green of the Arizona peridots. I always am on the lookout for affordable nice pieces of rough. This 2.30 carat, 8.0 mm. round was from the pieces I picked up during my 2020 Tucson adventures.

Next is a pretty pink tourmaline from a parcel found at the 2020 Tucson Faceter’s Symposium. It came in at 2.51 carats, 8.4 mm.

Finally prasiolite quartz with concave facets on the pavilion. I’ll skip the part where being out of practice with the fantasy machine, there was an unfortunate incident requiring the pavilion to be completely recut. The fantasy machine is not forgiving when one’s attention slips. Fortunately, the rough was sufficiently deep, that the only loss was my time and my pride. The stone ended up as 11.6 mm., 7.08 carats.

 

 

A is for Abundance of Apples

I thought I had almost finished with apples for the year. However when I went out to pick the expected handfull left on the trees, my basket was rather full. Plus I now know there is that much again not quite ready.   The smaller apples will end up being cored and chopped up for the juicer and will join the three quarts of cider in the freezer until the weather turns cold. Then a glass of warm cider is a perfect drink for a winter’s evening. I have been making pies and crisps with the larger apples. Usually there is one for the oven and several for the freezer for easy baking deserts long after the apples are gone from the trees.

My apple orchard was planted in 2013. Two dozen tiny sticks with different varieties grafted onto the dwarfing rootstock. They were planted four to a hole, very closely with the idea that when they matured it would look more like six trees as the trunks merged. At this point the trees seem to be more interested in producing fruit than growing. Most are closer to one inch in diameter than two inches and under six feet tall. The climate here does not have enough chill hours in the winter to work with many apple varieties, so it is nice to find such a bountiful harvest.

I probably do have to find some more apple recipes though.

 

 

It Happened Again

Once again, I glanced across the garage and saw something on the floor that was not right.  I have no idea if it was the same snake as before or if it was an equally silly one.  So we repeated the catch, contain, take the photo and release routine.

Off to the Food Bank

There were just too many nice large tomatoes ripening.  We found a solution — the local food bank.  After spending the better part of an hour picking what basically five plants had to offer, we had a carload to take over to the local food bank.

 

There are still some that will be ripening over the next couple weeks.  Plus lots of bruised and worse that will go out past the fence for the deer and other critters to have.