Persimmons, Avocados & Ripe Navels

Persimmons
A little known delicacy awaits you...

Perfect persimmons

The last of the holiday persimmons gleaned from the trees around town are in the dehydrator. Persimmons are a very sweet fruit and when they are dried, they taste like they've been dipped in sugar. There is such an abundance of fruit on trees that no one seems to care about...but,I don't have a problem knocking on doors to ask if they will be using their fruit, selling it or sharing it...with me! I haven't been turned away yet.

Avocados
There is a grove not far from my Mom's doorstep where the fruit is left to rot and fall on the ground...

About a month ago, my nephew Sam and I were hiking up to Fisher's Cave, an old horizontal well that we often hiked to as kids, when the new owner of the property we had to cross came upon us. He was amiable enough, told us we were actually on his land and that he had problems with people breaking his pipelines that irrigated his groves. He didn't order us off but I apologized and we turned around. The old trail had shifted anyway and there wasn't an easy way to get through the tangled growth full of poison oak and thirsty bees.

Awesome avocados

We had been perched on an rock outcrop when we heard his approach and I was nervous when I saw him with two large German Shepherds, one black the other white, and him wearing black gloves (for what, I wondered). I felt a bit anxious that he had followed us (we'd never been chased off before), and told my nephew to keep still... we were in full view of him if he had just thought to look up - which he only did when I called out an apprehensive "hello - up here" to him.

As we made our way back down we met up with him again and he told us how to find our way easily off his property via the avocado grove, but inviting us to take some fruit with us as we passed through. I had asked him if he harvested them and he told us it wasn't worth it to him. The cost of harvesting couldn't be recouped by selling them so they just fell on the ground and rotted.

I didn't think at the time to ask him if we could come back and harvest and sell them for him then... and later on, a client of my arborist brother offered all the avocados we'd like. Now, I am thinking to visit the man in the avocado grove to see if he would allow some local gleaners to save and share with others, a valuable resource to be made into awesome guacamole!

Ripe Navels
It's time to harvest the navels!

Juicy navels

I'm not talking bellybuttons here. Sweet, straight-off-the-tree navel oranges are ready to slurp down. My Mother's tree is not loaded this year like in years past, but there are still plenty to pick. If we run out, the Valencias are close behind, due to ripen in March and there's always the tangerine tree transplanted from my Grandmother's yard - 100 years old or more (the tree, not my grandmother who has gone on to greener groves).

Living in a cold climate where citrus can't grow (except inside), it is such a treat to once again, be able to harvest fruit in the backyard instead of from a market or even from the local growers. It's an amazing thing to grow, harvest and eat your own food... and a shame that we have moved so far from the regular practice of it. Now you hear about "buying local", and the return to planting more sustainably... what a concept. It's always been here...we just got lazy and now we are cycling back around out of need. It's about time!