A Handful of Harvest

These Persian limes fruited even after our transplanting the trees in the most disadvantageous time of year. Their roots really needed to spread out, and we were afraid of losing them entirely if they had to endure the summer in pots. We lost our Meyer lemon trees from last year that way, and didn't want a repeat.

These beautiful little guys are about as big as a VERY small chicken egg.

So many of our harvests at this point are handfuls (or handsful, for the English teachers out here)...3 limes, 6 figs, a handful of raspberries. But we'll eat them! Here's a somewhat blurred closeup of the figs we enjoyed tasting out-of-hand last night...





The exceptions to the handful harvest so far this year have been the tropical pumpkins and the purple hull cowpeas, and now okra. Even though our patches of those are small, they yielded well, and I can see how some judicious planning as far as times of year and how many plants could bring us in a modest bounty with some left over to preserve.

We have all the makings for a forest garden but the forest, but do have enough tree starts to group together to realize some fruit before too many years. We are already harvesting moringa leaves as we're able from the saplings Jack grew from seed. They're fast growers, so there is enough to harvest to enable us to collect a small branch once or twice a week for use as tea or to add to foods. It's got an incredible nutritional value, and we're leaning towards trying to incorporate as many of the preventive medicinals and nutritives as possible straight from the garden, since we use no chemicals.

That's also the fun of the handfuls, too...whether a little or a lot, we're not worried about any ill effects. The limes are very small, and we'll only get a few, but I can utilize the whole fruit without any worries about sprays or poisons. That's what's stopped me from using the beautiful citrus we get in the stores here...I have no idea what pesticides are in those lovely skins and just don't want to make marmalade or use the zests or preserve them in any way if they've been sprayed.

Ah well, enough of that ramble for now. I worked last night but there's okra to pick...and no complaints here! :)

I hope you have a great weekend!

Shabbat shalom to you from us...Jack, me, the songbirds, fireants, squirrels, herons, egrets, buzzards, hawks, bobwhites, woodpeckers, blacksnakes, deer, possums, raccoons, bobcats, weasels, denizens of insects, tree frogs, lizards, and rampant Bermuda grass... to you and yours!