Organic Gardening & Farming, Plants

A Fruity Harvest

There are a lot of reasons why I grow my own food, but the biggest reason is to eat it.  Here are some of my successes from the past year.

2 Violette de Bordeaux Figs, freshly picked from a potted fig tree.

These two figs ripened in late August.  I sliced them in half and ate them drizzled with cream.  Amazing!

2 Violette de Bordeaux Figs, freshly picked from a potted fig tree.

Giant Meyer Lemons shown in my hand, for scaleOn Christmas day, I ate the first ripe fruit from my Meyer Lemon tree.  I waited two long years to taste these lemons, but meanwhile I have been enjoying year-round greenery and fragrant blossoms.  This tree would be worth keeping even if it didn’t make fruits.  But it did make fruits, and I did eat them.  As for their fate, I first removed their zest using a vegetable peeler.  I packed the yellow strips into a small jar, and covered them with strong grain alcohol.  I hope to turn this into a tiny batch of Limoncello in a few months.  Next, I squeezed 1/2 cup of juice from the first lemon, and immediately drank it straight from the measuring cup in a joyous frenzy of excitement.  The other lemon was turned into delicious lemonade popsicles.

Two ripe Meyer Lemons hanging from an indoor citrus tree