Deep Freeze Causes Early Lemon Harvest

[cappyr]

The temp down here in semi tropical south Louisiana is to take a rare dip into the teens tonight.  That's the problem with "semi-tropical"  The semi part.  I am hussling to pick our citrus and the freeze will freeze our banana palms to the ground turning them into a pile of mush.  It will also take out all our plum blossums the trees are in full bloom for the early spring crop.  it aint all bad news however, the freeze is Gods way of thinning out the banannas who would happily take over the yard if ya let them.  They will come up from the ground in the spring and by fall again reach their 20 ft glory.  The mushy frozen stumps make great composte too.  I pick citrus till my hands freeze then come in to warm up.  No pictures yet but will get to them shortly.  In the mean time for those fo you not familiar with the joys of picking lemons I offer this you tube post of last years crop. 



The only good thing about this early frosty picking is I remembered to wear long sleeves this time

 

[cappyr]

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• cappyr
• Jan 6, 2014

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• cappyr
• Jan 6, 2014

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• cappyr
• Jan 6, 2014

it took all morning and 2 breaks to thaw out ma paws but I got this years crop all picked.  Now after a lunch break its squeezing time.

 

[bigtrain74]

Love it! Great work. A suggestion though, don't move to New England. HAHA

 

[cappyr]

LOL Big Train ifn I did move north I wouldn't hafta worry bout my citrus and banannas of course.  Lunch over now tt's squeezing time m ore pics to follow.

 

[foamheart]

Man that is a mess of jelly!

I got a gallon and a half juice, I froze mine in ice cube trays, and have zip-locks in the freezer. Did the same with my Satsuma. I don't know why, I just hate for something to be wasted.

I laughed at the wheelbarrow, I like single wheels myself, cause I know I can pick 'em up, those double wheelers can hold too much. LOL

Well they'll keep ya outta the bars for a day or two!

Nice load a lemons. Keep yourself warm.

(I was thinking frying cracklins, went outside and talked myself right out that notion!)

 

[cappyr]

It all came offn one tree lovingly refered to as the lemon monster.  Hoping the navels big nuf to stand the freeze.  Satsumas all ate this year we down to one tree with one growing and us and the neighbors keep up with it.  If the Navles freeze we will juice them tomorrow.  Reason we doing this is like you hate to waste Gods bounty

 

[cappyr]

Gonna do cracklins and boudin later this week posed to warm up.

 

[foamheart]

I trimmed back my Satsuma three years back. It got where I was afraid it would split. I was would swear I was getting more satumas off it than you got lemons. The year after trim, no Satsuma's at all, was expecting it though. The next year just a few, and had some tree limbs die off below where trimmed, up to three and 4 feet below. This year, plenty of Satsuma's but about 25% of what it had been.

Satsuma jelly is definitely not your normal grocery store stock item....LOL

I need to get the county agent I guess to look at my navel. I had to come back and say "navel tree" before someone wondered why I was showing my navel to the county agent.

 

[cappyr]

Our lemon jelly pretty good too.  Took the blue ribbon at last years state fair in the jelly contest

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• cappyr
• Jan 6, 2014

This is our fruit press getting loaded.

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• cappyr
• Jan 6, 2014

This is me cranking away.  Got 3 squeezins did takin a water break gonna be back at it shortly next break its gonna be 5 oclock someweres

 

[cappyr]

After squeezing 5 gals of juice we decided to call it quits for the day.  still some where around half way so its finally time for that cold beer and a break

 

[daveomak]

I like your squeezing machine.... Yakima is a few miles south of me...



Dave

 

[cappyr]

Yea I did a lot of research trying to figure what best fit our needs, they made in USA very sturdy and we have had ours for 4 yrs and aint looked back.  This is their smallest model and the lemon tree is a big job for it but it does good.  An advantage to this record cold front is we not in a hurry.  Parked on the patio is like sitting in a fridge so the load of lemons are safe.

 

[cappyr]

Well finally done. 

This years crop was kinda light on acounta harvesting a month or 2 early.  Our "lemon monster" yielded 8 gallons and 20 16 oz small bottles.  The gallons are for jeooy making and the smaller ones are for trade, sale, or gift in my country boy network.

 

[ibbones]

We had the freezing weather in South Texas also.  I was in Austin all day Monday and didn't even think about my lemon tree in the back yard.  It only got into the upper 20's but it's still cold. 

I went out this morning and I think the lemons will be OK.  Not really ready to pick them all yet.

 

[mneeley490]

Those are lemons??? Holy cow!  They look like grapefruit! The ones I get in the stores up here are barely larger than golf balls...

 

[cappyr]

Man I'm happ[y for ya 'bones, we got down to 20 and stayed there for several hours not climbing above freezing till the Pm.  I set 2 full gallons of lemon juice out on the pit for a trade with a friend.  This morning they are froze solid like a rock.  Was hoping our grapefruit being larger wouldn't freeze but afraid they are history.  I wasn't ready to pick either but was able to save the lemon crop.  Today I am gunna pick the remaining navels and satsumas before they spoil and juice the

 

[cappyr]

Yep those are meyer lemons.  They were picked early and are not their full size.  The taste, alls I can say is its like the difference between store bought and vine ripe tomatoes.

 

[cmayna]

Cappy,

Have you tried  Meyer Lemon Sorbet?   My next door neighbor has a massive tree and gives me bunches of lemons to process so I'll make some sorbet for their kids.    Need to find a couple pics.

 

[cappyr]

Lay the recipe pon us and we will give it a worl

  Have lots of juice willing to experiment.

 

[cmayna]

I'll make some this weekend and take some production pics. Meanwhile, here's a couple Meyer lemons I gutted last spring and filled with the sorbet. Wife loves it. When I harvest, I'll normally put 1 cup of juice in a ziplock bag, lay it flat on the freezer shelf until it freezes, then stack a bunch of them up on end in the freezer. I also make a few Meyer lemon cubes for future cooking needs.

Tapayakin' from my iphone