We get our first freeze of the season in Dallas tonight. I’m thinking of the heat of the summer.
Kathryn gambled a bit, bought a Satsuma orange tree for the patio plant menagerie this summer. To her joy and my utter surprise, it fruited.
Kathryn's Satsuma oranges in Dallas -- oranges take a long time to ripen; photos from late October 2011
Green fruit approached its final size in late June, then tortured us as it just sat there, green and unripe. They turned orange slowly, through August and September. An occasional individual would give up and hit the ground. So we had samples — bitter at first, hints of sugar in September.
Two weeks ago Kathryn harvested a score of the little beauties.
Through the summer the oranges rested there, teasing us with their sloth . . .
First freeze tonight, but we enjoyed the last of the oranges this morning.
Horticulture teaches patience. Horticulture is fun.
More, Resources:
- Shouldn’t have been so suprised. Satsuma (Citrus unshiu) are among the cold hardiest of the oranges.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Deranged is more like it.
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No, not global warming. Horticulture. Growing fruit.
And my wife did the heavy lifting. She’s the one brave enough and wily enough in the ways of fruiting trees to select a tree that would set fruit and ripen, in its first year in our collection.
Black Flag, you’re really strange.
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Satsuma oranges are a local farming specialty. We can buy them at roadside stands for about $1.25/lb in ten pound bags. Wheel the tree under a porch during the worst freezes and it will do great. As long as they aren’t exposed to the open sky when it’s really cold.
They make a really good salad with fuyu persimmon chunks, apples, walnuts and pomegranates also. Soak in a sweet white wine.
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PS:
You are a coward, Ed.
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Global warming, right?
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