The last of the grapefruit....

[electra225]

....right off the tree, after the bloom and after we have babies the size of golf balls. This is when the fruit is the ripest and juciest. The skins are so mature they are rubbery. Left on the tree another month, they would be too rotten and cooked by the sun to use. When juiced this late, the pulp grinds up into the juice and makes thick and sweet. We always leave a five-gallon bucketful of fruit on the tree, then pick and juice them late. These are the old-fashioned white, seeded grapefruit, but are really sweet when you manage the tree properly. This is the time to trim and fertilize the tree, and our landscaper did that this morning. A good watering once a month and we should have lots of fruit around Christmas time. Farming in AZ......

How can the job be complete without a helper cat? Mittens thinks she's cute when she's in the way.....

[Conelrad]

We opted for Meyer Lemon this time, about 2 years ago.

A 4' tree provided over 50 giant, unbelievably sweet lemons this winter.

Everyone should grow citrus out here, it's a natural in our climate.

[electra225]

Our neighbor has a lemon tree. His lemons were especially good this year. He doesn't have a juicer, so I juice lemons for him, and get to keep part of the juice for my efforts. Lemon meringue pie with real AZ lemons. YUM,YUM.....

Our tree is allegedly a dwarf. It is almost 20' tall. It is hard to find a white grapefruit tree anymore.
Everybody wants the pink seedless variety. You'd be surprised how many people out here don't grow or enjoy citrus. That is a shame....

[19&41]

I see you have a vintage instrument to do the juicing. A handsome unit.

[TC Chris]

On special occasions my mother would make fresh-squeezed orange juice on her Mixmaster with that attachment. It was one of childhood's most memorable moments. I still drink OJ from concentrate every morning with breakfast, ignoring the health nags who insist it's a sugar burst that will damage my health. And then there's my cardiologist who explained that I have to avoid grapefruit because it adversely affects the BP med or the statin drug, can't recall which. But every once on a while I go off on a toot and eat grapefruit, living dangerously.

And on the subject of real thing vs next-best...Chris veers off topic here...the check engine light came on in the Ranger yesterday. The shop next door to my office agreed to have a look-see today. I had checked the coolant and the oil and the gas filler cap so it was safe to drive but that light distracts me. I delivered it this morning and worried that my poor old Ranger might feel outclassed by the MGB and Toyota Land Cruiser in the parking lot or the Porsche inside the shop. They assured me she was welcome. The code turned out to be the O2 sensor. They suggested just driving and seeing if it came on again. As I drove away, yup, came on again. And sorry, folks, but my old 4-cylinder Ranger with 2 doors and a manual transmission is as sweet to me as any of the exotics.

Chris Campbell

[Conelrad]

Yes, manual transmissions are wonderful, and double as a millennial anti-theft device.

And the apparently obligatory feline.

Monkey art critic.jpg (108.31 KiB) Viewed 1083 times

That is Monkey, our art critic cat.

[electra225]

I bought that old Mixmaster for my bride on her first Christmas being my wife. I gave something like $29 for that juicing attachment. My frau thought I was daft to spend money on something we would never use. I got the TOTL chrome Mixmaster, three sets of bowls, clear glass, white glass and stainless steel, three sizes in each. Bread dough doodad, and two sets of beaters. I think it cost right at $100. We never used the juicer until we moved to AZ in 1981. I have never had the old Mixmaster apart. I notice that when I juice for a couple hours, the motor starts getting warm. It may be time to take it apart, clean out the old grease and start over. Like an old Electrolux vacuum cleaner, a Mixmaster is one of those devices that you can't wear out in one lifetime.

Hansome cat, Dennis. Now all you need is one of those old Zenith radios for it to set on....

No two cats are alike, and God never made an ugly one....