The Fruit of the Land

One of the perks of visiting Florida in the springtime is that luscious fruits are ready for the picking! Of course strawberries are ripe this time of year. But best of all have been the oranges, grapefruits and loquats.

We stayed with friends of Sam’s near Dundee, FL. They live in the middle of an orange grove with a few grapefruit trees mixed in for good measure. While we had seen other orange groves heavily laden with fruit, the trees in this area had already been picked. I was informed that any of the oranges still on the tree would be going to waste. So, I spent a few minutes gleaning the oranges from these trees. They weren’t the prettiest oranges but I was sure they would taste fine.

      

 

 

 

 

 

I had 3 grocery bags full of oranges and grapefruits. I planned on making some juice from them since I wouldn’t be able to eat them all. After washing and cutting in half I put the juicer to work.

The juice isn’t as sweet as I’ve gotten from Louisiana oranges but it is still better than anything you can buy in the grocery store.

The next treat was a loquat tree right on our campsite at Ortona Lock Corp of Engineer Campground near Lake Okeechobee. I didn’t know it was anything you could eat till I saw that all the campground workers would stop every time they came by this site. Loquat has to be one of the best fruits I’ve ever tasted! The grackles love them too. I’m going to have to figure a way to pick the ones higher up before they get them all.