Days 137 - 150 Citrus, Citrus, Citrus!!!

Where the weeks prior had apples in the mix...we are now in the citrus-only time of the year. With 135 mandarins harvested in th epast two weeks (those that I counted...I am sure there were more!!) we are in the middle of citrus season. It is a bumper crop for the mandarin trees this year and I forsee harvesting mandarins well past Christmas...with the fruit getting sweeter along the way.

One nice thing about a variety of fruit trees is that while one tree may have a bumper crop, others will have a low year. Our orange tree and grapefruit tree are just having a normal year so having 2 - 3 months of mandarins will help us get through the winter. The size of the crop seems to really depend on what is happening during the flowering time of the year. If your trees flower during a warm spell, the bees can get out there and do their polination. If the trees flower during a rainy period the crop will be small or non-existant. Looks like my goal of daily harvests will make it through the 1/2 year target!! Need to make sure that I have something ready to harvest beyond March from the veggie garden when there is very little fruit.

Speaking of the veggie garden, the eight beds look like this:
Hot zone
1) Cover crop
2) Kale (starting to get bigger!!)

Medium-hot zone
3) Cover crop
4) Garlic (4 rows)

Medium-cool zone
5) Cover crop
6) Cover crop

Cool zone
7) Cover crop
8) Cover crop and the venerable Chard!!

We also had a frost scare this past week. Temperatures were supposed to get into the mid-20's which raises the alarms for me. I covered the trees the first night but the temperatures only droped to about 30 degrees. I left the covers off the remaining nights and I saw the temperature drop to 29 degrees. I do not worry about that. My rule of thumb is only to worry if the temps drop below 28.

Here is a link about citrus varieties and their harvest times/cold tolerance. Great list!!

Harvested over the past 2 weeks:

Day 137
1) 7 mandarins ($1.75)

Day 138
1) 11 mandarins ($3.75)
2) 3 lemons ($1.50)

Day 139
1) 4 mandarins ($1.00)

Day 140
1) 8 mandarins ($2.00)

Day 141
1) 5 mandarins ($1.25)

Day 142
1) 12 mandarins ($3.00)

Day 143
1) 5 mandarins ($1.25)

Day 144
1) 4 mandarins ($1.00)

Day 145
1) 9 mandarins ($2.25)
2) 4 lemons ($2.00)
3) 1 lime ($0.25)

Day 146
1) 5 mandarins ($1.25)

Day 147
1) 17 mandarins ($4.25)

Day 148
1) 6 mandarins ($1.50)

Day 149
1) 27 mandarins ($6.75)

Day 150
1) 13 mandarins ($3.25)
2) Two bunches chard ($6.00)

Two-Week harvest: $43.50

Total Produce Harvested (Year-to-Date): $860.00
Total Honey Harvested (Year-to-Date): $360.00
Expenses (Year-to-Date): $105.00