Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Grapefruit

Last weekend we picked a lot of grapefruit. I will leave it to you to figure out which of the grapefruit in the picture is Ruby Red and which is Oroblanco.  Both are a great mix of sweet and a bit tart.  Grapefruits are said to have originated in Jamaica around the 1700's as a natural hybrid of orange and pomelo trees that had been brought to the island.  Fresh grapefruit juice is a joy to have.


But, why do they call it grapefruit?  It doesn't taste anything like a grape and is ten times bigger.  The name "grapefruit" refers to the clusters of fruit on the tree that are said to resemble a cluster of green grapes.   That is a cluster of young ruby red on our tree right now.  An early name for the fruit was "forbidden fruit."  I wouldn't say either name makes a lot of sense or helps in the marketing.  

Monday, April 26, 2021

Rain? No. Weeds? Yes. --- Stinging Nettle in the Yard and on the Table.


Most of our rain falls from November through March. We might get rain in other months, but generally you can count on rain during these months.  What you can't count on is how much rain we'll get.   From 1906 to 2020, rainfall in Pasadena averaged 19.7 inches per year.  Looking just at the last 30 years, the highest yearly rainfall was 55 inches in 2004-05 and the lowest was 4.17 inches in 2006-07.  This year (20-21), we are trending to the low end with only 5.66 inches of rain received by end of March.  

Rain or not, about February/March weed season starts.  You don't have to water them or care for them at all.  The weeds just appear.  One of the weeds we get in our yard is stinging nettle.  That's a healthy little patch of nettle pictured above.  The nettle is easy to spot with its bright green color and jagged leaves.

And, as weeding goes, a nettle is fairly easy to pick out of the ground.  Root and all, the nettle plant comes right up.  But, there is one thing about stinging nettle -- and that's the stingers.  The leaves have some barbs, but its the barbs on the stalk that can really get you.  So, gloves are good when picking or handling nettle.   

The fun thing about stinging nettle is that it automatically arrives in our yard every year and is a legitimate food source. With a little seasoning, nettle tastes good and it is also good for you.  Think of nettle leaves as kind of like spinach in that it is a dark leafy green packed with nutrients.  When cooked, the nettle sting goes away and you can handle the plant without fear of stingers.  There are lots of nettle recipes but we generally just pick off the leaves and use the fresh nettle leaf like we would spinach.