Oranges

Just as the fresh fruits and vegetables are gone from the local farms and I am beginning to crave them again, my in-laws orange tree begins to ripen. This tree is about thirty years old, has been moved around their yard several times and I am told used to bare horrible fruit. This was a leafy, bushy tree until the year that my husband and I stayed with my in-laws while we were evicting renters from a house we had just bought. We wanted to help as much as we could while we stayed there. Kevin pulled out pompus grass and an old dead tree that was about to fall over, we picked up prickly balls and one day Kevin decided to prune that old orange tree. My dear husband tends to prune things very hard. All of the lower branches were cut along with many of the upper ones. When my in-laws came home they were shocked. But that next winter, those oranges were better than they had ever been. They are some of the most delicious oranges I've ever tasted. This year my in-laws and three of their children's families have been generously provided with oranges from mid-December until now. Our family has eaten an average of three a day for nearly two months. We are down to three left, and alas, no more delicious fresh oranges until next year. But then, the farms will begin to open in about two months and hopefully my first garden harvest will come shortly thereafter.