Village Harvest

Tuesday mornings are Village Harvest time for the well-oiled machine that is the San José crew. We were back down to our fighting weight of eight regular volunteers, and we powered through four houses in south Willow Glen. Of note was a truly enormous lemon tree.

We used to be the Grapefruit Disposal Squad, but La Jefe does such a great job of scheduling more desirable fruit that it’s a rare day when we actually pick two grapefruit trees in a row.

This one didn’t really count; it was tiny (for a grapefruit tree), and I could reach almost everything standing on the ground underneath it. Even though all citrus trees are very closely related and readily hybridize, different trees have very different growth habits. Grapefruit trees almost always make a heavy canopy. Once you step beneath, you see the underside covered with fruit.

Today’s total was 1,600 lbs. I took 80 lbs of oranges and 40 lbs of lemons to Martha’s Kitchen.