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| October satumas |
I wrote about the strange off-season satsuma bloom last fall. The satsuma tree bloomed in the spring on schedule but didn't produce a single fruit; my theory was that the previous year the tree had been heavily infested with white flies and the stress of the insects combined with the strong chemicals I used to kill them interfered with the following fruiting season. Much to my surprise, the tree bloomed again in the fall and produced three viable satsumas.
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| July satsumas |
I had no idea whether they would survive the winter or whether they would ripen at all but I carefully babied them through the winter, watching over them diligently as they continued to grow through the spring while the tree blossomed, producing a new crop of about 30 satsumas.
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| Ready to eat in July |
They grew to about twice the size of a normal satsuma before finally ripening. I decided to pick them this week, at the earliest ripening stage of pale yellow because no matter how interesting these off season oranges are, I don't want anything to hinder the development of this fall's crop.
When I peeled them, I discovered that the satsuma itself was a normal size, it was just the peeling that had grown extraordinarily thick. The fruit was the correct shade of orange but it wasn't quite as sweet as a typical fall-harvested satsuma.
It was a curious and strange event. I'm looking forward to my normal crop of sweet satsumas late this fall.
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