In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen

It is citrus season in SoCal. Last winter’s generous rains set the stage for bountiful orange, tangerine and lime harvests in my garden. This is the last of about thirty Bearss limes from my patio container-grown tree, What I don’t use fresh or give away I squeeze and freeze the juice in ice cube trays.

My scientist husband who also maintains this 28 year old tree estimates there are over 500 oranges on the tree. That’s a lot of orange juice and oranges to share. They sweeten with the cool nights. I’ll be making orange marmalade soon. Most years I make 50-75 jars to give away from the recipe my mom and grandmother used.

These are just a few of the dozens of Satsuma tangerines we picked this week to give to family and friends. They’re juicy and sweet and make great snacks and lunch fruit.

Guava-Lime Agua Fresca

With some of my lime juice and frozen strawberry guava puree I made Guava-Lime Agua Fresca for New Year’s Eve. Follow the link for the recipe. I think fresh strawberry or raspberry puree could sub for the guava puree.

I’m growing a half dozen different lettuce varieties which make for some pretty amazing salads. We’ve had perfect lettuce weather—rain to keep the soil moist and sunny days with cool nights.

Everything in the salad came from the winter garden: various lettuces, mustard greens, celery, broccoli, carrots, radishes and violas.

I made applesauce of the last of the ‘Dorsett Golden’ apples after reserving them for holiday desserts.

The Sunday church bouquet with foliage from a sage, alstroemerias, feverfew, gomphrena and paperwhites.

I hope you’ll leave a comment. I love hearing from readers. Happy New Year!