What A Difference A Tree Makes

I trust you can see the giant tree towering over the orange tree.

That enormous tree, which had been growing as quickly as Jack's beanstalk is now history. I paid a neighbor to chop it down and take it away. Last year it wasn't all that big. I could easily hang out my laundry, which dried quickly, and it certainly wasn't taller than the orange tree then.

Suddenly, this year, as winter turned to spring, laundry didn't dry all that well, and that strange tree, which grew uninvited, began to take over the yard and barge into the orange tree. Before Passover, even though I was sick with COVID, I could see that it had to go before it strangled the orange tree.

Yes, it's Shmitta year, when we're supposed to give the fields and gardens a break. But when a non-fruitbearing tree endangers a fruit-bearing tree, it can be cut down.

Today my neighbor came over with his electric saw and got to work on the tree, which was actually two or maybe more like Siamese twins or a two-headed monster.

Within a few hours, they were gone, and I felt that I could breath. I hadn't realized how much that two-headed monster of a tree had taken over my yard. 

I immediately did a couple of loads of laundry and was amazed at how quickly things dried. Laundry hadn't been drying the past few months, and it wasn't because of winter. We've been in the house over 35 years, and laundry had always dried quickly, until this year. Apparently, the tree trapped in the humidity, dampness in the clothes. 

It's like having having cataract surgery... Suddenly I can see from my merpeset (terrace.)

Look at This! Surprise 🌝

This year has been an exceptionally blessed year for rain, here in the Holy Land. And in addition I had taken a neighbor's advice and watered the two barren citrus trees in our garden.

One tree is a lemon tree I had bought well over twenty years ago, and the other is from a sapling one of our sons brought back from a hike a few years after we had planted the lemon tree. We'll refer to the second one as "the mystery tree."

Over a decade ago, I remember seeing some small orange fruit on the mystery tree but don't remeber even trying to eat them. They were terribly small and hard.

For the past few months I've been noticing a number of orange-colored fruit growing on the mystery tree. At first they seemed to high to be picked, but yesterday when I walked by, I could see that there were quite a few of these fruit low enough, even for me. So, today, after my morning walk, I went over to the tree and decided to take a better look.

I picked one fruit from the tree, smelled it decided to take a bite. What could be wrong? They hadn't even sprayed with poisons. Yes, they're organic, completely organic.

One of my guesses, due to size, was that they were some sort of clementina, which is a small tangerine, an easy to peel citrus fruit. Here in Israel the clementina is the first of the winter citrus fruit offered for sale, late summer, early winter. The clementina has a very thin skin/peel, thinner than any orange I'm familiar with.

Test #1 This mystery fruit has a relatively thick skin for its size, but as you can see in the pictures, it's a tiny fruit. Now, I don't know if the mystery fruit is supposed to be small, or if the difficult dry and cold climate here has damaged/stunted it.

Test #2 was the taste test. The mystery fruit tastes something like an orange. I'll leave them on the tree a bit longer and taste them periodically, to see if they get sweeter with time. Of course the challenge is to pick them before they rot on the tree.

I'd be grateful for advice, thanks.

New Trees

We received notification that there were trees for the taking, so I sent my husband to take a couple. The announcement said that there were evergreens and fruit trees. I didn't specify what to take. When I saw which he got, two evergreens, then I decided where they should go. And then he planted them, as you can see in the pictures. 

I just have to water them. It's a good thing that I bought a second long hose. So now one is set up at one tree and the other at the second one. The tree I planted a few days ago had died immediately, but our tree maivin, who also makes wine out of our grapes, said it wouldn't survive.

Gd willing, updates to follow.

What is This?

We, the Rosh Chodesh ladies, noticed these at Tel Shiloh last week. Does anyone know what tree/fruit it is?