Limes

Yesterday was a wonderful and long day.  I went with a group of friends on a ocean kayaking trip, and had a blast.  Due to the presence of water everywhere, I bought a little one-time use waterproof camera, and as soon as I finish writing this post, I’m off to get the pictures developed.  So the post documenting the kayak trip, hopefully with LOTS of cool pictures (fingers crossed), is coming tomorrow.

In the meantime, I’d like to share another photo:

Whoop-do-doo, it’s two limes.

These are pretty special limes, though.  These limes are my most recent non-supermarket, non-farmers-market produce acquisition!  Two weekends ago I went over to see my friend Emily’s new place – she had recently moved in with a friend, and it turns out they’re right around the corner from me.  A five-minute walk.  It’s fantastic.  Guess what they have in their backyard?

If you guessed anything but limes, you get 10 demerit points.

If you guessed an apple tree, you get 1,000 bonus points, because in addition to the 2 lime trees, they also have an apple tree.  There were apples growing on it, too, but I didn’t think they weren’t ready yet.

The fruit salad I can make entirely from produce from friends’ backyards is getting to be quite complex and diverse:

• Tavi has given me grapefruit and tangerines.
• Robert has given me kumquats from Robert.
• Mat and Maggie have given me tomatoes (although tomato season is winding down).
• Emily and her roommate Denise have given me limes.

And there’s more!

My friend Jen’s building has a pomegranate tree in the courtyard, which doesn’t excite me, as I’m not a big fan of pomegranates, but her neighbor also has a grapefruit tree and a fig tree, and Jen says that there are figs all over the tree right now, but she doesn’t know if they’re ripe.  I’ll have to go check it out.  Fresh figs are incredible, but they’re terribly tricky – they need to ripen on the tree or they won’t ripen at all.  And Jen’s neighbor sounds cool – he’s invited her to enjoy as much fruit as she can get reach.

Lastly, I went over to my friend Lisa’s house on Saturday for a fun game night.  Lisa and her hubby Matt don’t grow any produce whatsoever (sigh), but my friend Robyn was there, who I haven’t seen in a few years, and since the last time I saw her, she and her husband Jake moved into a house that has what sounds like an entire orchard out back: multiple lemon trees, a Meyer lemon tree (Meyer lemons are sweeter than regular lemons; they’re a cross between lemons and oranges); and a tangelo tree (which are a tangerine/pummelo hybrid).

Robyn said during game night that the lemon trees are “fruiting,” which means that fruit is growing, and Robyn suspects they’ll be ready to pick in a month.  I’ve never heard the word “fruit” used as a verb before, except for in the movie Mrs. Doubtfire, when Pierce Brosnan is the victim of a “drive-by fruiting,” so I learned something new that night.

I’ve had desserts and pastries made from Meyer lemons before, but I don’t think I’ve held an actual Meyer lemon in my hand, so I’m looking forward to that.  And I learned that Robyn and Jake’s house is about 10 minutes away from me, so I’m looking forward to hanging out with them more often than once every 3 years, too!

OK. I’m gonna jet, and swing by the drug store to drop off the film, then off to the gym, and then I’ll pick up the pictures on my way back.  The goal for the gym is 30-40 minutes of weight-training, and then 15-20 minutes on the Arc Trainer.

Keep it up, David!