Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Tuesdays Tip from the Green Housewife - Harvest Your Fruit Before It Rots

One of the things that I love most about our carriage house in the country (my Anne Shirley-esqe way of describing our rented-one-bedroom-flat-on-top-of-a-garage) is the orange tree planted next to our front porch. In the spring it provides us with beautiful white blossoms and their distinctively sweet, citrusy fragrance. In the winter it provides us with oranges so juicy they have ruined supermarket oranges for Pete and I forever.



So why are these oranges rotting on the ground?


I haven’t been quick enough this year to pick the oranges - last year when money was tighter, we barely had a single one wasted!  Today I picked about 30 oranges - Pete and I will eat about half of that this week, and the other half will be given away. I plan on picking some of the really ripe ones every day, and giving them away to coworkers, neighbors, and  our "Take it Or Leave It" box at church. I may drop some off at the food bank at Shadow Mountain Community Church, near where Pete and I work.
If you have a fruit tree, harvest the fruit this week before it spoils and use it instead of buying fruit at the grocery store. Whatever is left, give it away! I'm sure that a friend or coworker who is struggling financially,  or a homeless shelter or food bank, would be thrilled to receive it!
What are your green or frugal tips?

9 comments:

  1. An excellent idea. I wish I had fruit growing nearby but I know that often when people do they have so much that a lot of it goes to rot. Since I don't have fruit to give away, I tend to give away a lot of household, clothing and odds and ends to anyone who wants it. Unfortunately a lot of people don't even want stuff anymore (even stuff in excellent condition) so it ends up going to the thrift store where they charge people for it and a handsome price too! The upside is they usually use the money to fund programs for people who really need them.

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  2. Joyful, we try to give things away, at least to the thrift store, before throwing it away as well. Our church has a place in the back where people can leave things they no longer want for others who may want them.

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  3. Gosh .. I wish I was your neighbor .. fresh oranges are a delicacy. You do remember how rare a treat they were in the olden days .. and to get an orange in your Christmas stocking was like finding gold (according to one of the Little House books .. and my husband's dearly departed grandmother.) Enjoy them and share them .. how nice. Backyard citrus is the one tree I miss the most since moving to Zone 5 (in Idaho).

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  4. P.S. I can just imagine how scented the air must be when the orange trees are in bloom.

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  5. Such a sensible advice! You could make Rhonda's orange cake with one of the oranges. http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2010/06/whole-orange-cake.html

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  6. Provincial Homemaker- what good advice! I was trying to think of what I should do with the orange peals - maybe I will make gluten free orange biscuits (as I'm trying to avoid sugar and gluten :).

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  7. I love it! That is so true! We have fruit trees too and last year I hate to say it but alot of them went to waste. Seriously though those CUTIES in the supermarket used to be my favorite but now I know they aren't as juicy as the ones growing on our landlord's trees!

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  8. Heather - our youth group is taking extra fruit they are "gleaning" from neighbor's trees to a homeless shelter downtown if you have any extra you want to get rid of!

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