Right now my orange situation is stressing me out. The local flocks of parrots on the other hand are very happy. I probably have about 10K of them out there. I wake up to them staring at me out of my bedroom window. They are visible from the terrace, everywhere I turn I see oranges. The truck is coming from the City on Tuesday or Wednesday and I intend it to be full of my fruit. I want it all out of here.
Yesterday, I sold around 500 and made a little over $20. Today, I had a 'pick your own day' - not wildly popular, but anything seemed worth a try.
I am wondering how many orange trees I need for personal use. Drinking juice for breakfast, sending Beatrice off to school with a big plastic bottles full of the stuff and downing rum cocktails before dinner, using kilos of sugar making marmalade. In total, this consumption is utterly insignificant. At this point, I would not be devastated if I never saw another orange again. Unfortunately, the orange harvest runs through January. It is amazing really how much fruit these trees produce.
50 years ago Boquete was famous for the little coffee farms growing coffee under orange trees and there is a wonderful mural in the Boquete Bistro depicting this scene. It looks just like my little farm, so pretty all surrounded by the mountains in the background.
My trees are all old and were planted during this romantic era of ladies in billowy skirts on ladders picking oranges assisted by indigenous workers and family members. The story of the mural in Bistro Boquete is dreamy - right now, I'm sceptical it was ever thus.
Soon, I'll be writing about other things to do with orange trees for example: Burn them for firewood; plant bromeliads and orchids on them, use them as large frames for passion fruit; make liqueur out of the blossoms................