Tangelo Tree Blessings

Our Tangelo tree on Dec. 4, heavy with fruit
A bowl full of juicy sweet Tangelos - and there are many more left to pick

This year our little 4 ft Tangelo tree didn't just have lots of sweet smelling flowers - next to Jasmine, this tree has the most amazing scent of all plants in our garden! After flowering the tree set a load of fruit and the little green balls kept on growing. Usually, most of its fruit shrivel and fall off in short order, but not this time! By mid May we knew we'd have some nice Tangelos come Fall. Around Thanksgiving the little tree was laden with fruit and we anxiously kept checking whether they were ripe enough. As with most fruit, you want to feel a certain softness when you give them a gentle squeeze, and they should come right off the branch when you twist a quarter to half turn. Pick them too early and they are very tart, but leaving them on the tree to sweeten was a real character test.

By early December Pia and I were able to taste the first Tangelo. For our St. Nikolaus party on Dec. 13 (we were sick on Dec. 6 and had to postpone the party) we had an entire bowl full of fruit ready, and the tree didn't look any emptier, just a little less burdened. It's incredible how much the little guy is able to produce this year - a rough estimate is 5 lbs. So for Christmas we have several pounds of our own Tangelos available, a treat like no other.