No More Orange Juice With Breakfast?

If you opened the Weather Channel's web this morning, you may have seen this alarming headline.  "No More Orange Juice With Breakfast."   Hold on, it could get worse.  Not just orange juice, but any citrus juice supply may be constrained this year - and for years to come.

The video cites a disease, which it calls "yellow dragon".  That is another name for citrus greening disease, or huanglongbing (HLB).  If you live in central or south Florida, you HAVE heard of it.  But northern citrus is not immune.  The disease is spread from tree to tree by the Asian citrus psyllid, which both feeds and lays eggs on budding citrus leaves. The saliva of the insect (both the hatching young and the adults) is thought to infect the tree.  If enough psyllid feeding occurs, the tree's vascular system begins to be affected.  Fruit never fully ripens before it drops from the tree, and the taste of the fruit is sour and medicinal. The tree's leaves yellow and curl, leaving the tree unsightly.  The  HLB disease eventually destroys the tree's root system and kills the tree.  There is no known cure.  The only resource available to citrus growers is to attempt to kill the psyllid.  Killing this insect will reduces the number of trees it can infect.  However, the animal has become well-established since its discovery in south Florida in 2005, so it is unlikely that it can be completely eradicated.

See our Citrus Greening Resources post for more information and for advice from the University of Florida on how to increase your trees' chances of staying healthy and what to do if you think you have a problem.

Bartram is Bashing at Alpine Groves

Today is the day!  From 10-3 get a taste of Old Florida at Alpine Groves Park.  Come early.  Rain is possible for the afternoon.

April is the Busiest Month

Our club held its last meeting before our two outreach events, the Fruit Cove Baptist Church Spring Car Show, and the Bartram Bash to celebrate Earth Day at Alpine Groves County Park.  Here is a rare group picture of our members.  It's definitely a trick to get them all to stand still for a photo.  Directing gardeners has something in common with herding cats....

But to be truthful, they did have "chores" to do and were anxious to do them.  This was the last "spruce up" of the butterfly garden before the Bartram Bash!

Once in the garden, one of the members  who was pruning found a gulf fritillary caterpillar.  Well, right then and there all work ground to a halt as we fumbled for our cameras to get a photo of it.  You'd think we were light-headed from the sun!  But, remember that butterfly gardeners are not like other folks.  We delight in such things as a bristle-haired insect munching on our garden greenery.  With enough food and some luck, he'll spin a cocoon right in our garden and next spring emerge as a beautifully adorned butterfly, ready to continue the cycle of pollinating and breeding.

After the photo shoot, the little fellow was returned to his munching spot and we resumed our chopping, digging, sweeping, planting, and watering.  What a memorable morning!

With our garden groomed for the Earth Day Bartram Bash, we turned our attention to telling the public about the event.  The next Saturday, 4/12, was spent at Fruit Cove Baptist Church's annual Spring Car Show.   Plants and flyers advertising the Bash were given away, and every time someone shied away from taking a plant claiming they had a black thumb, we gave them a green one.  Well, a green thumb cookie anyway.  Those sugar cookies in the shape of a hand with its "thumb" covered with green sugar put a smile on everyone's face!

And on the eve of the Bash, we are now collecting our plants, our educational materials, childrens' activity supplies, and a collection of cookies, including these types that contain locally produced ingredients:

No Bake Walnut-Honey Granola Crumbles

Wild Sour Orange Marmalade Balls (no baking)

Click each link for a recipe.