Taking the Fruit of the Valley with Us

One of our favorite things about staying in the Rio Grande Valley in the winter is the fruit available right outside our door. So as we pack up to leave here, we are glad to take a taste of the valley with us. Denisa's Mother has grapefruit, orange, and tangerine trees and she lets us pick the fruit from the top. These fruit will over-ripen and fall eventually, and then go to waste because she can't pick them herself. Mark is always climbing trees and rocks on hikes, so for once those skills come in handy.

By standing on the top rung of the ladder that clearly states "Do not step here" he could pick most of those tasty pieces of fruit.

Still leaving plenty of fruit at the bottom of the tree, we ended up with ten bags of grapefruit! That will keep us with morning and evening snacks for a long time!

Another day we concentrated on taking a touch of lemon on the road with us. We are used to thick-skinned, hard lemons we find at grocery stores in middle America that we work hard to extract a tablespoon of juice. The lemons in the Rio Grande Valley are bigger than baseballs, with thin skins that hold in a cup of juice.

This year we bought some of those lemons, and froze the juice in ice cube trays. Adding a cube to a glass of water turns it into a Rio Grande treat that we can take on the road with us.

We also squeezed the sweet oranges from the tree right beside our motor home. We learned last year that these bags of pure juice defrost into orange slushies that taste like liquid sunshine after we headed north.

Denisa also bought fresh vegetables that are raised in the valley. Every Friday afternoon, a produce truck visits the park to sell some of the freshest and biggest vegetables we have seen. This broccoli was picked that morning. The giant carrots are sweet, and Denisa eats these cucumbers like they are candy. Besides, the shopping list looks as pretty as a picture!

We have discovered that some of the northerners bring their harvest with them. We found two different campers that brought a hundred pounds of pecans to the valley. They use the beautiful weather here to pick through the nuts and then sell them by the bags to help fund their winter vacation. We were happy to help them out.

The last day at the park, we picked the most tender citrus fruit. Denisa' Mother has a prolific tangerine tree, and we always enjoy these easy-to-peel fruits on our hikes or on road trips. But they are easy to bruise, and we wanted to leave them on the tree as long as possible. Some of the fruit at the top of the tree is the biggest and prettiest.

Once again, Mark used his monkey-like skills to climb high into the tree to get all those fruits that would have been wasted. 

There are still hundreds of low-hanging fruit, that will keep Denisa's Mother happy for the rest of the season. 

During our last few days, we were blessed with more close-up visits from the wild parakeets. Earlier Denisa wrongly called them parrots, but her bird-smart friend set her straight. These bright green parakeets travel in large flocks around our campground.

Occasionally, the parakeets stop in a tree with fewer leaves, so we can see them more easily. Denisa got this picture of some of the wild green parakeets hanging out on our street.

The last evening at the park, we went to the bingo night at the park as usual. We have gone to seven different bingo nights, and Denisa has yelled, "Bingo!" with great enthusiasm six different times. On that last evening, Mark finally got his first bingo, so it was officially time to head down the road!

We were busy on our last morning. Denisa got a hair cut from a trusted place in Mission. Mark got the motor home inspected so we could renew our Texas registration. Most importantly, we picked up burgers at the Y Cook cafe at the park, grilled by our favorite burger chef. We'll miss this park where we have made lots of friends and got to spend good time with Denisa's Mother. But we're looking forward to more travel adventures down the road!