Goodbye Citrus, Hello Snow

I had to walk away from this beautiful bowl of citrus last week as we set forth on our annual ski trip.   It was picked by dear friends here locally and given to us during the holidays, and Lil' Bit and I picked our share as well.  Grapefruit, tangelos, tangerines, and oranges of every variety.  We had three pickle buckets of citrus, most of it went to 29 South and some was of course re-gifted.

Lil' Bit and I delivered a bag of sunshine to our new neighbors from Wisconsin.  They in turn juiced the fruit and left a pitcher of fresh juice on our front porch.  It was a lovely and unexpected thank you.

Citrus is the most widely grown crop in the world, with Brazil as its numero uno provider of oranges and grapefruits...although Florida citrus is usually 25% heavier than fruits grown outside the state due to thinner peels and more juice. 

I wonder if there will be any fruit left in our bowl when we return tomorrow night.  I told my wonderful friend and housesitter/zookeeper to enjoy it while we were gone, and given that he had just started a raw food detox it is unlikely there will be.  It is okay though, after 8 hours of travel with a 2 year old, a 9 month old, and a ski-torn Chef I think I will be looking for something a little stronger than grapefruit juice when I finally arrive at home sweet home.  Something a lot stronger.