Citrus Celebration

JaLeesah Otero, Paul Ocheltree, Chloe Maciel and Adam Nielsen work on the cook line.

(Clockwise from top left) Andrew Ocheltree, Sean Thull, Phillip Ocheltree and Liz Nguyen peel, chop and juice the citrus.

Carolyn enjoys a celebratory glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice while Christina Alonzo, Liz Nguyen, and Sean Thull prepare citrus for marmalade and lemon curd.

Adam Nielsen ladles blood orange marmalade into jars.

Because the sun is usually hidden by fog or rain clouds in January (except this year) in Fresno, we have taken to hosting an annual January Citrus Celebration, thanking God for the sunny-shaped orbs on our lemon and orange trees that we harvest this time of year. We held our Citrus Celebration today with joyful participants peeling, chopping, juicing and cooking oranges and lemons to make orange marmalade and lemon curd, which we canned and sealed in jars. At the end of the day, we had canned 53 jars of orange marmalade and 27 jars of lemon curd. We enjoyed glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice and just generally appreciated the fellowship and joy God provides through our citrus trees!

--Posted by Mama O.