Mandarin Madness

I thought I'd better capture the mandarin moments before the memory of them faded as quickly as the sweet mandarin marmalade and the mandarin and passionfruit jam that I made from a very small fraction of them.

Yes! Mandarins. Nearly 100 kilograms of them.

We started picking them (up) at the end of May - small, sweet and juicy, so the taste testers attested.
We took shopping bags full wherever we went and gave them away to all and sundry.
In early June we picked a crate full and took them along to homeschooling events to give away.
We picked a washing basket full and took them to church to give away.
We picked another washing basket full and sold them for a gold coin donation for a few or for many and put the money towards Sophie-Lee's mission trip (that has been postponed to September).
We picked another washing basket full and took them all the way to Cabarita Beach and sold them 5 for $2 (Deborah wouldn't let me sell them for less) and raised $130 for the Vanuatu Mission Trip (thank you Chris and Elyse for your generous donations).
On the way to Cabba we gave a couple of bags of mandarins away to our wonderful mechanic in Uralla (thank you for changing my tyre) and to Janelle (thank you for accommodating us in the middle of a very busy week).

And still there were mandarins!
The tree was heavily laden with fruit.
I made sweet mandarin marmalade.

Finally, one weekend, Douglas, with the help of Susannah, Robbie, Reuben, and Caitlin, picked ALL the mandarins. We did a rough weigh and worked out that there were about 60kgs of mandarins in the final pick.

What to do with 60kg of mandarins???
Some went into marmalade and passionfruit jam. Remember the passionfruit? They're in abundance right now.)
Then I ran out of jars!

What to do with 58kg of mandarins???
I asked on facebook.
I asked my homeschool friends.
I asked the people at church.
I did some idea bouncing with my "ideas friend" (she knows who she is!).
And voila! The idea came!!!
I have a friend who visits at The Block in Redfern. I delivered the whole 58kg of mandarins to her and she took them to The Block.
Apparently, it didn't take long for the whole lot to go and the place was littered with mandarin peel. Nice.
What a relief.

Now I have a cupboard full of jars!!!

And that is the end of my mandarin story.