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The Callahan Garden Page 2015 Travis & Diana Callahan 11403 Wesley Road Abbeville, LA 70510 Our experience growing fruit has covered 21 years at one location (Lindsey Drive) and the past 9 years here in our subdivision yard (Wesley Road). At the previous location we had 85 fruit trees and were testing many varieties of pear, fig, persimmon, mayhaw , and others. From the experiences gained over those years, when the flood of Hurricane Rita caused us to re-locate to this smaller property, we planted our favorite trees of each kind.
We enjoy gardening year round here in South Louisiana with it's fairly mild winters. We grow trees and flowering shrubs native to the area and also a fruit orchard numbering some 22 trees and several muscadine and grape vines as well as Blueberry bushes . These are some of the fruit we grow: Mayhaw
ClasseyMayhaw was one of my favorites. Mayhaw fruit is native to several of the Deep South states and really thrives here. The jelly made from the Mayhaw is in our opinion the best jelly made . We also use the fruit to make pies, syrup, and a fine wine. The range of the mayhaw is from Northern Florida to East Texas, and from the Gulf to about the South Arkansas border. The fruit is very low chill and because of this can not be reliably grown on a commercial basis North of the Louisiana /Arkansas state line. This fruit is not familiar to most gardeners but a commercial fruit juice extraction factory, Grant Fruit Processing, is now operating in Pollock, Louisiana and it is possible to order juice from several varieties of fruit. My friend Billy Craft of Woodworth Louisiana, is a co-author of the book entitled Mayhaws a guide to orchard production and propagation.
The Gem Mayhaw tree and twelve other mayhaw trees were removed by the new owner of our former home. The Mayhaw jelly is the best jelly in my opinion and is the Louisiana State jelly. I have planted two Maxine Mayhaw trees and a new Red Champ, and a grafted Classey Mayhaw in my current orchard.
Our first harvest of
Maxine Mayhaw was 2013
First harvest of Red Champ Mayhaw was 2014 From Diana's Kitchen
Diana's Traditional Mayhaw Jelly Sterilize 4 pint jars per batch of jelly. Put 4 cups (one quart) juice in a glass or stainless steel pot . Bring to a boil. Add 1 package powdered Sure Jell Pectin Bring to a rolling boil 3 minutes Add 5 cups sugar, bring to a boil for 1 minute. Fill bottle to 1/4 inch from top, cap with new seal lid not quite tight . After filling the bottles, place in boiling water bath (with just a slight and steady boil) with the water level at least one inch higher than the bottles and allow ten minutes boiling time. Carefully lift the bottles onto a towel and cover with a second towel to cool slowly. At this time you may hear a snapping sound as the bottles begin to seal. I have always wondered what mayhaw jelly would taste like with less sugar or sugar free. In the traditional jelly recipe you will notice that there are 4 cups of Mayhaw juice but five cups of sugar. Are we tasting the true taste of the mayhaw fruit or mostly sugar? I must say that I love the taste of traditional Mayhaw jelly and have grown mayhaw for the past twenty eight years. But I always wondered if I could find a low sugar recipe that would have a lesser amount of sugar to allow the true mayhaw flavor to be prominent. A jelly that I would be proud to share with friends and family. Experiments with so called "low sugar" pectins were basically failures. Several years ago I saw an ad and I decided to order some Pomona Universal Pectin and try the low sugar jelly using their product. After all these years I took that product off the pantry shelf and made a batch. Nothing I know of can produce as good a mayhaw as the traditional recipe. If one still wants to have a decent mayhaw jelly but with lower sugar due to health concerns my new Recipe is below . This one removes 60% of the sugar. Travis
Low Sugar Mayhaw Jelly Recipe Using
Pomona Universal Pectin 4
cups Mayhaw juice into a large stainless or glass pot. Thoroughly mix 4 teaspoons Pomona Universal Pectin and 2 cups of sugar and set aside. Add
4 teaspoons calcium water into the juice
Bring
juice to a boil. Add
the sugar and pectin into the juice and stir
vigorously for 1-2 minutes to dissolve pectin. Return
to a boil stirring well Remove
from heat Fill
jars to 1/4 inch from top, tighten lid just snug.
Process in
boiling water bath 10 minutes to complete process. Note : Always sterilize bottles, lids, and rings and keep them in hot water just before filling.
Click Here to visit the Pomona Universal Pectin Home Page I have now tested several "no sugar" Mayhaw Jelly recipes. With a lot of research and five batches created with the most popular non-sugar "sweetners' and all thrown away, I have decided that there are no good no sugar Mayhaw recipes in my opinion. Travis Notes: I avoid the use of aluminum pots with most foods. This is because I have observed aluminum pots becoming very shiny inside after processing tomatoes or high acid fruit. This is caused by aluminum leeching out of the pot . Somehow I do not feel that would be a healthy thing. Once again remember that everything on this web page is my personal opinion.
Jujube
This is one branch of a Jujube tree that we named Abbeville at the old place. The Jujube is a wonderful fruit that is unknown to many growers in the South. Also known as the Chinese Date, the jujube fruit , about the size of a small egg. We use the fruit to make a delicious syrup, then dehydrate the used fruit to make candied dates. These candied dates have a shelf life , in a zip lock bag , of over a year. The fruit is also eaten fresh from the tree when the color changes from green to mahogany. We also grew several other varieties.
We have settled on the variety Li due to it's large size which makes it easier to dehydrate and process. I continue to be amazed at the Li jujube that bears at a very young age and goes on to produce very large crops.
We have also planted the variety Jin but the spot is a little too wet and I will be raising the tree and putting it on a raised top soil bed about a foot high. Here with seventy inches rain a year the young tree is in danger of root rot. My trees are always supplied by Roger Meyer of Fountain Valley, CA
li Jujube 16 inches high with 20 fruit in it's 18th month in the ground.
The crop of the above tiny Li Jujube tree removed prematurely due to the danger of the limbs breaking.
A branch from the Li Jujube the third year with the tree now at over eight feet tall.
Unloading the dehydrator with candied dates (Jujube). In the process we also end up with about two quarts of Jujube Syrup.
Muscadine
This is the Ison muscadine which is one of the results of a 50 year breeding program to improve the quality of the native muscadine by the Ison family of Brooks Georgia. We also grow Black Beauty, another of their wonderful muscadine varieties here in our orchard.
Figs
We have grown figs for the past 30 years, 21 years at a previous location and 9 years here . The Fig family are everywhere here in South Louisiana. Of all the varieties Celeste is by far the most common. The Alma Fig seems to be more cold tolerant . We also grew five other varieties at our previous location and have found that the LSU Purple fruits very late in the year well after the others has stopped producing. This allows us to spread the harvest over several months. We eat the fruit fresh from the tree , make delicious preserves, and wonderful fig tarts. We had added Improved Celeste and Hollier in the final years there. Nine years ago we moved to our current, and much smaller location, due to Hurricane Rita and the flood that it brought. We planted two Celeste, one Black Mission, one LSU Gold, and a LSU Purple Fig which is my favorite of all the figs. We are also growing the Italian Honey Fig in a large container. We find it hard to use all the figs we produce and always give some to friends. Grapes
This is Champanel, my favorite grape for wine.. These grapes are very tart and well suited to making wine, and bear very heavy crops every year.. Persimmon
Here is some of the fruit from our Saijo tree. This young tree is only nine years old now and had more than a hundred fruit in it's first year to produce fruit (at three years since planting) . This variety is dehydrated while still firm and when it is fully yellow. This makes a premium dried fruit with a remarkable sweet taste.
We also grow Fuyu persimmon here in our orchard . Fuyu is a non astringent persimmon and is eaten fresh from the tree when it turns orange color and is still firm. These are considered by us to need no spraying here at our place. Blue Berries We have four adult (8 years old) in the orchard. The large fruit crop from these bushes each year is hard to believe .
Pear Leona Pear July 4, 2004
Southern Bartlett Pear is an unknown local variety named by my late friend Larry Brown. I am presently chairman of the Nafex Southern Pear Interest Group. Nafex is the North American Fruit Explorers which is a three thousand member amateur fruit growing organization. We grow many different fruits which we test for adaptability to our individual areas. We publish a quarterly publication called Pomona. I have included a link to Nafex on this page.
Citrus trees
When we bought the property, in December 2005. Mike Conlin, the previous owner had planted a Louisiana Sweet orange in the spot where we put our new driveway. In the meantime Mr. Mike passed away after a battle with cancer. We carefully lifted the plant into a container and in November 2008 we planted it in the yard. This year (2015) the tree is once again loaded with fruit . We love our living memorial to Educator and Coach Mike Conlin
Mr. Mike is the variety Hamlin Sweet. This is the 2015 crop Planted November 2008
Our favorite citrus is the Page Mandarin 2006 Planting
Old reliable Louisiana favorite 2006 planting
Washington Navel tree February 2014 Planting
Myer Lemon rooted from a cutting in February 2014 Due to the very tender nature of the wonderful Meyer we are growing this one in a 15 gallon pot. From
Diana's
Kitchen
Orange Jam Recipe from the folks at Pomona Universal Pectin This is our favorite
Orange Jam
and low sugar too.
Orange
Jam is a low-sugar or low-honey cooked jam made with
Pomona’s Pectin. Feel free to use any
type of oranges or a mixture of oranges – valencia,
navel, cara cara,
blood
oranges, mandarins, tangerines, satsumas,
mineolas. Pomona’s
Pectin contains no sugar or preservatives and jells
reliably with low amounts of any sweetener. See below
for where to buy. Yield:
4 to 5 cups Before
You Begin: Orange
Jam Ingredients 4
cups pulpy juice (see below for options of how to
prepare) Orange
Jam Directions 1.
Wash jars, lids, and bands. Place jars in canner, fill
canner 2/3 full with water, bring to a boil. Turn off
heat, cover, and
keep
jars in hot canner water until ready to use. Place
lids in water in a
small
sauce pan; cover and heat to a low boil. Turn off heat
and keep lids in
hot
water until ready to use. 2.
Measure pulpy juice into sauce pan. 3.
Add calcium water and lemon juice and mix well. 4.
Measure sugar or room temperature honey into a bowl.
Thoroughly mix pectin powder into sweetener. Set
aside. 5.
Bring fruit mixture to a full boil. Add
pectin-sweetener
mixture, stirring vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes to
dissolve the pectin
while
the jam comes back up to a boil. Once the jam returns
to a full boil,
remove it
from the heat. 6.
Fill hot jars to ¼” of top. Wipe rims clean. Screw on
2-piece lids. Put filled jars in boiling water to
cover. Boil 10
minutes (add 1
minute more for every 1,000 ft. above sea level).
Remove from water.
Let jars
cool. Check seals; lids should be sucked down. Eat
within 1 year. Lasts
3 weeks
once opened. Options
for Preparation of Pulpy
Juice: A.
Use a citrus juicer that renders both juice and pulp,
but
holds back seeds and membranes. B.
Peel, section, remove seeds, cut off any especially
fibrous membrane, and chop enough oranges to yield 4
cups of chopped
orange.
Put in a sauce pan with 1/3 cup of water. Bring to a
boil, reduce heat,
cover,
and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
Measure out 4 cups
of
simmered orange mixture for making the jam.
The Southern Fruit Fellowship is another fine group of fruit growers primarily in the South . They publish a quarterly newsletter with dues of $15.00 per year. To join write : Southern Fruit Fellowship c/o Rhetta Davis 2051 Evergreen Drive Shreveport, LA 71118
You can also click on the SFF page below to see the membership page
One of the many visitors to our numerous hibiscus plants We also grow many different flowering shrubs and trees here at home. Here are some of our favorites.
The rare Indian Pink
The Daffodil of our old ancestors
Flowers of The Fuzzy Dutsia
The blooms of the beautiful Star Magnolia These and many others make our days a little brighter here at home Check out these Growers Links
LSU Louisiana Home Orchard Link My Southern Fruit Fellowship Page
Page updated 11-20-15
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