Picking Citrus Near Lake Louisa

January 30-February 4, 2017                                                                      Most Recent Posts:
Monday-Saturday                                                        Red Tide, Yoder’s and More: Our Last Week at Oscar Scherer
Lake Louisa State Park                                                           2016 Year in Review: PART 2 – June to December
Clermont Florida

 

 

From Oscar Scherer we moved to Lake Louisa where work continued on some of Winnona’s issues.  If you enjoy hiking or riding on horse trails and kayaking or fishing in the lakes here, it’s the place for you.  We use it as a spot to get work done, pick citrus and stage for Disney World.

This part of Florida is the lakes region and Lake Louisa has many of them.  The namesake lake is the largest and a popular day use area for boating and swimming. The campground loops are stretched between two smaller lakes, Dixie and Hammond.. 

Our site is located right next to the restroom which is very handy for one of the chores we do here, laundry.  The site is long and level and near the only trailhead in the campground.

 

 

 

The campground and the trail nearest it have several orange and tangerine trees that are probably from a former orchard and have gone wild.  They were loaded with fruit and weren’t nearly as sour as the wild fruits we have found in other places.  I walked the trail every day and brought a few home each time..

 

The trail from the campground goes along Dixie Lake on one side.

All the trails that I experienced here are wide enough to be a single lane road and clearly intended for horse traffic.  There are numbers along the trails so you can use the maps to find your way.  The number signs give the intention away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both Dixie Lake, below, and the smaller Hammond Lake have short piers for people to fish from and every time I went out there were always people with their rods.  Both piers have a set of side steps going down into the water which I guess is the kayak launch though the steps look like things I’ve seen in springs for swimmers to use to enter the water but I don’t think you are allowed to swim in any of the lakes but Lake Louisa. I’ve never seen anyone in the water but then again it is February.

If it’s a kayak launch, I  find it much harder to launch from a dock or steps than directly from the shore.  I also never saw any waterfowl on either lake on all of my morning walks and I always went by both piers to check.

They are both lovely sites.

 

 

I caught the tail end of the sunset from Hammond Lake one evening.

 

We’ve been having trouble starting Winnona and sometimes have to use the booster. We’d taken the battery in and had it tested by two different places and it was fine. Finally David decided to test the starter so he took it out, took it in and that was it. New starter installed and we’re all set.  She purrs again with no hesitation.

 

 

 

 

One day we drove lilterally almost next door to the Showcase of Citrus where you can buy already picked citrus or you can pick your own.  Love the cowgirl sitting under the sign.  She turned out to work in the store but she wasn’t the one who waited on David when he paid for our bag which we could fill as full as we could get it. 

On one of the beams above the store they had great signs.  I’d like to have this one.

Out back was an eclectic grouping of kids toys, orange carts, a windmill, roaming chickens and cats.

 

We got a cart and a picker and headed across the bridge to the trees.

 

Across the bridge I was surprised to see what is billed as “world’s largest 4X4 trucks”.  They give tours of the property on these things.  So if you’ve ever wanted to ride on one of these monsters and do it safely I assume, here’s your chance.  Only $25 a person.  Count me out.

The woman taking pictures here did go on a ride and we saw them go by, just the two of them and the driver in that huge truck.

 

The rows were easy to walk up and down,  We had a map that told us which areas to pick in and what the fruit was.  Still it was difficult to determine just which rows were which type of oranges or tangerines.  We later learned on our way out that if we had gone straight ahead rather than crossing over the bridge at first, the rows on that end were labeled.

 

The orange blossoms smell divine!

 

 

 

The pickers at work.  Some of them are tall enough to reach the fruits.  Some are not.

 

 

 

 

But we come away with a full bag of honey tangerines, honey bell and page oranges.  $18 a bag for your trouble.  It’s less if you don’t pick your own but there isn’t as great a variety for sale in their bins as there is in the field.

Saturday morning we’re up and out for our 23 mile drive to Fort Wilderness in Disney World.
Let the party begin!