Key West or Jacksonville, FL

We have a well producing key lime tree in our back yard.  But that is not where it started.  The key lime tree was give to us by my brother sometime during the first year John and I were married.  The poor tree was moved from GA to VA to FL (living on the patio of 4 apt. and 1 rental house).  The tree was snowed on and covered with big blankets to be moved in and out of cars every time we moved (key limes have huge 1-3 in thorns).  Finally after we moved into this house we put it in the ground.  The tree had never produced fruit and we were afraid we had damaged it by leaving it the pot for so long.  It was about my height when it went in the ground (around 5 ft.).  Well 6 years later the tree is about 15 ft tall and produce pretty much year round.  During T.S. Fay the tree ended up in a swampy area and in the path of the wind causing it to start to fall over.  This week I finally found a person that could come help us pull the tree back up and tie it to another tree to keep it upright.  In the mean time John and kids have been de-liming the tree to keep some of the weight off of it.  I (and John too) have been squeezing limes.  Mostly to make lime aide, but I have made jerk chicken this week and a mellon and jicama salad (the family did not like it much, but I loved), no pie yet.  I was laying in bed the other night and figured that I have squeeze more then 500 hundred limes (remember key limes are small, although mine are on the bigger size) and produce 30-50 cups of lime juice, not including the bags and bags I have given away.  Last year I froze the juice in ice cube trays, some of which is still there.  Here are some great conversions for you (other things to do with ice cube trays):How much liquid does a cube hold? One ice cube is generally the equivalent of one ounce or two Tablespoons. Here are some conversions to help you determine how many cubes you’ll need to use in a recipe:

2 cubes = 1/4 cup
4 cubes = 1/2 cup

6 cubes = 3/4 cup
8 cubes = 1 cup

Tree after T.S. Fay, I am hoping to find some picture of the tree when it was a baby.

One the children took the picture artistically crooked.

Artistic design by Clay, Mark and Ramon of lime with limes.

Squeezed limes made into juice

This is a pretty big pitcher

Recipe for this picture:

2 cups Key lime juice

3-4 cups sugar (remember key limes are very sour)

water to top of picture

stir and serve over ice