Snow in Hawaii? Yes! First snow of the season on Mauna Kea

Do we get snow in Hawaii?  You bet!  https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/ASK/hawaii-snow.html I can’t be absolutely certain, because there may have been times when the mountain has been completely socked in and might have had snow on it, but I’m going to call this the first snow of the season.  Usually when we have snow on the mountain the temperatures down at the 2500 ft elevation, where I live, are a little cooler.  For whatever reason, I haven’t noticed a drop in temperature this morning.

You can barely see the observatories surrounded by snow in the picture, because the mountain is quite far away and I’m using my iPhone to take pictures.  Today is Friday, and I don’t believe there are any winter storm warnings for the mountain, so this weekend some people may go up to the observatories with their pickups and load up with snow for the neighborhood kids to play in.  If so, there will be pickups in town leaking melting snow.  It melts quickly, but it is a fun way to celebrate the season.

Tangerines, lemons, limes, grapefruit, oranges, and other citrus grow well in Waimea-don’t plant too many.

As Christmas approaches it will be difficult to give tangerines away, because so many people have at least one tree, and most trees will be full of fruit, but they are delicious!  One of the mistakes newcomers make is to go a little wild on planting citrus fruit trees.  The yields tend to be very high after the first few years, and it is easy to end up with far more fruit that you can figure out what to do with.  North Hawaii Community Hospital cafeteria may still accept donations of fruit, and the Thursday Community Dinner at St. James would probably also be happy to receive some.  Another option can be to befriend someone with a booth at one of the farmers markets and ask them to sell or give fruit away.  Finally, when all else fails, freeze the juice for the long stretch when the trees will not be bearing!

If the tangerines are getting close to ripe, so are the oranges.  Our local oranges look awful, if you’re used to sprayed, uniform looking fruit, but they are far superior to the oranges we import.  They are sweet and juicy, with thin skins.  A great way to eat them is to slice them, then pack them in ice and take them to the beach with you.  They will be a cold, thirst-quenching treat!

Lemons and limes tend to bear year round.  Meyer lemons do very well here, and are, again, far superior to the awful little imported ones usually offered at the grocery stores.  There are many types of limes that do well, although I have not had great luck with lime trees. There are numerous other citrus varieties that grow very well here, but I have not tried to grow them.  There are so many microclimates here, and sometimes it takes a little trial and error to figure out what works!

Citrus fruit marks our winter season, as does snow on Mauna Kea

Our seasons may not be very pronounced, but once you’ve lived here a while, you notice and enjoy the changes!