Fresh Chilean fruit arrives; winterberries and stripers come and go

There was a time not too many decades ago when receiving a fresh piece of citrus in the toe of a Christmas stocking was a rare treat. Finding oranges in the dead of winter wasn’t an easy task. Now, however, with specialized shipping containers and access to South American fruit growers, getting a wide range of fresh fruit in the middle of winter is not much more difficult than finding Delaware apples in the fall.

Delaware’s Port of Wilmington sent out a release this week announcing the arrival of its first shipment of the season of fresh-picked fruit from Chile. The release notes that on Wednesday, Dec. 14, after passing the capes of Delaware, the Hellas Reefer, a specialized refrigerated vessel, arrived at the Wilmington terminal and began unloading its juicy cargo.

“On this late autumn morning, the Hellas Reefer commenced discharging her cargo of over 992,100 boxes of fresh cherries, blueberries, apricots, peaches, nectarines, and table grapes,” said the report. “Wilmington is a major port of entry and distribution center for the seasonal importation of fresh Chilean winter fruit. During this season, the Port anticipates receiving at least 25 shiploads of fruit from the Chilean ports of Valparaiso, Coquimbo, and Caldera.”

Port Executive Director Gene Bailey said the arrival of the Hellas Reefer marks the seventh year in a row that the First State has had the honor of receiving the season-opening shipment of Chilean winter fruit, not only on the Delaware River but in the entire U.S.

The fruit is stored in the port’s 800,000-square-foot, on-dock refrigerated warehouse complex, one of North America’s largest, before distribution throughout Canada and the eastern region of the U.S. The port handled over 15,428,000 boxes of Chilean fruit in the 2015-16 season. “This important trade supports over 857 family-sustaining jobs and annually generates $48 million in personal income, $51 million in business revenue and $5 million in tax revenue for the state and the region,” said the release.

Are robins, waxwings Scrooges?

We have two large winterberry shrubs in our front yard. They keep company with the squirrel families living in the cherry tree, and the feral cats that menace the squirrels and the birds.

One dusky evening two weeks back, while I was raking up some of the final leaves from the winterberries, a figure standing beneath a big cedar tree 10 yards away caught my eye: A gray fox, in the middle of town, quietly stalking the cats that stalk the squirrels and birds. I hope he caught a few.

There was just enough light left for me to admire this year’s thick crop of red berries on the winterberries. They put on a great show after the leaves fall off and provide cheerful color, often all the way through winter.

But not this year. The next morning, sitting in the clam-shelled driveway in my pickup, I was once again admiring the winterberries in the early sunlight. Then a robin appeared. Then another, and another, and another. They perched on the shrub’s thin branches and began plucking off the red berries. They barely had time to swallow one - no chewing of course - before they plucked another. Soon they were joined by a small but hungry flock of cedar waxwings, one of my favorite birds.

Together, they hit the berries pretty hard that day and came back the next day for more. By afternoon, they had completely stripped both shrubs down to the last berry. They left nothing but the thin gray branches that make up the customary monochromatic palette of the winter landscape. I guess it was just our year.

Hit-and-miss striper season

Nothing new for the winter striper season. They’re here one day and gone the next. The fishermen who catch them are the ones who go the most. It’s not unusual for the diehards to run 80 miles up the Jersey coast from Lewes and Indian River to find fish. One friend did that to no avail two weeks back and then got into them the next day a mile or so off Rehoboth Beach.

My friend Mike went off Rehoboth last week and came home empty-handed. Then, a day later, a friend of his sent a picture from another friend who found fish schooled up and on the surface - this time in the ocean between Rehoboth and Indian River Inlet. Quick limits of big fish were taken on bucktails tossed into the blitz. Here’s a copy of the photo. Should’ve been there yesterday comes to mind.

Merry Christmas to all!