On Highway 22, headed east, I saw this sign in the distance.

Fortunately, I espied the sign before it was too late to make a right turn into the parking lot adjacent to the small market. It has been years since I have eaten a satsuma – they just don’t seem to grow anywhere but here for some reason. One year Jillian gave Norm a satsuma tree for Father’s Day. Within about three years, we were harvesting so many satsumas that we shared them with our neighbors and friends.

The colorful produce of the Abita-Mandeville Produce Market kind of reminded me of the market on my block in Paris, where everything was fresh and grown close to home. Those plump tomatoes are Alabama tomatoes, the best you can buy this time of year.

Those oranges are from Florida, but I declined those in favor of the Louisiana Satsumas.

They are still green this time of year, but if you leave them in a window, they will turn fiery orange in a few days. That’s what I’m going to do with these. We’ll munch on some of them, and I’ll save some for a satsuma cake.

Satsumas – another reason to love autumn in the Bayou State.