BUMPER CROP OF FRUIT IN IMMACULATE CONCEPTION PATIO

(Ed.'s Note: Pedestrians on 13th Street across from the Brownsville Intermodal Transportation Terminal [the bus station] marvel at the fecundity of the lemon tree whose branches hang over the sidewalk above the wall of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral patio. This tree produces several crops  year, with this one coming on strong within the next month.

When ripe, the fruit drops to the ground inside the church patio, or drop down on the sidewalk or street to be run over by traffic on 13th.

Lemons are not the only fruit grown inside the patio. There are peach trees and purple figs as well as pecan trees there. During the evenings, flocks of red-headed and green parrots fight over their nesting sites there and on palm trees lining the properties on both sides of Jefferson. [Click on graphics to enlarge.]

Their chattering at nesting time at dusk is raucous as they drive out grackles and mourning doves from the trees.

The figs and peaches, especially, bear the tell-tale signs on their beaks on the ripening fruit. Church yard maintenance workers cut off the branches that overhang the walls to keep people from trying to get at the fruit. A strand of concertina wire is attached to the top of the wall.

We have a friend who says that sometimes when he would go visit La Movida bar on Adams directly across the alley from the cathedral, the owners sometimes would forget to buy lemons for patrons who liked to use it with salt with their beer and he would walk down the alley and pick some of the fruit off  the ground inside the patio. The caretakers of the church would let him take some since they would rot on the ground anyway.

Amusingly, the bar owner's name was Julian Limon, who has since passed away.

"We would say, 'Oye Limon, no tienes limon? Tenemos que robar la iglesia otra vez?")