2 years ago we planted a plum tree. Last spring a late frost killed all but 5 of the fruit. I got to eat one thumb sized plum: all the rest had worms in them. (No… just no.)
We have a cherry tree that has never fruited so is probably a male.
We have a dwarf apple tree that was girded the first winter and subsequent suckers are growing to normal apple tree heights.
There’s a crab apple tree in the front yard that has enjoyed new amounts of sunshine after we cut down a towering maple. We now have a top story of regular green apples and a bottom story of crabapples.
Then there are the shop fruit trees: apples, pears and I think plums.
Since everything grew so nicely last year this year the guys sprayed all the fruit trees at both places. Last year I made homemade applesauce and gallon bags of dehydrated apple slices after cutting all the bad spots away. The guys are thinking of making booze one day… I just want to make my own trail mix with just a little bit less effort.
When I was a kid, we moved into a house that had a red currant bush. I developed a love for red currants, and I have planted a bush in the last three house I have lived in and moved before I ever saw fruit. Except this house, where I have finally been here long enough for it to mature. Glorious bush, lots of flowers this spring, and now, just a few scattered green berries. I’m guessing the birds are picking off the fruit as fast as it ripens. If I’m lucky, I’m hoping to beat them to at least one or two.
Raspberries, on the other hand, crept under the fence from my neighbours, and I’m looking at a nice crop this year.
I don’t understand the hate for mulberries. I discovered a tree in the dog park near me last summer and can’t wait for them to ripen again this year. I pick and eat them until my fingers are purple. Love them and wish I had a tree in my yard.
Yes. And the results were so traumatic that I’ll never do that again. I basically created a buffet for all the neighborhood cats. The day that I went into the yard and found a pair of bird feet, sans bird, gripping the netting and a wing under the tree I decided to call it quits. Now I just try to pick as much as I can before the birds get them all. I was able to pick four pounds or so this year but could have gotten more if I’d hadn’t had other pressing tasks. I’ve got two dwarf sour cherry trees. I get cherries every two or three years-late frosts get them sometimes and a couple of years ago the birds ate all the fruit when it was still green! First time that’s ever happened. Oh, and these two trees are actually the third pair I planted. The first two sets died on me. So I hate to think how much those four pounds of fruit actually cost.
You guys have it all wrong. The trees you plant and sometimes nurture are for those that come after we’re gone to fertilizer.
Every time I harvest tree fruit, I thank the mostly forgotten people that planted that tree. Amazes me just how much fruit goes to waste in back yards and roadsides around this county.
Had my first ripe Raspberry today. It seemed to be way ahead of the curve, none of the rest even look close. But still with the complete lack of rain lately is was very concentrated raspberryness without the bland watery berries that we get with a really wet spring and summer.
We just counted 40 Asian pears on our tree, which is the most we’ve had since we cut the tree way back and started training it onto an espalier. Pear sauce canning ahead.
I beg to differ–depending on what part of the world you live. I’m in South Central PA and my mulberry (which is right next to my cherry trees) doesn’t have berries at the same time as the cherry. One cherry tree–nothing. The other had fruit that was barely turning red and when I checked it again (2 days later) every single cherry was gone. Damned birds. It’s bad enough they’re waking me up at 4:45 every morning, but now they’ve eaten EVERY SINGLE CHERRY.
Well, the 'ol plum tree is doing better than I hoped. I’ve picked 2 dozen Santa Rosa plums so far, and I think I’ve got about a dozen left. I would have had more, but we had a freak wind storm over the weekend that knocked a few dozen onto the ground. They all cracked open, too.
I do compromise these days, though, and pick about 3 days before optimal so the critters don’t get them all. I let them sit on the shelf to ripen. Gone are the days when I could wait until they ripened on the tree before I picked them…
Ditto on the mulberries. It’s always a fun crapshoot - most are slightly sweet, some are mouth-puckeringly tart, and every so often you get one that’s a tiny fruity sugar bomb. Heaven.
Here we are at the end of August, and lo and behold today while mowing,as I pushed a branch peach tree branch aside ,a bright red peach prostrated itself at my feet.
Not having any cream in the fridge, and being all sweaty from mowing, I ate it apple style right there.
And it was gooooood Sweet Juicy and very peechy.
Sweet Juicy and very peechy.