June 1, 2013

Fruit! Berries, Cherries, and Kiwi to name a few...

As much as we love all kinds of vegetables and get excited when it is time to harvest something for the first time each season, for some reason, fruit steals the show every time. Oh- that reason is probably our sweet tooth. Or teeth, should I say, as the whole family- and most of our customers- seem to have this love affair with sugar.

We ate our first strawberries out of the field last night.  That is what got me (Anna) started on this fruit tangent. The strawberries were a little on the sour side, but that didn't bother the kids at all. Fruit is fruit. Although, to offer perspective, rhubarb (no, not a fruit),  is eaten straight out of the garden by our kids. They walk around gnawing on a stalk. Now that's sour.

This is not the row we ate from. These are new plantings that we will hopefully harvest in the fall.

Kiwi ready to flower

Vince tightens the wire that makes the kiwi trellis.
One fruit we are excited to harvest for the first time is kiwi. They have been growing up this trellis for the past three years and hopefully, with enough pollination, they will bear fruit this year.

See a June, 2011 post about the trellis.
We're working to increase the amount of fruit in our fields.  Our little orchard trees, while finally protected from the deer, won't bear fruit for a while yet. Berries are a little quicker.   This big bunch of blueberry plants has been prepped to be planted, but Vince is rethinking the space where he wanted to plant them.  While moist ground is good, it seems a little too wet and he is worried about lack of drainage from the area.  So they sit happily in their pots, waiting.
We can't wait for the cherries to ripen. Every day the kids check to see that they're still small, hard and green. And the minute they are big, soft and red we will have to fight the birds for them.  There was an Asian pear tree, two huge cherry trees and two plum trees near the house when we moved in. They were a bit out of control, so it has taken a few years of pruning to get them to where we might be able to reach some of the fruit.
The battle with the birds is not new to us. Here is a post related to netting this very tree.


2 comments:

  1. Will the cherries wait for Uncle Bull? that's his specialty ...

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    1. Uncle Bull hurry home! Obviously Julia will need some help reaching those "up-high" ones!

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