I've been busy picking the fruit, and stewing, freezing, and chopping.
I've had to be quick to grab the low-hanging fruit. Because we're permaculturists, we let our sheep graze the established orchard. And two of the lambs in particular - Gabrielle and Sputnik - have learned that ripe organic plums are mighty tasty.
They reach up on their rear legs (I'll try to grab a photo of them doing it, but I'll have to be quick!) and grab the plums straight off the tree! And of course they prefer the best, ripest, sweetest fruit!
I'm lucky to be able to leave the fruit that isn't so good on the ground. Then I just let our chooks through, and then clean up the fruit sitting there. I remember how, when I was little and we had apricot trees, we had to spend hours picking up the ground fruit. With chickens, we don't have to - they do the work for us!
I don't have a preserving kit yet, but freezing the fruit in bags works just fine. Then in the middle of winter - when fruit is most expensive - I'd just grab a bag or two, and we'll be set.
It will be homemade crumbles, stews, pies - you name it!
Yes - happiness is home grown plums :-)
Have a lovely day!
6 comments:
This morning I ate the first figs from our tree. Mmmmm
Lucky you. My fruit trees are too small to be of much use yet. I will get pears off the neighbouring tree and some apples which are mostly only good for apple jelly. The rest I'll have to beg, buy or steal :)
I did score well with tomatoes this year which is good. And a friend gave me her water bath which has made things much easier.
viv
Hi Frogdancer - Our figs are still tiny, and are a while off yet. Wingatui is REALLY marginal for them, but last year we got a few. So did the birds ;-)
Hi Viv - You've done better than us with tomatoes then. Lots of flowers, but not many fruit yet. But in past years we seem to be very late wit our tomatoes here, for some reason. They really kick off in late February, and we're still collecting in June. Go figure.
I'm still waiting on being able to get a hot water bath etc. It takes so much time and money to get set up. Eventually we'll get there, but our next year is dedicated to landscaping and painting - big jobs that desperately need doing.
I'll keep an eye out for you if you like - they sometimes turn up for peanuts at the junk shops we visit.
viv
Yes, they look like greengage plums. Delish straight off of the tree. We lost one of our plums last year and had no fruit this year. So it looks like another trip to the nursery for another plum tree....
We've just planted some bare-root fruit trees and look forward to years of eating and preserving our own delicious fruit here! Regarding yellow plums, there was a variety I encountered in Washington (state) that was absolutely delicious.
Hopefully the neighbor's 54 sheep won't sneak under the fence like they did last year and try to eat up our garden! We worry more here that the coyotes may steal our ripe fruit as we're planning to keep the trees small (reasonable approach in desert climes). I'd rather they eat up our pocket gophers...
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