The birds are going to be loving your place when they are ripe.
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True, but doubtful if they can eat and crap fast enough to eat them all!
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They will definitely try. They seem to also tell ALL their buddies about the free ripe fruit that is available. Or at least in my yard they seem to tell them all.
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Ahah
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I managed to pick enough to make a “mulberry upside down cake”
two different weeks last summer from a mature tree In a client’s yard. Just from standing and what I could reach. The tree probably had 10 gallon of fruit…I think that’s a conservative estimate…so the birds got plenty,…
and if you like to use fruit in baking, just wait until you have mulberry upside down cake!
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Sorry, don’t have a recipe. I start with a cake mix…such as yellow or white.
Sort of like I would a pineapple or peach upside down cake.
Add fruit to bottom of pan/bowl/glass or whatever you’re baking the cake in, add a little honey or sugar, and a little bit of water if the fruit aren’t freshly washed retaining a bit of water…and pour the batter in on the fruit mix. With pineapple I use a little brown sugar, but that would alter the flavor of mild fruit like mulberries or blueberries.
I like to cook when not too busy or tired…but I go from memory or instinct as to the exact recipe. Just as I do with a pot roast, soup, turkey dressing, apple pie or whatever.
Let the cake cool a bit and turn it upside down in a platter/plate. Or, cut a piece from the pan if it’s not being served to several people but just the cook.
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I haven’t ordered yet but based on the research I’ve done (most of it coming from you fine people here posting about your experiences) and the zone I’m in (4a), I think I’ve settled on:
Apple: Crimson Crisp
(or possibly a Whitney crab, still undecided)
Pear: Shinseki
Plum: Yakima
Grape: Somerset
Probably a couple of aronia
Maybe a few more raspberries and blueberries as well, though based on the damage those sustained this winter from rabbits I’m not sure I want to continue bothering with those.
Was hoping to add a Nanking cherry but Whiffletree (who I’ve had very good experience with) doesn’t have any this year.
Would love any feedback on those if people have it.
I’d love to add a lot more but I already have 10 trees and numerous other fruit bushes going, and 4 more would pretty much be all my yard could handle.
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I just placed an order from Grandpa’s Orchard with:
Peach: PF 9A-007 (to replace the tree from Stark Bro’s that died last year - not really their fault as I ordered it in June.)
Apple: Four Budagovsky 10 rootstock. I am going to experiment with them. I might do some in-arching on my “must have” trees on brittle Geneva roots.
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Sadly I had the flu for the Santa Clara Valley chapter CRFG scion exchange, which is usually the motherlode for me. As it turns out, plum bud mite was discovered so a lot of what I would have wanted wasn’t there. So I broke down and strained my credit card with an order from Raintree.
I bought ‘Kit Donnell’ peach and ‘Speckled Egg’ nectarine. I picked up a ‘Blue Hokkaido’ honeyberry on clearance from Harmony in Graton this summer and since I’ll get nowhere without a pollenizer, I picked up a ‘Blue Velvet’ from Raintree. I got a ‘Marshall’ strawberry as well because curiosity got the better of me.
Separately, I got a ‘Nordmann Seedless’ kumquat from Four Winds because there’s a minimum for buying rootstock and I didn’t have the patience to mess with citrus grafting right now.
I still need to find a good place to get old-fashioned ‘Green Newtown Pippin’ scionwood and I’m hoping to make other scion exchanges to get red-fleshed apples, tart-sweet cultivars, some ‘Nottingham’ medlar, ‘Rio Oso Gem’ peach and any tart-sweet apricots I can lay my hands on.
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For the cherry, have you looked at any of the ones out if western Canada? I have had good results with Carmine Jewel.
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Buy me a Cosmic Crisp from there 
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I saw that Raintree has Cosmic crisp. 
Tasted them from Costco and while it isn’t a complex flavor, it is delicious, juicy, and crisp.
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Yeah and they only ship to WA, I might end up flying there to get one 
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I found with aronia nero grew better than viking
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Mike,
Shinseiki pear’s cold hardiness is rated for zone 5-10. You are in 4a. You will need to find a Shinseiki on a very cold hardy rootstock, which may not be that common to find.
You may want to check Crimson Crisp’s zone hardiness, too. May not be good for zone 4.
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Hi Steve,
Yeah I currently have a Juliet cherry, which I’d heard good things about. It hasn’t done well it’s first year in the ground though, spent most of the summer dropping leaves and losing branches, probably transplant shock. It seemed to start perking up early fall, so I’m hoping this year it bounces back. However it did get ravaged by rabbits, about 2/3rd of the branches chewed off, plus quite a few buds. I stuck a cage around it last week, hopefully it’s not too far gone.
I’ll keep Carmine Jewel in mind for this year, thanks!
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Thanks Reg,
The nursery that I use (Whiffletree, which I’m very impressed with and is close to where I live) is only selling Viking this year, so I may give that a go and see how it does.
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In general they are tough plants. Even if viking is slower than nero u will get great harvests in a few years
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Update on the Cummins order: Their calculator for shipping went awry. I was over charged - twice. I wrote asking what was up & gave 'em 5 business days to reply & explain, if needed. Cummins got back (emails) & said the shipping component created problems. Since I’d been overcharged, they offered me three more root stocks (the order was small: just for 5) at the price already charged. Works for me.
Now I should learn some things about using Geneva 890 as a stock.
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