This morning, I visited with @BobVance at his home in southwestern Connecticut. It was nice he let me call on him at 8:00 AM on a Sunday!
He lives in a tory neighborhood of handsome houses built among rock walls and terraced ridges. It was a damp humid hazy lazy morning at his backyard orchard pitched on a south-facing slope.
Bob is using EVERY available square inch to farm his half-acre property. He has an astounding collection of edibles all over the place. The only exception: his wife requires he keep a tiny area of lawn mowed near the front door.
First we toured his mother of all cold-hardy mulberries collection and made a breakfast of our findings. My first Geraldi/Gerardi mulberries along with some strawberries! Very pleasant:
We sampled his Prelude raspberries as well. Yum:
Bob’s yard defies the Laws of Physics. He insists he only has half an acre, but as we toured row after row (after row… after row) of plantings, I swear we must have tramped across at least three (3) acres’ worth of land (at least that’s what it felt like).
Just a few quick highlights from memory: Bob has a beautiful speciman of the Contorted So jujube. He has the peach White River of Arkansas and it is LOADED with a full crop. His Prime Ark Freedom blackberry laughed off this past winter and continues to thrive on his property. Not bad for CT!
It was very nice of Bob to take time away from his Sunday morning to show me around. And it was nice to see that the Blushingstar and Moniqui scionwood I had previously sent him were growing happily at his place.
Bob commented he had recently been to Chinatown (in NYC) and had purchased some tropical lychees, longons, mangosteen, and rambutons. Upon my departure, he gave me a few of each to take in a goodie bag. He also gave me a few potted clumps of Newberry roots. Thanks, Bob!
We snapped a quick pic in front of his leafy Kokuso mulb to chronicle what a jolly time we had. See you next time, friend!