Cherry tomatoes.
Yea! Six years . . . but you finally got some! We have a Shenandoah . . . . but no fruit yet. We see PawPaws in the wild around here . . . but they are rather crummy and little.
I bought my husband 2 new varieties - and this time I think I’ll plant them near the bank of the pond that is on our property. The ones I put in the field aren’t doing so well.
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Blackberries, I picked about 6 large ones.
Your artist brush will come in handy when it is time to cross pollinate pawpaw flowers.
My Shenandoah flowered since 2019 but I did not get the timing to cross pollinate flowers correctly (before they turned from female to male). I got a timing right this year. I got pollen from a generous forum member.
If your new trees are large trees, they may flowers sooner. Mine were not quite 2 ft trees when I bought them.
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If you put the new pawpaw plantings in an open field, get a grow tube. They are natural understory trees and benefit from shade before they get big.
If you want to advance fruiting time of your Shenandoah, take some scion and graft it to the mature wild pawpaws. You’ll often get fruit the year after grafting if you are only top working.
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not something i grew but bought a jar of honeyberry jam from a local farm stand. theyre grown 20 miles from me. was pretty good but still doesnt beat b. currant jam. id see a mix of the 2 being very good.
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Since writing last I opened a Hunt Russet apple: undamaged by insects and only 12 days after picking it offered 18 Brix, more juice than expected ('tho not as juicy as Bardsey or Claygate) and only hints of the tangerine & rose that command attention in some years. The remaining two samples will have to wait in order to find how Hunt Russet stores & morphs over time. Much encouraged.
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Enjoying Kieffer pears today and there are lots of them. They are very good this year. Some years I cannot tolerate Kieffer if they are to gritty. Typically at my location grit is not an issue. Had an old fashioned pear that came with the property that was very old and very gritty . That pear had to be removed when I did dirt work at the pond.
My son planted Charleston Gray watermelon sometime in July, I think mid-July. I told him it was too late but let him keep that and the other things he planted. We had a late frost this year. One frost so far, I think it was earlier this week. I doused that with the hose before sunrise just the same as I doused my other plants. Still, half the vine died. Today I picked it. WOW. I think it’s better than my Orangeglo was and this Charleston Gray doesn’t appear to be fully ripe yet.
Tomatoes, I still have lots of them.
maybe like some fruits, the frost sweetens them.
Maybe. It was nice and yellow on the bottom but the very middle of the flesh was a touch white. It was an ugly specimen, but tasty, and now that I’m thinking about it this may have even been planted in early August.
I’ll try to find space for this at the proper planting time. We got really lucky with the fall weather here. It was less than ideal for watermelon, but frost-free until well into October.
Charleston Grey home ripened is as good as watermelon gets.
I ate a Braeburn apple picked 9/18…been held at room temp.
Getting tasty. (Some in the fridge probably I can eat on at New Years).
And had a couple other apples.
Picked nasturtium leaves to go in salad.
We are due for frost in the next day or 2 so I made “herb pucks” for the freezer.
I cut all the tender fall greens from our walking onions. Then take most of a couple of 1- year parsley and some celery leaves. This year I also threw in all the nasturtium flowers I could find, garlic chives, thyme and some oregano leaves.
They all get thrown into the commercial grade food processor, with some cooking wine and verejus to help the chopping, until they are a green paste.
Then we portion it out into muffin tins, freeze and bag for the year.
Instant fresh herbs for soups and sauces!
Also picked the last of the fall red raspberries. They will be missed, but it was a great run.
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Chicago Hardy figs and hickory nuts…
The hickory nuts are a little work to get the nut meat out but I like them a lot… eat a few every day until I run out.
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I pulled two of my double okra rows today…
In the compost pile now… one was shading my greens patch some… and they looked about done anyway.
I do still have one double row left… and hoping to get more… but looking doubtful now.
I did manage to find a few pods today and had one more great side dish tonight… with a grilled rib eye.
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