most of ours are on fence lines in full sun.
Perhaps you are thinking of the wild Sambucus pubens Scarlet Elder, which I remember finding all over the Seattle-Tacoma area, with red fruit.
In far eastern WA I sometimes find the Scarlet elder, but nearly always it is the much larger shrub - even tree - of blue berries (Sambucus corulea) & the smaller, rounder shrub with black fruit S. melanocarpa. My wildflower book is old, ©1963, so botanists may have changed names and categories.
Nearly half the apples have fallen from Claygate, showing signs I had not covered them early enough to repel codling moth mommas. Seeds already mid-hued brown and 16 Brix. Flavor recognizable but not fully ripened in that way, which still surprises me, since I usually pick what few this tree has made around October 10.
I heavily pruned it in '23 and this year is the first time it has set fruit all over, with several branches laid over by the weight of fruit. Looks like next season I must cover them early in spring and maybe expect to harvest October 1st.
Our First and Second Graders harvested some green Bramleys apples and made a pie. The Bramleys were just right for tartness!
I spotted several Granadas that had rather large areas of dark fungus. One had begun to split. So I cut them down. When I cut into them they were not far from being ripe. Iâd say one more month and the Granadas will be truly ready to pick. There was also a Hotuni Zigar that was starting to show some rot. So I cut that one off the tree too. All were rather tart. I know if they were left to ripen on the tree they would be much sweeter.
Itâs always so much fun to cut into the first poms to come off the tree - and see the shiny red arils.
Didnât get a pic, but I ate my first Chicago Hardy today. I had missed it until tonight while I was watering. It was amazing. Perhaps partly because we had rain the last few days outside and I forgot to water the greenhouse. Maybe the âdroughtâ concentrated flavor, but it was quite good. I like my Marseilles, though it doesnât look like itâll fruit this year. The neighborâs brown turkey is pretty good, though not as flavorful. Iâll still try to get a cutting since itâs pretty productive considering no protection. That said, I can see Chicago hardy is getting a special spot on the south side of the house.
Also ate some muscadines today that were pretty good. Unfortunately Iâve lost the name of both.
Those purple tomatoes are gorgeous!
@Melon , Those plums are good.
I have one Johns, the berries are tasty, I planted 2 cymes worth of seed this year.
Muscadines have been the snack of choice lately. Unfortunately I lost the variety names after planting 4-6 years ago. Whatever they are, they are common enough to have been found in either Loweâs or Walmart, I think Loweâs.
those look really cool.
How does the fruit taste? The feral autumn olive at my new house is quite astringent with only a few fruits having enough sweetness to balance.
The yellow ones look like Carlos. A pretty common variety. Should have a slight pineapple flavor.
Atleast twice a week a week we have a grew or raised here meal. Everything but the iron skillet, plate, redmond salt, cracked pepper corns, butter and sour cream was grew or raised here.
Beef cooking with tallow.
Pasture beef, steamed garden contender green beans, baked garden irish cobbler potato, sautéed garden white sweet spanish onion.
I bought an autum olive from BRN back in 2020. Planted it⊠for about 2 weeks⊠then found out they were not allowed in TN because they were extremely invasive here.
I also had a friend north of me that said he harvested timber off his land and autumn olive invaded that space and took over. He no longer has timber land. He has a forest of AO.
I dug mine up and disposed of it.
I was suprised that BRN could ship those to TN since our state has said NO to them.
TNHunter
Thanks for the tip! The name âCarlosâ sounds familiar, but Iâm not certain. They have a very slight flavor period. I much prefer the purples. The bronze arenât bad, they just arenât that good.
In that case maybe Tara. Pretty sure Iâve seen Lowes selling it in the past. I got rid of it for the reason you describe. Carlos is pretty good IMO.











