Fine looking pear!
.
.
I have a half dozen in the fridge picked 27 days ago that look nearly as good…and are soft and tasty (tho hard as rocks when I picked them).
3 Likes
They grow all over the trail up to the Pittsburgh Zoo. I kept stopping to munch them and had to catch up with the rest of the family! Definitely a good tasting berry.
1 Like
Shiitakes, grown on oak logs. It’s been very dry all summer so I was worried that the logs might have gotten too dry. But it’s been a little more humid (and cool) recently. The last 2 days have been solid rain. The logs came alive. The mushrooms are wet from the on-going rain.
14 Likes
If you ever have time do a thread on how you grew those. I’ve been dying to try shitake and portobello here. Just don’t have any experience with them. Mushrooms are pretty cheap in the store. Does the effort yield more than you spend.
@Robert – Cut white oak when the sap is starting to flow in spring, say March. Let logs sit for 1-2 weeks. Select sections 3-6" wide. Cut into 30-36" lengths for manageability.
Buy short pieces of dowel inoculated with shiitake. I’ve gotten best results with a “wide-ranging” variety rather than one that does better in cold or warmth. Drill holes into the logs in a diamond pattern spaced 4-6" apart. Pound the dowels into the holes. Cover the ends of the inserted dowels with wax. Stack the logs in a shady, humid spot. If weather is dry, sprinkle the logs with water. Wait a year.
The mushrooms will sprout spontaneously but can be assisted at intervals by soaking the logs for a day. Expect mushrooms 4-7 days after soaking.
The logs are very productive and the harvest lasts for 3-5 years.
3 Likes
I picked a soft Shenandoah pawpaw from the tree. I rinsed and weighed it (almost 1 pound), and then ate it. I can see what people are saying about it now that I’ve tried it. It is very mild. It actually tasted too sugary for me. There was no aroma to speak of to balance it out. My Sunflower pawpaw produced last year and I thought that was very good, better than the Shenandoah that I just had. My KSU-Atwood is bearing fruit but none are ready yet.
3 Likes
Rote Williams/ Red Bartlett
Some tomatoes. These seeds I got of a lady, she calls them Herzförmige Wintertomate, heartshaped wintertomato. Seems spot on for the shape, don’t know about the winter part…
The seeds for these I got from the same lady. Since I had a mixup with the seedlings, I don’t know the name.
The Williams was underripe at the top and already a little mealy at the bottom, but the taste was excellent. The heartshaped tomato were quite sweet, with exceptionally hard skin. Maybe this is the reason for the name, that they keep well?
The two colored tomato had more acid, but was still very tasty in a mixed salad.
9 Likes
They look like Japanese Black Trifele or perhaps Black Pear, which is very similar but slightly later (for me).
1 Like
Thanks for the tip, I’ll research these varieties. The names aren’t that important to me, I simply plan to save seeds from the tasty ones and not to bother about knowing what they are called. Nevertheless, it is always interesting to know what one has started with. I look forward to seeing which of the 5 varieties I planted this year stays in the mix and what gets tossed out.
How’s the apple crop this year up there?
1 Like
Today so far…goji berry ( 
), non-sterile European snowball bush fruit, Hicksii taxus fruits, autumn olive, chokeberry,…and dandelion and mustard and lambsquarter ready for the pot on the stove.
Annie . . . I second what Ahmad says . . . too much water - maybe too fast. The skin cannot expand quick enough to ‘contain’ the juicy water-filled flesh of the fruit. I have some of that happen to some of mine, too . . . depending on the weather. Even the pomegranates - with their thick rinds - split with too much water.
Italian beef, fried green tomatoes.
Grew the beef, peppers, onions and tomatoes.
I also ate an apple and a few grapes while walking around the orchard.
Those look great! I have six old logs that produced a few in spring and I think that may be it for them🥹. I do have buried maitake oak chunks that should be producing soon.
I got my mushroom fix last winter by growing lions main and grey oysters on sawdust bags. They worked great.
@Suemc – Try King Oyster. I grew it last winter in a bin of supplemented sawdust. It was incredibly productive. And it is delicious. And the stems are as good as, or better than, the caps – so you don’t have to worry about low CO2.
1 Like
My wife and I are vacationing in Florida this week.
My daughter is staying at our home and she texted me these pics just now.
6 Likes
I will try those!
I’m jealous of the okra. I have seeds from three varieties and never got a single pack out of storage for some reason. I’ve got some frozen from last year but may not be enough. For northerners (with Mid TN genetics) we really like our okra.
1 Like