nothing like good ol’ beaked hazels! i have a half doz. bushes on the property that gives us enough to eat for the winter.
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Saw the first stink bug of the season trying to get into the house
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Nice Hazels. I always thought the wild ones were smaller but those look like they are pretty big. Have fun eating them with the kids.
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Last evening I found four windfall apples under Connell Red. This tree had been an afterthought graft in '17 on what amounts to an interstem of D’Arcy Spice, standing on Budagovsky 118, planted 2010 or '11. Connell was the last of the six trees to bloom in this yard & its first time. I allowed 20 fruits to develop, covering them with orchard socks. All the windfalls had codling moth escape holes in them. Largest one measured 3 3/16 x 3 3/4" wide at 15 Brix. Seeds already browning & surprisingly little starch to my taste.
I’ll leave the rest on the tree for at least a month to see what happens. In their native Minnesota they are late ripening and keep at least all winter. Maybe conditions here will bump harvest earlier than expected. And this was an unusually wet and less hot summer: rain every 7 to 14 days & only 13 days of 90° or more for the season.
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One of my favorite things about growing fruit is taking a lot of it to my elderly mother (and father) who lives a couple hours away. She doesn’t really use a lot of fruit herself, but she gets so much joy out of giving some to all her friends and neighbors and our relatives! I think older people just value things a lot more, and to her its a really big deal to get a bunch of free fruit and she thinks everyone she gives it to is extremely grateful (I’m sure they are to a degree, but maybe not as much as she thinks). Anyway, this weekend I took her a whole car full and she just called to tell me how much she has enjoyed having my dad drive her around to give some of it to everyone she knows. Seems like a very small thing I can do for her considering all they have done for me !
Here is a photo of what I took. I even shined up some of the apples! 
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Thats awesome
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Wow!!! And yes we older people will just love to get things from our kids…just to know they care about us and then being able to say “My son grew this!” is priceless in our eyes!!
You’re a great son, Kevin! And the fruit is beautiful too!
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What a nice thing to say! And yes, I must admit she does in fact tell everyone she gives some to that her son grew them and she loves to brag and loves it even more when those she gives them to call her back and say how good they were and how they can’t believe her son grew them and so on. haha. I didn’t give her grand kids and my parents don[t need money so there isn’t much I can do for them. If a few boxes of peaches and apples bring my mom that much joy, then its all the more reason to grow them! Sounds like you have some experience with having kids do things that make you proud and happy!
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My first pepino melon tastes great! Like a mild cantaloupe melon! I love it! 
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you are a good man Kevin! i do the same. not just with produce, but other things. i caught a whole bunch of chain pickerel, fishing last summer. most people find them too bony to bother with. i brought about 40 of them to a low income elderly housing complex my grandmother lives at. left them on ice in a cooler in front of the mail room with a ’ free fish ’ sign on it. came back the next day to get the cooler. it was washed and filled with all kinds of homemade goodies with thank you notes from them! when they found out who i was through my grandmother, she suddenly became pretty popular there. she has all kinds of neighbors watching out for her and giving her a hand. i love those old folks! many of them survived the depression and appreciate everything they get.
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Steve, that is one of the best stories ever told here, and I understand and appreciate it more than anyone. I honestly do tend to be a mostly optimistic person and generally believe there is still a lot of good people in the world and many of them still do a lot of good things for others they may or may not know. Overall I tend to think that mankind is better than we sometimes think. I love that my neighbor sells his produce on the honor system and has almost never had anyone steal his money or produce. I love that people on this website go to great lengths to help each other even though they get nothing in return. I love that there is a man in Maine who leaves free fish for elderly strangers. I also love hearing that those strangers appreciated the gesture and showed it by cleaning the cooler and putting some goodies in it. I donate the vast majority of my own fruit to the Senior Citizen Center here in my small town, and I can’t tell you how often someone makes me a cobbler, cake, jelly, etc as a thank-you. I love those old folks just like you said about the ones at your grandmother’s complex. And what you said about how they appreciate getting free things
because they have struggled and survived hard times in the past is soooooo true. My own parents are in their 80’s and both grew up very poor. Fortunately they had great financial success later in life and now have more than they can ever use. Yet my mom washes and reuses zip-lock bags, aluminum foil and will often tear paper towels in half so as to not waste a WHOLE paper towel when only a 1/2 is needed!!! haha It drives my sister and I crazy but the truth is that they grew up poor and did survive hard times and have never gotten over that. As a result, just like you said, they now appreciate everything they get. It kills me to see my parents doing things like saving rubber bands from the Sunday Paper to reuse them and other completely crazy things, but they are in their mid-80’s and grew up poor and just can’t spend money without feeling guilty, even though they couldn’t spend what they have if they lived to be 150. My point is, and it sounds like you understand, people who grew up in hard times really appreciate some free apples (or fish, or whatever) in a way most other people just don’t. I give a lot of my fruit to younger families I know who truly ARE struggling financially and almost NEED some free fruit, but I can tell they just don’t appreciate in ways my parents and your grandmother do. Oh well…that’s my rambling observation of attitudes toward free fruit based on generation and upbringing!
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Bon voyage!!! Don’t forget to down a Bloody Mary before napping!!!
Tony
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Even your walking shoes are classy.
Have a safe and peaceful flight.
Bon Voyage.
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Bubbles will do.
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lol
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What is so odd about washing and reusing ziplocks? Then put them in the freezer so they don’t get pukey inside. The things your parents do are just common sense, and they are all done in this home. Nothing crazy about them.
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thanks Kevin for your kind words. its helps that i came from a poor family as well so i know the struggles. we had a big garden. sold what we didn’t eat. foraged for wild fruit and nuts. wore my cousins hand me downs and worked potato harvest to buy my school clothes for the year. ate a lot of mac and cheese with tuna and pb and j sandwiches. it humbles you and sensitizes you to others needs. i raised my kids the same way and they are just as giving to others. my son would always go see my grandmother when he was in town to see if she needed anything and spend time with her. I’m glad he had time to get to know her before she passed. they don’t make them like that anymore.
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