Last year all fruits were good. A little low on peaches, but besides that it was a nice year. I’m really a berry fan and was happy with production this year. They tasted as good as they look.
A typical daily harvest in July.
I was super busy last summer and took only a few photos. Chandler blueberries are always fantastic. It seems the berries get better and bigger each year.
As my grafting skills improve, it is awesome to have one tree with multiple fruits. Each branch is a different cultivar, peaches, nectarines, and pluots.
Drew, that tree looks so cool with different color flowers blooming at the same time. What peach cultivar is this? It has such showy flower and beautiful color
I use a steam juicer. It is an amazing tool. I was wondering how to work with them when my neighbor introduced me to this tool. It works magic with anything that the seed cannot be easily separated from the flesh.
I am a sucker for pigmented citrus. That is picture perfect. I planted Valentine pomelo in the ground last year and I plan to graft a couple of more varieties on existing citrus trees. I hear Tarocco doesn’t color up in our mild weather and CaraCara doesn’t sweeten up either, but will try Moro and Boukhobza.
Of course, all of this if I don’t run out of my savings (paying CCPP) or my lifetime before I get enough takes on my citrus grafts
Depends how long you run it and if you press it along the way. We’ve done both. I’ve had batches that we just used the juice to make jelly and some that we’ve really left on for a long time and pressed along the way. It doesn’t get all the pulp out but you can get quite a bit for a “jammy” jelly. The only easy way I’ve found to do a full jam is to simmer it in water and then put them in the blender when soft (I use the Vitamix) on the slowest setting. This speed is low enough to separate the seeds from the now loose flesh and then strain the seeds and stems. Way harder than the steam juicer. Especially for how many we had. I would guess from 1 bush we had over 50lbs.
It’s Indian Free. Although on the right, the pink flowers are from the Fantasia nectarine. Arctic Jay is on the left too, hard to see. Most of those flowers though are Indian Free. I do this for various reasons. I’m still experimenting. One reason to to have fruits ripen at different times. Another is I like to play around with crossing stone fruits, and this makes it easier for natural crosses. It also alows me to sample various cultivars to determine which I like best.
Btw your photos are awesome. Nice job!
It made me VERY enthusiastic about growing pawpaws. I don’t think it was the best pawpaw experience; my tree is a seedling of unknown heritage, it fruited without a pollinator, the tree has been pretty neglected and in a large pot for 12 or so years, and it’s in pretty deep shade. The fruit was small and not very sweet. The tree appeared to make a dozen or so fruits but by harvest, I only found 4 or 5. So I was able to eat them at varying levels of ripeness. I liked them throughout, but particularly when very ripe, brown and fragrant. It had such peculiar flavor, there was something almost bitter and burnt to it. I know that may not sound appealing, but it was really nice. I heard someone once describe some varieties as having a coffee flavor, and that’s probably a more charming description. I’m very excited for a future with pawpaws.
PawPaw is a native American fruit that should be grown more frequently…at least by homeowners.
(I mean, even the tree is as cute as a Virginia magnolia used in so many city landscapes).
I have numerous seedlings, many from the wild, and a few from known parents, but none of the patented varieties.
Definitely, there are differences in flavor among the asimina triloba species…one flavor being caramel that you seem to describe.
I’m also looking forward to my first pawpaw. I’m growing a bunch of seedlings and two grafted trees but all are pretty small still. The best in 2020 were probably my peaches, I still have a lot in the freezer.
