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Friday, April 23, 2010

Friday Photo Shoot Out: Trees

In honor of Earth Day (Every day should be Earth Day. The earth defines days.), this week's shootout is Trees. I was home on vacation yesterday, puttering around, getting the vegetable garden in order, so I decided to give you a tour of the trees right here in the yard.
Mushy yellow plums. You must have to pick these on just the right day, not too early, not too late. I've never been able to figure out what day it is. Fortunately, one of my friends likes them.
The really old cherry. It always has lots of flowers but very little fruit.
The golden delicious apple. Goldens off the tree, not too ripe, are in fact delicious. I've always hated the mushy, tasteless lies from the store. This is my number-one apple producer, the Canada not giving many, and the two red apple trees being still quite small, and I'm still working my way through the dried apple slices I made over the summer & fall.
To it's right, the cherry that ripens later.
Bizzy bizzy bizzy.
This one gives yellow, tear-drop shaped plums. Not my favorites. And there's that rhubarb leaping up again. You'd never know I dug half of it up last season.
Don't know what kind of fruit this one gives, though the flowers look like apples. Again! How about a pear tree...?
Some kind of plum. With cats.This apple gives nice tart red ones. No idea what they're called, but at the market many of the apple names are not the same as those in the States anyway.
Here they come...
Another plum, and the cherry that ripens earlier. I can't tell the difference between the cherries except that one peaks about two weeks after the other. Which is nice! I think they're both Burlats, the large, ruby-toned eating cherries very popular here. They make excellent jam, too.
The Canada Grey apple. Love those apples.
Here we are preparing for the next apple crop.
A mirabelle plum. I trimmed off a lot of dead branches in the fall, but there are more. This tree has a thing about putting out a great many tiny branches, but few major ones.
What's left of the apricot, after losing the major branch last fall. Apricots will be precious this year!
The wild plum, always happy to shoot up again, no matter how much I hack at it to make it stop scraping against the house and the shed in the wind. These too you need to pick on the right day. Too soon and they're too tart; too late and they're tasteless.
With all these fruit trees, plus the blueberries and blackberries I pick in the surrounding hills every year, I try to never buy fruit. Though I always do! The yard is way too heavy on plums, with nary a pear or peach. And sometimes I just must have pineapple, or tangerines.
I'm trying to eat from the vegetable patch, too. Still working on the tomato sauce from last season! Peas and green beans I try to keep up with while they're small & tender. A long row of sweet corn is just in, though the seeds are a little old. The potatos didn't come up - perhaps they spent just a little too long in the sack in the basement and had nothing left when I finally got them in the ground three weeks ago. Onions go in soon, and I'll think about salad greens. The herb patch is doing fine.
Only one tree at the front of the house. I've carved out a tunnel to get from the driveway to the front door. Not that I ever use either one, preferring the gate next to the mailbox and the kitchen entry.
I seem to have missed two trees - a plum that gives the kind of fruit you make prunes out of, and the tree way in the back corner that appears to be a hazel, though it doesn't make worthwhile nuts. Darn! I adore hazelnuts!
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So there are my trees for Earth Day. To visit other Shooter, click here!
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15 comments:

gigi said...

Love the bees and the flowering trees, beautiful!

Suburban Girl said...

The photo of the bee is a great addition. Need them for our trees for sure.

Barry said...

Thanks for the tour of your beautiful garden, so rich in fruit trees. Strangely I don't know the Canada Grey Apple. I'm pretty sure it's neither grown nor sold here in Ontario.

Sort of like Canadian Bacon, you can't buy that here either.

Do they sell French Fries in France?

Did I somehow drift off the topic of trees? That happens when were talking food.

Anonymous said...

Wow with all that talk about fruit I am hungry for some. Have none at our present home, but sure did have them in our property when I was a young girl. It was a yearly thing to pick for jams and jellies and preserves. Great job on this theme. I enjoyed it.
QMM

shabby girl said...

Wow! That's a lot of trees in your yard! We only have the one peach tree, but I adore going outside & picking a piece of fruit right off the tree.

Cindy said...

What an orchard! Your summers must be positively radiant with all that homegrown produce! I am very jealous indeed!

Pauline said...

How fortunate you are to have so many fruit trees in your back yard. We only have one young apple tree that grows between my house and my son's and the grandkids always beat me to it. Also loved the trees in the first photo of your previous post!

GingerV said...

those red tarts - apple butter (can't think of anything that would taste better on French country breads.
4 pounds apples - peeled, cored and sliced (about 12 cups)
2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup water (I use p=bottled so no chlorine taste)
2 tbs cider vinegar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 (pinch) tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp gound numeg

place apples in slow cooker / stir in all other ingredients / cover / cook on high 5-6 hours / stir / cool at least 1 hour or cover and chill overnight. / ladle apple butter into 1/2 pint storage or freezer container / store 3 weeks in reftig or for 1 yr in Freezer (i put in the freezer so don't have to eat every day for 3 weeks - I use smaller containers enough for busquits for breakfast for two several days. keep in freezer till I want again.... lucky girl all these fruit trees.
the one that don't fruit well - do they require a male? and bees?
great post.

Kerry said...

Fruit trees galore! If I lived down the street from you I'd take that rhubarb off your hands. In fact maybe this weekend I'll make a rhubarb pie, yeah.

Chef E said...

Beautiful Nanu! I love the hammock under the tree with your kitty too...

Jama said...

You have so many fruit trees around your house!

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

Natalie know it is brand new, there is not one stain, I hope a fruit will not drop on it.

The bee must have flown home to spread the news that it is now a famous blog star.

Unknown said...

how nice to have all that fresh fruit off the tree year round. lucky you! golden delicious is my favorite apple. lovely area you live in.

Kerry said...

Hey Nan, I appreciated your comment on monoculture and responded to it with a comment of my own. Should have thought to say it to begin with, but didn't. (I don't know if most people read my text half the time anyway, so maybe it doesn't matter.)

Argent said...

What a wealth of lovely trees! Thanks for that. I can almost taste those cherries...mmmm.