It’s fruit season here on the urban homestead! Our dwarf trees are loaded with fruit. Coming up next– apple butter, apricot syrup and peach preserves…..
Oh and the blueberries are ripening as fast as we can pick em. We picked over 1 lb – which is a lot of little fruit! YUM.
The June gloom seemed to delay our fruit from ripening. The apricots are 1/2 and 1/2 Though the apricot fruit is slightly green, we ended picking them anyways because, over the weekend, the temperature is supposed to spike into the 90’s and we don’t want the fruit to crack (some are already slightly cracked) Besides, there’s a pesky little squirrel!
What’s fruiting in on your homestead?
Do you spray your fruit trees with any organic spray to keep away harmful bugs? If so what do you use?
We just planted apple trees and peach trees last year.
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We have blueberries! Everyone said they wouldn’t grow here because of the acidty levels of the soil, but I made it happen! A little peat, a little chicken poo and TLC, and those shrubs are covered with berries! I consider this my first *real* homesteading success!
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Rasberries… mmmmmmmmmm. We transplanted the canes from a friend’s house in early Spring. I’m surprised they did so well.
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We have strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. We also have plums ripening this week. Now that the weather is finally hot, everything is starting to ripen at once. I even had one ripe blackberry!
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It’s BLACKBERRY TIME here in our kitchen garden. I picked a pound and a half on Saturday with more ready to pick today!
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I made a comment earlier this morning asking a question but don’t see it here. Not sure it went through.
I asked if you spray your fruit trees with any type of organic spray to deter harmful bugs. I just planted apple trees and peach trees last year and would like to deter organically any bugs that could harm the fruit or tree.
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That pesky little squirrel has about 6 cousins who have stripped my 5 peach trees of almost all their unripe fruit. They eat some down to the pit, but most are simply chewed slightly and, when they fall to the ground, are ruined for anything but the ants. I’ve about given up.
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We have figs coming in slowly, mmmm love them ripe in yogurt or mash them up for muffins, or jam. Those darn squirrels! We had them at the other house, several. They’d pick off all the avocados as soon as they were ripe! And the’d take a nibble of our Persimmons too. The bigger ones would take some tangerines as well…grrrr… Currently, we have a very young cat that makes her rounds at our new place and keeps the rodents, birds and squirrels in their place.
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Right now all we have is a little bit of citrus still hanging on. But, your fruit looks delicious.
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What’s fruiting? Well, some pesky critter ate up every single green cantaloupe or I’d probably have some by now. Tho they did leave a couple of watermelons. There are a few apples but not as many as we have some years. A surprise has been huckleberries. This is the first time I’ve tried growing them and they are growing into big bushy plants covered with berries. Some are starting to darken up now. There have been a handful of strawberries and raspberries. But next year we should have more.
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I don’t have fruit in my garden, but I have been picking mulberries from a tree in our church yard, and made some jam with them. Will be going back today to see if there are more that have ripened. Can’t beat the cost! Mary
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We have plum trees. The fruit, or what is left of it after the hail, is still small and green. Will not be ready for some time but that is Colorado for you.
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We have some gorgeous black raspberries and are starting to get blooms on our red raspberries. Also I have one lone fig after my toddler picked off all of the tiny figs i guess for fun. Our Watermelon patch is on it’s way to being full of Moon & stars Melons with tons of blooms showing up. Lastly we planted Old Melon an heirloom variety that has the most beautiful blooms and I can’t wait to see the fruit.
there are also quite a few fruit trees in our neighborhood that are left unpicked all summer so a little knock on the door and the owners are more than happy to have them picked rather than rot on their lawn.
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Last weekend my husband and I were working on a chicken coop and duck run in 111 degree weather. On a shade break we walked over to our little orchard and picked some apricots to eat. They were really hot from the sun and tasted like cobbler. It was amazing. My husband said THIS IS WHY WE HAVE THESE TREES, and thanked me for picking the tasty varieties rather than the standard ones. The cool thing was I didn’t have to heat up the house with the oven to have cobbler. I told the kids to run inside and get the whipped cream. We had a party under the tree and then the kids went swimming to wash/cool off. Such simple pleasures. (of course the whipped cream in the can was not home grown…)
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It’s always such a shock for me to visit your website and see all of the things that are “in season.” Right now, we have strawberries and rhubarb for fruit. In another couple of weeks, the raspberries and blueberries will be ripe, followed by peaches and plums (if we can find them, because they’re rare in Maine), melons (if they were started in a greenhouse and are a fast growing variety), and then, apples in the fall. We don’t have a lot of choices up here for fruit … but I guess the trade-off is that we have real maple syrup
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