My First Peach This Year

My first peach this year in a compact dwarf peach tree at Bluebird Gardens.

My First Peach This Year

As I was walking around my garden one morning, doing my usual visual inventory, I had to back track when I saw this peach. It was my first peach this year - maybe my only peach if the squirrels have anything to say about it - so I was pleasantly surprised and happy to see it. 

I kept the flowers on this tree frost free earlier this spring by covering it with one of my winter coats, not knowing if it would work or not. Not only was I happy to see that the extra effort worked, but I was pleased to see that the squirrels had not removed this fruit, at least not yet.

Several years ago, I had spotted a peach on another dwarf compact fruit tree and waited until the next morning to pick it. As I was heading out to get it, a squirrel hopped by, peach in mouth so I learned the hard way it's not a good thing to wait.

Usually local ripe peaches are available closer to August and September. Without any hesitation, I pulled this one off and took a bite. 

So good!

Charlotte

One of My Favorite Foods to Grow

Bluebird Gardens pears not quite ready for picking.

One of My Favorite Foods To Grow

If there is a favorite food I like to grow, it is bartlett pears. Not that I have been terribly successful.

I planted a semi-dwarf Stark Brother's tree in 1983 next to my driveway. The thought was once the tree was bearing fruit, I could sit on my deck and pick a pear off a nearby branch. No one said I had to expend a lot of energy to do so.

I used to dream about picking those pears but over the years, I almost forgot I even had the tree. After three decades of not blooming, or giving fruit, I had given up on ever having pears. 

In 2010, the tree had its first blooms, courtesy of wasps that had taken up residence in some of my birdhouses.

Since then, I have had pears every other year. I could have made jam but I enjoy them as they are, sometimes cut into a salad or as a desert fruit. If they are not quite ripe, I put them in a brown bag with an apple for a couple of days until they are soft to the touch.

Summers with record hot temperatures drive squirrels to eat the pears still green so this year I won't be picking any. There is always next year!

Charlotte

My One BIG Pear

My One BIG Pear

Once again, my 35-year old Stark Brother's Bartlett pear tree has given me a delicious token of what it is capable of growing.

Every other year, this semi-dwarf fruit tree gives me a pear. Just one. A beautiful, large fruit, enticing me to be patient and to dream of what I will get next year.

Long History

This tree was planted in 1983 close to my house deck. The idea was that one could walk up to the deck railing and pick one of my favorite fruits and eat it right there. Fast forward to 2010, when I frankly had forgotten about the tree because it didn't bloom for all of those years.

In 2010, wasps covered the white spring blooms in pollen, resulting in more than 250 fruit that fall. It was so exciting, I shipped fruit to family and friends and shared locally and still had fruit ripening in my garage well into winter.

The next year, the tree gave me only a handful of pears.

In 2012, the summer drought forced wildlife to eat the green pears as a food source. 

The following year, once again the tree gave me one very large pear.

In 2014, I had to beat my resident squirrels to the bounty but there was enough to share. Last year, I got one pear again, which meant this year should have been a year of bounty.

In 2016, we had another summer drought period with record hot temperatures in July and August. The tree was well-pollinated this spring by my bees and wasps but wildlife, once again, turned to the green fruit for a food source during the drought.

How to Ripen a Pear

This one pear is now in a small brown bag with an apple so it can ripen for a special treat. I check it every day or so, giving some thought about how I will enjoy it. There are some old-fashioned recipes on preparing pears, but having only one seems a bit of overkill.

My brother David loves poached pears. I do as well but not sure I won't just enjoy this special one fresh once it ripens.

Now the big question is, what will I get next year - more pears or another promise of one?

Charlotte

Winter Salad Tomatoes

I have the hardest time ripping up tomato plants out of my garden at the end of Missouri's growing season. Tomato plants are perennials in warmer climates so part of me wants to keep the plants growing. I do remove all the green tomatoes and place them in a brown bag with an apple to ripen. It may take several weeks but eventually the tomatoes do turn color.

Although they don't have the flavor of summer-ripened tomatoes, they taste better than most picked too early to ship to groceries. Because they are a little tart, I like to eat my bag-ripened tomatoes in a salad with the sweetness of sliced avocados.

Charlotte

Guavas

I was walking by the fruit display at a local grocery store when a Chinese man pointed at the pile of fruit. "Guavas," he said to no one in particular. In Brazil, I told him, we grew up with trees in our back yard with both white and pink "goiabas." We would eat them straight off the trees. Once in a while, the fruits would be collected for a jam-like concoction we would add to homemade biscuits. In China, this gentleman told me, they are much larger, more the size of a papaya.

There are 100 different species scattered around the world, although most trees can be found in Central and northern South America and related countries along the same equatorial zone. About the size of a lime, this small guava tastse like a cross between a pear and a strawberry, not too sweet but definitely a fruit.

According to one of my cookbooks, you can eat these with salt and pepper. Hawaiians like to dip sliced guavas in soy sauce and vinegar. I like to eat them as is; each has about 100 calories. They are rich in dietary fiber, vitamins A and C - one guava has four times the amount of vitamin C in an orange. Because they are a tropical fruit, they are usually available in December and January.

Have you tried a guava?

Charlotte

A Pomegranate a Day

A few years back, a friend at a grocery store said they couldn't sell pomegranates. Today, "pomegranate" can be found in almost everything from diet pills and energy drinks to hot teas.

Pomegranates were one of my mother's favorite "treats." Although you can use them a variety of ways, my mother loved hers just the way the fleshy seeds came out of the fruit.

Eve's Apple
Many scholars believe that the forbidden fruit in which Eve indulged in the Garden of Eden was actually a pomegranate, not an apple. The name "pomegranate" comes from Middle French "pomme garnete" and literally means "seeded apple". Pomegranates are also sometimes referred to as a Chinese apple.

Meaning of Pomegranates
This fruit originated in Iraq and Iran and is now cultivated in California and Arizona. During their 4000 year history, pomegranates have been symbols of prosperity, hope, and abundance. They are often used in wedding ceremonies, sometimes given as a gift, in the East.

Do you like pomegranates?

Charlotte

A Pomegranate a Day

A few years back, a friend at a grocery store said they couldn't sell pomegranates. Today, "pomegranate" can be found in almost everything from diet pills and energy drinks to hot teas. Pomegranates were one of my mother's favorite "treats." Although you can use them a variety of ways, my mother loved hers just the way the fleshy seeds came out of the fruit, although I have found a number of old recipes incorporating pomegranates into recipes.

Eve's Apple
Many scholars believe that the forbidden fruit in which Eve indulged in the Garden of Eden was actually a pomegranate, not an apple. The name "pomegranate" comes from Middle French "pomme garnete" and literally means "seeded apple." Pomegranates are also sometimes referred to as a Chinese apple.

Meaning of Pomegranates
This fruit originated in Iraq and Iran and is now cultivated in California and Arizona. During their 4000 year history, pomegranates have been symbols of prosperity, hope, and abundance. They are often used in wedding ceremonies, sometimes given as a gift, in the East.

Do you like pomegranates?

Charlotte

Star Fruit Brings Back Memories

We grew up in Brazil where star fruits are as common as apples are here.

We called them "carambolas."

I don't usually buy them. They are picked so green that by the time they show up in my midwest grocery store, they have color but no flavor.

This time, I couldn't resist.

This Star Fruit had the faint sunny flavor of my childhood summers.

Charlotte

Wild Strawberry Greens, Too

Deer eating my strawberry plants suggested I was missing another source of salad greens.

Sure enough, wild strawberries are edible and their young leaves make a nice addition to a spring salad.

My patch of wild strawberries has expanded on its own over the years.  It's a perfect spot to cut young wild strawberry leaves because it's not exposed to any chemicals.

Charlotte

The Beauty of Fresh Blueberries

Blueberries are one of the top 10 super foods, full of antioxidants and vitamins and fun to eat just as they are.

Add a sprig of fresh spearmint to add a little color. Quick dish to add to holiday scrambled eggs or as a quick desert.

Someday I hope to be picking blueberries from my own garden!

Charlotte

Cantaloupes, A Taste of Spring

Cantaloupes are like tomatoes in my book. I don't buy them out of season because they have little flavor and are often too green to even be salvaged in a fruit salad.

Mid-spring in Missouri, we start to get Arkansas-grown cantaloupes - they're bigger than the winter ones, with a lighter peel, sometimes with blemishes - but they're juicy and delicious.

To fix a cantaloupe, cut it in half and remove seeds. Keep dish towels handy to sop up the juice. Cut into quarters, then remove peel down to orange. I then cut them into smaller quarters and cut the quarters into bite-size pieces.

My Mom used to add salt to her cantaloupe but I eat mine without salt.

Delicious for breakfast or a fruit treat at any meal. Store covered in refrigerator.

Charlotte

Homegrown Pears

I had my last homegrown pear for dessert earlier tonight.

It's quite a feat when I think about it. I don't use any sprays, chemicals or insecticides.

Squirrels help themselves to some earlier mid-summer but there still seems to be enough to go around.

Some of the fruit has blemishes but they don't take away from the deliciousness of picking a pear and cutting it open, right there and then.

I store the extra fruit in baskets in my cool garage; the cool temperature helps extend my pear season into Missouri's mid-winter.

Good inspiration and reminder to plant fruit trees in spring!

Do you grow pears n your garden?

Charlotte