It looks like we are going to have a lot of fruit this year, probably because of the dry spring – the flowers didn’t get washed off the trees by the rain this year.
The plum trees are laden with tiny plums, including the row of plum suckers that we put in a few years ago not expecting them to fruit much if at all.
The two cherries in the gardens have some fruit for the first time, and we planted half a dozen more cherries each of the last 2 winters. Cherries are so good, and easy to sun dry for the winter, we should plant more trees this winter.
The raspberries that we transplanted into a bed in Sophie’s garden are covered in flowers. I wonder if we can take cuttings from them this autumn to make another bed. Raspberries must be one of my favourites.
And of course, the grapes are appearing on the vines now, as they grow, and strawberry flowers are starting to appear.
There are also plenty of other fruits appearing, nectarines, peaches, figs, apple and pear blossom, goji berries, cranberries, russian olives, loquats…. and I am bound to have forgotten some. Each year we get more fruit and more of the new ones come on stream for us. We must get a solar drier made, to make winter stores of all of this abundance.
CIDER
Author – A Proulx
New, revised and updated edition. Lots of information for the cider maker (includes vinegars and brandy).
