The Produce of My Estates (and other yard matters)

[hrj]

The quince tree that I planted last year has offered up three nice large quinces. I was waiting for them to inform me that they were ripe with that heavenly quince-smell that the little ornamental ones always got, but instead one decided to fall off and another started developing a little brown spot, so clearly it was harvest time. They have now been peeled and cored and are simmering away in water to cover in my mini-crockpot. The end product will be jelly or jam.

One of the two medlar trees that I planted just this spring has offered up three fruits. (I never expect much in the first year, so no fault to the one that didn't fruit.) Medlars are an entirely new experience for me and I know that at some point I'll need to pick them and "blet" them. But I don't know what picking-readiness looks like.

The swiss chard is doing it's second crop. For some reason, the two chard crops are separated by an obligatory aphid season when the plants look like they're going to curl up and die. The leeks are ready to start harvesting, though none of them are the enormous inch-thick ones you get in the stores. Tomatoes are still coming along, though not as plentiful as earlier. And I finally have one (1) eggplant ripening (out of three plants). Also a second bitter melon which I think I'll pick and play with tomorrow because it's the same size the other one got to when it suddenly decided to ripen. I have one tiny little regular melon (possibly the "nutmeg melon", in which case this may not be an abnormally small size). I've been digging up and drying the shallots so I can re-use those beds. They aren't as large as store shallots and I'm not sure that I did more than double or triple the original number of bulbs, but they were reasonably successful. I planted a larger variety of onions this year, seeds, seedlings, and sets. The bunching/spring onions are doing ok and the regular yellow and red (misc. varieties) are supplying all my needs. In theory I have some garlic in there somewhere but I haven't worked out if any of it did well yet. (I have a map of where everything got planted, in theory.)

The strawberries and most of the cane-berries are busy putting out runners and setting themselves up for good productivity next year. I'm keeping up with stringing up the canes and thinning out some of the excess enthusiasm.

Last weekend I trimmed the flower stalks off all the lavender in the parking strip and saved some for sachets. Also trimmed back the trailing rosemary. I definitely made the right call for what to plant in an unirrigated parking strip. Need to add more mulch/bark around them since it suffers from foot-traffic-related attrition. But all in all, much better than the weed farm it started as. I also got out the long-handled chainsaw and took off half a dozen old palm fronds which are slowly being chopped up for the green bin. Had a guy stop by and knock on the door after seeing the clusters of ripening palm fruits and ask if he could come back some time and harvest them. Since my experiments last year at processing them for food indicated a very low product:labor ratio, I told him he was quite welcome as long as he took them before they started dropping all over the place. (He wants them to start palm seedlings. My experience suggests that there's a sweet spot where the trees are mature enough to fruit but still short enough to be able to harvest easily. So it may not be as odd as it seems for someone to keep an eye peeled for the opportunity.)

All in all, I'm happy with this year's experiments, even if the only produce in some cases was knowledge. Next year I'm going to try the cucurbitaceae out in full sun (and not mixed in with the tomatoes). There's no reason why I shouldn't be drowning in zucchini like all the stories promise.

Comments

[hudebnik.livejournal.com]

You got fruit in the second year?  Our two quince trees produced leaves the first year, a few fruits the size of a thumbnail the second year, and a bunch of smallish worm-eaten fruit the third year.  This is the fourth year, and although almost every fruit has some worm damage, the fruit are big enough and numerous enough that, for the first time, we have enough salvageable flesh to cook.  I spent an hour last night putting cooked fruit through the chinois, and perhaps tonight will add honey and cook it down.  And there are still some good-looking fruit on the trees.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

No insect damage, though I have that problem with my apple (the mature tree that I got with the property -- neither of the newly-planted apples have fruited yet). Processing the full-size quinces is definitely more efficient than what I used to go through with the ornamentals (most of which were about the size of a ping-pong ball -- but oh so fragrant).