Back Yard Produce

We live in a house on a pretty big lot. The bulk of our yard is in the back, which is the way I like it.

As I mentioned before, I’m not a gardener. However, I do have a plethora of fruit trees and shrubs growing in my yard, the bulk of which were there when we moved in. Every year, I watch the trees and shrubs flower, bear fruit, and go dormant. I also watch the fruit die a slow death on the vines or get eaten by the birds.

I have three apple trees – one Granny Smith and two Jonathans. I have a pear tree that faithfully produces fruit annually. I have a big raspberry bush and grape vines growing along my back fence. So much homegrown produce that has always gone to waste. This year, I’m determined to harvest my fruit, and pack it away in some form for the winter months.

I searched online and found out how and when to harvest my pears. Up until now, I always thought they would ripen on the tree, but as I waited for that to happen, the squirrels always got to them first. These annoying little animals take one bite out of the fruit and drop it on the ground where it gets sour and begins to smell. Instead, what I’m told to do is to pick them once they change from green to gold. Then I need to store them in a cool environment (probably my basement) and let them ripen there. I think this needs to happen soon.

My plan then is to make pear butter (which will be wonderful Christmas presents), make and freeze some pear tarts, and can the remaining pears for use during the rest of the year.

The raspberries have caused me great angst. I planted the bush when we moved into this house 17 years ago, and the bush has never produced great amounts of raspberries. My suspicion is that it doesn’t get enough water. So it has always produced some tiny berries, which mostly were eaten by the birds. This year, however, it produced a pretty good crop. I picked them and made them into raspberry jam.

The grape vines, I noticed recently, are heavy with green grapes, which will eventually turn purple. I’m not ambitious enough to make wine, but I think I will try to pick them this year and make grape jelly. Making grape jelly is not the easiest thing in the world to do. You have to first cook the grapes, and then strain the juice to separate it from the grape skins. The jelly comes from the grape juice. It’s much easier, frankly, to go to the grocery store and buy organic grape juice from which to make jelly. But, as I said, I’m determined this year to make full use of my fruit.

Finally, the apples. Sigh. So, so many apples. I try to talk my grandkids into picking them up from the ground, where they fall and eventually sour. The grandkids are not particularly interested, though this year I may try to bribe them with cold, hard cash.

I will make applesauce, apple crisp, apple pies, and beg people to take bags of apples to do the same. Have you ever tried to give away homegrown apples? It’s worse than zucchini! The worms, don’t ya know.

Anyway, I have good intentions. We’ll see how far those intentions get me this year.