Yesterday I talked about most of the fruit in our orchard but there were a couple of trees not mentioned.
We have one apple tree. I don’t know what kind of apples these are but these are so sour, you absolutely cannot eat them. They make decent pies and I love adding cinnamon and sugar to them, cooking them down to serve with BBQ or for breakfast.
More than anything else, they’re good for entertainment value. The chickens will jump up and peck at them and they will do that for hours waiting for the apples to fall so they can eat them.
We have four or five pomegranate trees.
Some years, we have more pomegranates than we can possibly use. This year, we only have two trees that have fruit on them. We treat every tree exactly the same and in two instances, there are two trees right next to each other. One will produce and one won’t. It’s crazy.
The pomegranates are fascinating to grow. They make a fairly large beautiful red bloom and then bloom just changes shape and the entire bloom becomes the fruit. I love watching them grow.
For these, I mostly juice them and freeze the juice.
The most bizarre thing of all are the pear trees. I don’t have a clue how many pear trees we have. My guess is 8 or 9. Over the last few years, we’ve had three pear trees die. What gets me is that there’s an old hotel here that has an old pear tree. I know no one ever does anything for that tree and it is always loaded with pears. They’re small and the tree could use a little fertilizer and probably a lot of water but that amazes me that we couldn’t get our pears to do anything.
Pears were the first trees we planted when we moved here so these have been here 8 years. A year or so ago, we got one pear! This year, this one tree probably has close to 100 pears. Another tree has maybe a dozen.
I love pear pie and pear preserves so I hope I get enough pears to make a batch of pear preserves and one pie.
Laura Deaver says
Squirrels and birds usually get all of our pears. I just hope to get enough to make a pear cake.
Carolyn says
Maybe you should just ignore the pear trees, then they’ll give you lots of fruit so they will be noticed! Just a thought…although probably not a very good one! 🙂
Judy Laquidara says
That’s kinda what we did. We had expected them all to die so we’ve been pleasantly surprised.
Dottie says
It took FOREVER for our pear trees to produce (probably 8-9 years) back when we lived in WV. When they did, I canned a lot and made a lot of pear butter and pear jelly. SO very, very good. I definitely miss them.
Stephani in N. TX says
Love that you will have pears, a gazillion pears! I love them in coffee cake, also in salad with greens, pecans, blue cheese and poppy seed dressing. In Wichita Falls, I used to pass a deserted lot with a lilac shrub on it, completely untended that bloomed like crazy. I stopped many times just for a smell. I’ve seen giant rose bushes like that too, tall and full of roses, and we couldn’t grow one. I got spoiled in CA where even sticks in the ground would bloom.
Nelle Coursey says
I remember when I was a kid there was a pear tree on the farm across from us. Our cousin had it leased and finally bought it and we used to go up to the old house and get the pears. They were so juicy and sweet we ate way too many! Cleaned us out good. Another tree down the road was a mulberry and everyone knew when we had been to the mulberry tree! Our mouths and lips were bright blue and so were our hands!! That stuff had to wear, off it stains everything!
Judy Laquidara says
Yes, that’s exactly what happened. All my clothes were stained from mulberry juice!
Twyla says
My mother made a wonderful pear relish. And pear preserves for my brother.
Susan Nixon says
I wonder if pears just take longer to come to fruit? I’ve never been a pear fan, though strangely, I like pear juice!
Judy Laquidara says
I’ve always thought of pears as a late summer/early fall fruit but I don’t know.