We don't have many types of fruits in the garden, but what he have we take good care of what we have as without care, plants are giving nothing. Our main fruits are currants and raspberries, but we also have gooseberries and walnuts as well. Both fruits need annual good care, which means cutting out the old branches at the beginning of spring and organic fertilizer a few times during the season. The first is a must, the latter is optional but recommended if you want a healthy crop.
Currants are of three types at the moment, but only two are giving fruits.
We have red and white since I can remember. Those were the ones my grandparents always had and left them to us. They also had black, but for some unknown reason there is not one left. Back in those days food was rationed, you got 1kg of sugar for person, so there was no possibility of acquiring the necessary quantity of sugar to make jam or juice or wine.
Two years ago, during full pandemic, I bought two black currant stems as I know black currants are extremely healthy as contain a bunch or vitamins and antioxidants as well. I know you don't do anything with two stems, but it is enough to harvest some to have it raw. Eating raw fruits is the best option if you want to preserve all the good nutrients.
So after two years, this is how the black currants look like. We're going to have some fruits this year and if things go well, next year will be even better.
Currants usually don't need much care but cutting out the old branches at the beginning of the summer is a must. When the lockdown in 2020 began, we had no possibility to do it and it was the first time when we left the fruits in God's care so to speak. There was no other choice and even though there was no trimming, we got a good crop. However, if you neglect trimming repeatedly, you'll see less and less crop.
The vine is also looking good. Last year was a terrible year, we had no grapes at all so there was no harvest.
So far it looks like this year will be different, the frost period is over. However, the vine needs constant trimming too, otherwise you'll be growing leaves, instead of grapes. That is my job, I've learnt how to do it correctly over the years and my help is needed as it's a few days work.
This may not qualify as a fruit as we are consuming the elder flower and not the berry, but I'd like to show you the flowers. There's plenty in the garden and it'll be ready to be harvested in a few days.
We use the dried flowers for tea during the winter. The best thing about the elder flower is that needs no care at all. This is just growing and giving flowers and fruits.
Gooseberries are absolutely beautiful. These were planted four years ago and started to give fruits the second year. Now, after four years, the bushes are full of fruits. The gooseberry peel is full of pectin, which is the "glue" in any jam. I planned not to make any jam this year, but throwing away so much pectin is not acceptable, so I suppose I'll be making gooseberry jam.
Walnuts are also looking good. We may not have much, but it's ok as last year was a record quantity crop and we still have a lot.
So far we've had two walnut trees but now we have 3. This one is brand new, grown this year out of nothing. The truth is, whenever a walnut falls into the ground and finds a good soul, a new life can start and this was what's happened here. No one planted this nut tree, but if it is growing, we're going to make sure to be safe and grow.
Raspberries are also looking good. The flower period is over, the fruits are already visible and it looks like we're going to have plenty this year.
Most likely this year, instead of making jams, I'm going to switch to juice, or syrup as my larder is full of jams from earlier years. There's no point in stocking up more as what we have is plenty.
Now I'm going to cheat a little as what comes from here on is not ours. We went over to the neighbor's to see his garden and he has a lot of fruits. Cherry is one of them.
Looking at the photo you can see how delicious it already is, but still needs some time to ripe. The nice red color is not everything :)
He also has strawberries, which are still green. This is a mountain area and a bit colder than the other regions.
These will be big, delicious apples in a few months.
Plums are still tiny but growing. Will be ready in August. Maybe I'm going to update you later during summer. It tastes good though when ripe as last year I had the chance to taste it.
He's going to have a lot of pears this year, which is great as he's always giving us a bucket or two or pears.
You may wonder what on earth are those bottles doing on the tree. There's a good reason for that. Those bottles contain one pear each and are there for the pear to grow inside. At some point the fruit will be bigger than the entry of the bottle, this is why it needs to be placed early on the tree. Then when the pears are ripe, the bottle is filled with brandy. The whole idea is that the pear gives the brandy a very good flavor.
I tried it yesterday, it has a very nice flavor, but it's too strong for me.
So this is it for the moment, I'm going to be back in a month, to show you more as till then we're going to have some crops as well. Till then, stay healthy.
