Fruit

[bjd]

We have 2 cherry trees in the garden -- the cherries are ripening really fast since the weather got warm this week. The blackbirds are having a good time too -- lots of not quite ripe cherries on the ground already! I planted a new, later variety 2 years ago because the trees are old, at least for cherry trees, and have lots of dead branches, so they will have to be removed within a few years.

[Deleted]

BJD,if you want to keep the birds off the trees,an interesting,fairly effective way of doing so is to tie small plastic grocery bags(don't know if you guys have the same wasteful kind that we have here) to the limbs of the trees. The rustling noise of the plastic is a great bird deterrent. My father used to put up cheap metal pie pans on the limbs,the glaring light that the sun made and the noise kept them at bay for awhile. But,bird brains they are not,they caught on after a while.

We are going to have a great year for figs! Lots and lots of little guys on all the trees. The harsh winter did not phase them one bit.

[bjd]

What people do here is hang old CDs on the branches, but it doesn't work too well after a few days. Yes, we still have those little bags in some places, but we have a lot of wind so I wouldn't put them on the trees. Besides, there are more than enough cherries for us as well as for the birds.

[Kimby]

There is orchard netting, which is almost invisible black netting (with 1 cm grid) that you drape over your fruit trees to keep the birds off. We use it to cover shrubs that the deer eat, but it's made for birds...

We use this stuff:
www.amazon.com/dp/B000HHSCXS/ref=asc_df_B000HHSCXS1121589?smid=A27BUQSY3E84IP&tag=nextag-tools-mp01-delta-20&linkCode=asn&creative=380341&creativeASIN=B000HHSCXS

Other products to look at on here:
www.nextag.com/fruit-tree-netting/shop-html

[bixaorellana]

The fruit truck went by earlier today. I've never bought from this vendor before since I get my produce at the market. But I thought of all the times I didn't buy something just because it was heavy. So, I got a pineapple (the vendor volunteered that this kind doesn't burn the mouth), some mangoes, and half a watermelon.

I cut up the watermelon, then used the rind to make bread & butter pickles.

Once I'd put the rind into jars, I had some of the pickling liquid left over. I just enjoyed a snack of watermelon cubes dressed with that liquid -- good!

[Kimby]

I used to be able to buy watermelon pickles in a jar, but can't find them anymore. Have you got a recipe you could share, bixa?

[bixaorellana]

Done!

anyportinastorm.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=recipes&thread=277&page=1

[Kimby]

thanks, bixa.
(now will you come over and MAKE them for me, please?)

[bixaorellana]

Making them is easy. The obnoxious part is prepping the rind.

[Kimby]

If I do the rind, will you make the pickles?

[Deleted]

Mangoes appear to be the principal fruit of my neighborhood. Most of them come from Pakistan. Silly, really. There is so much fruit grown on this continent.

[lola]

I like stolen fruit; this might be a legacy from my ancestor Eve. A few years ago in a village called Chaumussay I picked up an apple that had fallen from a tree onto a stone wall. Immediately, as if waiting at his window for just such a thing to happen, the owner of the tree dashed across the road and started to scold me in front of my husband and daughters. Luckily I was able to disarm him by apologizing profusely in terrible French. He ended by telling us we could have any of the tombées that we wanted. I love that word tombée.

I like windfalls, too. My favorite fruit dish ever was from the pear tree near our Chaumussay gite, picked from the ground amidst buzzing yellowjackets, bad spots cut out, peeled, sliced, and sautéed in butter with a little sugar.

A few days ago, as I was unlocking my bicycle from the supermarket rack, I exchanged pleasantries with a man who was locking his up. He showed me a pannier full of pears and told me about a tree up the hill where the owner didn't mind if you picked up the windfalls. I've since then gotten a couple of sacks full of the mostly hard Bartletts and plan to make most of them into pear-ginger preserves.
find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001120295&rcp=1

I've bought 100 ml of Poire Williams to jazz the recipe up, and the first double batch is resting now.

[lola]

I found the first batch of preserves by that recipe to be too heavy on the lemon rind bitterness, a little marmaladey for many peoples' money.

My second double batch today used lemon juice and pulp, and grated zest. Cooking it fills the house with gingery warm smell. I'm going back tomorrow and get some of the half rotten ones that are riper. Future batches might lack the pricey Poire Williams.

[Deleted]

Fruit is the most likely thing to spoil at my place, so I buy it sparingly. Threw away some grapes yesterday, and I think I might have 4 kiwis that are going mushy (must check!).

[Deleted]

While I am up her in the Northeast I am going to go and buy some of the fabulous apples,so many varieties that grow up here. We never see, (fresh that is) nor, can we grow apples South of the MDL.
I may be inspired to make a crumble or a pie.

[joanne28]

During the week I normally eat 3 or 4 different fruits a day. This because I bring my lunch to work 95% of the time. It's the way I can control what I eat.

I love fresh berries of all kinds, citrus (particularly grapefruit) and pineapple. I do like apples and bananas but I do not eat melon of any kind. I prep melon for my husband as he adores melon. We also normally have grapes in the house.

[mich64]

My husband eats at least 3 fruit a day, I, unfortunately, eat perhaps one a week! I do not enjoy many fruit. However, there is not a vegetable I do not eat or would not try. I probably eat at least 3 vegetables a day. ;D

[Deleted]

I'm with you, Mich. I far prefer vegetables to fruits.

[tod2]

I thought I had tasted a decent cherry until I went to Alberta Canada in August this year - Holy cow! I don't recall where exactly they grew but every single one in the bag was perfect, huge, and sweetly delicious. We ate cherries for breakfast lunch and dinner and I miss them terribly...

[hwinpp]

The best cherries I've ever had were in Turkey. They were as large as small apricots, dark red, juicy and very sweet. Have never seen them anywhere else again.

[Deleted]

I am constantly annoyed at this time of year to see that just about every single fresh fruit except for oranges/clementines or apples comes from halfway around the world.

[Kimby]

And many of those countries providing our winter fruits have lax standards on pesticides, etc., besides the added fuel costs of transporting the fruit, so you can't even enjoy them with a clean conscience.

[Deleted]

I bought bananas today and realised that I had not bought any for more than a year. I always used to buy bananas for my mother, and then I would eat one or two of hers, but I never had any at home. When she died, I just stopped buying them, along with a few other items that I bought just for her. And they were sort of erased from my mind, even though I see them every time I go to the store.

I hope I eat these before they go bad.

[bixaorellana]

Eat them! They're very good for you and certainly easy to peel. I have a friend who got such bad charley horses at night that they'd wake her up. She started eating a banana a day and it took care of the problem.

www.foodmatters.com/article/25-powerful-reasons-to-eat-bananas

www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/271157.php

[cheerypeabrain]

I have three blueberry bushes bought on a whim a few years ago. They have cropped really well over the last 3 years. Enough for muffins, jam, freezing, and a really wonderful blueberry vodka that I make most years. I have some festering away in a dark cupboard ready for me to strain off the blueberries atm (the strained fruit makes astonishingly good ice cream topping but don't drive afterwards)

[bixaorellana]

Oooo ~ insane yumminess! My mother got a recipe years ago and started making something called "boozy fruit", I guess a variation on what you strain from the vodka.

[bjd]

Although bananas are not my favourite fruit, after reading the link Bixa posted I just bought a bunch of bananas at the market. I see they help with both osteoporosis and cramps.

Some years ago my mother's hands began shaking. A nutritionist told her to eat a banana a day and ever since her hands have been fine. I think it may have been a lack of potassium.

I bought some strawberries on Saturday but it's that time of year when there are not so many good fruit to choose from. The citrus fruit are finishing, as are the apples and the summer fruit is not ready.

[rikita]

i don't really like bananas, except sometimes grilled with cheese or frozen and purreed with cocoa (as ice cream) or very occasionally when they are still not too ripe ... they are practical as a take-along food though (as long as they don't get crushed in the back pack ...

[tod2]

[quote author="@bi I have a friend who got such bad charley horses at night

Please explain the horses Bixa - are they what I and others call 'the fidgets' or medically known as 'Restless legs'?

[bixaorellana]

Tod, a charley horse is a severe muscle cramp. I guess it's not a universal term!
www.healthline.com/health/charley-horse#overview1