07/27/2025
For years now I’ve been planting fruit trees and berry shrubs all over the property and this growing season it seems that most of all the plants have hit their stride.
Between the early/mid summer ripening species like mulberries,gooseberries,currants, raspberries, and blueberries not only have we had more than enough to eat our fill of fresh fruit every day, but we have struggled to find a time to properly harvest everything.
Growing fruit is certainly a learning journey and I dream of a demonstration garden that has dozens of varieties of all of these species for people to taste test and see at maturity.
Buying mature plants at a nursery is usually quite expensive and you may have to wait a handful of years for younger plants to start producing good yields. 
I’ve been fortunate enough to have enough space to really play around with and experiment with pretty much any variety I can get my hands on  which has been very educational.
Fo example, some berries like the currants seem to stay in good condition on the branches for weeks, allowing for a longer window to harvest, whereas the gooseberries I’ve worked with tend to rattle off the branches very easily once they hit peak ripeness.
Growing an abundance of fruit comes with a level of stress, along with the gratification and enjoyment. It can feel overwhelming at times to figure out how to properly preserve everything especially when you have a gobs of mulberries raining down on you every few days. Our property is also surrounded by decent cherries, and I estimate that in a couple years we will be nearly drowning in figs.
You can talk to people and learn from them, but experience to me has been the best teacher. How much fruit can you handle dealing with? When should you start extending your harvests to the community? When will I feel like I’ve grown enough? NEVER, I say!
Looking forward to mid/late summer where we’re expecting a bumper crop of elderberries and this fall for apples and pears. Not to mention the absolutely loaded autumn olive shrubs that I’ll have to beat the birds to!
