busy fortnight: fruit tree assessment

All the harvest processing, all the canning, all the mess and exhaustion and time taken...

And there's still some yet to go - although the main processing is the early nectarine and early peaches.

Overall in the fruit harvest:

1. Dual Stone (white peach and white nectarine): very heavy crop, lost about a third of it to mould and possums. That's usual. The nectarines are sweet as ever. The peaches are *meh*. Nectarines harvested in the first couple of weeks of Nov. Peaches harvested in last couple of weeks of Nov.

Such a delicious nectarine!

2. Two Stone (golden peach and white nectarine): lost most of the nectarine to mould. Still harvesting the golden peaches. Nectarines harvested in second week of Nov. Golden peaches harvested last week in November through to early Dec.

3. Quad stone in backyard: nectarines were ready in 2nd week Nov, but mostly lost to possums and mould. Apricots in 3rd week Nov - only two harvested. Plums ripening early December and a solid crop, no fruit fly. Donut peaches won't be for a number of months yet.
4. Cherry: 4 cherries, ripened in last weeks of Nov. *sigh*

5. Apricot: 2 apricots, still ripening in late Nov.

6. Dual Plum: about 5-6 plums, mostly on the mariposa side (probably), no sign of fruit fly.

7. Donut peach: not expected to ripen until later in the season.

8. Back avo: a couple of avos, lots of leaves. Trimming it down now.

9. Four apple: a few apples on the left branch, ripening. One or two apples on the right branch, ripening. Tried a few that fell down early - floury. They'll go into an apple-rhubarb crumble.

10. Hedge apples: harvested a couple from the early graft, but rather floury right now. Might not be ready yet? Or fell off because not ready? Otherwise, they're all small and growing.

11. Gala-Braeburn: Braeburn graft still growing pretty well, no sign of fruit fly or codling moth (would have to cut open an apple to find out)

12. Blueberries: doing okay by the fence, but haven't harvested any yet (must go look at them)

13. Mango: has a few fruit, not sure if they'll survive any longer than this

And yesterday I harvested a bunch of carrots - thinned out one of the beds to make space for others. It's a pretty good rainbow from this mix.

Regarding the fruit trees, I'm going to massively trim them down this year. Front and back, both. They're just getting out of hand so far as overproducing fruit is going. Also, I really rather wish that they were spread out across the summer better. My bad for not getting early and late varieties, accidental or no.

nectarine nation

As problems go, over-abundance is a good one to have.
Doesn't mean I much like having this issue!

To the chooken go the spoils:

And the best become preserves thanks to Fowlers' Vacola:

While the rest are dried into fruit bits:

Then I get to do it all over again with the peaches!

*sigh*

I am going to trim all the trees in my yard down quite significantly in the coming year, I think. They've gotten a little bit out of hand in the last couple of seasons. Some of the boughs of the nectarine graft were breaking, and the rain meant a lot of the crop went mouldy, particularly because they weren't being picked every day.

stone harvest: worst time to be away

I didn't think when I booked a holiday away from home. I just thought 'ooh, it'll be nice to get away for a bit'.

As a result I am away during the when my early nectarine and peach trees are turning from ripe to overripe, and I am not there to harvest them.

I've done what I can, trimmed down branches and gifted them to neighbours, picked everything that's ripe and put it in the fridge, and frozen the ones that seem unlikely to last for later making jam...

Still, it's an abundance...and I am absent from it. I've invited friends to come around and do some picking, but I'm not sure they will. The sisters have promised to keep an eye on things, but they're limited by energy and location. And in four days, a lot of fruit fly can find their way into the fruit and wreck the latter half of the crop...not to mention any other crops that happen to be around at the time...

Next time, no holidays in November!

permabee: chook enclosure

Had a permabee on the weekend to enclose the 2nd chook yard, partly to give some protection against bush turkeys and swooping birds.

Not only got the enclosure (roof) completed, but also trimmed the overhanging branches, shredded the branches, raked up the leaves, dug out the mugwort tree, dragged over the fig tree for replanting, sieved the existing compost, and made a new compost!

I love permabees; opportunity to meet, chat, get to know people, work in concert with others, learn, and get shit done!

Now need to find some other members who'd like to get shit done at their place...