Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Harvest Time

Our cherry and pear trees are producing bumper crops this year; they seem to do especially well every other year, as if to say that producing heavily is so exhausting they need a year hiatus between stellar crops. They're both fairly old trees, so it's entirely possible, I guess.

With the cherries, we usually leave the crown of the tree to the birds and pick our cherries from the lower and middle branches. There's plenty to go around, although I'm not crazy about the purple splats the birds leave on everything within a one hundred foot radius of the tree.

Fortunately the pear and cherry trees don't ripen at the same time. It would be a full time job dealing with all that fruit. I still have pears we canned summer before last. We'll have to start pushing them on friends and relatives to make room for the new batch.

When the pears are ripe it's worth your life to walk under the tree. They get big enough to at least give you a decent concussion when they fall. Once they've fallen, we have to get out and pick them up immediately because Cooper's developed a taste for pears and will take a bite out of each one before choosing a favorite to race around the yard with. At least they don't have the same effect on him that banana has on Jake.

7 Comments:

At 7/11/06, 3:08 PM, Blogger Crystal said...

You know, while in Africa I saw such a great variety of fruit trees that I told Robi to consider looking for a faculty position in North Carolina or Georgia when the time comes, so that we can live on a farm and have lots and lots of fruit (and flowering) trees. ;-) My grandparents were from Arkansas and I remember visiting in the summers and eating fruits right off the tree. And of course granny would do the whole canning thing too. It was great!

Lily, I wasn't able to check blogs while overseas but I did notice that JB never commented on any of my posts, and when I checked I discovered her blog missing. What happened? That's so sad when bloggers disappear without warning anybody or saying goodbye. Btw, from August 13-17th Robi will be attending a conference in Victoria, BC and since I have nothing better to do I'm tagging along. Maybe I'll whip by Seattle or Vancouver if it's close enough because I've never been to Pacific Northwest, so drop me a line if you want to meet for drinks or something. As far as your new updated "About Me" section, I am sooooo looking for a career change because basically, 9-5 jobs kinda suck and I want to have the flexibility to travel more and live internationally. Since I'm in D.C. now I hope to try to get my foot in the door of an international aid organization, to be out in the field and working outdoors. While in Africa I thought about so so many things like that. I wasted my twenties not following my dreams, but now it's time to be true to myself.

 
At 7/11/06, 5:24 PM, Blogger Amy N. said...

Hey Crystal, welcome back! My grandparents had an orchard and a huge garden, too. I used to spend a lot of time with them in the summers and those are some of my best memories.

JB actually wrote a goodbye post explaining why she was quitting blogging, which was to pursue more real life opportunities, but I think it must have happened after you left. She ended up taking the blog down not long after the last post.

Your trip sounds amazing and like it couldn't have come at a better time for you personally. Good luck following your dreams! Not many people have the courage to.

I'll drop you a line about a possible meet-up.

 
At 7/14/06, 6:08 AM, Blogger Jade L Blackwater said...

Out here in PA we just had our special on "Cherries from the Pacific Northwest." It's a little strange to think they had to cross the US for us to enjoy them, but I'm glad they did - it was nice to have a little taste of Washington. Oooo... those peaches must be right on their heels!!!

 
At 7/14/06, 6:09 AM, Blogger Jade L Blackwater said...

PS - I miss JB too, she always had such great thoughts to share! I was sorry to see her go, but I know she's off doing wonderful things!

 
At 7/16/06, 1:23 AM, Blogger Amy N. said...

It's always a little strange to see local produce far from home. We found Red Delicious apples and Bartlett pears at a fruit stand in India, complete with the little "Grown in Washington" stickers. I'm not a fan of red apples, but we bought some anyway for a taste of home.

Mmmm, peaches. We've talked about a trip to Yakima to get some boxes for canning.

I miss JB, too.

 
At 7/16/06, 8:35 AM, Blogger Mridula said...

The cherries look delicious.

 
At 7/17/06, 9:13 AM, Blogger Amy N. said...

They are, but very few are making it into the house for later. We usually stand in the yard and eat them as we pick them. :D

 

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