A Bunch of Michigan Bananas

A.K.A. paw paws.


It's amazing how long these things take to ripen ... the paw paws were some of the first trees to flower, yet we won't be eating any fruit from them until October.

Gooseberries, anyone?

Our landlord has an affinity for unusual fruit, and he's planted lots of it over the years. Unfortunately, he's the only one who knows where half of it is. Recently we came across some gooseberry bushes that we hadn't been aware of—we've found four, though Christopher has mentioned a few more that have so far eluded us.

Either way, the bushes we know of are loaded with nice, fat gooseberries and the internets tell me that they should be ripe relatively soon. We're keeping an eye on them and we may make jam with them once they're ripe, since they have a lot of natural pectin. Other than that, we don't really know what to do with them.

Are any of you guys familiar with gooseberries? Got any good recipes to share?

Is "Strawberry Fields" too obvious for a title?

When we picked up our strawberry plant for 99¢ at Home Depot last summer, it was the saddest looking thing you've ever seen.


Now it's big and bushy and sending out runners all over the place. We got pretty many strawberries off of it last year despite its scrawniness, so I think we're set to have a decent harvest once again.

TIMBERRRR!

The volunteer black walnut that has been a pest to our adopted apple tree and nearby tomatoes is no more. This afternoon Meg, Steveo, and I took the first step towards reclaiming the area around our garden. As renters, a consistent obstacle we have to address is clearing out the neglect of former tenants. We're not sour about it because we know that it is giving us the opportunity to learn what to do and not do when we buy our own property.

As I mentioned in the last post, we want to learn how to care for fruit trees. The lucky adoptee we chose had a black walnut that was entirely too close.



As you can see, the tree wasn't all that big, but even at this size, it commanded a good deal of space well beyond its branches. I'll talk about the bennefits of the black walnut's toxicity in a bit, but first there was some fun to be had with sharp objects.


Steve started chopping!




I was chopping!




Meg was chopping! It was anarchy!




Side note: Black Walnut + Tap Root = A whole lot of whacking


The whole project took about half an hour and already the apple tree looks much happier. Now don't get me wrong, black walnuts are not all bad. However, where this one was located was doing more harm than good. If you do have some black walnuts that aren't too close to your garden they are actually quite beneficial. Just this past weekend on "You Bet Your Garden," Mike McGrath said that a good mixture of their leaves can be an effective suppressive mulch that will keep bamboo or other running plants from spreading all over the place.

Adopt a Tree

We have been given the opportunity to try something pretty cool at El Rancho. I don't know if Meg and I have ever mentioned the fruit trees on our property, but they are in abundance and in very poor condition. The owner of the house and land is very fond of trees and allows them to sprout wherever they may. We agree that the more trees the merrier, but our little orchard is in serious need of some TLC. What we are dealing with is crowding and years of neglected pruning. We want to have fruit-bearing trees at The Future House and avoiding what has happened here is high on our list of concerns. Our mission is to save not all of the trees, but start with one and maybe work from there.

Focusing on only one tree, when there are easily a dozen or more, makes the most sense for one very real reason, which is we have no idea what we are doing. Neither Meg or I have any experience with trees beyond climbing and respectful admiriation. We figured the best approach would be to spend this winter reading our asses off on tree care and then test our knowledge on one tree. This way if something goes terribly wrong the casualties will be minimal. The lucky test subject we adopted is an apple tree (we're not sure what kind) close to the chicken pen and garden.



What this photo shows is a few of the obstacles we must address. The first is the volunteer black walnut positioned between the apple tree and the chickens. The leaves and root system of black walnuts contain a toxin that is bad for apple trees. (A little side note, these toxins are also terrible for tomatoes. The roots of this tree extend to where we planted our tomatoes and it severly cut down our production.) So the first thing we have to do is cut down that damn walnut tree. The next thing we will have to address are the six to eight foot spikes in the middle of the tree. This type of fruit tree should look like a goblet (open in the center). We will have to be careful when we cut these out because we don't want to shock and kill the tree by removing too much at once.

The walnut can be cut down now, but we are going to hold off until early spring before we do any pruning. As these steps unfurl, we will be sure to keep you posted.

Cheers.

Way Down Yonder

...in the paw paw patch

It's paw paw season here at the ranch. Did you know that paw paws are the only tropical fruit to have survived the ice age in North America? Or that they're also our largest edible native fruit? Well now you do.

Paw paws grow in clusters, and since the fruit is quite heavy the trees sag under the weight. Between the branches touching the ground and the leaves already beginning to change, the trees look a bit ragged by the end of the season.


The tree on the right has had about enough.

Paw paws used to grow all over the place in the wild, but they're not very common anymore. A lot of people have probably never eaten one. I think they taste sort of like the blandest parts of a banana, an apple, and a mango all mushed together. Due to unfortunate circumstances, I can't smell a paw paw without thinking of a particularly filthy cat. However, most people who try paw paws really love them.


Kelly has enough paw paws to last through halftime.