First cherries

Our front yard orchard was installed three springs ago, so this is the third summer for our fruit trees and bushes. We harvested our first cherries on June 20! These came off the North Star pie cherry tree, which is a tart variety and very hardy in our climate zone. It is also self-fertile, so it doesn't need a nearby partner to fruit.



The other day I noticed that birds were eating the cherries, so apparently my Wren defense system isn't fully armed yet. I did have some tree netting, and successfully draped over the tree, but I can now see that if the tree gets much bigger, this will be an impossible task.

We now have a small bowl of cherries, though honestly, I don't know what we're going to do with it. Not quite enough for a pie, to turn to eat on their own. Maybe a smoothie?

First fruit

Red Lake currants

Our Red Lake currants are red, beautiful, juicy, sweet and sour and are the first fruit to yeild from our front yard orchard (second if you count rhubarb as the first). The gooseberries are big and just starting to turn purple.

We won't have enough to do anything but eat them by the small handful, but I'm looking forward to future years of currant goodness.

Last weekend my niece Catherine and I went to Old World Wisconsin, where we sampled some black currants. Now there's an acquired taste. They would take a lot of sugar to make them palatable to me.

Chicken word of the day: cocotte: prostitute.

Gooseberries starting to ripen with just a tinge of purple.

Everbearing rhubarb.

Fruit forest installation a success!

On Saturday, April 27, 21 volunteers, Jay and I planted five fruit trees. You may wonder why it took 23 people to dig five holes. Actually  it took just one friendly neighbor to dig the holes (thanks Dave!)

But to make a wonderful home for this fruit forest, plus gather and store as much water as possible in the soil, we also created a water catchment and storage system. 

To the best of my calculations, we moved five tons of compost, plus 30# hay bales, buckets of wet coffee grounds and cardboard from countless boxes and dug three 30' swales across the yard.

Here are a few photos, and a time-lapse video of the installation day.

Before

Trees down

Roughly finished product

What a gang! Sorry Jay isn't in the picture, he was in the house preparing lunch.