The Infamous LastPost

{{Gasp}} How can you have fruit trees and not use them to make yummy things??? Oh the shame... the agony!! (I wonder if you are allergic?) Oh, such fond memories of my own mature fruit trees... How could you??


I guess I will simply have try and entice you to try kumquats (and then tell me how they taste lol!)

Spoiler: Kumquat Refrigerator Pie Recipe

You can google kumquatgrowers if you want to look up some of those other recipes!

As for my lemon tree, it never actually has produced fruit yet. We bought it with a tangerine and orange tree in the same pot, but the others slowly died off. The only reason we know it is lemon is because an African friend saw it, crushed the leaves and sighed at all the happy childhood memories if produced of "back home."

 

The key is to buy a wreck of a house that makes you wonder why you bought it whilst doing it up! There were days when we were both ready to walk away, so glad we didn't now though as we have our country retreat surrounded by fields and trees.

 

My father has a big lemon tree (At beginning it was just a leaf). I remember when the tree was little and made no fruits. He took the tree to grafted it. After a period of time he brought the tree home. The tree had grown up and was beautiful. Since then it makes many flowers and lemons. My father grow other trees from the leaves of grafted one, and all have fruits. So probably you need to grafted your tree.

 

Hello all!!! Hope RL is treating you all well. I have skimmed through here but honestly don't have much of an idea of how anyone is doing. I'm sorry. I promise one day I will keep up again. (Probably after September when kids go back to school)

I'm still working 6 days a week. So my Sunday's after church consist of catching up on everything I slacked on during the rest of the week. I'm really looking forward to my mini vacation in a few weeks. 3 days of no work and just hanging out with family. Can't wait!!

 

Enjoy your mini break pepsishot; sounds like you deserve it!

 

I've not posted in here before but I thought I would pop in and say hello and maybe add a bit of what I'm up to. Farm life is busy at the moment but I'm winding down to the last of the summer crops that I have to deal with. Then I get a break until end of September when we plant the fall garden. When I say "I have to deal with" I'm mean that I personally have to can, freeze or make something out of. The garden in itself is already gone with the exception of okra as it's just to hot for anything else to grow. Since May I've canned tomatoes, green beans and black-eyed peas. I juiced and canned 17 quarts of grape, 9 quarts of blackberry and 13 quarts of dewberry juice that will all eventually be made into jelly. I should have had plums as well but we lost the entire crop to high winds during a couple of back to back storms. I've made 3 different kinds of pickles along with some pickled peppers. This is all standard for me this time of the year and it's a lot of work but I find it enjoyable and rewarding.

However the pears may do me in. We have had a bumper crop this year as we had tons of winter and spring rain. So for the last 3 weeks I've been doing nothing but pears, pears and more pears. I'm making pear butter with them which is an amazingly time consuming process. It's pretty much 5 days from tree to finished product and I can only do roughly a bushel at a time. So my kitchen has been turned completely upside down and I have pears in different stages of the process all over the place. It's starting to make me a bit insane and I'm even dreaming about them.

I sell my pickles, jams, jellies and salsa's weekly at a farmers market and if the pear butter was not such a huge money making hit I would just let the rest of them rot on the trees. Unfortunately to get the finished product I desire you have to have fresh fruit, so I can't just core and freeze pears for future use. I've got at least another two weeks of the endless pear parade before I'm done. I hope to be able to cling to my last bit of sanity until then.

 

You can make alcohol from that pear. It will be so tasty alcohol My grandfather was making before
I never drank that because I don't like that kind of alcohol but other people was saying is great.

 

LDCrow - I am in awe of your canning production! I have just started, in fear and trembling, with some fruit canning (figs and berries) got from farmer's markets. I do not have a garden this year, but hope to start one next spring. You are amazing!

 

Hi guys!! {{hugs all}}

I hope everyone enjoyed the gift and trade event! I noticed that it got kinda quiet overall on the forum for a bit... I wonder how many farmers were starting to feel the effects of G&T overload? (Trying to farm all while reading and replying to igms, sending thank yous, organizing more trades, repeat, repeat again...) I know I did lol! Was very happy that I finally figured out how to "Search for Offers" and made some trades (and even a few offers) this G&T! It was way too much fun lol! Even though I feel a bit like this: , inside I am - so happy and thankful.

@LDCrow ~ I used to have a pear tree and was going to suggest you freeze them (so much easier than canning!) But since you are selling your pear butter for profit, I will simply pray for your sanity - and that maybe that you can get some extra helpers or pots to help speed up the process.


I've never heard of dewberries before... they sound interesting. How do they taste?

@ Willow ~ good luck on your canning! When we moved, I gave almost all my canning stuff away to a friend with a huge garden. I also loved the Ball Blue book of Preserving that my mom bought me when I first started. As long as you follow the directions and keep your rims clean (and check for chips) you should do well! I'm sure LDCrow can offer some more seasoned advice as I only canned for 3 or so years before I switched to freezing everything. Let us know how things turn out!

@bygo_cris ~ I love the idea of grafting my lemon tree! The only problem is that the lemon tree is in a pot and cannot survive the winters outside. Even if I could graft it to a tree in Illinois once we move, we will still get snow in the winters which would kill it. (I could try grafting it to the large (maple?) tree in our yard, but I've never done that before, and not sure if the two trees would be compatible or not?) I think the reason it has never borne fruit is that it does not get enough sun year-round.


Hi pepsi! So good to see you! Do not worry about catching up! I know you have your hands full loving on family right now! Much strength and wisdom to you dear! {{big hugs}} I read somewhere that you needed drops for the event so will be sending some your way!


@ TC ~ thank you so much for those beaver pens! I very happily set them out last night!

Your house sounds lovely! How long did it take for you to remake your house into the retreat it is today?

 

You're most welcome CJAT - nice to know they have a home where they'll be appreciated instead of whenever I saw them! The house took just over a year to get it liveable in, just to prove how much of a wreck it was! We extended a little and turned some of the outbuildings into useful things - like a garage and stables. We still have a few outbuildings to convert, but that can wait for now whilst we enjoy being mini farmers!

 

I completed the event a couple of days ago. But thank you so much for the help with drops.

I'm jealous. You have figured out how to search offers. I have yet to actually know which side is what the person wants and which side is what they are giving you for it. Some reason my brain can't read the set up. I've completely given up even trying to look at the offers. I only make trades by making arrangements with someone ahead of time.

 

@CJAT What kind of lemon tree do you have? Does it actually bloom? If it's kept inside and blooms it's probably not setting fruit as it's not been pollinated. It may also be an ornamental tree and it will never bear fruit in that case. Citrus trees need to be about 5 years old before they will start to bear and then it's very small and not really eatable fruit. One of the many reasons citrus is so expensive and prices skyrocket when trees are damaged is it takes forever for them to replace them. If you want a fruit tree it's best to check out a local nursery and get something that will grow in your region. Some trees actually need a long dormancy with many hours of freeze time to be prosperous.

@Willow If you need any advice or questions answered feel free to ask. I'm a 4th generation canner in my family so I have a few tricks that have been passed down. Plus some of the ways they tell you to do things are completely unnecessary and in some cases detrimental to your finished product. For example I don't "hot water bath" anything and have absolutely no problems having my stuff seal. I do a combination of canning and freezing just depends on what it is, corn for example is much better frozen but green beans are better canned.
Now off to tackle the next bushel of pears that are waiting for me.

 

LDCrow - Thank you!

Previously, I have cooked the figs and then put them in sterilized jars, leaving the lids and rings boiling until needed. Is that what you would do? What about berry jam?

Corn is done by blanching, correct? I haven't tried that yet, but will probably do corn and beans when I put in a garden.
I really appreciate your willingness to share your wisdom. I want to get very good at this!

 

I prefer freezing over canning. I'm lazy like that! LOL

 

@Willow
Just right on your figs, keep the fruit itself hot as you jar it. I do one jar at a time and once I screw down the lid I tip it up to make sure the hot product touches the lid. I do this for all jams, jellies or pickles that I make.

I made some amazing fig jam this year that was fairly simple and it tastes like the inside of a fig newton. Normally I just use them in strawberry fig jam but I branched out this year as I had tons of figs.

What I do for sweet corn is cut it off the cob and then I blanch it in the microwave. 4 minutes on high, stir, another 4 minutes on high. Cool and bag in either freezer bags or cryovac (sp?) seal them if you have a foodsaver system. Much faster than blanching it first and then trying to cut it off the cob.

 

LDCrow is right about some things not needing the water bath. We don't use it on jellies/jams/preserves unless the jar doesn't seal itself. We do however use it with canning whole or cut up tomatoes as they are not really cooked when they go into the jar. The sugar content in jellies, etc. is a good preservative and the heat in the jelly makes the seal. Mom's trick is to put the lid and ring on, then turn the jar upside down for five minutes. After 5 minutes, turn the jar back upright and usually they will seal within 20 minutes. (Sometimes almost immediately!)

 

I don't can but my family did when I was growing up. Our job was to pull weeds, water, and harvest the garden as each variety was ready. Nothing better than fresh fruits and vegetables! My sister still does jams/jellies and my favorite is blackberry and I always hope there is a jar for me either under the Christmas tree or in my stocking.

 

I use a pressure cooker for stuff like this and my salsa. I've had some people tell me they can their salsa without cooking it but to me that is just asking for trouble or lots of spoiled product. I also make BBQ, pizza and spaghetti sauce (for personal use not for sale) but those are cooked such a long time that I just can them like I do jelly.

 

I will be printing out all this advice for future reference!

LDCrow - I had no idea you could blanch in the microwave! I will have to buy some corn and try it this weekend.

Thanks so much for all the advice everybody!

 

Just for you pepsi, and those out there who are completely confuzzled by BP's official trading system... At the bottom of each column is what I say to myself when looking at offers. (I can repost this later at the next Gift and Trade - or someone can right click it and select "Copy image" to post it elsewhere).

​

A lot of time I just looked at the right (purple) column to see if it was something I thought I might be willing to part with. If so, only then did I look at the left (blue) column to see if they were offering something I wanted! Disclaimer - The above photo was borrowed (screenshot and edited) from the photo in the Gift and Trade FAQ).


So many different canning strategies!! I love it! (And for some reason, I am getting slightly hungry!)

@LD ~ (What nickname works for you?) I think because the lemon tree came with 2 other citrus trees, that they were intended to cross pollinate with each other. It did blossom a few years back and I took a paintbrush to the blossoms to help it pollinate! (But it was so small that I took pity on it and afterwards pinched the blooms). It has never forgiven me...