Fruit trees in peoples' backyards

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35 replies · 8K views
DaveC426913 said:
Yes, I grew up with grapefruit spoons. I did not know they were specialized or rare.
Me either, but a 7 or 8 years old living in a rented 4-room dump in the '50's in a family of 6, perhaps I was impressionable. We didn't have much silverware that matched, and we drank our morning orange juice or milk out of jelly-jars, so the crates of citrus and the grapefruit spoons were kind of special. Most of the kids that I was friends with didn't have running water in their houses, just hand-pumps. We had running water, but bath-time was a chore. I was generally a lot dirtier than my sisters, and so got the last bath. Heating a tub-ful of water on a stove is not a fast process. My mother was a saint.
 
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zoobyshoe said:
I love grapefruit.

turbo-1 said:
Me too, and I never dump sugar on it.

Weird people.
 
Back to the topic. Does anybody plant fruit trees on their property? I have planted apple trees, a peach tree, cherry trees, and plum trees here. Not on the back yard, but right in the front where we can enjoy watching them blossom and fruit.

I have very old apple trees on my property, and some of the apples are practically inedible until they get hit with some hard frosts. Black Oxford apples (brown-purple skins) are well-known for this, but there are plenty of other old variants that are similar in this respect. As a kid, I used to comb the grown-over farms in my town for the very hard apples that would keep well in cold storage. In the next year or two I plan to get some Black Oxford seedlings and start them in addition to the other fruit trees. My cold cellar will keep those apples crisp all winter long.

This property is a work in progress.
 
I recently planeted some vines for blackberry and wineberry. Planted some strawberries last year (they flowered and came in lightly, were great). I have a cherry tree, two mulberry trees (mulberries are kinda bland though, frankly), two apple trees that won't produce any apples, along with a small vegetable garden.

I didn't appreciate any of this until last year. People are just not educated about it. If you think about it, these are things that may have been common[er] knowledge 50 years ago, but today kids grow up with no clue they can grow higher quality food than they can buy. It really needs to become a class offered in high schools--gardening. Otherwise, all their experience points to plastic wrap being the only way to get food, even without a conscious reason why.

I live in Ohio. Pawpaws grow everywhere. You can't go into the woods for 10 minutes without seeing them, if you know what to look for (which I do as of last year, again). They're similar to bananas in taste, supposedly. To me, they are more similar to banana flavored popsicles in taste, which I never liked much. They sure are good for making beer and tobasco sauce, though!

But some people like banana flavored popsicles. If you do, you'd LOVE pawpaws.
 
Also, I know a handful of people who actually appreciate free, great tasting fruit. They go around and ask people who aren't picking on their property if they can. Nice way to meet neighbors I'd imagine, plus they have a winter plus's supply of frozen apple cider.
 
This is odd to me. Anyone I know with fruit trees picks the fruit from them. I'm thinking about planting some myself, but have a lot of deer, so am not sure they'd survive the first season in my yard. I'd love to plant blueberry bushes too, but then I'd have to fight off deer and turkeys. I think I want to move onto a farm where I can harvest the deer and turkeys too.