California - Northern

[ChickNmamma]

My pluots are loaded - I picked a bunch this weekend and still have more to pick. Santa Rosa plums are to die for, but they are done now. Peaches are ripening now. I lost most of the fruit from my white nectarine due to that late rain we had - the fruit split, some were salvageable. Apples are starting to ripen, but not ready yet. Figs are set for the fall crop.

What are you doing with your pluots? Do they can or dry well? Mine is a Flavor Queen and still green on the outside - but there are so many this year I can't eat them all and I would hate for that wonderful flavor to just rot away.. have to preserve it somehow, even if by making fruit leather!

My peaches are just getting ripe, I just finished eating the last of the nectarines (not a good year on them like you said). I haven't checked my apples yet but I think they are late ripening ones. The pears are starting to look good though. I have a very small white fig that has fruit - I will be watching those..

Quote:
If you decide to get Pluots - read the tags. There are two types with very similar names. PluCots are colored more like plums and the ones I had tasted bitter like plum skins and got mushy. They were SUPPPOSED to taste more like Apricots - but that has not been my experience with them. My Pluots are green and orange and stay crunchy. When they are fully ripe they taste like candied apricots - only crunchy - right off the tree. If you can find some in the stores you can taste the difference and decide which one you like better. Can you guess which one I liked? Mine are not fully ripe yet but I have been eating them anyway.. they are still green on the outside with orange in the middle.. but YUM. And, of course - the chickens get to play keep away with the pit - they are not freestone so there is something left for them to eat.

We had pomegranates in the foothills behind Santa Barbara - put it somewhere it can become a large bushy short tree without blocking where you want to go, they are happier then. Since you can do cherries (I can't

ground does not drain properly) you can probably do poms easily.

Figs grow just about everywhere - but they do not like hard frosts as they have too much water in their branches and they freeze and split (even when they are dormant). They can also get huge - both tall AND wide - they have droopy branches that can take up a 20x20 space..easily - and 40 feet high.. just give them elbow room.

 

[liz9910]

Quote:
Yummy! What a pretty color!

 

[chicksnthestiks]

and this is completely off-topic from chickens, but I'm very excited to have my first apple harvest! i only planted my first trees a year & half ago, but two are already producing a few fruits -- two on the pink pearl tree, and NINE on the caville blanc -- and the pink pearls are RIPE!




just love the pink color inside -- and so tasty! (the chickens ate the cores)

Those are so pretty, are they tart at all?

 

[lawatt]

Those are so pretty, are they tart at all?

definitely tart (i can't stand overly sweet apples), with kind of a raspberry-ish taste too -- or maybe that was just the pink influencing me? they're a variety developed up on the north coast in an area i did some work years ago (Ettersburg, apple developed by Mr. Etter) -- so i HAD to get a tree going. i got mine at Harmony in Sebastopol, but here's some info on them:
http://www.treesofantiquity.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=99

 

[ronott1]

definitely tart (i can't stand overly sweet apples), with kind of a raspberry-ish taste too -- or maybe that was just the pink influencing me? they're a variety developed up on the north coast in an area i did some work years ago (Ettersburg, apple developed by Mr. Etter) -- so i HAD to get a tree going. i got mine at Harmony in Sebastopol, but here's some info on them:
http://www.treesofantiquity.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=99

Thank you for the link. I might plant one of those trees this January.

 

[AlpineButterfly]

My apple tree has too much fruit on it this year... it's breaking branches.

The pluot tree only had a few blossoms turn into fruit, and the squirrels got them before they were ready... like they do every year.

My white nectarine always has a hard time, although this year I managed to actually spray for peach leaf curl the requisite three times before it started getting leaves.

The volunteer avocado tree (literally... grew out of our compost right along the fence line) had a lot of fruit on it last year, but we severely pruned it this winter, because it was getting in the neighbor's gutters and was too tall to pick anything.

And I just planted the mandarin and the loquat, so they won't be producing for a little while yet.

 

[PetRock]

I was able to get the Pita Pintas to stay on the grass today so I took some pictures.

I have too many boys in this hatch. I have 5 boys and 4 girls. Unless this one turns into a Boy....



They are almost 7 weeks old and getting big!



For sure Girl!



I have to decide if this EO Marraduna Basque gets to be the main Breeding Rooster of if one of his brothers from the last hatch is the one. I will be able to keep three in Winters at the egg farm and it looks like I have 4 to choose from. One goes to Bayocum.

These are two pictures of the older Cockerel:

Nice looking birds!!! I'm so excited that I am finally getting some Pita Pinta eggs from Megan! I love black and white chickens!

 

[PetRock]

How many of you are going to the Heirloom Expo? I've been asked by someone to see if someone could video a seminar at the poultry show.

We are going to be there! DH is even coming this year!

 

[PetRock]

Hey Ron don't you think a flock composed solely of Pita Pintas, Mottled Javas, Delawares, Australorps SLWs and Lakenvelders would be stunning?

You could throw in a few white and black Langshans, too! Or how about some really nice barred rocks?!

 

[debs_flock]

If you are of the belief that meat grows on Styrofoam trays or you are anti-meat, don't look any further.



































Today I "processed" two birds. They weren't real big, but I'm cutting down on mouths to feed and mouths to crow. We only have two people to feed, so young and tender works for me. The two birds were hatched at the same time and were a Plymouth Rock and a Legbar. The dressed weights were within 1 3/4 ozs of each other, 2 3/4 pounds each. The PR seemed much more tender than the Legbar (firmness of the meat).

This is the part I found interesting...................the ahem..................manliness of the two birds, PR on the left, Legbar on the right.

And waste not, want not.............................makes the BEST broth. (and no, they weren't both one legged birds, those are just from the PR)