I just wanted to share with you a bit more of my excitement over my pawpaw trees. To do that, I couldn’t really think of anything better than to show you some of the videos I watched before making my decision to buy a pair.
Doesn’t this make you want to grow some Pawpaws too? If you didn’t see my first post, you can read it here for more information that I have found while researching this amazing North American native tree.
Tags: pawpaw
I had the pleasure this morning to come home to a Burpee package containing my most recent order, 4 varieties of blueberries, and… wait for it… Pawpaws!
I’m so excited!!! These are American pawpaws (I imagine asimina triloba, but the catalog didn’t specify) not papayas.
The pawpaw in America bears a fruit that is often described as tasting like banana custard and has been called ‘the poor man’s banana’. Back in the day they just couldn’t ship things as fast as they can now, so bananas were an exotic luxury while the pawpaw grew in many of the early colonies. In fact, it was even cultivated by some North American tribes as a food source long before the first European settlers arrived.
Another fun fact I learned while investigating this strange sounding fruit is that it is the largest fruit native to North America, and as such it isn’t pollinated in the same manner as the majority of the crops in this region today. You see, before European settlers brought bees here with them, most flowers were pollinated by beetles and flies. For this reason, the pawpaw tree is designed to produce flowers that attract their natural pollinators. Since bees have largely taken over this job over the past few centuries, you can help your pawpaw get a better pollination rate by hanging a piece of meat on one of the branches when the flowers are in bloom to attract flies — or you can pollinate the flowers manually with a small paintbrush. Everything I’ve read suggests planting at least two trees for cross pollination.
I will end my first post about pawpaws with a picture of my new saplings, but I look forward to sharing more of my pawpaw adventures with anyone who might be interested.
Tags: pawpaw
Well, it’s almost spring and it’s time to start planting those cabbages and broccoli if you haven’t already gotten them started! For any avid gardener, this can be the roughest part of the year. With Spring looming just around the corner, it is hard to resist starting those frost sensitive tomatoes, beans, and other garden delights. Be patient, though, and consider some interesting alternatives to satisfy your itchy green thumb.
About a month ago I decided to look on ebay to see if I couldn’t find a goji berry plant for my home office. I found seller who offered plants of varying growths and decided on one that was three years old. Goji berries are a powerhouse in the whole health food movement currently, but they have been highly valued for their nutritional and anti-oxidant properties for thousands of years. After a month I’ve already got two small berries growing. (I manually pollinated the flowers with my fingertip to see if I could stimulate growth.) The biggest difference I see is just how much the greenery changes the atmosphere in the room. It’s nice to have a plant growing nearby and I like to observe how it slowly changes as it grows, following the light as it crosses the window.
Since we’ve already started the seeds for the cabbage and broccoli, there isn’t much left to do with those plants but wait. For someone with a gardening itch, that just won’t do. Surprisingly enough, I found myself digging up some of the excess bulbs from the flowerbed in the front of the house and relocating them to a spot in the backyard. Sure, it was something to do and the spreading flowers were becoming cramped, but the real reason I did it was to get a little more color into the backyard for Tara. We always get so excited about our garden and the things we will be able to eat freshly picked from the vines, but for the most part we’ve viewed our lawn as a burdensome plot with required maintenance but no real gift of joy. We’re not kids anymore and while our kids do enjoy playing on the grass, the most fun we have always seems to stem from the garden. I figured this year I would try to brighten it up a bit. Me of all people, buying flower bulbs…. who would have thought it would come to this. Yet, there I was after work standing in line at the checkout with bulbs in hand. It wasn’t enough to move some of our existing flowers, no… this year would have to be special!
Tara tried to convince me tonight, after we’d braved the cold rain to get the flowers planted, that it was still technically gardening. It was a hard sell. “Haven’t you ever heard of flower gardening?” she’d asked. The only thing that came to mind were the edible flowers from Willy Wonka. Still, I am sure we will be just as excited to see the new colors as they start to grow and bloom.
How about you, what have you got going on during these cooler months before gardening goes into full swing?
We decided this year that we wanted to heavily mulch our garden area with leaves over the winter. Our trees are all too small to give us any substantial amount of leaves, so we are left to get them from other sources. Brady mentioned this plan to his mom, and she has wonderfully brought us many loads of bagged leaves. Not just a few either. When we came home from the library yesterday there was a huge pile of leaves sitting in front of our garage. I was amazed. It honestly was more leaves than I thought we would be able to get. But that is not all… Today she brought us not one, but two, truck loads full of leaves. I lost count, but there are over 30 large bags full of leaves currently in our garden. Many of the leaves are from Brady’s grandmother’s house, but others are rescued from the curb of homes that have set them out for trash day. We have joked that we will have to start calling Grandma Brenda the Leaf Bandit, and perhaps give her a costume to match. What could be better than getting leaves that were headed to the trash and bringing them to us so that they can help us grow more wonderful veggies next summer? Not much, I think. Thank you, Grandma Brenda! While all of the leaves were in the backyard we moved them all into the garden this evening. The kids must have sensed that me and Brady were up to something, because shortly after we started, they all were out helping. Now they are anxious to get to empty all the bags so that they can play in the leaf piles. I am sure there will be plenty!
If you want to put a frown on my face, it’s as simple as bringing up the topic of growing your own fresh, organic peaches. Blast it all! I’ve planted three peach trees in my yard and they’ve all died. That’s three years of straight disappointment. Well, until this year that is.
Pettingill Fruits Fresh Peaches
While we weren’t able to get our own delicious peaches to grow successfully, Pettingill Fruits was there to save the day. We bought 100 pounds of delicious peaches this year and I am so glad we did. Tara slaved away day and night to preserve the fruit in time, and she really saved us from a huge batch of waste. You see, the thing about getting fruit that has been picked ripe is that it is incredibly juicy, usually larger than store-bought produce, and doesn’t last as long on the counter. So that 100 pounds of peaches had to be canned, dried, or frozen and Tara did it all.
Canned Peaches
This, of course, was just a sampling of all the preserves Tara made. She put together some peach jelly, spiced peaches, and peach pie filling. I imagine it will make for some delicious cobbler! The dried peach sliced were a huge hit with the little one. She kept calling them candy and any bag of them left within visibility was demolished in short order. I just couldn’t help but smile.
Sure, it would have been a bit better if we’d have gotten the peaches from our very own tree, but this was definitely the next best thing! I don’t think I could ever eat another Walmart peach, it would feel like I was soiling a fine memory. Fortunately, we can buy more next year and we have several months to savor the exquisite flavor of those delicious summer peaches thanks to all of Tara’s work. Thanks sweetie!
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