soc_puppet | Feelin' Fresh and Fruity

Our backyard has a bit of a produce problem: There's too dang much of it! The secondary problem is that I can't possibly reach all of it to pick it, even if there were enough people to give it to.

Right now we've got two fruiting pear trees next to each other and a fruiting apple tree, as well as several fruiting pawpaw trees scattered around the yard. The apples are almost all either at the very top of the tree, where they're up too high for me to reach even if I had an apple-picker stick thing, or too close to the power lines for me to want to try hitting them off the tree. The pears are so plentiful that they've broken at least one branch, and it was a sturdy fucker, too. (Possibly it's broken because it was so sturdy, rather than being flexible, but I digress.) The pawpaws are at least fewer in number, but Mom is the real fan of those in the household, and she's in Texas staying with Grandma right now while Grandma recovers from being Quite Ill Indeed.

(These are not counting the two apple trees that are no longer fruiting, the apple tree that is fruiting but fruited earlier in the year and has since stopped, the peach tree that is no longer fruiting, the cherry tree that we largely let the birds and squirrels have their fill of rather than trying to fight them off, the Juneberry/serviceberry/saskatoon trees, or the random mulberry trees. ...We have a lot of fruity options, is what I'm saying.)

Then, last week, there was a banquet whose patrons specifically wanted local apples incorporated. I made an off-hand offer to my coworkers that if any of them wanted local apples, I would be happy to set them up! Also pears. This lead to me bringing in a sizeable box of produce to a meeting last Saturday for really anyone to partake of, and offering again on Monday to a coworker who hadn't made it to the meeting. Would she like some apples or perhaps pears? (Preferably pears, because the apples are harder to get to, but the rain has slowed down, so maybe a ladder is slightly less of a terrible idea...)

She would love some pears, actually! Her entire family adores pears! Especially more firm pears. Also, neither she nor another coworker have ever tried pawpaws, what are they like? (Banana crossed with mango with a few other tropical notes. Very interesting flavor for North America's largest native fruit!)

So right now, I've got a new box in my car for tomorrow, with upwards of two dozen pears, and probably at least seven pawpaws, five of which I'm fairly sure are ripe and two of which might need a few days. My car smells very fruity at the moment, and if the scent lasts more than a few days, I can't say I'd complain!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If you have fruit you can't pick, most places have gleaner programs for food banks. You tell them what you have, and they will harvest what you don't want for you.

One year we rented a house with a ton of fruit trees and grape vines. I was allergic to all of it and the housemates had picked what they wanted from the reachable areas. We had a hard time convincing them to take all of it which turned out to be about 150 pounds of apples and about 50 of grapes. The trees were really tall, but they had latters. It was fine.

Now there's a thought! And my dad has some connections to various food bank related organizations, too.

I'm sure the deer appreciate all of the fruit, but like. They can also appreciate slightly less of it. We can save a few dozen pears for the bees, too, and still have plenty for hungry people.

I hope it works out. :)

That is a LOT of fruit! Is there anyone in your neighborhood willing to pick on your behalf? Somebody with a ladder?

I'd have to check around! We've got a ladder, but it's very old and rickety; a new ladder has been on my wishlist for some time now. That said, the area around the base of the trees is a bit overgrown as well, for various reasons, but I'm sure we could figure something out.

Call me strange, but I kinda wish I lived nearer you. I'd take a pawpaw or two (I'm another who's never tried one, and they sound delicious) and a few apples, if they're the pie-baking kind. Alas!

Note to self: Find baking-suitable apples at the farmers market this weekend, then get a pie crust sorted out.

I swear, teleportation powers are number two on my list of most desired superpowers. I would hop to the top of the tree to pick a bunch of apples, then jump on over to deliver them to you! (IDK, my uncle described them as "good eating apples", but my parents think they're fine for baking. They're a little on the sweet side for baking, perhaps, but that means you can probably cut down on added sugar a bit, add a bit of lemon juice or something.)

Let me know if you want a recipe! I can probably wrangle something that's in volume instead of weight.

...with some fruit-starved folks to gather your lovely burden.

I'd also love to taste a pawpaw. Search led me to my local Reddit (who knew it could be so helpful?) and the Cambridge Tree Project, who sell a north-adapted pair for $105. Hmm, I wonder where I could plant those?

Do the local wildlife feast on overripe fruits, leading to drunken sprees? I once lived near a mulberry bush and the corvids were plastered.

We live in a fairly liberal area, and at least two or three of our neighbors have their own fruit trees, so I'm not entirely sure there will be any openings for Too Many Pears And Apples, but it won't hurt to check!

I can't say I've ever noticed a bunch of drunken deer (or possibly raccoons?), and I suspect that anything smaller that gets drunk is quickly caught by local predators (stray and outdoor cats (sigh), owls, hawks, the neighborhood fox, also raccoons, possibly coyotes). Bees, wasps, and other arthropods are nuts for fallen and overripe fruit, though. I've seen so many pears that have been essentially half-devoured by local stripey-stingy critters! I tend to walk very cautiously around those ones, LOL 😂

I forgot to mention! I have no idea how my dad got ours, but he did say that he's been deliberately cultivating them in our yard to attract zebra swallowtail butterflies, which lay their eggs on the leaves! (Pawpaw sphinx moths, which predictably use pawpaw trees for the same purpose, would be a happy bonus.) I can't say I remember seeing any in our yard, but I also can't say I've been spending a lot of time outside in the past fifteen-plus years, either 😅

Man, I miss having fruit trees so much! ;-;

I don't miss the days when Dad would want my brother and me to pick up all of the apples and pears that had fallen in the yard so he could mow! That was a pain and a half, no two ways about it. The fruit itself is pretty nice, though, when I can get it.

Lol, I do remember having to pick up little apples sometimes when I was a kid, though since it was all in the backyard eventually they just gave up on mowing it.

We had several apple trees, two types of plums, and amazing peaches. Also black raspberries, and amazing muscat grapes, which I basically never see available anywhere. I miss it so much!

Feelin' Fresh and Fruity

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I hope you can connect

Same here

Forgot about the pawpaws

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