blueberries | Fort Pelham Farm

I walk the perimeter of the back forty a couple of times a day with the dogs. It’s far enough away from any distractions to make the walk enjoyable for me as well as them. One of our dogs, now elderly, is hard of hearing with bad eyesight and tends to wander in the road. There are usually only a handful of cars that pass the house on any given day but this way I don’t have to worry and he can spend quality time sniffing whatever dogs with dementia sniff.

I’m constantly amazed at the things that grow back there. Blackberries in abundance. I never really get to harvest many of them because there are also birds in abundance – fruit is a big food source for them and I take whatever is leftover.

Blueberries are everywhere around the edges of the mowing. There is one large bush in the open that I net every year and it gives me a good supply of berries to freeze. There is nothing like those wild blueberries in muffins on a cold, snowy morning in January I have to tell you. There are bushes all over but this particular bush I reserve for myself. It sometimes seems as if the birds are waiting when I go down to pick them thinking they’ll just help themselves while I pick. It’s a quiet interlude I look forward to every summer just to spend time in birdsong.

Then there is the pear tree. The lone survivor of a number of plantings on a long ago Father’s Day. This tree has come into its own in the past few years. It’s spectacular in bloom and there have been years where I thought all of the branches would break under the weight of the fruit. This, of all the “free” food that surrounds me, stresses me the most. There is SO much of it. Pears are picky about when they are harvested and ripened and the frost freeze cycle of the end of season can mess you up in the timing of it all. Did I mention there is SO much of it? The past few years there have been enough pears to fill the bucket of the tractor three times over. That’s a LOT of pears folks. I can them, I eat them, I give a lot away. I even used them as place markers on my Thanksgiving table with over 40 guests. There is not enough creativity in the world to deal with this kind of harvest. Hmmmm, pear cider . . .

Being surrounded by the bounty of nature (and perhaps the forethought of many now gone) is really a wonderful thing. In the past couple of years that is how I’ve begun to think about the food I grow. There is always the huge vegetable garden but I planted asparagus last year knowing full well that I would not be eating any of it until the third year. The glory in it is the bed can be good for over thirty years. It’s nice to know that someone will be eating that lovely vegetable in 2040 because I planted it. To me THAT is food security even if it’s only for three weeks out of the year.

The rain has stopped – for now. In doing my morning walk about I noticed how well the fruit on the property was doing. The blueberry bushes are loaded this year, last year I didn’t get a single berry. It warmed up to abnormal temperatures in February 1012. A week or more of 70’s and 80’s fooled every early flowering plant, tree and shrub into thinking spring had arrived early. The temperature then dropped to below freezing (where it should be that time of year) and froze every blossom on the fruiting trees and shrubs. It also completely messed up our sugaring season. In 2011 we made well over 100 gallons of maple syrup, in 2012 maybe 30. Our pear tree had 3 pears, the deer ate two and my sister picked the last one.

Losing your entire fruit crop is distressing in many ways. You’ve already made plans for what you are going to put up based on previous years and suddenly you realize there will not be any fruit of any kind. This year the pear tree is loaded once again and I’m making plans for what to do with the hundreds that will be available (barring any extreme weather event from now until frost). I often wonder about people who plant 5 or 6 of a kind of fruit tree. This one tree, in a good year, produces enough for a few families to eat fresh and preserve. I find that at times it has really stressed me out because I feel like I’m wasting good food by not putting more up but honestly you can only do so much. The deer eat the drops and the ones hanging from the lower branches. I try to give them away.

I have to say that one of the favorite games for the dogs involves that pear tree. When the fruit starts to drop onto the ground we go down to the tree and I toss the pears as far as I can in rapid succession in different directions. Buddy will chase a couple, then settle down to eat one. Sophie will run after one, tag it and run back. Chester will fetch them all day long, every so often taking a bite out of it but always bringing it back and dropping it at my feet. The only problem is he likes the game so much that he continually goes out in the field and brings pears up to the driveway and the lawn. A lot of fun when you’re mowing the grass.

Fruit is always a long term endeavor. I planted a row of raspberry plants that Carmen had given me last year. I got a couple of berries in July (I probably would have picked more but caught Chester picking them, apparently he finds them tasty as well). This year the patch is twice as large – raspberries propagate readily sending shoots up all over the place once the plants get going. I will probably have enough berries for a couple of pies and maybe a small batch of jam. I transplanted more canes this spring doubling the number I had. I’m looking forward to a crop large enough to put up for the winter. Now that I can see the potential for this patch of fruit I’m happy that I did it.

Growing these types of long term crops can be a difficult decision to make. You always have to create a new bed for them and put it in a place that you know will be dedicated to that fruit. Trees are the same way and even longer term considering how slowly they grow and the years it can take before they bear fruit. Once that tree is planted it has to stay there, that’s a commitment. I planted a bed of asparagus this year at the end of my vegetable garden knowing full well that it will effect how I till for years to come. I will not be able to eat anything from this bed for another two years but once it’s going I could potentially have a healthy asparagus crop for another thirty. I’ll take that and leave it to my kids.

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