Port Potager

About a week ago, we noticed that we had a problem in the orchard. One of these things is not like the other: It's not just the leaves of our (formerly) best peach tree that are having trouble. Check out the (former) fruit: A couple weeks ago this tree was covered with peaches just waiting to ripen up in August, but now they are shriveled down to the pits. It looks more like an almond than a peach. They all look like that. No peaches this year. So what's the problem?  Well, it's clear that the tree isn't taking up water, but we've had decent rain, and other trees are fine. As I was looking at the damage and trying to figure it out, I saw a funny bug fly by. I couldn't get a photo, but it was unforgettable. It looked like this: This image is  Image Number 1435199  at  Forestry Images , a source for forest health, natural resources and  silvi culture  images  operated by  The Bugwood Network  at the University...

You know how traditionally women did certain household chores on certain days? Like washing on Mondays, ironing on Tuesdays? If you think I'm making this up , you didn't read enough Little House in the Big Woods as a kid. Well, I kind of have that this summer. Harvest on Mondays and Thursdays, deal with said harvest on Tuesdays and Fridays.  So after yesterday's picking over of the garden and orchard, here's what I had: Another twenty or thirty pounds of peaches, plus all our red and yellow onions on the counter behind them. Here's a better view. The bags are full of drying herbs and last year's mustard seeds, which I still haven't completely threshed out yet because it's a giant pain. The onions are easy — they just need to sit out in the warm air to cure before we store them in the basement.  A refill on the fruit bowl, now with nectarines in addition to peaches. (Oh, and one windfallen-but-perfectly-ripe Gala apple t...

After a week of rain, I took a stroll through the orchard to give it a check and see if the trees needed any spraying (we use a judicious bit of insecticidal soap to control aphids and a copper fungicide for rusts). And this is what I found: On the ground under our apricot tree (the one we worked so, so hard to nurture through the spring freeze ; the one that was loaded with tiny green apricots) are a pile of half-eaten apricots. This sin't just a June drop or wind damage. You can see the bite marks: One apricot is left on the tree. The rest are gone.  Gone. Eaten by squirrels . This is my assumption, at least, after some internet research revealed just how much those horrifying tree rats like apricots. And it's not just the apricots. The squirrels (or possibly birds, but this seems doubtful) ate every last nectarine, and all but two Granny Smith apples. So from four trees that were bearing their first fruit this season, we have three pieces of fru...

Our fruit trees are looking good! Check out all these peaches: They are still green right now, and they have so much fuzz that they look mostly silvery in the sunlight. They are covering almost every branch right now. We won't get all of those to ripen — it wouldn't be possible for the tree to bear them all, so many will fall off in the coming weeks. Still, it feels bounteous right now--especially when you stand close to the tree and inhale. Smells like peaches already! These are our nectarines. This tree is much smaller than the peach, but it's doing quite well. Right now they are about as big as grapes, so we have a ways to go.  Here are two of our apricots. We managed to save most of them  from the late frost, and they are doing well. Some have dropped, but nothing looks out of the ordinary. These should be the first fruits to ripen this summer, and we are definitely looking forward to it! We haven't had our own garden (or orchard) fruit sinc...