Fruits of My Farm
What fall fruits are growing near you?
It's amazing how quickly plants and trees grow and change day to day. Starting in September, many of the trees in this area begin their autumn transformations - changing from bold green to various shades of red, yellow, and brown. Now in October, many of those leaves have started to fall. In some cases exposing the season's fruits. We've already picked and enjoyed many apples and pears, but I also have quince, persimmons, medlars, a variety of crabapple berries, and those of the Cornus kousa, osage oranges, and trifoliate oranges, and other autumn treats - some we eat, some we can't, but many provide wildlife with sugar, protein, fat, and other crucial nutrients to sustain them through the coming winter.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- This time of year, there are always so many different types of fruit growing here at the farm. Some of the ones collected include: apples, pears, pawpaws, quince, persimmons, trifoliate oranges, osage oranges, crabapples, koussa berries, and medlars.
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- I have many apple trees here – the large, old ones that were on the property when I bought it, the dwarf espaliered apple trees that I planted soon after I moved in, and the many apple trees in my orchard. My granddaughter, Jude, comes every year to pick crates and crates of apples and then make jars and jars of cider – it’s so delicious.
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- Some of the newer apple trees in my orchard include ‘Baldwin’, ‘Black Oxford’, ‘Cortland’, ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’, ‘Esopus Spitzenburg’, ‘Fuji’, ‘Golden Russet’, ‘Grimes Golden’, ‘Honeycrisp’, ‘Liberty’, ‘Redfield’, ‘Roxbury Russet’, and ‘Windham Russet’.
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- I’ve also planted several types of Asian pear, Pyrus pyrifolia, which is native to East Asia. My trees include Hosui, Niitaka, Shinko, and Shinseiko. Asian pears have a high water content and a crisp, grainy texture, which is very different from the European varieties. They are most commonly served raw and peeled.
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- The other pears in my orchard are ‘Bartlett’, ‘Columbia’, ‘D’Amalis’, ‘Ginnybrook’, ‘McLaughlin’, ‘Nova’, ‘Patten’, ‘Seckel’, ‘Stacyville’, and ‘Washington State’.
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- Are you familiar with quince? Quince is a fall fruit that grows like apples and pears, but with an unusually irregular shape and often gray fuzz. These fruits turn a golden yellow when ready to pick in fall.
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- In another area are the fruits of the medlar, Mespilus germanica – a small deciduous tree and member of the rose family. These fruits are not ready yet – we’ll pick them in late October or early November. This fruit is about one to two inches in diameter, and ranges in color from rosy rust to dusty brown. Medlars are native to Southwestern Asia and Southeastern Europe. The fruits have to be eaten when almost rotten in a process called “bletting”. And, because of this, they either have to be eaten right off the tree or picked early and put aside for a few weeks to blet. The medlar is very pulpy and very sweet. Its taste is similar to an overripe date with a flavor similar to toffee apples or apple butter.
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- The bright fruits of persimmons ripen in late fall, usually, after most of the leaves have fallen from the tree. I have a grove of these persimmon trees outside my flower cutting garden. The American persimmon, when picked at just the right time, can have a flavor that is rich, deep, and sweet.
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- Behind the main greenhouse, I have a grove of pawpaw trees. Asimina triloba, the American papaw, pawpaw, paw paw, or paw-paw, among many regional names, is a small deciduous tree native to the eastern United States and Canada. The taste of a pawpaw is a mix of mango-banana-citrus all in one. It’s a big favorite for some here at the farm.
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- Near the pawpaw trees are two trifoliate orange trees, Citrus trifoliata or Poncirus trifoliata – a member of the family Rutaceae. Also known as the “hardy orange” or “flying dragon,” it is the most cold hardy of all citrus. It is a large, deciduous shrub that produces an unusually sour, downy fruit considered to be nearly inedible when raw, but medicinally beneficial and delicious when cooked. The fruit is commonly juiced, made into marmalades, jams, jellies, or candied. Trifoliate oranges are slightly smaller than conventional oranges and taste like a blend of lemon and grapefruit.
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- I have Osage orange trees along three sides of my North Maple Paddock surrounding the run-in field and shed, not far from my tennis court. These trees are bold green in summer and change to bright golden yellow in fall. The Osage orange, Maclura pomifera, is actually not an orange at all, and is more commonly known as a hedge-apple, horse-apple, or mock-orange. Each one is about four to five inches in diameter and filled with a dense cluster of hundreds of smaller fruits – some say it even resembles the many lobes of a brain. For the most part, the Osage orange is considered inedible because of its texture and taste, but they’re very interesting and fun to grow.
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- And beware… Osage orange branches are armed with stout, straight spines growing from the leaf axils.
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- This is one of the four Sargent crabapple trees outside my Tenant House and studio. Its fall color is usually green to chartreuse before the leaves drop, but…
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- … looking closely, one can see the Sargent crabapple berries. The Sargent crabapple, Malus sargentii, is a dwarf fragrant, showy shrub with bright red berries. While these fruits are edible, they are also quite tart and are generally not consumed raw.
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- These are also crabapple berries still hanging off the branches. While related to regular apples, crabapples are smaller in comparison and much more tart than regular apples.
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- And different crabapples are on the trees outside my stable.
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- Crabapple fruit can vary in size from a quarter-inch to two inches in diameter.
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- Along the carriage road near my back hayfield, I have several Cornus kousa trees – small deciduous trees in the flowering plant family Cornaceae. Common names include kousa, kousa dogwood, Chinese dogwood, Korean dogwood, and Japanese dogwood. The kousa has edible berries with soft pulp that is sweet with a similar flavor to a ripe persimmon.
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- Kousa trees also grow in Nepal, where several of my outdoor grounds crew are from – they always love snacking on the fruits of these dogwood trees.
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- And then there are the fruits of the mighty female ginkgo tree. The most noticeable thing about these is their smell. Have you ever smelled one? It is hard to miss, and the stench is quite disagreeable. The outer, nasty smelling pulp is known botanically as sarcotesta.
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- Here is one ginkgo seed separated from its fruit.
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- While we’re all enjoying the splendid colors of the falling leaves, I hope you also have time to stop and appreciate all the fruits nature has to offer this time of year.
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