Checking on the fruit trees

[nytrapper23]

Went down to my daughters and checked on her fruit trees, apples ,blue berries doing well peaches not so good.

Apple trees are loaded.


Peaches are not doing so well.

This is a quince. Not sure if that's how you spell it. We tried eating them last year , very sour . Not sure what they are used for.

Blue berry bushes are loaded.

[bk]

Looking good, nytrapper23.  My apples in NW Wisconsin are loaded as well. A little too cold here for peaches, but my mouth is watering. Looks like I'll have a great plum crop as well.  Strawberries are doing really well this year.  Neighbor has blue berries - will have to check and see how they are coming.  Looks like a great fruit year.

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

[soldim]

Jul 4, 2015 11:10:34 GMT -5 nytrapper23 said:

This is a quince. Not sure if that's how you spell it. We tried eating them last year , very sour . Not sure what they are used for.

Cooking -- they are indeed very tart and not great to eat uncooked. But quince jelly is tremendously good, and overall they can be used in most recipes that have apple or pear in them.

My MIL has a great lamb-quince recipe .... almost worth it visiting the in-laws for

[rendezvous]

Those apples are looking good!


I have one apple tree left, it has a pretty good number of apples this year. I don't spray, but on a good year I can get enough apples for an apple pie, we'll see...

[nytrapper23]

Soldim, wouldn't happen to have that jelly recipe would you?

[soldim]

Jul 6, 2015 8:23:24 GMT -5 nytrapper23 said:

Soldim, wouldn't happen to have that jelly recipe would you?

Of course I have.... translating it from French though... so if anything is unclear let me know (neither English nor French being my first or second language I might mess up).

For ~8 1/2 pints:

4 pounds of quinces
1 pint of water
1 lemon
sugar (quantity depends)


* Wash the quinces and cut them in eights (don't peel or pit)
* Add the water and lemon juice
* Gently boil for about 1 hour until the quinces start getting soft
* Transfer the liquid and quinces to a fine sieve or colander with a cheesecloth
* Drain overnight, collecting the liquid (for clear jelly don't press -- I tend to collect two batches one clear and one pressed, no reason to let perfectly good quince juice go to wast because it's cloudy!)
* Add one cup of sugar per pint of quince juice
* Bring to a boil while dissolving the sugar, boil for about 15 minutes after the sugar has been dissolved
* Pour into clean jars, close and turn


Quinces contain a lot of pectin, so it makes a really nice jelly. There recipe for making syrup is exactly the same, you only add 1/2 cup of sugar per pint of quince juice -- this syrup is great with homemade ice-cream!!

[nytrapper23]

Thank you very much. I will let you know how it turns out.

[soldim]

Jul 7, 2015 8:24:54 GMT -5 nytrapper23 said:

Thank you very much. I will let you know how it turns out.

That's will probably take while

Here, generally we can harvest them late October.

[nytrapper23]

First batch of blueberries from my daughters today , they are delicious. And the bushes are still loaded.

[nytrapper23]

Blue berries are still going strong , 1 of the peach trees is doing good the other two not so good , but the apple trees are loaded.