Val's Vegies & Fruit

well, it's a catch 22 isn't is.
can't have things on display if you have to hide them in the dark either.

brown glass keeps out the UV...which is why beer is put into it.

Sure is.. Maybe it you have had enough of them them like I have with Pumpkins
You can leave them on display they certainly would brighten a room up

Mary-Anne wrote:

Sure is.. Maybe it you have had enough of them them like I have with Pumpkins
You can leave them on display they certainly would brighten a room up

Well it's getting that way, MA.
I was really over nectarines by the time the last ones were picked.

I know that feeling Val I had Nectarines galore too .. I dug the tree up a couple of weeks back and put it in the chook yard then I can just toss the ones I dont want to the chooks nothing worse than a glut.. Thats if it survives...

Tropical Nectarine Sundowner



When is enough enough, even the Neighbours said no after a while..

I was getting like that with tommies so I cooked up a few buckets with onions and zuccs and into the freezer for spag bog when needed

I think I need a bottling outfit sometimes but I could not be bothered as I would still have to give it all away.

A friend came over with her bottling kit and we did a stack of peaches and she took most of them as I would not get through them all , and One for Val of course

Wow, pretty nectarines, MA!
Still, as you say, enough is enough.
I find I give more away than we ear of the bottled ones.Hope I get the bottles back LOl (Not you, Cheryl, we swapped!)

Thanks Val.. I always feel guilty that I have so much garden produce and cant give it away..

And if you cant give it away M A it doesn't matter if it ether goes to the chocks or in compost does it.

We did not put the pumpkins in the compost Richard as that was were all the plants came from originally and I did not want any more popping up.

But yes the chooks get to eat a lot of the excess produce..

I don't have any pumpkins popping up in our compost as i take all the seed out as we eat them to be sent away.

You can see you people are not true pear eaters. Put them in the crisper of your fridge and they would be ripe in a week, Val. We have a pear every day with our lunch. Not that BIG a pear. You must be doing something right to grow them to that size.

Oh thanks, Betty - you live and learn! Our little pear tree is espaliered in a spot that has other trees sharing the small bed. This year I think it got more water than previous years. Plus it only had 14 fruit to grow, which isn't many, but more than it's had before!

what do you mean about the crisper, betty?
i was worried that my pears would all ripen while i was overseas and i would miss them...so i snuck three into the crisper...and there they still are, 6 weeks later, hard as rocks!

I wonder if any of the southern backyard fruit growers, Bag their fruit and leave it on the tree to ripen fully.That way you enjoy the full flavour of naturally ripenedf fruit, and you've prevented any insect attack

Up in Cape York small fruit growers BAG each piece of fruit in plastic bags .
Open the bag at to bottom .slip it over the fruit ,tie it up at the top, leaving the
bottom of bag open for air .Insects don't fly upwards.
This is done in the north primarilary to stop the fruit sucking moths and
flying foxes.

oh...that's interesting, gwen.
maybe i will try that on a few and see how it goes.

Pitta, the Grey Currawong that has turned up here - no doubt having fled its fire ravaged home - would look at that setup and consider it a snack in a pack. LOL. It ate every pear, every fig big enough to bother with, then started on my apples, regardless that they were netted. I was waiting for it to start and pulled the apples off - that's one apple pie he isn't getting - very young trees btw, so not much fruit yet. I just looked at that big beak and thought nothing will stop this fellow. I'm amazed my neighbor hasn't shot this bloke yet.
Tessa, those pears must have been very green, too green I mean.

Val, when we shifted here there was a Williams Pear that had 6 pears on it. I pruned it and the following year it had 60. How long do they live for ? This has been here for 35 years now.

just to get this right, betty.
then you mean if i go out now and pick a few pears from the tree and put them in the fridge...they'll be ripe in a week?

i'm sure the others were too green.
i was just hedging my bets!

I buy them rock hard and they're ripe in a week. If I pick every pear off a tree and just leave them in a bucket they get riper even faster, Tessa. Mind you, with the pears in the fridge, I HATE really ripe fruit, so if we buy them to last a fortnight, because I shop fortnightly, I can barely tolerate them during the second week.

Betty, I don't know how long pear trees live for, a very long time it seems!
Wow going from 6 to 60 was a big jump! It obviously loved the way you prune
I don't think my little tree could support that many!

They call that pruning beginner's luck, Val.

I'll to that Betty I used to have a lot of that too beginners luck with pruning..

Betty wrote:

They call that pruning beginner's luck, Val.

LOL, Betty!!