Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
busy day
Today i cleared brush along our property line. it's amazing how much scruffy stuff crops up in one year. i took out the evergreens and left a few well-placed paper birch and sugar maples. There was even a beech hiding in there! Ideally, there will be a row of deciduous trees to shade the house in summer and let in the sun during the winter.
Miss Critterpants painted her very own garden box.
My Guy went to Town today to pick up the last load of top soil and soil amendments. I hope that putting effort and a little bit of money into the dirt gives the garden a good start. happy fertile soil means happier plants with fewer problems, right? Here's to hoping!
so far we have put down 2.5 cubic yards of top soil plus green sand, bone meal, peat moss, lots and lots of manure and this crazy Maine compost made of lobster shells and aspen bark.
it looks like we will need about another yard of top soil and i would like to add some more peat to the mix.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Pears for my heir
We have been planting fruit trees from the second spring we lived here. I feel that they are the first things to go into a garden, because it takes so long for trees to bear fruit. Right now, we have one apple tree, two plums and two cherry trees (one sweet, one sour). This spring we are adding two more apple trees, an almond tree and a grape vine. That covers a great deal, but we are missing pears. Miss Critterpants would eat nothing but pears if given the chance.
Pears are pickier about their climate and soil than apples and non-grafted trees can take years and years to bear. However, the trees live for generations, grow to enormous proportions and can yield tons of fruit. literally tons of fruit.
Grafted pears reduces the time before bearing and controls the size of the tree. It makes growing pears more accessible to the backyard fruit grower.
I have narrowed down to three types of pear I would like to plant on our property.
Seckel: it is an American heirloom and delicious. discovered in Pennsylvania in the early 1800's, it grows reliably in western Maine and bears annually some of the most delicious pears I have ever eaten.
Yellow Huffcap: an heirloom European perry pear. not for fresh eating but for fermenting into perry, which is hard cider made with pears as opposed to apples. Yellow Huffcap is supposed to be an excellent unblended perry pear, and it makes such a strong drink that it "lifts your cap" when you drink it.
Pound Pear: it is an old old pear dating back to the 1600's in France. One fruit can weigh anywhere from two to four pounds. They aren't for eating fresh, but baking. Traditionally, an entire pear was wrapped in pastry, baked for hours until the pear softened and the flesh turned pink. They keep all winter in cold storage. the image of enormous pear-shaped pastries all winter is so romantic to me that I have to find this tree to have our very own supply of giant baking pears. however, there is some debate over the pear. "Pound Pear" may have been the generic name for any large baking pear so it can be any number of old cooking pears and all are difficult to find. "Belle Angevine", "Uvedale St. Germaine", "Catillac",or "Black Worcester". I guess I don't mind which it is, as long as it is big and delicious when baked in pastry.
There is hope! The National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvalis, Oregon is a USDA facility that "that preserves invaluable plant genetic resources of temperate fruit, nut, and agronomic crops. This gene bank maintains collections representing global diversity of hazelnuts, strawberries, hops, pears, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and cranberries." They probably have more information about pears and fruit than I could ever use in a lifetime. If any of you know about pears and pound pears i would love to hear it!
Update: I have found a large culinary pear that is not only available, but apparently more delicious that any of the ones I listed above! It's Bellissime D'Hiver. A vigorous grower and excellent bearer and does well grafted on to either pear or quince stock (important for size and cold-hardiness) The description from the National Repository is; "One of the very best culinary pears with which I am acquainted, and quite free from that disagreeable grittiness which is peculiar to baking pears generally. It is both in size and every other aspect superior to the Catillac" I had been searching for an American source for the Catillac pear, but had only found one in the UK and one in Canada. Hooray for the Bellissime D'Hiver pear!
Pears are pickier about their climate and soil than apples and non-grafted trees can take years and years to bear. However, the trees live for generations, grow to enormous proportions and can yield tons of fruit. literally tons of fruit.
Grafted pears reduces the time before bearing and controls the size of the tree. It makes growing pears more accessible to the backyard fruit grower.
I have narrowed down to three types of pear I would like to plant on our property.
Seckel: it is an American heirloom and delicious. discovered in Pennsylvania in the early 1800's, it grows reliably in western Maine and bears annually some of the most delicious pears I have ever eaten.
Yellow Huffcap: an heirloom European perry pear. not for fresh eating but for fermenting into perry, which is hard cider made with pears as opposed to apples. Yellow Huffcap is supposed to be an excellent unblended perry pear, and it makes such a strong drink that it "lifts your cap" when you drink it.
Pound Pear: it is an old old pear dating back to the 1600's in France. One fruit can weigh anywhere from two to four pounds. They aren't for eating fresh, but baking. Traditionally, an entire pear was wrapped in pastry, baked for hours until the pear softened and the flesh turned pink. They keep all winter in cold storage. the image of enormous pear-shaped pastries all winter is so romantic to me that I have to find this tree to have our very own supply of giant baking pears. however, there is some debate over the pear. "Pound Pear" may have been the generic name for any large baking pear so it can be any number of old cooking pears and all are difficult to find. "Belle Angevine", "Uvedale St. Germaine", "Catillac",or "Black Worcester". I guess I don't mind which it is, as long as it is big and delicious when baked in pastry.
There is hope! The National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvalis, Oregon is a USDA facility that "that preserves invaluable plant genetic resources of temperate fruit, nut, and agronomic crops. This gene bank maintains collections representing global diversity of hazelnuts, strawberries, hops, pears, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and cranberries." They probably have more information about pears and fruit than I could ever use in a lifetime. If any of you know about pears and pound pears i would love to hear it!
Update: I have found a large culinary pear that is not only available, but apparently more delicious that any of the ones I listed above! It's Bellissime D'Hiver. A vigorous grower and excellent bearer and does well grafted on to either pear or quince stock (important for size and cold-hardiness) The description from the National Repository is; "One of the very best culinary pears with which I am acquainted, and quite free from that disagreeable grittiness which is peculiar to baking pears generally. It is both in size and every other aspect superior to the Catillac" I had been searching for an American source for the Catillac pear, but had only found one in the UK and one in Canada. Hooray for the Bellissime D'Hiver pear!
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