It's ironic that I live in the garden state (NJ) and there are hardly any public fruits in the wild anywhere near me. I'm in the center of the state, suburbs & a little farmland still turning more into warehouses slowly. We do have quite a few pick your own apple orchards & some berries too.
My mind is blown by the falling fruit site, just another thing I didn't think of or know was a thing to look up before.
I am in SF, CA and on my dog walk route there is a loquat and I slip and stumble up the steep spot and eat them on my walk. I feel I am the only one and I hope spreading pits along the way plants more loquats! I am gonna make the jam.
At home in WA, blackberries! And, yes, about 50 pounds a year in the freezer. The neighbors who want some will pick their own. There are so many. Apples are abundant too.
On our way home from So Cal, we stopped yesterday at friends in Sacramento. We now have two bags of lemons in the car. We'll share some around, then juice and freeze the rest. Or...
When life gives you lemons, make lemon curd! Do you have a vegan lemon curd recipe?
I grow passion fruit vines in our small yard. It’s known as lilikoi in Hawaii where I live. I hand cross-pollinate the flowers from two separate vines and get a high success rate of fruit (until the bees find the flowers, then I miss out). I’ve made lilikoi pound cake. A coworker made cheesecake with some of my extras. I use fresh pulp and the edible seeds in tea and soda water. It’s good in smoothies. Some people make jam/jelly/ butter with them. They are so tasty and pretty hardy/easy to grow. I feel like they could grow well in the southern contiguous states but they do like water.
Love this! A loquat tree straddled our yard and our neighbor's when I was a kid. We'd made jam together and divvy up the jars afterward. Communal harvesting, prepping and cooking was hot and sticky. . . and a total joy.
I have a prune tree next door. Mostly the fruit molds and the bears and other critters eat it. I love those kinds of prunes but either can't reach or don't get there at the correct time. Thanks for this post, love it!
Oh I do grab local blackberries and I grow blueberries, some raspberries, strawberries, huckleberries and gooseberries. I have seen a lot of folks here forage huckleberries.
Also mulberries. I gather as many as I can and eat them with my breakfast or throughout the day. I need a good fruit catcher system. Id also love to freeze them. I haven’t really tried sharing because most people don’t seem interested, which I don’t get but maybe they will be now. I’ve also grabbed apples and pears that fall from the trees at the park where I walk my dog.
I used to love loquats when I was a kid growing up in Laguna Beach, they were all over! We have a neighbor with a tree that has a ton of loquats and they never have harvested them! I am going to ask to do so because we have mice and rats around who will certainly eat them if not harvested. They are just too tempting! I can make some jam in our instant pot I think. I sure would like to can it so they last longer… thinking with lemon juice they don’t need pressure canning in a special canner… but I will investigate. We have so much citrus in our area. For some reason our citrus plants just didn’t produce much last year, but our avocado trees (3 tiny ones about 7 years old) are finally starting to produce. We get so excited about an avocado we grow ourselves.
I just Googled it, and we can! I'd love some seeds, and I'd be willing to trade you for some cloves of garlic when mine is ready. I have some varieties that grow at every temperature.
Also, I'd love to have whoever is interested start sharing seeds with each other. I think we really need to lean on in each other during the next four years, and my garden brings me joy.
There's a loquat tree down the street from me! It's huge! It grows over someone's fence into a public area. Last year I saw someone stop and fight with the crows to pick a bunch. That may be me this year now that you've posted this jam recipe.
In Iran where I lived for about 7 years, people would place clean white cloths (tablecloths?) under mulberry trees and shake the trees. The ripe ones would fall into the cloth and they would take them home for jam or to dry. They are so delicious! So many treats I recall… green almonds, with soft shells we would eat with salt, or unripened pistachio eaten raw. Seasonal treats sold in small stands. In winter, they would cook huge turnips or beets and sell them in chunks to people out shopping or walking. Again, seasonal and so fun. And faludeh, frozen cooked rice noodles with rose syrup, in summer. Such treats.
It's ironic that I live in the garden state (NJ) and there are hardly any public fruits in the wild anywhere near me. I'm in the center of the state, suburbs & a little farmland still turning more into warehouses slowly. We do have quite a few pick your own apple orchards & some berries too.
My mind is blown by the falling fruit site, just another thing I didn't think of or know was a thing to look up before.
I am in SF, CA and on my dog walk route there is a loquat and I slip and stumble up the steep spot and eat them on my walk. I feel I am the only one and I hope spreading pits along the way plants more loquats! I am gonna make the jam.
Yes! We have lots of volunteer loquat trees around thanks snackers like you and the squirrels. It’s the best!
At home in WA, blackberries! And, yes, about 50 pounds a year in the freezer. The neighbors who want some will pick their own. There are so many. Apples are abundant too.
On our way home from So Cal, we stopped yesterday at friends in Sacramento. We now have two bags of lemons in the car. We'll share some around, then juice and freeze the rest. Or...
When life gives you lemons, make lemon curd! Do you have a vegan lemon curd recipe?
Blackberries are a great one! My aunt had a giant blackberry bush and I used to eat myself sick when there were berries. Lucky you!
I don’t have a lemons curd recipe but I might have to look into one now. Yum.
I grow passion fruit vines in our small yard. It’s known as lilikoi in Hawaii where I live. I hand cross-pollinate the flowers from two separate vines and get a high success rate of fruit (until the bees find the flowers, then I miss out). I’ve made lilikoi pound cake. A coworker made cheesecake with some of my extras. I use fresh pulp and the edible seeds in tea and soda water. It’s good in smoothies. Some people make jam/jelly/ butter with them. They are so tasty and pretty hardy/easy to grow. I feel like they could grow well in the southern contiguous states but they do like water.
Love this! A loquat tree straddled our yard and our neighbor's when I was a kid. We'd made jam together and divvy up the jars afterward. Communal harvesting, prepping and cooking was hot and sticky. . . and a total joy.
I have a prune tree next door. Mostly the fruit molds and the bears and other critters eat it. I love those kinds of prunes but either can't reach or don't get there at the correct time. Thanks for this post, love it!
Oh I do grab local blackberries and I grow blueberries, some raspberries, strawberries, huckleberries and gooseberries. I have seen a lot of folks here forage huckleberries.
Also mulberries. I gather as many as I can and eat them with my breakfast or throughout the day. I need a good fruit catcher system. Id also love to freeze them. I haven’t really tried sharing because most people don’t seem interested, which I don’t get but maybe they will be now. I’ve also grabbed apples and pears that fall from the trees at the park where I walk my dog.
I used to love loquats when I was a kid growing up in Laguna Beach, they were all over! We have a neighbor with a tree that has a ton of loquats and they never have harvested them! I am going to ask to do so because we have mice and rats around who will certainly eat them if not harvested. They are just too tempting! I can make some jam in our instant pot I think. I sure would like to can it so they last longer… thinking with lemon juice they don’t need pressure canning in a special canner… but I will investigate. We have so much citrus in our area. For some reason our citrus plants just didn’t produce much last year, but our avocado trees (3 tiny ones about 7 years old) are finally starting to produce. We get so excited about an avocado we grow ourselves.
I was wondering the same about doing caning to seal for shelf stability.
This was so beautiful today, Michelle. Going to Google to see if I can grow loquats here.
I can send you some seeds if it works!
I just Googled it, and we can! I'd love some seeds, and I'd be willing to trade you for some cloves of garlic when mine is ready. I have some varieties that grow at every temperature.
Also, I'd love to have whoever is interested start sharing seeds with each other. I think we really need to lean on in each other during the next four years, and my garden brings me joy.
There's a loquat tree down the street from me! It's huge! It grows over someone's fence into a public area. Last year I saw someone stop and fight with the crows to pick a bunch. That may be me this year now that you've posted this jam recipe.
You’ll be fighting me and the crows but it’ll be worth it
Loved this post, thanks Michelle.
Now I want a loquat tree!!!
We have a few mulberry trees in our neighborhood, and the only one who seems to enjoy them is the bear that stops by every spring to eat them.
In Iran where I lived for about 7 years, people would place clean white cloths (tablecloths?) under mulberry trees and shake the trees. The ripe ones would fall into the cloth and they would take them home for jam or to dry. They are so delicious! So many treats I recall… green almonds, with soft shells we would eat with salt, or unripened pistachio eaten raw. Seasonal treats sold in small stands. In winter, they would cook huge turnips or beets and sell them in chunks to people out shopping or walking. Again, seasonal and so fun. And faludeh, frozen cooked rice noodles with rose syrup, in summer. Such treats.
I love this.
Ohhh mulberries. I’d love to stumble across one of those trees