Fruit!

I am SO excited to see blossoms beginning to form and open on all of our fruit trees.  It was a lot of work to plant them last year not to mention an expensive investment with no immediate payback.    Now is the time when we will start to see the "fruit" of our labor :)  Judging by how many blossoms I see, I think we are in for a pretty good year on the payback front.

 The top picture is a Norkent Apple (the first apple tree to bloom) with a September Ruby and a Sparkle close on it's heels.  I found my first ladybug of the year on an apple tree this morning :)

This plum tree is just about to burst forth in bloom.  It's an unusual tree in that it has 5 types of plums grafted on to the main stock!  See the pictures below...

We didn't get any plums last year, but it looks like we're in for a treat this year! It's going to be great fun to compare and taste all the plums when they are ready to pick :)  First up is Brookgold (the variety that is blooming white flowers now).

We also have an Early Gold Pear and an Evans Cherry (which is a tad tart but not overly sour).  I'm dreaming of cherry pie filling (if I can keep the birds away!).

Here's my strawberry patch - aren't these pink blooms pretty?  My Mom was very kind to bring me some strawberry plants and raspberry canes from her garden in BC in September of 2009.  We had just moved into this house and it was a MESS with hardly anything finished - the house was literally torn apart inside and out and there we were, my Mom and I, planting canes and plants.  It seemed funny then, but given that there was not ONE food producing plant or tree on this property when we moved here a little under 2 years ago, I can see now that that crisp fall day was very significant ~ the official beginning of our homestead :)