Harvest time!

[Cain Highwind]

Just took in a nice large load of plums from a tree that's been outside my house for many MANY years. Got a nice haul today. I got a bowl full earlier in the summer when they're a little greener, they're still good even then.

They're a form of asian plum called Kelsey Plums (which is funny since that's my sister's name). They're really juicy and sweet and I love giving them away to friends and neighbors.

So, thinking about it, in all the years, I don't think we've really had a topic like this. Does your house have a garden, or just a little bush/tree for growing fresh stuff? Share your stories! Fresh produce is the BEST!

[OceanEyes28]

HEY yeah! Excellent, I support this topic.

At my dad's house, we have blueberry bushes out front and a tomato plant on the back deck. We've already had a couple tomatoes that have turned out well, and about a month or two ago, I was picking some amazing blueberries off of our bushes. I always get a good harvest from them, and they go fast.

And at my mom's house, we have a pretty nice herb garden. Rosemary, sage, thyme, mint. A few others, I'm sure, but those are the ones I remember. We use the first three for making our Thanksgiving dressing (from scratch!). And other things.

I'm looking forward to having a garden of my own someday.

By the way, Cain... Nice plums.

[winterborn86]

I have a garden, but not yet been able to grow anything in it, as it needs alot of work doing to it, but i am planning to grow strawberrys sometime next year and maybe some tomatoes.

My dad use to grow tomatoes, strawberry's and raspberries and he had a little plum tree aswell but that's all gone now.

[Chez Daja]

I grew tomato's one year. They came out pretty well but on the other hand, they are like, the easiest thing to grow ever, right?

We have blackberries, too, but they aren't ours. The people opposite just never trimmed their plants, so we get them over our fence.

We get plums over here thanks to them, too.

Our garden has loads of trees, flowers and plants... We have a big tree in the middle of our garden as well, that blooms for less than a month each year, but it sprouts these bright yellow little flowers... I don't know what the tree is called, sadly. Looks a bit like a laburnam, but prettier.

[Alizée Jacotey]

When I lived in South Florida, we had a huge orange tree as well as three tangerine trees. We used to pick them and make orange juice, and give the tangerines away as gifts. I don't know if people liked them or not. We also had a vegetable garden for a while, but no one took care of it properly.

When I was seventeen I tried growing plants, but I wasn't good at it. And I couldn't afford the artificial light.

[Cain Highwind]

Well since we're sharing stories about families. My grandpa likes to grow tomatoes and zucchini. I generally don't like zucchini, but it somehow tastes SO much better when it's fresh grown.

My mom also has both a Lemon and Feijoa tree at her current NZ residence. Feijoas are definitely an interesting fruit.

[Pete]

Up until last year, we grew a ton of random things at my grandma's house. The usual standby was tomatoes, which were delicious and much better than anything store-bought. We would also grow red and green peppers, Japanese and American eggplant (Japanese is skinnier and more oblong, and sweeter), and even jalepenos and cucumbers. We tried to grow lettuce once year (hell yeah, free salad!) but that just didn't take at all.

This year, we're being lazy and sticking with onions, carrots and potatoes. Y'know, stuff we don't have to really tend to. They should be ready by the end of the month.

My grandmas neighbors are Korean and they brought over a ton of different vegetables, so we now have pumpkin/squash (weird hybrid) growing along her fence, as well as a persimmons tree that we take fruit off of, since we have branches on our side. They're pretty disgusting though; hard like apples, but just not good at all. We also got watermelons one year, which was ridiculous.

In short, I'm a big fan of home-grown produce.

[Unknown Entity]

In my garden (well... its not really a garden anymore... AND I live on the second floor in a flat so its hard to say I have a garden we actually use) there used to be a blackberry bush, but over time, and lack of care, it just disappeared. They were nice too, and pretty much all the kids in the neighbourhood would pick them - the bush kinda grew over the fence at one point.

At my mums friends mothers house (phew) she has a few apple trees at the end of her garden, and a massive herb garden. The apples were a little on the dry side most of the time, but during a certain month, they would be really juicy, and had a nice crunch to them! In the garden for the cottage next door (they owned the cottage next door - was once the servants house back in the day) there was a Rubarb plant in the corner of the garden. I hate Rubarb, but that stuff was great!

We once tried to grow tomatoes on the balcany, but it didn't work very well. They barely grew to the size of a 5 pence piece...

[Cain Highwind]

Originally Posted by Pete

as well as a persimmons tree that we take fruit off of, since we have branches on our side. They're pretty disgusting though; hard like apples, but just not good at all.

It depends on the type of persimmons you're talking about (I've come across three kinds). It sounds like they're Hachiya Persimmons. With those you're supposed to wait until they're REALLY mushy, practically rotten and THEN they taste good (this is when the tannin, the nasty tasting chemical, starts to dissipate). I prefer Fuyu Persimmons, they're small, and have no tannin, so you can eat them practically whenever.

<<<<<<Highly proud persimmon connoisseur.

[Dragon_Jiriki]

Interesting topic here. Where I live we don't have much room for plants. Our house is built right into the side of the mountain. But at my grandmother's she has a nice large garden with a great deal of plants. A bird nests outside there too.

[Polk]

Back when my Grandfather was still alive, he had a lot of good stuff growing. My favorite was the apple tree that he had, where my cousin and I would climb up into and do ninja type activities, such as pretending to be sneaky, and giggling thinking of what would happen if my sister would walk beneath the tree. We would have totally jumped her. We were ninjas. That's what they do.

Oh man, he made the best applesauce from that tree. To this day I can't eat jarred stuff.

He had other things too: rasberries, tomatoes, and other things I can't remember at the moment.

But I'm not a gardener. I'm a ninja.