What's Growing in My Orchard
No plants give sweeter returns than fruit trees. And this year, I have so many delicious fruits growing here at my Bedford, New York farm.
Fresh fruit is one of nature's most delicious products. This summer, we've already picked boxes and boxes of raspberries, blueberries, and currants, but all the others - the peaches, apples, pears, medlars, etc., are developing so nicely. I have an orchard around my pool filled with more than 200 different fruit trees. Most of the fruits aren't ready to pick just yet, but it won't be long before we start harvesting our first of many bounties.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- This orchard surrounds three sides of my pool. I wanted it filled with a variety of apple trees, plum trees, cherry trees, peach, pear, and quince trees. Many were bare-root cuttings when they arrived and now they’re beautiful mature specimens.
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- This time every year, everyone around the farm eagerly awaits the first fruits. Look closely – these trees are filled with peaches.
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- Last week, the peaches were just starting to turn pink. They’re still hard, but they all look so wonderful this season.
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- Underripe peaches will still have a slight green undertone, but we’ve had a lot of heat in the last week or so, which helps to mature the fruits. Additionally, those peaches higher in the tree, which are exposed to more sunlight, will also ripen sooner.
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- And this week – look how pink they are! If the peach is firm to the touch, it’s not ready. It’s ripe when there is some “give” as it is gently squeezed. These need a few more days. Color is another great indicator of maturity. Peaches are ripe when the ground color of the fruit changes from green to completely yellow.
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- And then what a bounty we will have. Some of the peach varieties in this orchard include ‘Garnet Beauty’, ‘Lars Anderson’, ‘Polly’, ‘Red Haven’, and ‘Reliance’.
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- Peach trees thrive in an area where they can soak up the sunshine throughout the day. Growing peach trees are self-fruiting, which means the pollen from the same flower or variety can pollinate the tree and produce fruit, so you only have to plant one. I have more than 15-peach trees in this orchard.
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- On this tree, we have nectarines. Both peaches and nectarines are tree ripened. The tastiest nectarines will have “sugar spots,” tiny pale speckles that indicate sweetness.
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- In another row are the Asian pears – so many, many pears this year. I planted many types of Asian pear, Pyrus pyrifolia, which is native to East Asia. These trees include Hosui, Niitaka, Shinko, and Shinseiko.
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- Asian pears are usually smaller than regular pears and have a sweeter flavor. Asian pears are also a bit more crisp.
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- Some of the other pears in the orchard are Bartlett, Columbia, D’Amalis, Ginnybrook, McLaughlin, Nova, Patten, Seckel, Stacyville, and Washington State.
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- A medium pear is a good source of vitamin C, potassium, vitamin K, copper, magnesium, and B vitamins. And pears are an excellent source of fiber.
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- It’s hard to resist picking any of the pears, but summer pears won’t be mature until mid-August to late-September. And the season lasts about six weeks.
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- All the pear trees are filled with fruit. Some of our fruit trees are staked for added support.
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- And of course, I have a section of delicious apples. I already grow hundreds of apple trees here at the farm – some that were here when I acquired the property and others I planted soon after moving here. These orchard apple trees include Baldwin, Black Oxford, Cortland, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Esopus Spitzenburg, Fuji, Golden Russet, Grimes Golden, Honeycrisp, Liberty, Redfield, Roxbury Russet, Windham Russet, and more.
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- As with most fruit, apple trees produce best when grown in full sun, which means six or more hours of direct summer sunlight daily.
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- We almost always have a good amount of apples during apple season which is late-August to November. My granddaughter, Jude, loves to come up to the farm to make apple cider in the fall.
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- These are the fruits of the medlar, Mespilus germanica – a small deciduous tree and member of the rose family. These fruits are not ready yet – we’ll pick them in late October or early November.
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- The fruit is about one to two inches in diameter, and ranges in color from rosy rust to dusty brown. Medlars are native to Southwestern Asia and Southeastern Europe. The fruits have to be eaten when almost rotten in a process called “bletting”. And, because of this, they either have to be eaten right off the tree or picked early and put aside for a few weeks to blet. The medlar is very pulpy and very sweet. Its taste is similar to an overripe date with a flavor similar to toffee apples or apple butter.
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- Fruit trees need a good amount of room to mature. When planting, be sure to space them at least 15-feet apart. I am very fortunate to have such an expansive paddock space to grow all these trees. In another section, I have quince, apricots as well as sweet and sour cherries. I’ll share more photos when we harvest our first stone fruits – very soon.
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