Taking Stock

I love growing my own fruits. It can be pretty labor intensive, but I think it's so worth the effort. During each particular fruit's fruiting season, I try not to buy that fruit at the store and just wait for my fruit to ripen. It can be hard to wait, especially when I want immediate gratification, but like the old saying goes, some things are just worth waiting for.

Since I've started growing my own fruits, I've noticed a significant taste difference between the fruit I get from my own garden as compared to the fruit from the stores. I am not a fruit snob, but I will admit that at some point, it's getting hard to justify why I should be paying $3.50 to $4.00 for a pint of raspberries that is partially moldy and lacking in flavor. I've noticed that the fruits I grow often have a better flavor (probably due to the variety I've chosen to grow) and just tastes better.

One of the other reasons why I like to wait for my own fruits to ripen is due to the fact that I don't use any pesticides on my fruit plants. There are lots of articles out there about certain fruits and vegetables containing large amount of pesticides that are hard to wash off (e.g. due to the fruit's fragility, the fruit's thin skin) and get consumed along with the fruit. You can check out this article at this website: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nutrition/a/pesticides.htm. Of course, if you can eat organic, then go organic. Still eating organic is pretty expensive and I've chosen to grow my own fruits. This is not to say that I will not eat fruit out of season or not buy non-organic fruits from the store. I only merely like to grow and garden, and I see a huge benefit in growing, waiting, and eating the fruits that I've grown.

So when I started thinking about writing this post, I also started to think about the various fruit plants I have in my garden. The following is a list of the fruits I am currently growing right now, and I will also try to provide the variety of the fruit I am growing when possible: Apple (Honeycrisp and an unknown variety); Blackberrry (Arapaho or Navajo); Blueberry (Bluecrop, Patriot, St. Cloud, Northsky and two unknown varities); Crabapple (unknown variety); Cherry (Morello); Grapes (concord, and two other unknown varieties); Raspberry (Caroline and Latham); and Plum (Mount Royal). I also have an apricot tree, but it requires a pollinator, meaning another different variety of an apricot tree. Since I have not yet purchased another apricot tree to pollinate the existing apricot tree (the existing tree came with the house), I have not had any apricots. Maybe next year because I still need to determine where I would plant the tree. I keep on thinking that I would like to add another fruit plant/tree to the yard, but it may just be wishful thinking.