Got Loquats!

I didn't think I had any loquat fruit this year. I check my fruit trees often and didn't see any flowers on the tree. My loquat tree never produced much fruit, but for the last few years, it had a few each summer. I have seen loquat trees in the neighborhood with yellow fruit covering the entire trees. I am envious!

As I was doing my daily inspection on the peaches today, I noticed a loquat seed on top of one of the worm bins. You know what that means. Some bird or squirrel had loquat fruit from the tree! I immediately started searching for the yellow fruit, and there they were.


They were hidden inside of the tree and all the way on the top. I had to grab my second ladder as one ladder is already being used to support a heavy branch of the peach tree.

The loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) is a fruit tree in the family Rosaceae, indigenous to southeastern China. It was formerly thought to be closely related to the genus Mespilus, and is still sometimes known as the Japanese medlar.


The loquat on the farm was grown from a seed that my mother and brother smuggled out of Portugal. They had some big juicy loquat fruit during their vacation in Portugal many years ago. It took over 10 years for the tree to get this big, and it just started bearing fruit about 3 years ago.

Under this tree is the only shady spot on the farm, so naturally that's where the worm compost bins stay. I wouldn't have seen the seed if the compost bin wasn't there.

Peach Season

I tasted a peach that fell on the ground today. They are almost ready. I never buy peaches because every summer I get a full tree of peaches. For a month, I eat peaches every day to the point that I don't want to think about peaches for the rest of the year. There are two peach trees of different varieties on the farm. The big tree grows big fuzzy soft peaches while the smaller tree in the front of the house grows fuzzless crunchy peaches.

I can see that I don't have as many peaches on the big tree as I had in previous years. I believe there are two reasons that resulted in the smaller quantity this year. I pruned the main tree a bit late. Ideally I should have pruned it back after the peaches were gone in November or December. I didn't do it until February because I didn't know how to prune fruit trees. Secondly, it rained more and longer than usual this year. Last rain was on June 8th! Even though I sprayed the trees with copper sulfate twice, the trees are more infected with leaf curl than past years. Peach leaf curl is caused by fungus (see the brown tumor looking blob on the leaf in the picture below).


Nevertheless, I will have more peaches than I can consume in one month. Birds and squirrel will get their shares, and there will be peach cobblers and peach pies.

What Can't You Fry?

Fritz Fry was such a success at Solstice Convergence that I decided to do it again for the herb class. I brought in my deep fryer and some farm fresh produce. I had to make some onion rings just like how my college roommate/best friend used to make - with panko (Japanese style bread crumbs).


I had everything prepped and lined up just the way I wanted. There were onion rings, button mushrooms, green beans, sliced red potato, sliced zucchini, sliced yellow squash, and other assorted sliced squash. Everything was dipped in flour first, egg wash second, and then rolled in panko before dropped into hot (~375 degrees) oil.


Master Ken suggested that I experiment with different herbs and edible flowers. I deep fried some lavender blossoms, zucchini blossoms stuffed with mushroom and garlic or strawberry, mushrooms rolled in panko with fresh rosemary, rose pedals sandwiched between zucchini slices, mint leaves sandwiched between squash slices, and a bunch assorted edible flowers. Basically I was deep frying everything in different ways I could put them together.

I couldn't sample everything, but everything I fried was consumed by someone. It felt festive with all the mixed aroma in the air and colorful fried goodies to share. I was glad that I wasn't asked to fry bugs.

Getting Supplies for the Farm

I try getting supplies off Craigslist.com or Freecycle.org whenever possible. As Master Ken always says, "Low overhead, high return." However; sometimes you really need to get something quick, and nobody is giving that something away for free. Last year I "discovered" American Soil and Stone, which happens to be down the street from the farm. I don't know why I never knew about this place before. It turned out that just about everyone I knew who work on their gardens get their supplies from American Soil and Stone. They have all kinds of soils & blends, soil amendments, barks & mulches, gravel/crushed rock, sand, and landscape supplies. The prices are much better than any chain store. I just picked up their most updated price list this morning, which doesn't seem to be available on their website.


If you are getting bagged items, such as bagged soil or mulches, you go to the office to pay for them first. You will get a receipt for your items. Follow the signs and drive your car around to the pick up area and hand over your receipt to one of the vested staff members. They will put those heavy bags right into your car for you. It's so much easier than going to places like Home Depot or OSH, where sometimes you can't get anyone to help you.


The facility is huge with rocks as far as your eyes can see. This place is my favorite supply store for my farm.

Flowers

I don't usually plant flowers because I consider them none producers and high maintenance. I have a small flower bed in the herb garden near the front door, and I picked all drought tolerant flowers. The rest of the flowers just pop out on their own. I can't get rid of them even if I want to. Some of the regular flowers I have are calla lilies. They are mostly white but I noticed this light pink one just popped out next to the back door all alone.


I also have plenty of nasturtium plants. They grow like weeds. I didn't know the flowers are edible until I saw them in salad mixes at some farmers' market. Still, I have never tasted it. I suppose if I was left with nothing to eat, I'd give it a try.

Then there's California poppy, our state flower. They pop out everywhere and each flower produces a seed pod. When the pod is completely dry, it pops open and hundreds of tiny black seeds just fly all over the place. As a result, they start growing out from cracks on the drive way, cracks between bricks, and cracks on the patio. If you want some California poppy seeds for cooking or whatever, let me know. I can give you some seed pods. Feel free to take them from the front garden.