Spring Signs of Summer Fruit

Junebug and I were taking a morning stroll through our backyard oasis noticing little signs of budding fruit. It’s looking more and more like this will be the best season yet on the homestead. Here is a little background on when I planted the trees and shrubs that are showing signs of summer fruit.

The currant bushes, both red and black, fruited the second year they were planted. Six years later, they just drip with fruit every season. Come June there will be currant muffins, pancakes, syrup and preserves for mornings on end.

The Puget Gold apricot tree is a great choice for the Pacific Northwest. Apricots bloom and fruit early, sometimes too early for our moist and cool springs. This late bloomer is usually a winner in the backyard and, sure enough, we began getting fruit from the tree after the second year. Like figs, apricots don’t keep more than a day or two once picked so it’s rare to find them available fresh in the store. Growing your own is the best way to enjoy the delicate fruit.

Gooseberries were planted on the homestead right before I moved to Eugene temporarily for grad school. They are covered with blooms and it looks to me like the base of the flowers are swelling to make fruit. I can’t wait to experiment this season with gooseberry jam and pies!

Our cherry tree blossoms are spent, but the dried flowers are beginning to swell at the base. It will be a race between us and the squirrels to harvest the fruit.

We have two varieties of goumi bushes – one tastes sweet and the other a bit tart. They are both exploding with blossoms and fruit heavily each season. If you look just below the flowers, you can see a place where the brown stems bulge. I think those may be the early berries.

These spring mornings are just full of promise! Are there signs of fruit on your homestead? Are you also already dreaming about preserving in just a few short months? I would love to hear what is exploding in your garden!