plum time

The other day I went to fill the dog bowl with water. And this was in it.

A perfect round, ripe plum. We have two plum trees on the farm. They are no where near the dog bowl. Our orchard is back by the hoophouse and these water bowls are just inside the fence gate near the garage.

So one of the dogs picked it up and carried it up here without breaking it, leaving it where we would find it.

So I went and looked at the plum tree. There must be more ready to eat, right?

Nope. There they were. All green. The entire tree.

And there was this too.

A birds nest right in the tree full of green plums.

The second tree was full of mostly green plums too. But then I saw a few of these. And picked them. Ate some and shared some with Homer.

We don't apply any pesticides, fungicides, herbicides or insecticides in our tiny little orchard. We mow a little under the trees and pull chicken pens under. We discovered a couple of things over the years. Chicken poop has just about the sane ingredients as commercial fertilizer. Chickens eat every bug, even those below the surface of the soil. And chickens do an amazing clean up job, as they love fresh fruit and eat every speck. So each year our plums, peaches, pears and apples look better. The plums are having a great year. I learned to pull off a few fruits so they are not rubbing against each other, as that is the spot where bugs hide. And then reproduce. And to carry away the inedible (even for a chicken) unripe fruit because the fruit eating bugs will find the fallen fruit and lay eggs in them. Get rid of the host and curculio moth looks elsewhere. 

Now I'm on the hunt for plum preservation methods. Its a bumper crop.