Harvest time!

[Cain Highwind]

Just took in a nice large load of plums from a tree that's been outside my house for many MANY years. Got a nice haul today. I got a bowl full earlier in the summer when they're a little greener, they're still good even then.



They're a form of asian plum called Kelsey Plums (which is funny since that's my sister's name). They're really juicy and sweet and I love giving them away to friends and neighbors.

So, thinking about it, in all the years, I don't think we've really had a topic like this. Does your house have a garden, or just a little bush/tree for growing fresh stuff? Share your stories! Fresh produce is the BEST!

[OceanEyes28]

HEY yeah! Excellent, I support this topic.

At my dad's house, we have blueberry bushes out front and a tomato plant on the back deck. We've already had a couple tomatoes that have turned out well, and about a month or two ago, I was picking some amazing blueberries off of our bushes. I always get a good harvest from them, and they go fast.

And at my mom's house, we have a pretty nice herb garden. Rosemary, sage, thyme, mint. A few others, I'm sure, but those are the ones I remember. We use the first three for making our Thanksgiving dressing (from scratch!). And other things.

I'm looking forward to having a garden of my own someday.

By the way, Cain... Nice plums.

[winterborn86]

I have a garden, but not yet been able to grow anything in it, as it needs alot of work doing to it, but i am planning to grow strawberrys sometime next year and maybe some tomatoes.

My dad use to grow tomatoes, strawberry's and raspberries and he had a little plum tree aswell but that's all gone now.

[Chez Daja]

I grew tomato's one year. They came out pretty well but on the other hand, they are like, the easiest thing to grow ever, right?

We have blackberries, too, but they aren't ours. The people opposite just never trimmed their plants, so we get them over our fence.

We get plums over here thanks to them, too.

Our garden has loads of trees, flowers and plants... We have a big tree in the middle of our garden as well, that blooms for less than a month each year, but it sprouts these bright yellow little flowers... I don't know what the tree is called, sadly. Looks a bit like a laburnam, but prettier.

[Walter Sobchak]

When I lived in South Florida, we had a huge orange tree as well as three tangerine trees. We used to pick them and make orange juice, and give the tangerines away as gifts. I don't know if people liked them or not. We also had a vegetable garden for a while, but no one took care of it properly.

When I was seventeen I tried growing plants, but I wasn't good at it. And I couldn't afford the artificial light.

[Cain Highwind]

Well since we're sharing stories about families. My grandpa likes to grow tomatoes and zucchini. I generally don't like zucchini, but it somehow tastes SO much better when it's fresh grown.

My mom also has both a Lemon and Feijoa tree at her current NZ residence. Feijoas are definitely an interesting fruit.

[Pete]

Up until last year, we grew a ton of random things at my grandma's house. The usual standby was tomatoes, which were delicious and much better than anything store-bought. We would also grow red and green peppers, Japanese and American eggplant (Japanese is skinnier and more oblong, and sweeter), and even jalepenos and cucumbers. We tried to grow lettuce once year (hell yeah, free salad!) but that just didn't take at all.

This year, we're being lazy and sticking with onions, carrots and potatoes. Y'know, stuff we don't have to really tend to. They should be ready by the end of the month.

My grandmas neighbors are Korean and they brought over a ton of different vegetables, so we now have pumpkin/squash (weird hybrid) growing along her fence, as well as a persimmons tree that we take fruit off of, since we have branches on our side. They're pretty disgusting though; hard like apples, but just not good at all. We also got watermelons one year, which was ridiculous.

In short, I'm a big fan of home-grown produce.

[Unknown Entity]

In my garden (well... its not really a garden anymore... AND I live on the second floor in a flat so its hard to say I have a garden we actually use) there used to be a blackberry bush, but over time, and lack of care, it just disappeared. They were nice too, and pretty much all the kids in the neighbourhood would pick them - the bush kinda grew over the fence at one point.

At my mums friends mothers house (phew) she has a few apple trees at the end of her garden, and a massive herb garden. The apples were a little on the dry side most of the time, but during a certain month, they would be really juicy, and had a nice crunch to them! In the garden for the cottage next door (they owned the cottage next door - was once the servants house back in the day) there was a Rubarb plant in the corner of the garden. I hate Rubarb, but that stuff was great!

We once tried to grow tomatoes on the balcany, but it didn't work very well. They barely grew to the size of a 5 pence piece...

[Cain Highwind]

as well as a persimmons tree that we take fruit off of, since we have branches on our side. They're pretty disgusting though; hard like apples, but just not good at all.

It depends on the type of persimmons you're talking about (I've come across three kinds). It sounds like they're Hachiya Persimmons. With those you're supposed to wait until they're REALLY mushy, practically rotten and THEN they taste good (this is when the tannin, the nasty tasting chemical, starts to dissipate). I prefer Fuyu Persimmons, they're small, and have no tannin, so you can eat them practically whenever.

<<<<<<Highly proud persimmon connoisseur.

[Dragon_Jiriki]

Interesting topic here. Where I live we don't have much room for plants. Our house is built right into the side of the mountain. But at my grandmother's she has a nice large garden with a great deal of plants. A bird nests outside there too.

[Polk]

Back when my Grandfather was still alive, he had a lot of good stuff growing. My favorite was the apple tree that he had, where my cousin and I would climb up into and do ninja type activities, such as pretending to be sneaky, and giggling thinking of what would happen if my sister would walk beneath the tree. We would have totally jumped her. We were ninjas. That's what they do.

Oh man, he made the best applesauce from that tree. To this day I can't eat jarred stuff.

He had other things too: rasberries, tomatoes, and other things I can't remember at the moment.

But I'm not a gardener. I'm a ninja.

[Furore]

I just grow tomatoes and assorted herbs these days.
At one point I was growing some potatoes, pumpkins, watermelon and passionfruit, but I got really lazy and decided to just stick to stuff I use in my cooking more often.
Nice plums btw.

[Doc Rocco]

We have lemon, orange and apricot trees. Generally we pull in a good haul.

Both my maternal and paternal grandparents grow fruit and vegetables. They row quite a lot, and all of them are delicious. They grow mostly the same things, but each has their own "speciality." My maternal Gran and Grandad have yellow plums, almonds, fantastic Granny Smith apples, fantastic Pink Ladies and a fig tree. Nonna and Nonno grow locquats, cherries, blood plums, figs and peas. I LOVE RAW PEAS. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I love most fruit and vegetables really. Fresh is the best though. We get most fruit and veg from my grandparents when they're in season.

This thread has caused me to crave fruit. *runs off*

[DragonHeart]

My mom actually started her garden back up this year, we haven't had one for awhile. She's got tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, onions, strawberries...I'm pretty sure there was something else in there but I can't remember what it was. I have some mint and lemon balm growing.

We also have a wild berry (not sure which kind, it's either raspberry or blackberry) bush growing. Bush is too generous a term though, as it's really just one branch right now. It'll be a couple years before we figure out what it is when it starts producing berries.

As far as inside the house goes, I currently have a green bean in my loft. Because of the skylight and the fact that this area is always much warmer than the rest of the house, the thing is growing like crazy. I started it less than a week ago and already it's a foot high with its first leaves. It's a little experiment I'm doing to see how viable it would be to grow veggies indoor in the winter. I don't have a lot of space and I don't want plants climbing all over my books, but I figure I can grow a few things. Nothing like fresh produce, especially since it's so rare in the winter.

Hmm...maybe I'll try some strawberries up here, they aren't doing too well outside cause I don't think it's warm enough for 'em. They'd do awesome in here I bet, it really is like a greenhouse.

~DragonHeart~

[Sean]

Homegrown fresh produce is definitely the best; my best friend's fiance's family owns a farm and I get some great stuff from there, as well as this one farm we used to deal with at my last job, this woman grew the absolute greatest tomatoes I've ever seen.

I've personally never bothered growing anything, I don't have much of a green thumb, but I'd love to plant my own herb garden some day, some nice fresh basil, oregano, maybe some thyme or sage.

[Violet]

My mom used to grow her own tomatoes in the backyard. They were really big and ripe, too. Corn and tomatoes was our main thing, actually. Illinois is one of the best states for growing those kinds of things. We can't grow anything out here(considering it's California, you think you could), but that's because I'm in the more desert-like area. We tried growing our own banana tree, but it died before it had a chance. Too bad =/. Guess I'll have to stick with palm trees.

[Bleachfangirl]

Gardens are cared for, and all the plants in my yard aren't, so I don't think I can call it that. We just water them every other day since anything else anyone in my family does to plant ends up killing it. The five trees in my yard are only still alive because my mom has friends that come over and help us with them once in a while. -__-

I have plants that produce fresh things that people can eat though. There's one kumquat tree, one Chinese pear tree, and three guava trees. The kumquats and pears usually aren't picked and just fall off the tree. The guava trees barely give fruit yet. The fruits are all there as an all-you-can-eat buffet for the evil squirrels living in my yard since we don't eat them all that much. They're all pretty sweet and tasty even though they're all also smaller than the average.