Bearing Fruit

December 29, 2013

Lindsay:

Developing perennial agricultural systems in a temperate climate has taught me to celebrate all the successes, regardless of size. Too often it seems we can hold out the joy and celebration for when we are overwhelmed by the beauty or function of a system. Or for when the project is "done."

Yet growing a forest of food and developing a landscape into a sustainable provisioner of food, forage, fuel and timber are endeavors that are by nature on-going and can never be complete. So, I prefer to take it as an opportunity for celebrating all the things that have, and always will be, worth celebrating. The things that are often overlooked by a culture obsessed with being "done".

The fall was a season of many firsts. I had the delight of harvesting our first quince, peaches, almonds, Aisain pears and golden raspberries. The harvests were small, and in the case of the quince--a single fruit-- but delicious nonetheless. And, I hope, a taste of the future.

A young almond tree

Almonds! Don't mistake them for peaches :)

Golden Raspberries ripening into Novemeber

Everbering raspberries, delicious even after a frost

Our first echinacea

Honey bees pollinating!