We got froze out last year so bad even the butternut was bare, and I mean even of leaves until late.
This year my yard is littered with husks and shells from the squirrels and I've still got 3 grocery sacks full (not peeled) and a bunch still on the tree.

This was the first year my sour cherries had anything (new trees replacing a borer kill and a weather split) and I got about 12 quarts.
I lost a sweet cherry, it would've had its first handful.

This is my first year for spraying my apples and I started late but so far I've probably got close to a bushel of edible apples from my McIntosh and Cortland. I'd guess there's at least a bushel of edible apples on my Arkansas Black and maybe up to 4 bushels if all that's left are bug free (doubtful).
Made my first apple pie in many years last night.

ah, Butternuts. I used to have a couple of them, but they got some sort of disease -- something which is spreading around and killing them like the chestnut blight took the chestnuts 100 years ago. I miss having them. I used to make the best flourless butternut torte, using breadcrumbs and finely ground butternuts instead of flour, then putting whipped cream between the layers.

I planted a little baby seedling Heartnut this spring, and it's grown about 2 feet this summer. According to the catalog, it will bear in 2 to 3 years, and the nuts taste like cashews, but you know how the hype in catalogs doesn't always live up to reality.

Dennis

Mine is a fake butternut, one of Stark's hybrid "Bountiful Butternuts".
I'm not sure if it's immune to the canker or not. But so far it hasn't shown any signs of ever being sick.
I don't know how it matches up to a real ones but it's close enough that I can't tell the difference with the ones I got as a kid this far removed in years and the difference between it and walnuts is the same as I remember.

I can't make anything from them. I eat them as fast as I can crack them.

Also my garden didn't do much at all this year. Too much rain.
I think the rain gave me a new problem with the apples and I thought it would destroy the keeping qualities of the AR Black but they seem to be growing out of it now that they're putting on some size.
I did get quite a few strawberries.

All of my apples are/were loaded. I've been making applesauce, apple butter, canned apples and pie filling out of the earlier ones. My red delicious is done for the year already. Last weekend I managed to pick the last few apples in the tip top of the tree and they were basically apple shaped bags of applesauce. The taste was good but I don't care for apples that aren't crunchy and tart. I plan on top working all of my trees that are common varieties and making them antique varieties.

Persimmon trees are LOADED this year. I can't wait for them to ripen.

Peaches did AWESOME this year! I like Denninmi's comment about HELP ME! It's suiting for this year's peach crop.

I only got 3 quinces off my flowering quince bushes. My neighbor dug up his bush before I could get a start so I don't have a variety to pollinate mine any more...

The birds got the biggest part of my raspberries and blackberries. Next year I'm going to mount motion activated flame throwers around them. Flame broiled chickadee anyone? LOL!!!

Strawberries were sour this year for some reason, but I got enough to can 12 pints of spread and 12 pints of juice.

My garden didn't do too well, except for my hot peppers. My lettuce got bitter too fast because of the heat. There were quite a few storms that wreaked havoc on my tomatoes. Most were blown over 4 or 5 times even with stakes AND cages on them. It even blew some of my pepper plants over. I had a lot of trouble from the birds eating my tomatoes too. They never eat a whole tomato. Just a quarter sized hole in MOST of the tomatoes on the plants. I might put flame throwers around them too...

I'm about to have to wage war with the squirrels over my black walnuts. They're going to start dropping soon and I can see the little tree rats drooling in anticipation. Once the weather turns cooler I'll have a couple skillets of squirrel gravy and homemade biscuits to help thin out the competition a little.

All of my herbs did good except for the Cilantro. It bolted SUPER FAST!!

denninmi, eaten' good in the neighborhood. I am so jealous.
but "Blueberries -- almost 200 quarts from 12 very mature bushes." did you mean 20 quarts? Cause I want to plant some blueberries and I was thinking a hundred plants. Or fifty. but 200 quarts from 12? That's a lot of oxidants.

Geraldo, no, that was NOT a typo. The

The peach, plum, pear, and apple trees are surely making up for last year's light bearing year. My small Jon-A- Red has about 100 really nice apples and a little larger one has about 200 and a large Jonathan has about 1500 which is way too many but they are looking nice. The other apple varieties are loaded too.....what to do with all that? Well, any unused can go on the garden as organic matter.

What a fruit year!!

denn, what varieties? I gotta do this. I love blueberries, but never planted any because my ground is kinda alkaline. I know I can amend it, but it is just one thing that has sort of put the blueberries on the back burner. No more I'm thinkin'. Oh, and what a would a quart of blueberries weigh?

Sorry, I see that somehow most of my reply about the blueberries got "eaten" by the system.

What I wanted to say was that, no, that wasn't a typo, I got over 200 quarts this year. My sister came over the first weekend of August and we picked 72 quarts for her to take home and freeze.

The best year I ever had was about 15 years ago, and we kept careful track -- we picked 411 quarts that year. So, as you can see, they can be quite productive.

I don't know the exact varieties, since they were planted at least 10 years before I was even born (my mother planted them in the early 1950's). Two of them have quite small berries, the rest are larger, but none are as large as the more modern varieties they have now.

I think a quart of blueberries weighs about 1.6 pounds -- I recall weighing some once to see.

Dennis-
I think you need to post some pictures of your plants in all their glory to inspire the rest of us! :-)
-Glenn

Glen, OK, if you can sort of walk me through how to post them (I know it involves uploading to photobucket, where I do have an account) -- I'll try to do a few. I only have dial-up, so I can't do too many, it's very slow.

Anything in particular you'd like to see? I know one thing that might interest you is my Korean Giant Asian Pear, since you were asking about those in another thread. I'll try to get some pictures of those today. And of the blueberries, with their shadecloth cover.

Dennis

Hi Dennis-
If youve got your photos uploaded to photobucket, then you are half way there! DonÂt be scared by all the text below itÂs really quite easy.

Recently, I posted to someone else about how to incorporate a link into their post. (look about half way down the page)

The process for showing a picture in your post is very similar:

The hard way: will work for linking in a picture from anywhere:

(img src= *put your link here* )

So maybe this for example:

(img src=http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p267/Deallyras/apple-tree.jpg)

The only thing is I couldnÂt type in exactly what you need to type in because it will be interpreted as a picture. So, replace my Â( and Â) with  and then put in your link and it should work.

Once you do that, you get this:
{{gwi:124242}}
(Just some random photobucket picture that I linked to)

If it's hard to remember the syntax: "(img src= )", etc. just go to any page which already has a picture, then do an Internet Explorer "View"->"Page Source" and then I will see the syntax there. Then just copy it and just replace the http link.

The easy way: Works best with PhotoBucket
What IÂve wrote above works for linking in a picture from any site. But, in fact, PhotoBucket makes it even easier for you. You can ignore all of what I wrote above. Just grab the "HTML Code  Websites and Blogs" link that they provide below any picture and just paste it into your post.

Welcome to the world of HTML.

Perhaps I should put this info, and the info from another page into a new post, and then we can all reference that. IÂm sure somebodyÂs already donÂt that though.

Sure, pics of the Korean Giant, and anything else youÂd like to post would be inspiring! I know others were asking about all those blueberries.

Thanks,
-Glenn

Hi, my first post, I am new here and this year we had a LOT of fruit! One reason, the second garden comes with a lot of fruit trees. Well, 18 trees is not a lot to some of you, but it is a lot to me and some of them are HUGE.

The year started with very loaded citrus fruit trees. There are many baby citrus trees as well (blood orange yes!), but of the ones seriously producing:
One medium/large grapefruit, one large juice orange, 1 small Washington navel orange, 1 medium/large seedy bitter and sour orange (dont laugh it makes awesome marmalade), one large tangerine and one giant minneola. We also have a key lime, a Beers lime, a Eureka lemon and a Myers lemon, but those produce in stages, you can see all stages of development in the tree, mature fruits, babies, blossoms. I love the lemons and limes! I just use them in cooking, drinks, teas.the oranges , tangerines and grapefruits are another story, they are ready all at once. We made marmalade (bitter oranges, Meyers lemons, grapefruits and sweet oranges), we juiced the juice oranges and the minneolas and froze the juice. This worked out great! I am still enjoying some of the juice and it is September, only 2-3 month until we get moreI tried to give away as many minneolas as I could, and picking them is not easy. The higher ones just fall when over ripe (I compost them), I cannot get there even with an 8 foot ladder and picker. Anyway, we also froze and canned some citrus, not sure what I will do with them yet (I am thinking a mixed citrus liqueur)

By Aprilend of citrus, now loquats. 2 large loquat trees, yes I made jam, no I do not want to do it again.but I am sure Ill be talked into it again.

May, end of loquats, now plums! This is always a welcome sight, purple plums delicious, only one small/medium tree with a volunteer tree seedling that just got some attention (pruning) and some space. Maybe we will have two fruiting plums next year! Not enough to can or juice or preserve, just ate them.mmmmmm..

June, july, August crazy, peaches, peaches and more peaches, and nectarines. That was only from 3 trees. Gave a lot away, made peach/nectarine butter preserves, used them in a mixed fruit wine (more of this later)and also dehydrated quite a few.

July-August-September-and maybe October Figs. 2 huge figs, very old, not sure if they are brown Turkey or Brunswick. One other in the zone 10 garden is black mission but it is still young and is not producing that many, so I just eat them. Figs were dehydrated, frozen, given away, grilled with goat cheese and honey, made into fig newtons, incorporated into salads.. I am eating several fresh ones every day.. The freezer needed space for some incoming green beans, so guess what? I am making fig wine. One 3 gallon container with fig wine, another 3 gallon container with a mix of nectarine, figs and just a touch of cherries (the cherries we did not grow, cant grow cherries here ) They are now in secondary fermentation stage just bubbling away.

July-August-Sept-maybe Oct Call me crazy, but I also wanted melons, what is summer without melons? I also wanted okra and I had read melons help okra. I got both nice okra and little melons (baby watermelons, honeydew and some cantaloupe type) in a nice bed with 3 of my roses. Little is good, they are tasty, but I wonder what I am doing wrong? Not enough water maybe? Planted too late (july)? Not complaining, I am enjoying them.

August before I forget, the neighbor has grape vines that fall over my side. I picked quite a few concord grapes. Large seeds and very thick skins, so I just ran them trough the juicer (yum!)

OK, September now and you figure I got a break until December when I get more citrus, right? No no, I did not tell you I also have a HUGE pecan tree. No idea when they fall but I figure sometime between now and December since I got the place at the end of December and they were done doing their thing (falling to the ground). Pecan pie, pecan waffles and pecan backlava come to mind. Nuts freeze really well anyway, I cannot ever have too many pecan nuts, but let us see what happens, I might be eating my words.

I figure if you have read this far you are probably feeling a bit tired, right? I am! We are also growing all our veggies, but this is a lot less harvesting work IMO, fruit is a lot of work!

Oh, by the way, how many quarts or gallons in a bushel?

Wecome cabrita!
Wow! I'm jealous. I'd love to grow all that citrus! I can never get enough of it.
32 quarts to the bushel.
-Glenn

Glenn and All:

Tried to do the photobucket thing, and it wasn't working or was just so slow it seemed like my computer was frozen up.

So, I posted some of the photos I took today to a forum site called IDigMyGarden. They're not great photos, I only have a cheap HP camera (a little point & shoot type), but they'll give you some idea of some of this. I'll try to post some more/better photos when I have more time. If you click on the photo thumbnails on the site, a larger one pops up in a new window.

This link will take you to some earlier photos I posted on IDig back in June -- just general garden stuff.

Finally, here are some earlier photos of fruits I posted over on IDig. Check out the Kiwi vines that have taken over the telephone pole -- I don't think the local utility would be happy if they saw this. I prune them severely every few years. They have a bumper crop this year. Also, this link has pictures of my shadbush taken back in June, and my harvesting and processing of Aronia berries.

Dennis
SE Michigan

Your assistant looks a lot like mine in the close up.
Mine was just out helping today (actually he begged to play fetch with a drop and slobbered all over it).

I'm glad to see your Arkansas Blacks are the same color as mine. I didn't remember mine being this read this early before.

Dennis-
Good stuff. A picture is worth a thousand words. Your Kiwi vines are what impressed me most. I'm not sure I'm happy that I planted mine now! Thanks for sharing! -Glenn

Wow! Your harvest is really impressive Dennis. (I was going to say impressive as hell! - but don't want to offend anyone.)

How much land do you grow on?

Do you sell the excess?

Can it?

Dehydrate?

Root cellar?

I don't have much to share with the group when it comes to my harvest. I got a late start as I knew nothing about food production before 2/11/08 and by the time my garden was ready to accept some seeds the summer was about a quarter over. But, as the saying goes...better late than never.

My lot is only 2/3 acre and I have to use the intensive method of planting. My main garden is about 750 SF but it has rock paths. I also have 6 smaller beds that are from 20 SF to 80 SF each. Also have 26 fruit tress.

Here is main garden.

{{gwi:124243}}

{{gwi:113267}}

Next year will put in another bed on side about 30 SF and a few more fruit trees.

if things get tougher, l'll put in squash bed about 350 SF

I planted 14 tom plants and maybe got 90(??) pounds of toms of more so far. This is 5 days worth when they are at their peak.

{{gwi:124244}}

I may have got a half a pint of blueberry. My fruit trees produced 3 or 4 fruits on average while my nectarine tree made 13 small fruits. I had 2 string bean poles that produced maybe 10 pounds, but they got blown down with the remnants of the last hurricane. lots of lettuce, really too much to use. I also had maybe 2 pints of raspberries. Also got some summer SQ and hopefully 5 or 6 sugarbaby melons. I've been trying to grow figs in containers as well. Got about a dozen figs.

{{gwi:124245}}

This year I have done much better with foraging than growing. I've been eating wild / abandoned apples for the last 6 weeks, peaches and now have tons of foraged pears. Am waiting for pawpaws.

Some of my foraged items...

{{gwi:113263}}

{{gwi:113250}}

{{gwi:113251}}

{{gwi:113253}}

{{gwi:113255}}

{{gwi:113257}}

Foraging is for those that love to reap what they have not sown...

{{gwi:113249}}

Now, foraging does not always yield Martha Stewart quality produce. But that is the beauty of being a forager. We can take what others may overlook and get nourishment from it. And it yields some sort of strange satisfaction is stealing food back from the ants after they have stolen so much food from some of us.

Take this nasty looking apple. When I play doctor with it, I get half an apple and it taste good (good as hell too!)

{{gwi:113265}}

{{gwi:113266}}

So if your local is conducive to foraging, study it up and have many options for food production available to you if the world starts decomposing around you.

Edible landscaping will be most important to feeding what is left of us when TEOTWAK arrives.

Here are 3 good books for those interested in developing an urban homestead.

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Not-Lawns-Neighborhood-Community/dp/193339207X

http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-When-Counts-Growing-Mother/dp/086571553X

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Sufficient-Suburban-Gardener-Jeff-Ball/dp/0878574573

I think we have a real food crisis brewing for the world. Not enough young farmers replacing the old, we will run low of fertilizer as the NG dries up and that food which is grown is devoid of nutrition and not healthy. And to make matter worse, fewer people can even afford to buy produce.

With the recent food shortages in the news I have to wonder as Richard Heinberg brought up "Who will be growing our food 20 years from now?"

"The average American farmer is 55 to 60 years old. The proportion of full time farmers younger than 35 years of age has dropped from 15.9% in 1982 to 5.8% in 2002. Who will be growing our food 20 years from now?" from "Peak Everything" by Richard Heinberg

"Amish farmers can't compete in conventual agriculture farming. 40 years ago 90% to 95% of the Amish were farmers. Today less than 10% are farmers." from: "How the Amish Survive" DVD

And even if the farmers keep up with production, many people cannot afford the high prices of produce. At Krogers a butternut squash was $7, a large apple was $1.85, a rutabaga was $3, an artichoke near $5 and a lemon was $1.35, a bag of cherries was $14.75, ONE organic yam was $8.25.

And these high priced produce are being offered when times are still relatively good What will this stuff sell for when gas is $10 or $15 a gallon? Peak oil, peak NG, peak water and food as well as peak uranium will fuel mass starvation as our artificial and unsustainable world decomposes around us.

As people buy less produce due to affordability issues and the produce stops selling and rots on the shelves, the farmers will grow less produce that just rots unsold and less potential farmers will be entering that field.

Book and DVD list. All available from your local library.

Beyond Oil: the view from Hubbert's Peak
by Deffeyes, Kenneth S.
[url]http://www.princeton.edu/hubbert/[/url]

The Coming Economic Collapse - how you can thrive when oil costs $200 a barrel
by Leeb, Stephen

A Crude Awakening - the oil crash
Lava Productions AG, Switzerland DVD
[url]http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/[/url]

The End of Suburbia - oil depletion and the collapse of the American dream
by Greene, Gregory DVD
[url]http://www.endofsuburbia.com/[/url]

Fed Up
[url]http://www.amazon.com/Fed-Up-Angelo-Sacerdote/dp/B000CNGC6G[/url]

High Noon for Natural Gas: the new energy crisis
by Darley, Julian
[url]http://www.highnoon.ws/[/url]

The Long Emergency: surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century
by Kunstler, James Howard

Oil Apocalypse
History channel DVD

Peak Oil Survival: preparation for life after gridcrash
by McBay, Aric

Powerdown: options and actions for a post-carbon world
by Heinberg, Richard

Resource Wars: the new landscape of global conflict
by Klare, Michael T
[url]http://www.amazon.com/Resource-Wars-Landscape-Conflict-Introduction/dp/0805055762[/url]

A Thousand Barrels a Second: the coming oil break point and the challenges facing an energy dependent world
by Tertzakian, Peter

Twilight in the Desert: the coming Saudi oil shock and the world economy
by Simmons, Matthew R.
Well written book examining 12 of the key Saudi oil fields.

Who Killed the Electric Car?
Sony Pictures Classics release
[url]http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/[/url]

Zoom:the global race to fuel the car of the future
by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran.

...and thanks so much Dennis for your generous time and efforts at helping others less knowledgeable than you by sharing your gardening wisdom with us. And for being such an outstanding inspiration at what can be done with home food production.

Allenwrench

{{gwi:83067}}

Forgot to mention...

All those green pears in my photo were blown down from a storm. Will see what happens with em. They can always be cooked though

"At Krogers a butternut squash was $7, a large apple was $1.85, a rutabaga was $3"

You're kidding! I have a friend who grows squash. You should see the fields when his pickers are done with the field. I once asked him,"Did you pick that field?" He just smiled and said yes, those that are left have blemishes so the trade won't take them. There are always many tons per acre left. MANY. Same with pumpkins and every kind of squash. Rutabaga has to be the easiest thing in the world to grow. One spray and done. And it brings more than an apple? Where are you anyway?

I think Libby's will take about any pumpkin as long as it's not rotten. The semis roll in and dump them in a big pile.

Geraldo, yes, squash were $1.99 a LB at the local Kroger's here in the suburbs of Detroit last weekend -- easily making an average butternut $5 to $8. Food prices are REALLY rising here -- a whole chicken that might have been $0.59 a lb a few years ago is now $1.29 to $1.89 a lb unless on sale. So, that is one reason I grow a lot of stuff. There are many more reasons -- enjoyment/fulfillment, hobby/something to do, etc.

What is really sad is that so much good food is STILL being thrown out, as you mentioned with the less-than-perfect squash. Alas, when will we, as a society or as a species, learn no to waste?

Allenwrench, you asked about my land, and about what I do with all of the things I grow. I have about 2.1 acres, in an "L" shaped lot that is largely flat, but it does have a bit of a gentle slope in the back, and a low spot at one edge that floods a bit a few times a year for a day or two. Soils -- well, I have everything from very heavy clay to sandy loam, and it changes very abruptly in places.

I can, freeze, and dry produce. I've gone extra heavy into it this year because of my concerns over the economy, the "global food crisis," peak oil/energy, etc. Since I can do it, why not? I am feeding not only my immediate household, but putting up a lot for my two sisters and their husbands, my niece with 3 kids, and giving a lot away to friends and other family.

I'm trying to be as self-sufficient as possible, because I CAN be. I figure everything that I don't have to buy from the store is that much less oil that was burnt shipping food thousands of miles. My limitation here is that I'm not legally allowed to have animals -- so, this means that protein is harder to do -- I'm trying to grow a lot of beans, quinoa, etc., that are vegetable protein sources.

I'll try to post some other garden photos tomorrow.

Dennis
SE Michigan

Wow guys! I am in love with Dennis' dog....and will hold myself back from ever growing kiwi I think. I would like blueberries though, I think we can grow them here as long as we acidify the soil for them.

I wanted to ask Allenwrench what are the fruits in the picture that has the pencil and the picture above the one with the pencil. Also, you fruit would probably make great apple and pear butter.

One of our yards is only 1/4 acre, the other one is 1/6 and we have to leave a little bit of space for the house, so the veggies are cramped and there is no grass....we grow all fruit and veggies though(4 seasons) so I only go to the store for dry goods. Coffee, flour, dried milk, rice, beans, nuts, wine. I only go once a month or every other month. On a recent trip I could not believe how expensive food was! not the main reason I grow veggies, but it seems like a good one.

I think Libby's will take about any pumpkin as long as it's not rotten.
myk1, yes they will take them, but they pay pennies per pound. Pennies. Most of those fresh pumpkins you see at Fred Meyer or Kroger only cost Krogers no more than fifteen cents. So you can imagine what they pay for processing pumpkins.

WOW! I am so impressed. Please send me any recommendations on small fruits I could plant in my very tiny yard. I have a total of 30'x50' to plant so large trees are out. So far I have 2 blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, a grape...I am looking for smaller fruits and would like to know about how to grow the serviceberry and honeyberry.

I also live in SE MI in warren...any way I could get some seeds from you??? It doesn't seem like I have much to offer but I certainly will try.

Impressive gardening, and impressive gathering, too.

I've had some of those thoughts. Only a couple of generations ago, back yards in the suburbs and small towns all had vegetable plots and a couple of fruit trees -- not to mention a clothesline! I read somewhere that we could save a lot of energy by drying clothes on a line in pleasant weather but it is expressly forbidden by many homeowners' associations. Perhaps that will change if enough people start thinking differently.

Here in my suburban town of about 50,000 vegetable gardens are rare. There are community garden plots, though, and I notice that those are mostly filled with vegetables.

One thing that puzzles me is how to store all this fruit? We can only eat so much jam and jelly, and anyway, all that sugar is not good for us. I'm growing citrus, grapes, blueberries, figs, mulberries, pomegranates, apples, plums, loquats, and peaches, though only the citrus, mulberry, figs and one plum are producing yet. (Wait, not true. The loquat produces too but the dog eats all the fruit right off the tree, since we don't care for it .) We have an olive, too, but so far have not done anything with it. The apples alone are starting to scare me, since I planted six and have half a dozen more on my list for the dryland orchard. I even planted a couple of avocados, but I'm not sure they are going to make it -- not enough water even with frequent watering. But we had to try -- my DH loves them so.

Rosefolly

There are a LOT of preservation methods for fruit, aside from jam/jelly/preserves. And yes, you're right about the sugar, it isn't good for us, especially in quanity.

I dry quite a lot -- been drying peaches the last few days, and those are especially delicious. I also dry a lot of apples and pears, and have done other things -- strawberries are excellent as well, for example. Dried fruits take up MUCH less space in storage, so it's a good way to do it.

I'm guessing from the plants you grow, Rosefolly, that you're probably in CA (or possibly Florida), if so, I would think a solar dryer would be a good possiblity for you -- they can be assembled pretty cheaply, there are many internet sites with directions if you do a google search.
Other things -- juicing is a good way to use things. I have a cheap juice extractor, a $50 Hamilton Beach, does a good job, but a bit messy to clean up, oh well. A half bushel of apples or pears makes about 1.5 gallons of cider and about half a gallon of thick puree which can be made into a smooth apple or pear sauce or boiled down all the way into apple or pear butter. This could also be spread on trays and dried into fruit leather. No sugar need be added unless you want to. MANY fruits can be juiced -- I made peach juice and peach butter last week the same way. I also have 2 gallons of mixed pear/apple juice ferminting into vinegar, and want to make at least 10 more gallons for NEXT YEAR'S pickling and preserving -- vinegar seems to be pretty easy to make, actually. I don't drink alcohol, but home brewing of hard ciders and wine would seem to be pretty easy, too.

Yes, I am in California. A solar dryer sounds like a good idea. We already generate most (not all) of our electricity through solar panels. I'll look around for plans. Thanks for the suggestion.

R

Denny, I don't know how much a hunting license costs in Michigan, but I do know that venison is really good eating, so you could maybe supplement some ribs or back strap for steak or chicken. LOL
You and Don do such a good job of interesting and informative postings.
Incidentally, I was born in Homer Michigan, drug to Denver at six months old, and came to Texas as soon as I could.
I'm sure I'm not alone in learning from, and enjoying your postings. Just thought I would give you a sincere thumbs up.

Thanks for the kind wo

Plant-one-on-me....

(how I missed this post recently is beyond me)

I work in Warren. I'm a couple towns over adn you should see what I've done with a yard about the same size as yours. (heck if you do make it at the right time I might just send you home with some things...I always have a few things in pots looking for a home) I've got many of the things you mentioned (though some are still too young to be producing). The serviceberries are easy. About 1/3rd of the strip malls around here have one or more of them (and seeds are as easy to get as making a stop by at the right time....)

~Chills