Nancy, be patient with BOB. He really does look a lot better here in his third (? gosh, time flies!) year. BOB was kinda...lavender tinged gray the first year, and I was disgusted. Plus, it looked identical to Big Navy planted just down from it. No more! Big Navy got it's much darker indigo and BOB speaks for itself.

I know nothing of your fruit, but it sounds intriguing. Your lack of a food mill, and difficulty with your blender could be a good reason for you to purchase an immersion blender. (Some people call them a stick blender.) They're fantastic because you can just "blend" in the pot! I use it all the time when making a pureed soup, or split pea soup or something. I can speed along the process of lots of items by blending rather than waiting for something to completely mash down on its own. They're not terribly expensive, super easy to use, and easy to clean. There are several companies who make these. Here is a link that might be useful: Basic Information about Immersion Blenders

Looks like you have a Leaf spot disease caused by a fungus and probably accelerated by over watering (too wet)....You could try to apply a fungicide to try to control the spread. The fungus causes premature leaf drop and may or may not kill your plant....depending on the severity. Ian

Whether or not you should/shouldn't fertilize during the darker months depends on how you water. If you water so you're flushing the soil regularly, you should fertilize all year long. If you're using a soil that doesn't allow you to flush the soil whenever you feel like it for fear of extended periods of soil saturation limiting root function or wrecking root health, and you're watering in sips to prevent those issues, it might be the least of two evils to water in sips and forgo fertilizing, but it's not a good choice. Better, would be setting in place a plan that allows you to both flush the soil and fertilize at intervals during the fall, winter, and early spring. If it was my plant, my plan, and it's good to have a plan you can stick to, would be to nurse the plant through the winter and repot next June into a soil that allows you to water so you're flushing the soil whenever you feel like it. That will give you plenty of time to learn enough about soils so you can repot into something that will work FOR you, instead of against you. Most of the problems that bring growers here looking for help are actually soil-related. FWIW - I flush the soil of my plants EVERY time I water, and I actually fertilize EVERY time I water with a weak fertilizer solution all winter long. I'm not saying that because I follow that regimen you should too; but, I am saying that the way I grow is so easy it's hard to get it wrong unless you work at it. Also, if you're using a soil that allows you to water correctly, there's little worry about over-potting or moving your plant to a smaller pot. With the right soil, you could use a 55 gallon drum full of soil and in it plant the smallest of seedlings w/o worry about root health due to 'over-potting'. Al