Fruit Country

I've been looking hard for the picture I wanted to show you, but either I've lost my mind (and only thought I took it), or it's disappeared. I've looked through 3 years of photos (from home- not the hike), twice, and I can't find it.

It was a picture of an older cherry-picking machine. You'll have to settle for these pictures I took today of a slightly newer cherry-picking machine.

This is the other side of a different machine, but the same type. I'm betting that if you don't live or visit in fruit country, you don't know how these work.

Well, the reason I decided to share these at this time is because Mason County Press took some drone footage of a very new machine. Even though I knew how cherries were picked this video is mind-blowing because I'd never seen it from this angle, and the new machines are actually attractive.



P.S. They are also called a cherry shaker!

I visited another beautiful garden today, so those pictures will be in your future too.

I managed to work some on most projects, but I had some running around to do, and it was humid.

See Where the North Begins and the Fine Fruit Grows

That Tree Again

 
It's just a picture of that hybrid cherry tree across the tracks. But I love it. I know... every time I show a picture of it in fall, it looks just the same. Too bad. I still love it. And it's not this pretty every year.



In other news: I wrote in the morning, and worked on formatting, editing, and other book stuff some in the afternoon. Got the go-ahead from the printer that I'm formatting correctly for them. Hooray! Now I can work on that a bit, as I get things edited. I may have a little cold. A tiny sore throat, but I don't think it's anything major.

	See Finally some color
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Cherry Soup

 
One of the things about putting a Hungarian tenant family in the Dubois Files children's books is that I have to learn more about Hungarian culture! Seriously, I know practically nothing about it. Thank goodness for the internet.

In The Hitchhiker, the book taking place in cherry season... the kids are helping with fruit sorting... I went looking for a Hungarian recipe that used cherries. I had no idea if they even had cherries there. Well, they do, and there is a popular traditional cold fruit soup made with tart cherries! Cherry Soup.



It's really good. Of course, I like most everything cherry, but it's spicy and refreshing.

It's not too complicated to make, so the recipe is going in the book as one of the craft/skill items.

	See Cherry Pie II
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Red, White and Blue- Benzie County Style

 
Anywhere in west Michigan from about halfway up the state north is fruit country. Cherry harvesting is in full swing. These trees are loaded! I know apple pie is supposed to be the most American, but in July, I think cherry wins.



Just look at those cherries!



Tomorrow is a big blog day. Stay tuned. BP -1 and counting.

	See Cherry Pie II
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Shapes of Trees II

 
One of the good things about the winter season is that you can really see the shapes of trees when the leaves are gone. If the tree has grown in the open, so that its spread is unrestricted, the shape can be part of the way you identify the tree.

Here are a few from my kingdom.

A very old and unpruned apple tree. It bore a lot of apples this year. I made cider.



A sugar maple on the hill to my east. It's not actually on my property, but my "trail" walks beneath it. I have permission to walk there. Unfortunately, it and several other maples are getting very old and are losing big branches in storms. Its years are numbered.



The big wild black cherry by the railroad tracks. It's never borne a cherry that I've noticed, but it's attractive.



Quaking aspen also near the tracks. You've seen this clump before in Just WOW in Blue and White, for one instance.



And on the swing around to return to the house, Staghorn Sumac.



Do you like to look at the shapes of trees? Maybe you never thought about how different they can be from each other.

When I was maybe in junior high I was trying to draw bare trees. I complained to my mother that I wasn't happy with the picture because the trees looked like stalks of celery. She said, "So what? Some trees look like celery."

	See Shapes of Trees I
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Fruity?

 
Lots of lovely blossoms right now. It could be a good fruit year. Of course, it's only the second week in May, so we could have a hard frost yet.

And in deciding what to picture this afternoon, I learned something new. If you had shown me just these blossoms, I don't think I could have identified them. Even if you'd given me the three trees, I would have had to guess as to which is which. Now, maybe I'll recognize them better.

The three all have white blossoms: sour cherry, Bartlett pears, and edible crabapple (possibly Ralph Shay variety).

Let's do the easy one first. This is our crabapple. It's an old-fashioned one that you can eat the apples, not an ornamental one. It's so old it should be long dead, but it continues to be wonderful every year. The flowers have long twisted petals with a spray of yellow stamens and anthers.





The other two are harder to tell apart. Here is the sour cherry. The petals are nearly round. The filaments are white with greenish anthers (the two parts of the stamen).





And the pear. The pear petals are nearly identical to the cherry, and maybe it's easiest to distinguish them by looking at the longer view. The filaments are white, but the anthers are darker, looking as if there is a spray of dark dots surrounding the center of the blossom.





If we have a good fruit year, it's hard to do enough with it all to keep me from feeling wasteful. This is especially true of the pears. Although, I have now collected quite a few recipes of things to do with them that we like, and can be frozen.

Last year, I didn't manage to do much at all with our fruit. Even though it wasn't a great year, I didn't do a single thing except with some apples. Hopefully, I'll do better this year.

	See Red, Lovely Crabapples
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Cherry Blossoms

 
Sorry about the lapse in blog posts for a few days. Life sort of had me by the tail for a while, but I think I've recovered and am ready to take on the week.

Here's some quality: the prediction was for rain today, but after a damp morning it turned into a gorgeous, breezy, sunny day. I took a nice walk.

I think this is some domestic cherry gone wild. First fruit tree in full bloom I've encountered here this year. Spring it is!



They are worth a smile or five without any explanation.

	See Good Fruit Year?
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Blooming Trees

 
I am just feeling like I'm in temporary heaven with trees blossoming! [updated ID info in brackets]

Always so busy when visiting people that I'm too tired to say much at the end of the day, but I don't think you'll mind. The pictures speak for themselves. There is not a snowflake in sight.

This is a row of trees across the street from where we are staying. I think they are crabapples, but they are awfully large so I could be wrong. [I am wrong. The white ones are Bradford Pears- which produce no pears, but are often used for landscaping trees in this area.]







This looks like some sort of tree rose. [This one has been IDed for me as a red camellia. I didn't even know they came in that color!]



This is an azalea.



And a weeping cherry.



Sigh... you'll never see every wonderful thing from this week. There's just too much. It's wonderful already and I've been here one day. Took a five mile walk this afternoon, too.

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