We are smallholding homesteaders lucky to live alongside glorious fruit & nut providers. They include
- Plum
- Apricot
- Almond
- Gravenstein Apple
- Golden Delicious Apple
- Liberty Apple
- Spigold Apple
- Chestnut
- Native hazelnut
- Red Bartlett Pear
- Red D’Anjou Pear
- Cherry
- Pomegranate
- Orange
- Tangerine
- Lime
- Meyer lemon
- Kumquat
- Quince
- Fig
- Persimmon
- Blackberry
- Salmonberry
- Black currant
- Rose hip and
- Concord grape
Sometimes we are too busy to harvest, and the wild birds and small animals feast. Sometimes we organize harvest parties and share nut-cracking before a potluck lunch. One year the harvest party group made fermented apple chutney, apple pies, and fresh-pressed apple cider all in the same day.
Eating from fruit & nut providers from our land has made us feel sad about the quality of most of the food available to people in our country. It is far different to eat a fig just off the tree, versus one that traveled to a grocery store and sat, dehydrating. Often grocery store food is picked unripe because it has to make that hard trip—and sometimes, it’s gassed before or during travel. Disrupted food communicates loss, longing, interruption, displacement. When we eat food that is vine-ripened or tree-ripened, we feel sated, content, in the right place at the right time, oozing with life.
Regenerative agriculture is becoming more popular. This gives us hope.