Barbara Brabec - The Farmers Wife Guide To Fabulous Fruits And Berries: Growing, Storing, Freezing, and Cooking Your Own Fruits and Berries

THE FARMERS WIFE
GUIDE TO
FABULOUS FRUITS AND
BERRIES

THE FARMERS WIFE
GUIDE TO
FABULOUS FRUITS
AND BERRIES

GROWING, STORING, FREEZING,
AND COOKING YOUR OWN
200+ RECIPES
AND SERVING IDEAS!

WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY

Barbara Doyen

Copyright 2002 by Barbara Doyen

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

M. Evans and Company, Inc.
216 East 49th Street
New York, New York 10017

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Doyen, Barbara.

The farmers wife guide to fabulous fruits and berries : growing, storing, freezing, and cooking your own / by Barbara Doyen,
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

ISBN: 978-0-87131-975-3

1. Fruit-culture. 2. Fruit. 3. Berries. 5. Cookery (Berries) I. Title: Fabulous Fruits and berries. II. Title.

SB355.D77 2002

634dc21

2002020244

Book design by Rik Lain Schell

Printed in the United States of America

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my husband, The Farmer (also known as Bob Doyen),
who talked me into becoming The Farmer's Wife.

THE WEALTH OF MAN STARTS WITH
FOOD PRODUCED FROM THE SOIL.

Arnie Waldstein

In the old days, farm folk had to be self-sufficient. When times were tough, the only fruit you might have was what you could raise yourself. Today, fruit is available in abundance, nearly year-round. So why raise your own?

There is something wonderful about stepping out your back door to pick crisp, juicy apples off your very own tree or tangy-sweet raspberries off bushes planted with your own hands, to serve fresh for supper. Or to make your own homegrown fruits and berries into flavorful pies or ice cream to share with friends as you sit and visit on your patio under a grape or kiwi arbor.

You can harvest it at just the right time, at the peak of flavor. Store-bought fruit is often harvested unripe because it ships better that way. Sometimes fruit is altered by processing: for instance, it might be gassed to induce ripeness. Or waxed to prevent moisture loss. Or dyed to look prettier. Your own fruit is the real thing, wholesome in its natural goodness, the way nature intended.

For each fruit type, there are several choices that would be appropriate for your growing conditions. Each one has different attributes and a different flavoryou select what is right for you. Sometimes, the variety you prefer is not available in the store, like the Wealthy apples that were my Grandpa Hartsocks favorite, so I have planted a tree in my orchard in his memory.

Did you know that strawberries picked on a sunny day have lots more vitamin C than those harvested on a cloudy day? Beyond this, shipping delays, premature harvest, and processing techniques rob the fruit of valuable nutrients.

Fruit, especially when imported from other countries, may have been sprayed with toxic chemicals. By growing your own, you will know exactly what was used on your fruit, and since you have many choices, why not select products that work in cooperation with nature and are not harmful to our bodies?

Fruited plants provide a landscape that is ever-changing from spring through fall and even into the winter. Your fruit trees, shrubs, vines, and plants will be pleasing from the eagerly awaited first budding in the spring, through the spectacular beauty of full blossoming, to the bright flashes of developing fruit, and even past the harvest when the foliage goes into fall color. The bare branches will add stark accents to your winter landscape as they throw soft shadows from the weaker winter sun; become painted with frost on a crisp, cool morning; or as they are quietly coated with the first snow on a gray November day.

Once established, it takes little time and minimal effort for great rewards!

Raising your own fruits and berries presents you with a built-in opportunity to turn your attention away from your hectic day-to-day existence and tune in to the calming infinity of nature. Just as the fruit is connected and in harmony to the earth via roots and leaves and vital energy, youll discover yourself becoming deeply connected and in harmony, too. This connection is not only mental and spiritual, but I believe it to be physical as well. The produce you raise likely has properties that help your body prepare for the conditions of the season to come via the same mechanism that triggers the woolly caterpillars to grow more hair, or wild animals to have thicker pelts and dig deeper holes for hibernation in anticipation of a harsher-than-normal winter. Perhaps eating locally grown fruit is important for your bodys preparation for whatever the next season will bring.

I hope this book inspires you to grow fruits and berries, no matter what your situation. Youll look forward to walking around outside to observe and tend your crops or to caring for your indoor container plants. Youll find yourself reaping a dual harvest: wholesome fruits and berries for your body, and, as a bonus, nourishing fruits of the spirit for your soul.

Although my farm home is situated on a twelve-acre yard, and I have plenty of space for an orchard, if this farmers wife were to move to town, you can bet my landscape would soon include fruiting trees, shrubs, and plants.

Even if my house had no outdoor garden area, Id manage to raise fruit trees, bushes, or plants in containers, indoors or on a balcony outside. It can be done. I started my eight-foot-tall lemon tree from seed in my living room, and its even produced lemons, an impossible feat outdoors because of our cold winters. A friend started a bush cherry in her apartment living room, and it actually produces delicious cherries year after year! Single-stem apple trees or espaliered dwarfs grow well in containers, take up little space on tiny balconies, and can even be underplanted with strawberries.

Most people will want to grow fruit outdoors, so that will be the main focus of this book. And most people live in town, not on a farm with ample room to grow as much as they desire. So how can you find space for fruit without a generous yard?

Here are some ideas:

VINES. Grape and kiwi are very attractive and can be trained to grow on a fence or wall or perhaps on an ornamental arch or arbor. Or, they can form a shady patio roof, lending architectural interest to the landscape as well as edible fruit.

SHRUBS. Instead of considering traditional shrubs for foundation planting, why not think fruitfully? Elderberries make a lovely specimen shrub all year round, and gooseberries can be used as a foundation planting. Fruit bushes can be used for specimen planting, to line a pathway, or as a hedge that happens to bloom as well as provide food and colorful fall foliage. Consider blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, elderberries, bush cherries, or bush apricots.