You will know by now that when time permits I go off picking fruit on other people's trees. For relaxation, fun, and to contribute to the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand. I hate seeing good fruit go to waste, and many people have trees laden that they just don't get around to picking and using.
This past weekend I went off to the nearby settlement of Mapiu, to an amazing old orchard area near an original settler homestead. The orchard has four different apple trees, pear and plums, with fig and damson trees nearby.
The owner invited me to come pick damsons for our use (the damson trees we planted last year have yet to fruit), plus pick apples for the Piopio stand. We had fun picking away, talking about the history of the area and the trees.
The damson tree, which must be over 100 years old, was beautiful and laden with ripe fruit. I've now got a big container of damsons in the freezer for winter Syrian 7 Spice damson jam making. I also removed stones from a dozen or so plums and put them in the fridge in a bag with compost to try to grow more seedling trees. I managed to grow five of them last season from this very tree to share with the community. Also read recently that damsons are a prune plum, so can be dehydrated to make prunes.
We agreed that in winter I will return to take scion wood for grafting from three of the apple trees, hoping that the grafting gods will once again smile upon me to propagate these special heritage apples.
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