Friday, September 30, 2011

Will we be harvesting persimmons this year?


Two dozen persimmons (cachi/KAH-kee in italian) hang on the tree this year, but it'll still be some time until we know if they'll make it. Much of 2010's crop never made it due to strong winds that blew them down, and with the heavy rains, cool temps and meager sunshine, whatever fruits left on the branches either rotted or got picked on by the birds.

At this time of the year I'm always undecided on whether I should continue the garden blog because I don't think it's worth the trouble to maintain a winter plot in our location. So much easier to go into hibernation...zzz...zzz. But since I'll be visiting Kauai next month I thought it might be interesting to take notes on the farmers markets and anything fruit/veg/garden related while I'm there.


I've still got beets in the ground and I put in some peas last month, but this is the last of summer's experimental crop - one sicilian serpent squash. I had seen photos of these that were monstrous in length but given my prealpine climate, I think they weren't able to do as well as they do in Sicily.

5 comments:

K and S said...

my goya didn't do too good this year, only about 2 inches long :( oh wella, have fun in Hawaii :)

Heiko said...

I only just realised how far north you are. I'm not dead keen on persimmons, but have found uses for them in my 'I can't believe it's not mango chutney' chutney and found a nice recipe for some cookies.

Andrea said...

Hi Rowena,hope you do keep up your Blog over winter maybe post favorite recipes, loved your tomatoe ones. now i did see some of those large squash in Radda and wondered what they were, some were huge!Had a great trip(what a beautiful country you live in) and yes lots of gelati,pasta and Vinsanto!! Ciao

Julie said...

I feel your pain Rowena, i harvested only four mango from my tree this year ; ( It was just too windy and rainy each time the poor thing tried to set a crop.
A funny thing i have noticed about garden blogs~seems like some of them actually get more active in the winter months. Always so much to fit in when the weather is fine, i suppose. But maybe you would just like to be a 'slow blogger', like me Rowena?
Hope you enjoy your visit home. Maybe you will get to enjoy a few persimmons on Kauai?

Rowena said...

Heiko - yes we are pretty far north but it's the altitude (700m) that makes it tough. Kaki trees down at lakeside our already boasting pale orange fruit!

Andrea - I am so glad that you enjoyed your trip and will have to catch up on any trip posts that you may have shared. My husband and I just returned from a visit back home to Hawaii, so I've got a lot of catching up to do!

Julie - goodness me...how time flies by. We are back in Italy and the persimmons seem to be on the road to successful ripening. Knock wood. We ate lots of papayas, avocados and pink jabong!

I'm all for the slow blogger idea right now. Still groggy from jet lag.