North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Heron Breen <breen@fedcoseeds.com>]

Hi All,
I put away a bit of fruit, and definitely NEED it to keep going. My son and I 
picked Strawberries this summer, which was a real scarcity here this summer, 
and 
froze many quarts. Smoothies and sauce for yogurt or pancakes in December 
seem to 
be our pattern. Right now the wild Blueberry is an every night comfort food, 
with 
the thickest cream in existence from the horse-powered dairy a few miles 
away. 
Blueberries drive the blues away! I always freeze peaches, because maybe I am 
too 
lazy for canning, and more smoothies appear. Cranberries really do add a Zing 
to my 
attitude, especially when sweetened as sauce with pure honey from my family 
hives 
and local keepers. That Honey taste...makes darkest days seem worthwhile. I 
am 
starting to make applesauce, and do it all winter as fruits soften. I am 
lucky 
enough to have a small rootcellar, in addition to my chest freezer. Oooh, and 
sooooo many Blackberries from bountiful wild patches! A great summer for 
them, and 
they just kept coming. We eat most of them fresh, but I froze a few quarts to 
make 
cobblers and sauces. Frozen and uncooked they taste BLech, but frozen then 
cooked 
they are very fine, Clemintine. And to top it off, at some point when a 
romantic 
interlude is needed, a few precious pints of wild black raspberries have been 
squirelled away. The best thing about all of this is I picked it all with my 
son, 
who is three (two during the summer). Seeing him chowing down on fruit, I 
learned 
from him: He would only accept really premium berries. He would ask for a 
blackberry, try it and spit any even slightly unprime ones out. All the ones 
he ate 
were the best of the best. Couldn't fool him at all. Even this Sunday, 
driving home 
in sub-freezing weather, he asked me to stop the car and pick an apple for 
him from 
these good wild cookers we had "explored" together earlier in the Fall. Just 
the 
memories of these moments are as nourishing as the fruit itself. 
Next year maybe he and I will try to get back into canning. For my limited 
experience, the best peaches I have ever eaten have come from Harvard, 
Massachusetts. Just a side note, and encouragement for all you peach folks 
out 
there! Fruit in my freezer is as important to me as the many cords of wood in 
my 
barn. Proof I am ready to live through another Winter. I can't believe I am 
saying 
this in early winter, but I have been day-dreaming of Fiddleheads (Ostrich 
Ferns)! 
I love them in the spring with butter and vinegar, with roasted Parsnips.  
Blessings in this Holiday Season,
Heron Breen
zone 4 Maine