Recipe: Orgasmically Delicious Low-Sugar Fresh Cherry Pie!

Oh-Em-Gee!  Have you ever had FRESH Cherry Pie?!  Like, made from FRESH, JUST-PICKED cherries?!!

I must shamefully admit that, No, I have NEVER experienced Fresh Cherry Pie.

I've had "bakery" cherry pies from the grocery store (Ick!).  I've had frozen cherry pies.  I've made "fresh-ish" pies from canned cherry filling (High-Fructose Corn Syrup, anyone?!).  And I've had "fresh" cherry pies from Marie Callender's and Heidi's Pies (family-owned restaurant in San Mateo, CA).

Well.  I had NO clue what I'd been missing.  No sirree!  No clue whatsoever!!!

So a couple of days ago, I succumbed to temptation, and delusion, and what-EVER, and loaded up on produce from our local farm-stand, Giordano's. (Note: I get no "spliff" or nuthin' for posting links.  I just LOVE Giordano's farm-stand THAT MUCH, k?!)

Yeah, they had a display like this:

Okay, this is actually an older photo and they didn't have *quite* this many cherries...

But the display was still irresistible and I loaded up on several pounds' worth...  All of Giordano's cherries are picked, on-site, on the day they are sold.  They are amazingly delicious!

So I picked up a large basket of Rainiers (the yellowy-orange variety) and - I think - a large basket of Brooks.  Bings are nearing the end of the season (:::sigh:::).  The cherries sat on our countertop for a couple of days (and I ate handfuls of cherries 'til I was damn-near sick!).  

Well, today...  After catching-up on work emails, I determined that it was going to be a blissfully slow day so I dragged out my Cherry-Pitter (Christmas Prezzie from hubs - Yay, hubs!)...

Note: This is a very cool li'l gizmo and a HUGE time-saver.

But it is NOT foolproof.  We discovered more than a few pits in the pie.

(Ooooops!) ("Oh well!" Just proves it's home-made, right?!)

And I ended up with a bowl-full of cherries that looked something like this:

Yummmm!!!

And I consulted the Great Oracle, Google and found this (which was dutifully "Pinned").

And I ended up with THIS:

"Ohh-Emm-Eff-Gee!"

Okay, so I followed the recipe, pretty-closely, but I'll repost it with my Low-Sugar Mods and "suggested improvements"

QT's Orgasmically Delicious Low-Sugar Fresh Cherry Pie

Yield: One 9" deep-dish pie

Time: ~30 mins prep time.  ~50 mins cooking time

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of sweet cherries, pitted and de-stemmed (I used appx 50/50 Rainier and Brooks) (Forgot to weigh 'em - sorry!)
• 4 TBS Tapioca
• "just shy of" 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• "slightly more than" 1/2 cup granulated Splenda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract (the real-deal).  Orig recipe called for 1/2 tsp
• 1/8 tsp almond extract (again, real).  Orig recipe called for 1/4 tsp (but I think that's too much.  I used that qty and it tasted too almondy, IMHO)
• 1 TBS softened butter
• 2 crusts for a 9" deep-dish pie (I cheated and went with store-bought, frozen [bottom] and refrigerated roll-out [top])
• 1 egg white and a smidge of water

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 450*.  While it's pre-heating, rinse and pit your cherries.
2. Thaw your crusts (if you're lazy like me), but keep 'em cool in the fridge.
3. Dump the pitted cherries in a bowl.  Add tapioca, salt, sugar/splenda, vanilla and almond extracts.  Stir as best you can (Mine was pretty dry - but that's a GOOD thing!  I'm not fond of gushy-goozy pies!).
4. Beat your egg-white + smidge of water (maybe a tsp?) lightly with a fork.  Remove bottom crust from the fridge and brush egg-white on the bottom crust.
5. Dump your fruity/sugar mixture into the crust. It can "heap" a little bit, but not too much (unless you want fruit goozing out!).  Blorp butter blops on top of the fruit (say that three-times fast!)
6. Dampen the outer edges of the bottom crust with a wet finger.  Unroll your top crust and place it on top of the bottom crust.  Cut off excess and squidge the top + bottom crusts together with your fingers to seal 'em together.
7. Cut vent hole(s) in the top.
8. Brush the top crust with more of the egg-white (you'll have too much egg-white - don't worry about it!)
9. Place the pie in your pre-heated oven and cook @ 450* for 10 minutes.  Lower heat to 375 and cook for an add'l 35-40 minutes 'til the fruit is bubbly and the top is brown.
10. Allow pie to mostly-cool before serving.

TOTALLY enjoy it!

Here's a couple more pics of the pie "Under Construction:"

Mixing the pie-guts

Yes, it's dry - but this is GOOD. It makes for a non-gloopy pie!

Filling the bottom crust.

Don't forget to blorp butter on top!

Fresh out of the oven

It smelled *almost* as good as it tasted!

Yep.  I am FOREVER spoiled now and will NEVER look at a Bakery Cherry Pie the same way again...

Amazingly delicious!!!

Recipe: Low-Sugar Plum Spice Jam

Yeah, so I have kind of a Love-Hate relationship with plums.  I love the trees.  Love the white "popcorn" blossoms in springtime (Dad's Satsuma plum tree blossomed, big-time, the day after he passed away - and I kind of always viewed that as a "sign" that he was Okay in the Great Beyond).  I love the fruit.  Love picking a ripe juicy plum, still warm off the tree, wiping it on my shirt and taking a big, tart, goozy-drippy bite as the juice runs down my chin!  "Mmmm!  Yeah!"

But plums are one of those fruits that produces in such OVER-ABUNDANCE in such a short period of time, well, it can get kind of overwhelming!  And we have TWO plum trees that produce over-abundantly and very close together (maybe 2-3 weeks apart).  Friends, neighbors, co-workers, complete-strangers-on-the-street start to run in fear when they see me approaching with a suspiciously lumpy shopping bag!

A Plethora of Plums

(This is just one day's worth of picking.  There's plenty more on the way!)

(Note: I did NOT promise a ramble-free experience!)

Anyway...  A few years ago, I made a couple of plum pies.  Tasty, but kinda runny.  They were like gloopy purple peach-pies!

And I also had my first (horrifically-bad) experience with canning, many years ago, when I attempted to make plum-jam in a water-bath.  BEFORE I realized that our smooth ceramic-cooktop could not generate enough heat to bring a water-bath canner to boiling.  That was a HUGE debacle (that I've whined-about in past-posts - but it was traumatic-enough to bear repeating!!) (I lost four hours of my life that day!!!).

Well, since then, I have *almost* perfected my canning skills to the point where I no longer fear killing anyone (nor burning the house down), so I consider that "Progress!"

I've posted Plum Jam Recipes before, but whenever I endeavor to make a NEW batch of Plum Jam, I seem to "conveniently forget" what a Hot Pain in the @$$ it is to make!

I generally start here.  Do NOT let their post-title fool you.  I think that's why I keep falling for it! "How to make Plum Jam - Easily!"  Making Plum Jam is like childbirth - you tend to block the more unpleasant parts from your memory!  So today I am posting GRAPHIC PICTURES of what is involved with making plum jam - while posting my Most Delicious Recipe.  My hope is that I will *finally* learn from my mistakes and, next year, when I go back to my blog and search for "Plum Jam" I will be reminded of why I limit myself to ONE BATCH PER YEAR!!!

My earlier Plum Jam recipe was a freezer-jam, but it illustrates the "blanching" process pretty well.  So if you don't know how to blanch, go there!

Today's Plum Jam is a fully-cooked, fully processed version.  And it is incredibly tasty!  Tart and Sweet and Spicy all at the same time.  But - let me warn you - it is a fairly time-consuming endeavor, so plan on setting-aside at least two hours to make it.  Santa Rosa Plums (which are the same variety sold in most grocery stores) are NOT "freestone."

Teensy bit of education (before I move onto the recipe.  Hang in there, it's comin'!):  Stonefruits are fruits with pits.  Peaches, Nectarines, Plums, Apricots...  "Freestone" are varieties where the pit is not firmly attached to the fruit's flesh so, like when you open-up an apricot and it splits freely and the pit can be easily removed?  That's "Freestone."  "Cling" is the exact opposite.  THAT'S the camp that Santa Rosa Plums fall into!

Okay, that said.  The "Making of Jam" is pretty easy (so I'll agree - to that extent - with pickyourown.org's website).  It's the "Prepping of Fruit" that takes for-freaking-EVAR and turns your kitchen into a murder-scene worthy of any episode of "CSI: Whatever!"

Ready for the recipe?!  Good!  Cuz here it is:

QT's Low-Sugar Plum-Spice Jam
Time: At least 2 hours
Yield: 9 half-pint jars of jam

Ingredients:

• 8 cups prepared fruit, skinned and pitted.  (I'm guessing appx 4#. I'd started with 3 lbs, but it wasn't enough)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup water if your fruit is fruity and not soupy. (Mine was very juicy so I omitted the water)
• 4 cups sweetener (I broke mine down thusly: 1-1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1-1/2 cup granulated Splenda and 1 cup Splenda Brown-Sugar Blend)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• (opt) 1 tsp vanilla extract (the real-deal). (I forgot to add the vanilla, but it was still tasty!)
• 3 (+1/2) TBS Low/No-Sugar Pectin (the Ball brand jar of pectin called for 3 TBS, but I added a smidge more because I wanted a firm set)

Instructions:

1. Blanch and peel and de-pit your plums (See my earlier post for illustrated instructions)
2. Chop into 1/2" pieces (or whatever size you like your jam chunks to be)
3. Sprinkle a little lemon juice (maybe a tsp) to keep the fruit from browning while you're prepping...
4. Mix the pectin, in a dry bowl, with appx 1 cup of sweetener.  Mix well with a fork.
5. Dump the sweetener+pectin in with the fruit, along with the lemon juice, and mix well.
6. Put the fruit/sweetener/pectin on the stove in a LARGE pot and cook, stirring constantly, on Medium-High 'til well-heated and well-mixed.
7. Add the rest of your sweetener.
8. Bring to a hard boil, stirring constantly.  Boil hard for one full minute.
9. Remove from heat and check for "set."
10. If it's set properly, ladle the jam into hot, sterilized half-pint jars (I use the "sterilize" + "heated dry" cycle on my dishwasher)
11. Cap 'em and stick 'em in a canner.
12. Process in a Water-bath for 7-10 minutes.
13. Remove them and let them sit, undisturbed, overnight.
14. Make sure the lids popped.  If one (or two) didn't, pop 'em in the fridge and use them right away...

Jam should be good, stored at room temperature for at least 6 months (I rarely have my jams last longer than that!)

Okay...  Now the pictures (and I didn't even capture shots of my - ahem - formerly white shirt, after the bloodbath!):

Note: My plums were SUPER juicy

(and HELLA-messy!)

Woulda made good compost, but I didn't want to risk dripping

plum-blood on the floor!

Awful lot of work for nine jars of jam!

Anyway, it was a boatload of work, but the end result really is delightfully delicious! (Even if I do have to scrub the living daylights out of our countertops now!)

Enjoy!

Kitchen Wizardry (Or "The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions")

So Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, I was left allllll aloooooone (Big Sad Sigh) because Hubs wanted to spend some quality time with his "Mistress" (Yes, our boat has a new monicker!  Just as long as Lazy Lightning is his ONLY Mistress - otherwise, he's a dead man!).

Actually, I was okay with that.  We'd both taken Weds-Fri off work; spent all of the Fourth together; and sometimes I kinda like to have some "Alone Time."  So it's all good.

So yesterday I ran around, had breakfast with P, completed some errands, stopped at Giordano's, our local farm-stand and had a momentary lapse in judgment!  Allllll that GORGEOUS produce!  The CORN! ("Oh Gawd The CORN!!!").  And cherries?  Three different varieties of cherries picked mere minutes ago!!!

And me:  All alone with all this Spare Time!  Why, I think I'll just can, and can, and can 'til the cows come home!  Yessirree!  I'll dispense with many of the plums and what few peaches I've salvaged from my garden...  And I'll buy some of this ORGASMIC corn and cook-up a batch of sweet corn apple relish...  And - oooh - how about a couple of GIANT baskets of cherries and maybe I'll bake-up a Fresh Cherry Pie!

Srsly...  How could you RESIST?!

I'm sure there are some psychotropic meds that could probably prevent these delusional moments but, as luck would have it, I'm not taking ANY of them!

So yeah, I loaded up on fresh fruits and veggies (but: I did NOT buy any peaches or - Gawd-Forbid - plums!).  Bagged 'em up and loaded up the car...

Then I had a few more errands to run (including standing in The World's Slowest Line at CVS to drop-off some prescriptions).  And, by the time I got home, and with the (FINALLY) warm weather, I decided I was too tired to do any canning and opted to sit my butt down at the Tiki Bar with a margarita instead!

Ooooops.

So yeah, I've got enough plums/peaches (and now APRICOTS - courtesy of my neighbor who so appreciated the fact that I dumped plums on her doorstep that she decided to return the favor!  Aaack!) (No, that really was nice of her!  She couldn't have known I was in the throes of a delusional canning frenzy!), so yeah, anyway...  I've got enough FRUIT for at least 2 batches of jam (the fruit is getting softer-and-softer, all the while!).  And a boatload of corn for relish-making,..  And two ginormous baskets of cherries that need pitting..........

So I woke up this morning DETERMINED to make a couple of batches of jam.  Come hell or high water, dammit!  There WILL be jam!

Well, I kept to my word (mostly).  First thing this morning, I decided to consult Google and find some Plum Jam recipes.......

And since I'm *trying* to segregate Rambling from Content, Plum Jam (Mis)Adventures will be my next post (although I don't guarantee a completely "Ramble-Free" post!).........

Rambly Holiday Week Adventures...

Sooooo... We spent the Fourth bobbing around on the bay on Lazy Lightning.  Winds were light and we could have sailed, but I just felt like drifting around lazily and the only "work" involved was "working on my tan!"

Bobbing lazily in very calm conditions...

*Just* the way I like it!

And - with it being the Fourth - it tends to be kind-of "Amateur Hour," especially later in the day.  Lots of Once-A-Year Boaters out - plus LOTS of alcohol-consumption (and stepped-up law-enforcement ON the water that day).  There were quite a few other "bobbers" out though...  And a few other sailboats...

This sloop was making pretty good time...

We basically just motored out to the end of our channel, cut the engine, and drifted south with the tide.  Periodically, we'd fire-up the Iron Genny and motor back to the channel, cut the engine, and drift again...  Later. Rinse. Repeat!

We headed back-in early in the day - just as the white-caps were starting to kick-up (along with the attendant spray! "Eeeek!") (Yes, I am a VERY Wimpy Sailor!).  We made it back to the dock without incident, then we took naps on the boat...

Around 6-ish was around the time that Amateur Hour starts up.  So I was very glad we were safely tied to our slip!  There were some dock parties going on...  Also a big shindig at the Yacht Club...

We chose to be Anti-Social :-)

Instead, around 6-ish, hubs fired up the Magma Grill on our stern, and I went to work on the alcohol stove in the galley and we shared a most delightful steak dinner!

"MmmmmagMUH!" (a la Dr. Evil!)

Yes, we had the bimini up, and no - it is not directly over the grill!

Bad angle for this shot.  The boat did not go up in flames!

I actually tried to get both plates in this crappy Droid shot

and failed miserably!

Dinner was delicious - in any event.  Boating is kinda like camping in that sense: Everything could be burnt to a crisp and it would STILL taste better than the finest gourmet-restaurant fare!

So then it was time to change out of summer clothes and get all bundled up in preparation for the Fireworks Extravaganza.......

The sunset was stunningly gorgeous!

Fireworks were pretty good.  I took some videos and - if I ever get around to uploading them to YouTube - I'll post a link (or embed, or whatever!).  It was especially nice because hubs installed a new stereo (with AUX/MP3 capability and movable speakers) so we had awesome tunes to accompany the show overhead.

Okay, here goes with my attempt at embedding video!

Hmmm...  The aspect ratio on the original video is much wider than what is visible on da blog.  And I'm not feeling motivated enough to figure out how to fix it!  Link to YouTube Video is here...

Here's another one:




And the YouTube link.

All told, it was a pretty fantastic day...

For the rest of the Long-Weekend...  Well, maybe I oughtta break this into chunks - but I do have Aquarium Updates; a new chapter for the Bee Saga; and I'm giving some SERIOUS thought to dealing with some of our Over-Abundant Fruits (like making plum jam, maybe???).

More later......  Maybe!  Right now I am lazing most contentedly at the Tiki Bar and don't feel like doing much of anything!!!

Rambling Recipe: QT's Killer-Diller Fourth of July Potato Salad

Ahhhh...  Fourth of July!  Five-Day-Weekend (Yeah, I took a couple days off)!

And I've been able to actually WALK for three days in a row! (Freakin' Miraculous!)

We're planning to spend the day on the boat tomorrow.  Arrive "fairly early" in the day so we can secure a parking space.  There'll be a big Firework Display at the Port of Redwood City - so the marina's gonna be REAL popular tomorrow!

We won't have a front-row-seat this year (we've moved our boat to a different marina so the fireworks won't be DIRECTLY overhead - but "close enough for government work" right?!).

So yeah, we'll probably putt around on the bay for a bit.  Depending on the winds, we may sail.  Or we may just motor.  Then we'll come back to the dock and take a nap.  Then it's BARBECUE TIME!!!!

Yep, we've got a gas grill bolted to the stern.  And an alcohol stove in the galley.  So the bill of fare shall be:

New York Strip Steaks
Fresh Corn on the Cob
Bush's Baked Beans (Yummmm!!!)
and...

I've accumulated an over-abundance of organic potatoes from the Farm-Share (so many, in fact, I ended up dumping a significant quantity of 'em cause they were starting to get a little - shall we say - squishy?!).  Time to vanquish the spuds, so I whipped up a batch of Tater Salad!

This is an adaptation of a recipe I got from mom's best friend, NanG (who always cooked for, like, the ENTIRE congregation of our church which was equivalent to the population of some Third World Countries!).  She kinda cobbled it together from memory - and she made a point of telling me that her "Secret Ingredient" was Del Monte Sweet Pickles "NOT Sweet Relish"

So that said, here is my Adaptation for a slightly more manageable quantity of Potato Salad.  And, as always, there is room for additional tweaks.  Adjust it to suit your taste-buds but I think it's PERFECT

QT's Killer-Diller Fourth of July Potato Salad
Time: Appx 1 hour of actual prep time + 2-3 hours (or overnight) "melding" in the fridge
Yield 8 cups of salad

Ingredients:

• 2.5 lbs smallish yellow or red potatoes (the non-mealy boiler kind). 
• 3 hard boiled eggs
• 4-5 strips bacon, cooked and drained 
• 1 medium sweet red onion (or sweet yellow onion - the key word is SWEET)
• 2-3 green onions (optional)
• 3 stalks celery
• 1/2 a small can (~4 oz) of chopped black olives
• 3 Del Monte Sweet Pickles (NOT relish) - finely chopped 
• 1-2 TBS chopped fresh parsley (or 1 tsp dried)
• 3/4 tsp celery seed
• 1 TBS plain ol' yellow mustard (Like Frenchs')
• A few shakes of paprika
• salt & pepper to taste
• ??? Mayo (I'm guessing appx 1 cup - but I didn't measure).
• 1 tsp of sweet pickle juice

Instructions:

1. Pre-Prep:  Cook your bacon 'til crisp and tamp off the grease with a paper towel. 
2. Boil and peel your eggs
3. Scrub your taters.  Don't peel 'em.  Cut 'em into ~3/4" cubes and cook 'em in a pot of boiling salted water 'til tender.
4. Chop up everything - except the taters and eggs - as fine as you can manage - almost unrecognizable - while the taters are cooking.
5. Add mustard and a couple of tbs of mayo to the veggie/bacon mix - along with the celery seed and parsley.  Stir it up and let the flavors start to meld.
6. If your eggs are cool, chop them up fine and add 'em to the mix.  Blorp in mayonnaise, as needed, to keep it somewhat stirrable!
7. Once the taters are done, drain them.  You may, or may not want to chop them slightly smaller with a knife (I did - because some of the skin-parts were bigger than I like).  
8. Once they're somewhat-cool, dump them in - a little at a time - stirring and adding mayonnaise as you go.  The taters should, more or less, disintegrate into the mix - but you'll still have some recognizable potato-chunks and that's okay...
9. At the very end, add just a tsp of sweet pickle juice, salt & pepper (to taste) and a generous shake or three of paprika.  Give it one final stir then stick it in the fridge for a couple of hours (or overnight) to let the flavors meld...
10. Sprinkle more paprika on top, just before serving.

Dee-lish!

Enjoy your Fourth!!!

-QT

Waaaahhhhhh!!!!

Well, so much for my Happy Place :-P~

As I was proof-reading my last post, I heard a large "crunching" noise from over in the vicinity of the garden.

Naturally, I assumed the dogs were up to no good, but I didn't feel like budging..........

A few minutes later, hubs wandered back to the garden and uttered "Uh Oh!" (he actually says that a lot - and it doesn't always warrant My Immediate Attention).  Unfortunately, today, the "Uh Oh!" really did have relevance...........

Remember those overly abundant, plum-sized peaches I was sooo looking forward to???

Damn! Damn! Damn!

Yep, that's basically the Main Branch :-(

Had to drag out my trusty pruning saw.  I cut it off below the break (so, hopefully, I can squish the trunk split back together).

That's a LOT of slightly-under-ripe peaches...

Now resting on the ground (Booooo!!!)

I've left most of the peaches on the branches in the back garden.  No clue if they will continue to ripen (not very optimistic, unfortunately)...

I also picked a bunch of the "slightly less green" peaches.

I'm gonna try to salvage what I can.

(And yes, there are plums in there too - seein' as how I was harvesting anyway...)

Color me MAJORLY bummed.......................

:-(

Back to my Happy Place (Garden Update!)

...with PICTURES and EVERYTHING!!!  Ooh - and a Bonus Surprise Fruit at the end!

So today counts as a "Good Day" because I was able to walk - without a cane - ALL DAY today!

(How f**king sad is that?!  Being able to walk is cause for celebration!!!)

Anyway, I managed to wander around the yard today, and I snapped a few Progress Pics of the garden.  Grant you, they are cell-phone pics, and the afternoon sun is kinda harsh - so not gonna win any awards - but I think I managed to Picasa them into submission!

First off: Some Happy Flowers :-)

Happy Hibiscus (I just love these flowers - and the bush they are growing on is HUGE!)

And the Morning Glory Vines are abundant as ever!

Okay...  Now onto the EDIBLES!!!  

Mr. Cabbage is still in the ground!

Still appx 7-8" in diameter (for the main head - the plant itself is HUGE!)

We ate his buddy, in a cole slaw, a couple of weeks ago...  It was delicious!  I still haven't yanked this one out - lol - because there is NO room in the fridge!  We're going to have a BQ/Pool-Party in a couple of weeks so, maybe, I'll make a giant cole-slaw then!

Indigo Rose Tomato

Not the greatest picture, but I'm happy to see baby maters forming on this plant (since it's a brandy new variety).  They're forming REALLY dark, almost bluish shoulders right now.  The maters are pretty tiny right now, but I'm anxious to see how they come out!

Stephanie Stupice (of the Finny Farm)

This is the same tomato I photographed a couple-three weeks ago.  It's getting bigger, but still quite green (as you can plainly see).  I still think this is gonna be the first edible 'mater this year.

I gave a Stupice plant to a friend of mine, and she's been harvesting like crazy!  My maters are clearly under-achievers this year!

The rest of the Finny Farm is doing just fine.  Maters are vining madly with blossoms galore - but no fruit yet...

I'm pretty sure these are Early Girls

Okay, that covers the 'maters. Still no real "action" in the Paste-O-Rama bed.  Oddly, even my "volunteers" - which are WAY further along in terms of growth - don't have any babies yet.  I've seen plenty of blossoms, but no fruit.  Hmmm (I'm 99% sure that they should be heirlooms - since that's all I grew last year)...

Onto other stuff:

Oops.  I meant to harvest Artie, but it looks like he's gonna bloom instead!

(that's okay, the Farm Share keeps sending me artichokes!)

Santa Rosas

Commence Whining: "WTF am I gonna do with all these plums?!"

Yes, we have Plums-a-Plenty!  And yes, I will be posting recipes, very soon!!!

The white peaches continue to taunt me!
They're *almost* (but not quite) ripe.

These are smallish (about the size of plums), but will be plentiful!  The yellow peaches are looking very fat (and still very green).  Those won't be ready 'til mid- to late-August...

And...  Wandering over to the other side of the yard...  To the "Overflow Bed" (which *was* gonna be called the Bean-Bed except Tazz ATE all my bean plants!):

Satsuma Plums - need a couple-three more weeks...

Satsuma is a very tasty blood-red plum.  It was always my dad's favorite.  I *had* a Satsuma tree, but we had to chop it down to make room for the studio.  This was a bare-root tree just last spring, so I'm surprised that it has any fruit this year.  Pleasantly surprised!

Zukes are coming along...

Hopefully I'll remember to harvest them while they're still zucchini-sized

(rather than wait 'til they're bigger than weenie dogs!)

Okay...  Now for the Bonus Surprise Fruit!  Are you ready???  This is over on the far side of the yard, next to the Overflow Bed.  Actually, between one of our Queen Palms and the Italian Cypresses that line our back fence (bad location, actually).

It's tough to get a good picture, though...  Have to "zoom" 'cuz it's so high!

Know what it is???

Here's another shot from a different angle:

See 'em?  Poking up above the bulbous inflorescence?

BANANAS!!!

I think that's pretty exciting, actually.  It's like a little slice of the tropics in our (faux-tropical-resort) backyard!  

There are actually three banana trees planted in a very bad location. I'm pretty sure these are Saba Bananas. Great-Grand-pups from a plant I bought on eBay many, many, many years ago.  Every winter they die back and I swear they're "A Goner."  But every year, they manage to come back and - sometimes - put out pups. This is only the second time that they've bloomed.  First time was back in 2007 and I documented it here.

This year, it looks like they are a little bit "further along" than they were back then.  To be honest, I am not optimistic that we'll ever get to harvest any nanners (our warm season is too short).  They actually are an edible variety, but the fruits are only about the size of my thumb. 

Anyway, I think it's pretty cool that we've got nannas growing in our yard - particularly since I do absolutely NOTHING to nurture these plants.  No fertilizer and, quite frankly, I'm amazed they even get enough water to survive!

Nevertheless...  WAY COOL! :-)