your very own fruit farm

Our garden is overgrown with weeds again. I'm pretty sure we'll scale it way down next year because gardens are a ton of work. They're work to plant, to weed, to weed, to weed, to weed, to harvest and to prep for the next season. Even right now, I cannot keep up with my tomatoes. Because I'm just not up to the challenge. I'm even freezing them...but getting them picked and processed it just not happening!

I told Rory that I think either you need to be absolutely passionate about gardening or have your life depend on your garden lest you starve to death in order to maintain a garden this size. Without the burning fire inside of me, the work just doesn't get done.

But fruit. Fruit, people! Fruit is amazing. AMAZING. To be sure fruit takes some time on the front end. You don't get to harvest anything the first year. Maybe you get a quarter harvest the second year. And half a harvest the third year. But then you are in the money. I love the fruit on our farm more than any other part.

And that's what I'm hear to say today. Listen up. My very favorite parts of this farm are all things we could have done on our 1/8 acre property in Minneapolis. Scaled down a bit, but still just as worthwhile and honestly, a whole lot less work!

I believe everyone should have a few rows of raspberries along their garage. (Last night I posted the recipe for that Raspberry Pretzel Dessert...did you see that? It's so good!) And a few blueberry bushes on the side of their house. Everyone should have an apple tree or two somewhere (I can fully endorse Zestar apples so far. They are AMAZING.) And if you want to really go bonkers, throw in four hens in a coop for eggs. Obviously not a fruit, but then you will have covered all my favorite parts of the farm. In your own yard in the city or the suburbs.

And! My friend Lacy recently went plum picking, right here in Minnesota, and raved about them! The kind she picked were called Underwood and now we will definitely be adding plum trees to our little orchard. So you might want to throw a plum tree in while you're at it. (Those are blueberries pictured above...just didn't want to confuse anyone...)

All this to say, the parts of the farm that I love the very most do not require a farm. Sort of an ironic truth for me, and a pretty awesome one for you if you don't ever want to live on a farm! I do love it here, but also feel like it's my responsibility to pass along how able everyone is to do the things we're doing in their own backyard. So plan out your yard accordingly. And when your kids come in the house with a huge tupperware full of raspberries for everyone to put on their oatmeal in the morning, you can call and tell me "thank you for your passion for fruit." And I will feel happy.