Tribute Years

With the huge numbers of grasshoppers, we thought we would not get to harvest any of the many peaches we had on our two trees.  For some reason they flowered and set fruit better than the cherries (zero) the plums or the apples.  It is very clear that grasshoppers love pear best of all the fruit trees, then apple is a close second with apricot,  mulberry,  plum, cherry and peach in that order.  The peach trees still look like it is summer, where the first two on the list are completely denuded of leaves.  They are not dead though so I am hopeful for next year.

So last week I went out with our big basket and harvested a huge amount of peaches.  Here is a photo.  I had wanted to make peach jam since you don't find it in the stores very often.  I was a little intimidated by the volume but set to work last Friday.  Stephen helped me a great deal and actually canning is a job for two as he so wisely pointed out.  He was also planning his upcoming camping trip so I really appreciated his help.  We tried to follow the recipe but I had to convert pounds to cups which isn't really a proper conversion.  And then I didn't want to put so much sugar in the jam so ultimately it didn't set as much as it would have if I had followed the recipe exactly.  Live an learn.  It still tastes good.  Maybe next time we will put more spices in it.   We got fourteen jars of jam with two being pint sized.  I thought they might discolor through the process but they stayed a pretty peach.

The moral of this story is that even in a Tribute Year (which are years when the land through the grasshoppers comes to take its share) we can have some harvests.  See, the grasshoppers as much as they bother me, are a win for the land.  Up they come, eat everything, poo like mad ( high in nitrogen) and then die back into the ground which is further nourished.  As heart breaking as it is for humans, its part of the cycle of life out here.  I just have to keep reminding myself of this.  Year after year.  Every place has its hardships.  Summer is our winter.  And due to current circumstances we can buy our food elsewhere in Tribute Years.  Another good reason why for us total food independence would be very scary if not impossible. 

And after taking stock of the north swale here is my report: The privet got slammed.  Not one leaf left on those up there.  But I think they are big enough to come back.  The pomegranate also got denuded.  But the Bottlebrush!  wow what tough plants.  Group them up like we have in this area and the hoppers don't seem to bother them AND they are about to flower again.  The hoppers ate all the Mexican Primrose and the meadow flowers so we will see what happens when their numbers decrease and the rains come in Oct.  This area started out with more Red flowers then Yellow dominated, then the pinks and now nothing.  The fascinating cycles of growth and decay.