Fruit Trees on your Property

If you have a spot of land, you really should have planted a fruit tree or 20 by now! Why?

• Long term food source
• Food for the bees to keep them around
• Apple trees, once they die or are no longer producing, are great for firewood

There are even miniature fruit trees that you can grow inside. Look for colonnade trees at the Starks Brothers Nursery. Several different kinds of apples, and one peach that I know of.  Grow in a pot, and have it on your deck or balcony in good weather, or start an inside garden where the tree is prominently featured!

If you have even .25 of an acre, what fruit trees have you planted? What fruit tree can you just not live without?

• Apples: so versatile, from fresh eating, long-term storing, dehydrating, juicing, canning for apple butter or pie filling, and even making vinegar for pickling, digestion and cleaning.
• Pears: delicious fresh, dehydrating or canned. Have you tried pear raisin pies?
• Cherries: very expensive in the store so try growing either pie/sour cherries or sweet. We love the Ranier cherries (yellow and red). If you don't want a tree, Nanking cherries grow on a bush.
• Plums: very healthy but highly sprayed from the stores. Great to eat fresh, dehydrated or canned. I make an amazing spiced plum jam that I use for Winter holidays.

You get the idea. What fruit tree do you absolutely need on your property? And why?