The source of many of my plant dreams these days are these apple seedlings. I got the seed from the inspiring Californian small-scale apple breeder Steven Edholm. Each container is either an open pollinated mix of summer, fall, winter apples or specific styles of apples like savory or red-fleshed apples. There's a few specific crosses, esp. of red-fleshed and highly aromatic apple varieties - some of them that are Edholm's own creations. I've grafted several of his new releases this year like BITE ME!, Amberwine, Black Strawberry, Cherub, Cherry Crush and Tomboy and plan on doing my own crosses too this year. Looking forward in anticipation to taste the fruits.

#AppleRenaissance #PlantBreeding #FruitExplorer #MalusDomestica #Apples

I've tried growing wax gourd (Benincasa hispida) but have never seen it in the menu. Now I found a Taiwanese restaurant that serves "wintermelon tea" with this fruit. It's delicious! Very sweet and jelly-like. #FruitExplorer #BenincasaHispida #WinterMelon #TaiwaneseCuisine

Some people like to make puzzles, watch a Netflix show or do some knitting when they want to relax. I collect data about fruit varieties, for example apples. Today I went through a Baltic orchardist's apple collection and got curious how many apple varieties I have notes on in my #Obsidian vault (where I keep all my gardening knowledge). It's a pretty simple thing to get the answer with the dataview plugin. To my shock, I have notes on 1189 apple varieties now. Granted, most of them just say that the name is an apple variety and perhaps some colleague I know who has it or some apple nerd who recommended it. Others have quite extensive notes. Either way, it's bordering on obsessive. But that's just what naturally happens when you start accumulating knowledge with the #zettelkasten method instead of saving bits of information here and there. Joan Morgan still managed to put 2000 apple varieties in her Book of Apples with lots of notes on each variety. I always thought I wasn't such a big apple fan, but I seem to come to back to this fruit again and again. #Apple #FruitGrower #AppleNerds #FruitExplorer #Braindead #BetterThanWeed

Første frugtsætning på en kirsebærblomme (Prunus cerasifera) med dejlig smag. Høj sødme og noget fersken over det. #fruitexplorer

Can anyone tell me what kind of nut these are? I found them in a botanical garden in Prague with no label on the tree. Some kind of walnut family plant.
#gardening #foraging #nuts #fruitexplorer

Harvesting Crataegus submollis for seed. The fruit is much larger than our native hawthorn, sweeter, more acidic, more aromatic and less flour-like in texture. Apple jam kind of taste. A fruit I can continue to eat. I don't mind the many seeds inside, I just spit them out. As all Crataegus, very easy to grow and gets few sicknesses. Growing easy fruit is sustainable food. I will make new trees from these seed and either plant them in a few years or seel them through the nursery. If people don't want to buy them, because they don't know them, it's fine. There's always use for fruit trees somewhere.

#Crataegus #Crataegussubmollis #hawthorn #fruittrees #seed #fruitexplorer #perennialnursery #plantnursery #growingtrees #perennialcrops #diseaseresistance

Any uses for Magnolia fruit? The flowers are edible and very flavorful. Fruit is aromatic too. I wonder about the edibility though. You could make extracts or perhaps age it in sirup or vinegar like spruce cones. The season is over and I look back at images of ideas I didnt get around to try.

#Magnolia #Magnoliafruit #fruitexplorer #spice #novelcrops #cropresearch #perennialcrops #cookingperennials

Had access to a mediumish amount of the most delicious seedless green grapes and decided to try making some grape molasses. I think next time I will strain through cheesecloth instead of a mesh strainer, and I may decide to further reduce and thicken what I ended up with.
#gardening #foodpreservation #cooking #fruitexplorer

Sunday #fruitexplorer mode and found some good stuff

Tasting jam of cornelian cherry that my mother made for the first time. Better than the previous version I tried that got sent to me from a colleague. I like the higher acidity and that there are bits and pieces in the jam. The flavor of cornelian cherry is for me like cranberries and sundried tomatoes or maybe rose hips. A fruit that might be better known if people knew it has nothing to do with cherries? (It has as much to do with cherries as dolphins have to do with dogs). #corneliancherry #cornusmas #jam #marmelade #weirdfruit #fruitexplorer #cookingperennials