New blossoms on our blueberry bush

Blueberries, who doesn’t love them?

Little gorgeous blue sweet nuggets of antioxidants and deliciousness. Just writing about them kind of makes me want to go dig some out of the freezer and eat them in a bowl with milk. (I love the way frozen blueberries turn your cereal milk into icy cold purple slush, too.)

But conventional blueberries have been shown to carry pesticide residues, and organic blueberries can be pretty pricey. I’m thinking it’s time to add some more blueberry plants to our backyard. How much fun would it be to grow our own little blue darlings?

Last year we started two blueberry plants (Sunshine and Tif) in two large ceramic pots by the steps of the deck. I decided to try blueberry bushes in pots first, so I could judge for myself how easy, or tricksy, they might be to grow.  I planted in a recommended peat moss mixture, and watered them by hand through the long drought-ridden summer. Thankfully they survived and are putting on new growth and tiny new blossoms now.

We only had a few berries last year, but that’s to be expected in new plants. The important thing is that the bushes seem to have weathered the occasional benign neglect, and are doing well.I’m thinking it just might be time to build a new bed dedicated to these perennial charmers. A raised bed with purpose-built soil is essential, as blueberry plants need good drainage and acidic soil to thrive. They are not going to be happy in mucky clayeyalkaline Houston gumbo. We’ve got a sunny spot where we can build a bed with 10” sides, and fill it with good loose blueberry mix, heavy on the peat moss. We’ll put in a mini-drip irrigation system too, to save water and effort through the long hot months of the Houston summer.

Urban Harvest is planning to have a mini-Fruit Tree Sale in late February, and will be selling blueberry plants, among other things. We’ve got Brightwell, Premier, and Austin varieties for sale. Look for upcoming information about this sale, and start thinking about where in your own yard you might find a spot for some blueberry plants, so you too can grow your own berries. Mmm, mmm, mmm. So blue, so yummy.

-          Posted by Elisa Goodwin

In our current fast-paced society, eating healthy and eating conveniently are for the most part separate ideas. The word convenience usually connotes an image of a frozen breakfast pastry whereas the word healthy can arouse images of a laborious preparation and a non appetizing result.

How about a way to have your healthy breakfast food and it eat too (conveniently and deliciously, I might add)? The Annual Urban Harvest Fruit Tree Sale can help. With relatively low prices, minimal input and high yields, fruit trees also offer the best of both the healthy and the convenient world.

Craving something sweet or citrusy? Walk to your backyard and pluck an apple or an orange from your very own fruit tree. Gone are the days of the over-processed and under-nutritious breakfast “foods.” No more “yogurt that doesn’t look like yogurt because it’s in a tube and it’s a neon blue color.” Bring your diet back to the basics – fruit in its whole form- and experience an improvement in taste, health and efficiency.

There are many delectable options for fruit-centric breakfast dishes. Mix cut up fruit in a pancake batter or sprinkle it on top of yogurt, granola or cereal. The easiest and quickest way to eat your fruit in the morning is to of course enjoy it whole. Fresh fruit supplements any breakfast item with full flavors and high nutritional content. Bright colors, when natural (this excludes the neon blue yogurt previously mentioned) are a sign of nutrition.

So trade in that foil-wrapped, unnatural looking breakfast item for something that is delicious, nutritious, colorful and convenient: fresh fruit.

- posted by Adrienne Ryherd

The pre-sale talks will be held this Saturday, Jan 7, at 2:00pm, and again on Tuesday, Jan 10, at 6:30pm. These talks are for anyone interested in planting a fruit tree in their yard, who intends to purchase their trees at the Urban Harvest Fruit Tree Sale on Saturday, Jan 14. The talk will cover every fruit available for sale, with information about planting, care, and harvesting of your fruit. Saturday’s talk will be given by Heidi Sheesley and Diana Liga, two women with extensive knowledge of and experience with growing fruit in our area. Heidi Sheesley is the proprietor of Treesearch Farms, where many of the trees for sale are grown, and Diana Liga is a local horticulturist who has been involved with the sale for years. Tuesday’s talk will be by Mark Bowen, director of Urban Harvest.

Jim Molony, a vendor at Eastside farmers market

Take a walk around almost any neighborhood in Houston, and find fruit trees winking at you from many yards. Take a trip to the grocery and find signs in the produce section announcing locally grown pecans, apples, peaches, blueberries, blackberries and more. Take a trip to one of the local-growers farmers markets and find a wealth of locally grown fruit.

The above scenarios are commonplace in Houston. Almost everyone is either already purchasing locally grown vegetables and fruit or thinking seriously about it. Many restaurants now feature locally grown food on their menus.

A few of us have grown and tasted fruits that are rarely found in stores. We have added those taste treats for our pallets. You can too. Have you every tried an improved muscadine grape, Satsuma tangerine or jujube? These are three excellent fruits that are very easy to grow in metro Houston. Have you ever eaten a fresh fig, freshly picked, juicy and sweet? Or what about a persimmon,  pomegranate, kumquat or Meyer lemon? These and many more are the types of fruits that can easily be grown in your yard or on your patio.

The local food movement is all about eating food grown close to where we live. The closest we can get to food grown locally is right in our yards. Growing vegetables takes time, energy and close attention. However, growing fruit trees is a lot easier than growing vegetables. And fruit trees can produce lots of fruit each year. For instance, it is not unusual for a tangerine tree to produce 500 or more fruit each year, or for a lemon to produce many more than 100 yearly.

Ray Sher and Jean Fefer, at the Eastside farmers market

Every landscape can find nooks and crannies where a fruit trees will fit in, and those people who find those spaces are enjoying the fruits of the small amount of time and labor required. Groceries may carry one or two orange or tangerine varieties, while 10 or 12 orange varieties and many more tangerine varieties, each with their own unique flavors, are well adapted for our climate.

The local food movement is progressing fast, and you are either a part of it, or will be soon. It is a shining medal to wear, a signature of what you want for Houston and the world. Help reduce the shipment of food from thousands of miles away; walk to your tree to pick fruit.

Join your friends, neighbors and others interested in the local food movement by purchasing and planting fruit trees from the Urban Harvest fruit tree sale, where many thousands of fruit trees have been selected for you.

Are you looking for a chance to get some volunteer hours in January? Like working outside with your friends? Like fruit? Come help at the Urban Harvest Fruit Tree Sale on Saturday, January 14. The sale is at Robertson Stadium, on the University of Houston campus. Our student vlounteers assist adults in many ways.

Specifically, you could help with tree carry out or with bare root bagging, by passing out information to customers in line, or simply by bringing coffee to our checkout cashiers. Cleanup after the sale is over can always use helping hands, too. If you’re interested, please contact Debbie Leflar at Urban Harvest, at debbie@urbanharvest.org.

Helping carry trees to cars

Houston lost an estimated 66,000,000 trees to the drought of 2011, trees that purify the air we breathe and give us shade from the blazing summer sun. We must replant so why not plant the botanical version of a triple threat? Fruit trees not only cleanse and cool the environment, but provide us with nutritious and delicious food as well.

Come to the Urban Harvest fruit tree sale on January 14th at Robertson Stadium on the University of Houston campus to start replanting the Houston Forest.

Fruit fan Bria Cumagun, reaching for a persimmon.

If you are a parent, you know what an important part fruit plays in the healthy growth and development of your child. And you recognize the value of encouraging healthy eating habits at an early age.  Let’s face it Fruit Matters.

Looking for ways to get your kids to eat more fruit? The solution may be right in your backyard. Involving your children in planting and growing fruit is a fun way to spend family time and it encourages them to eat more fruit. Research from a study, in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, found that children who grow up eating fresh-from-the-garden produce also prefer the taste of fruits and vegetables to other foods. In addition, the study found the garden-fed children were more likely to see their parents eating fruits and vegetables. And you may even get them to try types they wouldn’t normally eat.  Giving your kids hands-on experience of growing, harvesting and eating fresh off the tree fruit, also gives them an appreciation for their food and how it’s grown.  Planting fruit trees with your kids offers you a unique chance to teach them the importance of healthy foods and nutrition.

One way to get your kids involved is to make an apple pie or peach cobbler out of fresh fruit and let them know that these desserts can be made with fruit from their own tree.

Then introduce your kids to growing fruit trees by bringing them to the Urban Harvest Fruit Tree Sale and letting them pick their own trees.  Letting them decide what type of fruit they would like to grow creates a connection.  Urban Harvest has done all the leg work to bring you appropriate trees for metro Houston.

Some of the trees available at the Urban Harvest fruit tree sale include oranges, grapefruit, pummelo, tangerines, lemons, limes, limequats, kumquats, satsumas, peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, pears, apples, pomegranates, persimmons, grapes, muscadines, jujubes, figs, blackberries, blueberries, mulberries, pecans, olives, avocados, mangoes, Jaboticaba, star fruit, dragon fruit, lychee, sugar apple, grumichama and banana.

Bria picking kumquats, growing right at her level.

Urban Harvest holds pre-sale talks that describe all the fruit trees that will be at the sale, as well as how to plant and care for the trees.

Seasonal fruit was not a phrase with which I was familiar.

As an adult, I still like the same fruits, but I eat them with a different mindset – a mindset of awareness and of advocacy, of hopefulness and of imminent change. I now see an orange (from a chain grocery store at least) in terms of how much energy it took to grow, to rid of pests and to travel from soil to my plate (which usually ranges from a couple hundred miles to cross country or cross continent).

With all the talk about growing your own food, it still seems to be a bit intimidating, as most people these days have never even been on a farm, of no fault of their own. Farms are few and far between, making food even more impersonal, more of a convenience rather than a ritual.

Fruit, the very emblem of health and sustenance, should be consumed in its whole and unadulterated form; an apple or a pear should be eaten as just that, not sitting in sugary syrup and not having been sprayed with pesticides. The easiest way to control what you are eating is to grow it yourself. The first step towards growing your own fruit tree is hurdling the erroneous fear that fruit trees are difficult to grow and unmanageable in upkeep. Fruit trees, giving high yields and adding to curb appeal, also are relatively easy to plant, grow and care for – a triple blessing.

So do yourself, your health and your yard a favor and plant a fruit tree.  The rewards will be sweet, citrusy and bountiful.

- posted by Adrienne Ryherd

If you can volunteer with us for the fruit tree sale, please contact me as soon as possible. In your email to me, please indicate the day, date, and time you can work, as well as a particular job you would like to do. If you can help on more than one day, please indicate that as well.

I learned very early that Hass and other varieties that are sold in groceries would not produce in Houston. And year in and year out, I hear stories of people growing from seed and wondering why the tree didn’t produce.

The answer is simple. Most avocado varieties do not like freezes or frosts, and some require pollinators.

And then came the Mexican avocado varieties that are cold hardy and actually produce good tasting fruit. Bill Schneider of Devine Avocados near San Antonio starting raising Mexican avocados and produced a couple of really cold hardy varieties named Wilma and Opal. This was the start of a renaissance of growing avocado trees in metro Houston. Other varieties are also cold hardy such as Poncho and Fantastic.

The trees can grow quite large over time taking up 15’ or more in diameter and 25’ or more tall. They can be pruned to keep at a manageable height.

There is a little care needed the first year after purchasing one of these beauties. The trunk, which is green the first year outside of cold frame, has to be protected from the summer sun, and the tree has to be protected from winter freezes. After the first year of protection, they will thrive in all temperatures.

To protect from the summer sun the first year, the trunk can be wrapped in burlap or other cloth, or a tent of your own making can protect from the southern and western sun. To protect from freezes, place a 5-gallon bucket of water next to the trunk. When there is going to be a frost or freeze, wrap the tree in a blanket or two with the bucket inside of the blanket. This will keep the temperature around 32 degrees rather than lower.

My Opal avocado tree has produced for two years, but didn’t this year, I think because of the exceedingly cold weather, but still looks great and has grown a lot. It is now about 10’ tall and 7’ wide and ready to put on lots of flowers during the winter and fruit in the spring.

Grow your own guacamole!

I’m still experimenting on when to pick the fruit, for it matures on the tree, but needs to sit on a kitchen counter top for a few days to ripen.

The trees need to be purchased when they are available which is usually during the winter fruit tree sales, and then planted in the ground in early April. The tree can be planted in a slightly raised bed to insure good drainage. I built up a mound, planted the tree and then mulched heavily with leaves over the soil.

I fertilized the first year in May, and subsequent years in late February and May, with an organic granular fertilizer. I sprinkled about 4 cups under the canopy of the tree, and watered. You definitely need to keep this tree watered during the summer, but make sure the roots don’t stay wet all the time.

- posted by Ray Sher