The Trees are In!

Last Friday I took the day off to work on the farm.  I planted three Montmorency cherry trees and 10 Vitex.  The Ryker family loves these cherries.  The cherry harvest happens just before my birthday and my family loves to come up to pick and pit.  Mom taught Ramona and me how to make cherry jam one year.  Best stuff I have ever tasted on my toast.  Our hope, of course, is to produce enough to share and sell.

The drought has been very tough on the region's flora and fauna these past two years and it overcame our only existing Montmorency tree last year.  That really is too bad!  We'll have a small wait until the new trees mature a little.

By the way, I know they usually look ugly and rusty but don't discount the effectiveness of these little antique cherry stoners.  I picked one up for cheap and cleaned it up with steel wool.  It works great as long as you don't mind the meats getting a little mangled.  But if you're making jam, it really doesn't matter, right?!

 
Vitex are also called Texas Lilac.  This link will take you to a site that provides some basic information about the plant.  They're supposed to bloom all summer long.  That is a good thing.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/cemap/vitex/