re: #221 ObserverArt

Do people grow fruit trees anymore? Back when I was a kid in my northern part of Ohio, people all had at least one type of fruit tree in their yard.

We had great little peach trees and one apple tree. There were apple and cherry trees all up and down the street.

My father also fought the birds and neighborhood kids over his strawberry patch.

Had to run the kids away from the peaches too. Yard wasn’t fenced in. Those peaches were the bomb. Little dark red skinned and bright orange red fruit. Tough trees to grow though, very prone to frost.

Pie material galore. So yes, there were pies! My mom was a hell of a pastry, pie, cake and cookie master.

In a way, I’m a little glad to not have that much of that stuff around…I’d be 250 lbs. But growing up it was great.

We have an Asian Pear, Bartlett Pear, and Meyer Lemon trees. Our climate is marginal for all of them—some years we don’t get enough chill hours for pears, sooner or later a frost will kill the lemon. An actual lemon merengue pie, all from scratch, is not to be dismissed.