Dealing With Abundance in Our Own Ways.
Abundance woes?! Surely abundance is a good thing? As @eco-alex has pointed out, it can become a bad thing when our abundance becomes an excess and leads to waste. This week's @ecotrain Question of the Week asks us when we had an abundance of something and what we did about it.
I was once having a conversation with my neighbour about his garden changes. He's not a keen gardener and is away from home quite a lot, so he wanted something that was easy to deal with and minimal maintenance. He mentioned that he’d had an apple tree at one point, but got rid of it because they didn't eat many apples, then it just dropped the excess ones and he had to deal with them. So his solution was to get rid of the cause of the abundance and chop down the tree.
I knew what he meant. When we first bought our house we inherited some fruit trees with it and the second year of apples was so abundant we couldn't keep up with them. We would gather up the windfalls and throw them into a pile to compost, but they fermented and some of the visiting birds were eating them, then getting drunk. We found ourselves having to protect them from the neighbour's cat, which was not good and we couldn't protect them once they'd left the garden. Luckily a lidded compost bin had been left with the house, so I set that up and moved them into it.
I also have a plum tree and used to have an apricot tree that I'd have the same issues with some years. If I got rid of the trees, then I could have got rid of the work dealing with all that extra fruit, but then I wouldn't have any to enjoy. So my solution since has been to share the good ones with friends and neighbours and prepare any that aren't so nice for freezing and cooking with at a later date.
Admittedly, it's time consuming, but there are multiple benefits. There's nothing better than ripe, flavoursome fruit straight from the tree and having it prepared in useable portions makes cooking easier further down the line. Also, sharing all of my abundances over the years has helped me to get to know the neighbours. A few of them even bring me their kitchen scraps and excess fruit and vegetables for our chickens.
These days we have things set up so that nothing produced in the garden goes to waste and there is no longer such a thing as excess or waste from it. I guess abundance can mean different things to different people. We all find our own ways of dealing with it and how we do that makes the difference between whether it becomes waste or a resource.
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I really miss having a plum tree. We had one in our yard when I was a kid, growing up. They're just such a great and delicious fruit.
These days, I've taken to using them as a base in hot sauces more than I have eaten them, though. I've made a fair few hot sauces, so if you and yours enjoy such things, let me know, and I'll share the recipes for the ones that I've managed to perfect in the short time I've been experimenting with various ingredients! :)
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My daughter's coach is always saying that satsuma plums remind him of his childhood and that's what ours are. Of course we took him some!
Hot sauce sounds good. You should definitively share! I have some tubs of plums in the freezer.
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The one I made yesterday was 5 plums, 5 jalapenos, 2 cups vinegar, 2 cayenne peppers, 2 cups vinegar, dash of olive oil, 5 tomatoes, tablespoon salt.
Combine everything but salt in blender, boil.
Use salt to taste, once boiled, bottle. :)
Super easy!
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two cups of vinegar twice?
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Once with two cups of vinegar. You can use a little less if you want it to have less "punch" at the start of the burn. :)
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Hahaha, I remember as a teenager my favorite time to mow the lawn (in fact the only time I'd be happy to do that chore) was when our apple tree was dropping its fruit. It gave me such a joy running over rotting apples with the lawnmower, until the whole yard was covered in apple sauce!
Of course, a much better solution are critters to eat them. Birds are cool (imagine how the cats felt about alcohol filled birds, hehehe), but pigs would also do wonders on that. In fact, my dog right now would LOVE it! She's crazy about apples, preferring it to any doggy treat.
Your post also reminds me of a group I met in Budapest, who go to peoples' yards to harvest the fruit they can't or don't want to. Of course they always leave them a nice big bowl of the best pieces, but also they get a huge discount on the jams, ciders, etc. prepared from the fruit, not only harvested from their trees, but all the trees in the network. An ingenious solution to maintain abundance in our busy world.
Haha! Feeding the lawn with apple sauce! My friend had a crab apple tree and she had to go out daily to pick what she can reach and collect any windfalls before her dog gets them, because eating them sends her loopy.
I have seen something on groups in Britain who do something similar with windfalls and fruit not being used. One of them only collects apples for cider.
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Crab apples? Good to know! I looked into what my dog is NOT supposed to eat, such as onions or grapes, which she totally would if she had the chance, but apples are supposedly all right. Crab apples though... I don't know, nor am I sure I'd even be able to recognize them at all.
That's quite possible, since it was a British dude who inspired that Hungarian harvest circle.
Do you know Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and the River Cottage series? I'm pretty sure it was him that highlighted it. I wonder if that's inspired others.
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@minismallholding You know the funny thing about nature is there really truly is nothing in abundance. It all happens naturally. Humans tend to give an “assignment” or “judgement” to everything. We like to decide what we think is ok and not ok. That’s fine...it’s in our nature - - - but I often think about the day when no people where around. No humans to decide what to do with what...I bet you everything would simply keep on going on in its naturalistic way - in perfect balance with the world. I love your post and appreciate your perspective but I would just rather let all things be as they are. Nature was fine before humans and she will be fine without them one day should that day ever come. I’m happy to share my time with her and keep our place in as much balance as possible; for she is quite beautiful and magnificent ;-)
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I agree, abundance is a human concept. Nothing is wasted in nature. We make jokes about animals just taking a few bites out of every fruit and never finishing one, but when they fall other creatures will eat some more and eventually everything goes back to the soil and feeds the tree. Because people have created such a barren landscape here that the cycle isn't working so well. Things are progressing, however, and we see a lot more birds back in our garden.
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It's so nice that you are able to set up a solution so there isn't any waste. Honestly, it breaks my heart that someone would cut down a food source rather than finding a solution with the abundance it provides. Feeding those around us should be our first instinct. I hope you have a great harvest season!!
Thank you, the harvests were good. Just finished harvesting the last of the apples.
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Oh how well I know the excess of both plums and apples! My father, growing up with starvation in the Japanese concentration camps in Indonesia, set up our childhood garden in Australia for over-abundance. In Chiang Mai, Thailand, we have a similar problem with mangoes and FRUIT FLIES. But yes, we have glorious numbers of birds and birdsong due to the over-planting of mulberries. You nailed it with the setting up of the structures (compost, preserving etc) for the overflow. Nice contribution - thank you.
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Ideally we need that overabundance in fruit trees for nature's sake. I have most of my fruit trees protected from birds while fruiting, now because we're the only place in the neighborhood that grows anything edible. It wouldn't be an issue to lose some of the higher fruit to birds, if there were plenty of trees around for them to access. An organic apple farm I once helped at has acres of trees, so they let their trees get a bit tall for hand picking, then the birds can have the top ones and there are no issues with them taking everything. We still need the birds for keeping pest insects under control, so abundance is perfect for that balance and for us to still get something.
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Feeling much better suddenly about my inability to prune the mulberry trees last seasn due to.my shattered arm. 😊🦅 Everything has its purpose. 💚
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Sounds like a lot of jams ad pies and cakes waiting to happen :D
Not big on jams here, but puddings go down well! :D Fruit crumble is a favourite.
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I'm with you on that, really trying to plan ahead so i can process and store the abundance to enjoy it longer, and the bits i can't shall go to friends and family
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Sometimes we don't always keep on top of it, but that's okay. When it's not so great for human consumption it can go to the animals and if it's too far gone for them then the compost, which goes back to the garden. I love how everything can be a benefit with the right way of thinking.
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Thanks for sharing, you’re awesome @minismallholding
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Yes, we have the ability to accomplish so much. Sadly it's not currently the excess we ship between countries, when we ship so much from African countries while their own people go hungry.
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oh wow, i had NO idea birds can get drunk like that, it conjures up some interesting images in my mind.. and go you.. if you were my neighbour id be VERY happy to get free organic fruits and apples.. sometimes the simplest things are so special! xx
It was a bit funny to watch, initially! Not good for their safety, though.
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Abundance is fruitful :)
My mum and her partner usually have an abundance of tomatoes and figs and they use them all up and get pretty tired of eating the same thing over and over. Maybe they could do with getting to know their neighbours better and gifting them too :)
It's a good way to get to know your neighbours, especially if you're an introvert like me.
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