Nonno’s Vegetable Garden: #1 - The Fruit Trees

Life with a baby (happy four months, my little bunny!) can get very hectic, so rather than not post anything at all, I will share with you the photos of some seemingly insignificant things that, in reality, represent important memories for our family.

    My father, my son’s nonno, died last year after a long and tragic battle with cancer. This courageous man lived out his final months as he did every other stage of his beautiful life: with humour, strength, a generous dose of love, and a healthy appreciation of all things good, beautiful, and true.

   In honour of my father, for the next few days I will be showing you around his vegetable garden, or *orto* in Italian, not to be confused with the *giardino*, or flower garden, of my mother. 

    Let’s begin with some of his fruit trees. You have to bear in mind that this is Montreal, Quebec, Canada—and we have been having a lousy summer in terms of weather. It takes a herculean effort to make some of these fruits grow in our northern climate (the fig tree, for instance, is hardly a lover of cold weather). 

A perfect pear ripening on the tree...

A fig tree! We used to bury the tree in the ground every winter, but now we've simply potted it and it is brought to the garage to keep warm before the first frost...

Some actual figs...!

The plum tree. Last year, this little guy produced so many plums that the branches nearly collapsed under the weight of the fruit...

Some unripe plums...

In the prickly raspberry patch...

Our pièce de résistance... the grape vine. These concord grapes are absolutely delicious come September.

Did you know that a grape vine that grows under "ideal" conditions (i.e. plenty of sun and water) will not produce good grape? The leaves will grow strong and large, but the grapes will be lousy. A vine that "struggles", instead, will be on survival mode, thus sending all of its nutrients towards the fruit, in one glorious act of survival. The result? Deliciously sweet grapes!

Clearly, this vine of ours is not struggling. Look at these large leaves! Perfect for stuffing!

A close-up look at the stem...

I hope this gave you the urge to eat a fruit! :)

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Have a beautiful day!