The annual winter meeting of the PA Backyard Fruit Growers was well attended and focused on growing organic apples in the home garden or orchard. The featured speaker was Michael Phillips, author of “The Apple Grower,” an incredible book loaded with related to ecological apple growing.

If you’re not familiar with heirloom apples you may be surprised to discover just how many varieties of apples actually exist and can still be found growing in local orchards and backyard fruit gardens. Following is a partial listing of the heirloom apples being cultivated in Central Pennsylvania landscapes.

A recent article about rare backyard fruits described my first experience with the uncommon jujube fruit, which is also known as a Chinese Date. No, I wasn’t a bit impressed with this odd tree fruit that I had just tasted for the first time. Despite the so-so encounter with my first jujube I decided to keep an open mind about the worthiness of a jujube tree in the backyard edible landscape.

While the most common fruit at the tasting was the apple, there were a number of rare and unusual types of fruits available for sampling including; paw paws, cactus pears, ju jube fruits (aka Chinese dates), home grown nuts, hardy kiwis, and assorted varieties of persimmons. These fruits may sound foreign and exotic, but they were all grown and harvested from the landscapes and gardens of the association’s members, or in some cases picked from trees growing wild in the local countryside.

Ever since an earlier article about a couple of Goji Berry plants that I purchased for the garden, there has been a lot of interest and more than a few ideas exchanged on this site related to growing Goji Berries.
Here’s a recent question that I received from Terry regarding winter care for his gojis planted [...]

A recent comment posted here inquired into the possibility of relocating blueberry bushes that held special sentimental value for one Northern gardener and her family.

Here’s the deal… Being the self respecting intensive veggie gardener that I am, I’m always looking for more space to grow another edible plant. There were tomatoes and eggplants in containers, cucumbers and beans up a trellis, and an assortment of herbs growing in a planter or strawberry jar.

I receive plenty of comments, questions, and feedback to an earlier post about Growing Goji Berries so I thought it was about time for an update on the progress of my Goji Berry plants. I would also recommend that anyone interested in the topic browse the Goji Berry comments for advice and helpful information provided by other backyard Goji Berry growers.