Having several fruit trees is not all sunshine and roses

So, I've been very busy the last few weeks. It's the main fruit harvest season around here.

That motley assortment of containers is the
 bulk of our plum and blackberry harvest.
This is one of 3 freezers, it's about 36 inches
tall by 24 inches wide by 24 inches deep.

While I really appreciate all the fruit that we harvest each year, washing, processing and finding storage for all of it is a lot of work.

We have 4 apple trees, 2 pear trees, 1 plum tree, 2 cherry trees, and 1 crabapple tree, that are bearing. We also have a couple of fruit trees that are not bearing age yet, but will be in a couple of years. In addition, we have strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, currants, grapes, and figs. (The figs and grapes provide so little, I just snack on them when working outside.)

In September and October we harvest apples, blackberries, plums, pears, crabapples, and cranberries. I try to do a little of it everyday, with the hopes that I'll get it all done before a hard frost. But I can only work so fast. I need my entire family to pitch in to get this done in time.

My husband picked all the plums, about 8 grocery bags full, and about half of the blackberries. My daughters picked the other half.

My daughters and I spent several hours last weekend processing plums, and about 3 hours yesterday finishing all the washing, pitting and chopping of plums for the freezer. I can now say we are finally done with the plums for this year.

I also washed my last 2 quarts of blackberries today. They are tucked into the freezer, along with about 25 other quarts of blackberries.

I have harvested the apples off of 3 of the 4 apple trees, and will start in on the fourth tree this week. When that tree is harvested, I'll begin with the late pears. (Apples and pears are actually my favorite part of the harvest, because for the most part, I just load them into the spare fridge, right off the trees.) 

Next weekend, my family will pick the crabapples, and I'll process those into juice for jelly-making, for later this winter. And then last of all, my son and I will harvest the cranberries. He has always picked cranberries with me. It's sort of "our" thing.

It takes every member of our family to harvest and process all this fruit. It's a lot of hard work, but when I peer into one of our 3 freezers and see it packed with containers of fruit for the winter, I feel a sense of satisfaction. I will likely not need to buy fruit, except oranges and bananas, for the entire winter and into spring.

Knowing how much work goes into this harvest, I would never fault anyone for not wanting to have these fruit trees. It's not all sunshine and roses. But I'm grateful for the bounty that they provide.