Learn about ways to select and plant your own apple tree. Listen to Podcast: podcast transcript Apples (Malus domestica) are one of the easiest fruit trees to grow in our climate. Don't believe me? Just look around. There are thousands of wild apple trees growing in abandoned fields and meadows, left overs and off spring from cultivated varieties on old farms. Some actually taste pretty good and I love wandering fields in fall taste testing these wild apples. While most heirloom or old fashioned varieties grew on trees that could reach 40...

Learn about Asian pears, including varieties and how to plant and grow them. Listen to Podcast: These fruits have been grown for more than 3000 years in Japan and China. Although they share a name with a similar European fruit, they present themselves totally differently. They are round, crisp textured, and juicy. We call them Asian pears. Asian pears are also known as “apple pears” because many are round shaped, but they’re not a hybrid of a pear and apple. They’re in another branch of the pear family that has been cherished in Asian for...

Learn all about the best varieties of blackberries to grow in the North, including everbearing types. Listen to Podcast: podcast transcript How to Grow: Brambles Brambles (Rubus) is the general name given to plants in the raspberry and blackberry family. I think they’re essential to grow in the yard because the fruits are so perishable and expensive in the store, only fresh fruit from your garden will do. These little jewels of fruits come in red, yellow, purple, and black and grow like weeds. I often go scouting in abandoned fields...

Brambles (Rubus) is the general name given to plants in the raspberry and blackberry family. I think they're essential to grow in the yard because the fruits are so perishable and expensive in the store, only fresh fruit from your garden will do. These little jewels of fruits come in red, yellow, purple, and black and grow like weeds. I often go scouting in abandoned fields looking for patches of wild brambles to harvest. They are one of the first species to colonize a pasture after the animals and man leaves. That tells you how...

Learn about cherries, including how to plant and grow them. Listen to Podcast: podcast transcript How to Grow: Cherries I remember as a young boy riding in my uncle’s bucket loader as he hoisted me up to pick bushels of cherries from his tree. I still remember the stained smiles of my cousins and me from eating and picking those cherries (Prunus). Cherry varieties are either sweet or sour. While sweet cherries are mostly eaten fresh, and sour or pie cherries used for cooking, don’t let the names fool you. Sour cherries taste great eaten...