More Melon…

Melon, fig and sour cherries

After enjoying a lot of melons we need a little variation. The figs could also do with a new touch. Inspired by the newly aquired “Melons for the passionate grower” by Amy Goldman, I made this combination – half a melon with porto in the seed cave, surrounded by fresh figs and sour cherries in their syrup, mmm…

Guess I never mentioned our sour cherry tree, a clone named Vicky. It’s from the area of Stevns, where sour cherries has been a traditional crop for centuries. Trees would renew, both by seed and suckers – the whole area being a diverse genepool. Every now and then professional growers will find a new clone they propagate for their plantations and for homegardeners.

 

Figtree in fishervillage Dragør

Old figtree (Ficus carica) in Dragør.

In Denmark, the island of Bornholm is famous of it’s figtrees, but also fishervillage Dragør 3 miles from my garden grow nice figtrees. It is generelly trees without variety name, since we prefer a cutting from a well performing plant, rather than a pitty plant of a famous name. This tree grows near the harbour in the villages, and probably gave a good harvest this year.

The many small green figs still on the branches fall off as temperature falls. In spring new figs appear, out of which some will ripen. One of the pleasures having a fig tree in the garden is the perfume it spreads in the air on sunny warm summerdays.

My own trees are not likely to grow to same size, since it will more regularly be frozen to the ground. The number of years between the hard frost determines the size the figtree are likely to grow. Normally they sprout from groundlevel, after a hard frost.

Harbour in Dragør.