The value of having a couple of beehives in the garden becomes very apparent at this time of year ... (can increase productivity by up to 40% they say). 

The fruit trees and bushes are loaded up, although this doesn't mean we'll get to enjoy all of this fabulous fruit. We've had bellbirds devouring our nashi, every species of bird known to the neighbourhood devouring the red currants (yes we do have nets...), waxeyes and finches getting into the kiwi berries and the grapes, and the chilean guava...

But those are things to deal with later. Just now, I want to enjoy the possibilities these trees offer!

The pear is a Belle de Jumet, with is an early small honey pear. Very sweet, super juicy and potentially sticky if you can't control the drips... We have three pear trees, and they're all looking good for the season ahead. 

This is the fruit on the later of the two nashi varieties we have. The other one has been trained into an elegant weeping shape, making the fruit easier to reach. I'd like to claim this was entirely deliberate, but it started when the cow snapped the baby tree, fortunately just ABOVE the graft. The following year there was a lot of growth from the crown and we just pegged them down a bit and went from there...

The red currants happen just before Christmas, and we have some excellent bird netting, from Ritex International. (would recommend, and just did...) however the netting won't be as effective if you don't peg it down at the ends... the bushes are always really loaded at the start of the season and I get wildly excited, but then the birds get sneaky.

This lush growth is from our Kiwiberry vines, down by the house. I've talked about these before - they're about the size of your thumbnail, and when you slice through them they look just like kiwifruit. The flavour is intense, and very sweet: as if kiwifruit had been designed by the gummibear people...

Elderflowers are the start of many delicious things - cordials teamed with tamarillos, rhubarb, plum, lemon (singly, not all at once!)and then the winter cordial is made with the berries, fending off colds and flu with spicy flavours and a hit of chilli. We have a LOT of elderflower trees here, they're a bird poop tree of the first order!

And then there are more than 20 apple trees, damson plums, black currants, gooseberries, the quince tree has flowered this year; and there are younger trees that haven't flowered or fruited yet, but we continue to hope! Loquat, olives, Chinese and Mexican hawthorns, mulberries, persimmon (Very unlikely but hey!)... We'll keep you posted.