Well, the first of the fruit count is in this year and it surely does reflect a different spring and what late frosts can do..
Red Currents- a mear 8 cups worth- $6 dollars worth locally..
No on farm black or white currents- $0 dollars
Wild Currents- Just as bad.. done and empty.. did they have some while I was gone or did the birds get them all?
Thankfully, I have a reasonable amounts of red current jelly, juice and about 4 pds still frozen in the freezer for the use in 2012, still I will be pruning, feeding and remulching the bushes this year, in the hopes that I get a much more typical crop in amounts next year.. given that I have 12 current bushes on the farm at the moment, that is one very poor crop indeed.
My blueberry on farm yield was even worse this year.. for a total of count it! Nine berries.. what is that $ .10 cents worth LOL
Thankfully, there does seem to be a very limited amount of wild blueberries available, but even they are very lean pickings, what should have clusters with good size berries, have only one or two and they are smaller and drier.
Thankfully, last year was a good blueberry year, and I still have a full case of 12 blueberry fruit, 8 jars of blueberry pie filling, 4 jars of blueberry juice, and 12 pds of frozen berries in the big freezer yet..
On the flip side, my elderberry bushes are so loaded with started fruit that I will need to either trim off clusters or prop up branches and I had a look at my chokeberries and they are loaded to the hilt, as are the grapes and the high bush cranberries.. hmmm we will see if they turn out in the end, I certianly hope so..
Just another Day on the Farm 
While it was pretty much guaranteed that you wouldn’t have gotten a bumper crop two years in a row, that is a rather dismal result. I have seen some of our fruit producers here have a second bloom after a frost – guess this one was just too severe – a true “killing frost”. Ah well, like farmers have said (probably since the beginning; ) “There’s always next year…”
Dismal is about right, so far, it looks like I have lost most of my current and blueberry crop, my apple tree (that should be producing at least 50 to 100 pds) has two apples on it, looks like I will get no plums, peachs or cherry’s on my on farm tree’s, will need to see about my wild picking ones. Even my strawberry crop was reduced by 65% so far this year compared to last..and I would not be surprised at this rate to see my tomato’s crop down by 50 to 70% percent over last year.. Looks like half or less for my gooseberrie as well..
I hear you on not having a bumper crop the next year but typically it does not go this low either..
Yes, a lot of early harvested fruits are a write off this year; but, on the other hand, I’ve NEVER seen as much fruit on the grape arbour as this year, Elderberries are amazing everywhere (and I wouldn’t be making any assumptions about those tomatoes either – I’m thinking they’re going to be just like the butterflies: )
Meantime? First: “Stuff” happens, just plug your nose ’til you get over the stink and second: just like the surf, where the waves come in and roll back out; you know they’ll be back, but they’re always different… Many hugs, Deb
LOL, I could not help but picture the surf rolling over me and splash, sputter and a mouth full of sand but as you say, lots of good there to..
It’s always something, eh? The give and take of each year is kind of what keeps things interesting I think.
*anna
Yup, when you garden, there are always things that are a bumper crop, some that do well and some that just make you do the HUH? I know why I have such poor crops, that very early spring got everything started to early and I “thought” I had missed a truly hard frost, but cleanly I was wrong, I know everything flowered, I know I have bee’s, I know that the bushes and tree’s are all healthy and I am looking at it this way..
a) Great year to prune 🙂
b) Its a good year for the fruiting bushes or tree’s, as they are not producing fruit, they can work on just growing and strengthing themselves.
So that hopefully next year, I will get a wonderful crop to make up for this years! -we can always hope 🙂
Guess everything deserves to be “left fallow at least once in every seven” hey? Rest is good…
Sigh. It’s scary bad everywhere, from what I can see. The Mennonites around here are appearing nervous – and considering how much they embody the attitude of “It’s God’s will,” I’m ready to panic if they’re worried.
I’m really sorry to hear that the frost hit you so badly after all. I *am*, however, quite glad that you put up food in the quantities you do during the good years.