This year I had my first cherry harvest. These are North Star cherries, a sour cherry. Sweet cherries do not do well here in Kentucky. My small tree, more a bush right now, produced enough cherries for a cobbler or pie. However, I ate them in smoothies and in oatmeal. Next year, a cobbler. You can pit them quickly with a metal straw, it was not much work at all. I planted the cherry trees a couple of years ago. This spring I planted elderberry, aronia berry, American hazelnut, a currant shrub, and a Chicago fig. Chicago figs are a cold-hardy variety unlike the figs I used to pick in Athens, GA and Charleston, SC. I am also trying two new vegetables this growing season. I have a new variety of asparagus bean in the ground, and I also have Egyptian spinach. Egyptian spinach seedlings are shown in the lowermost photo. There are several varieties of this spinach and some debate as to its origins as a food. From what I have learned I am growing a Lebanese variety, which is more in line with the common name used to advertise this plant at Truelove Seeds. They call it Palestinian spinach, but it can go by many names depending upon the region. It is prepared as a very green stew or soup to accompany rice or meat. Just in front of all the spinach seedlings is a staghorn sumac. I'm not sure this little volunteer is going to make it, but I have a couple of now large plants (my height) that should flower and fruit this year. I'll use the berries to make my own sumac spice and sumac-ade to drink. 
