3 Ways to Use Your Excess Fruit

If you have been following this blog for a while, then you should be a master fruit grower. Proper pruning, mulching, watering, and controlling pests will ensure that your trees consistently produce fruit. Hopefully, you  have more than you can possibly use. What then?

This article will explain the best three ways to use your excess fruit. All three of these options are good, but they require a little planning and most gardeners are looking for something to do this time of year. When summer comes you'll be so busy, and before you know it, you will be picking peaches and wishing you were better prepared for the harvest.

Preserving

There are several ways to preserve your harvest. Canning, drying, and freezing are the most common. Here are just a few things to consider this winter as you prepare to preserve your fruit this fall.

Canning

If you are going to can fruit, do you have enough jars, lids, rings? What is the condition of your canner? Do you can whole fruit or are you going to make sauces, jams, and jellies? What is the condition of your kitchen tools and gadgets that make this possible?

Drying

I know this is a very long process. Is there a way to speed it up? Do you need to buy a new dehydrator or more trays? Maybe now is the time to purchase that freeze dryer that you've always wanted. I hear that there is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to freeze drying food. Start practicing now.

Freezing

Freezing is a great way to preserve the freshness of your fruit, but freezers can be a black hole where things go in and never come out. You might have a year's supply of food in there. Now is the time to start using it up so you have space for your harvest this fall.

Sharing

Everyone loves fresh fruit, but it's perishable. Once ripe, fruit needs to be eaten or preserved. If you are going to share your fruit, I recommend finding people that will really appreciate it. You can leave a box of peaches on your neighbors front porch, but they might eat a couple and throw them out when they start to go bad. Maybe they weren't planning for a box of peaches and they didn't make a plan this winter to preserve them. 

The best way to find people that appreciate your hard work is to ask them to come harvest the fruit themselves. If they are willing to come to your place with boxes, baskets, and bags, then they'll pick what they think they can use and the effort that they put in will help them appreciate it more.

Selling

Selling produce can be tricky. The first step is marketing. How do people know that you have fruit? Is there a Facebook market place for your area? How about Craig's List or some other local online classifieds? People's attention is hard to get, so find out where people are already looking for what you have.

Farmer's markets are a great way to find people that want what you have. They do all of the marketing and they draw the crowds. Because of all the work that they do, they expect to be compensated and you will still have a lot to do. Setting up booths are not easy and chances are if you have surplus fruit, others do to. If you frequent farmer's markets, consider approaching a grower that you see regularly and ask if you would like to include your fruit in their spread. This might just be a win win for both of you.

The easiest way to sell excess fruit without all of the work and expense is to do what was mentioned above and have customers pick their own fruit and charge by the container, or charge by the pound. Either way do you have containers, or an accurate scale? 

Selling fruit probably won't cover your entire fruit growing expenses, but that's probably not why you started growing fruit in the first place. Commercial growers are much more efficient and they can take advantage of the benefits that come with selling in volume. 

Conclusion

I hope that you have a very bountiful harvest this fall and that you are prepared to receive it. Whether to preserve it, share it, or sell it, putting in the effort to not let it go to waste will be a very rewarding experience.

If you would like to learn more about the care and pruning of fruit trees, please browse our 100+ fruit tree articles here, join our Backyard Fruit Growers Facebook Group, and take our free Fruit Tree Pruning Course. Also, please subscribe to our Fruit Pruning YouTube Channel.