Preppers: Best Fruit Trees
Kevin Felts 04.25.17
Preppers, what fruit trees are you planting? The trees could be planted at your urban home, farm, or bug out location.
For the sake of discussion, let’s define a bug out location as a cabin or a remote place on private property where resources can be collected.
What benefits do fruit trees provide?
They do not have to be replanted like a garden. Certain types of trees do well in a wide range of soil and climate. They can also be dried or canned for storage.
Fig
The fig tree has been with humanity for thousands of years. Some estimates put the domestication of fig trees around 9,000 years ago.
As settlers moved west across the United States, the fig tree was one of the fruit trees that were brought with them. Who does not remember their grandparents having a fig tree on the farm? Chances are, the tree may have been in the chicken yard.
Figs can be canned or dried.
Pear
Another important fruit tree was the pear. I still have some of my grannies pear preserves that she canned back in the 1970s.
Pears are great in that they can be made in jelly, eaten right off the tree, or stored in jars.
They are a source of potassium, fiber, and vitamin C.
Pecan Tree
Pecan trees drop their pecans in late fall. Here in southeast Texas, that is usually late October and early November.
The beauty of the pecan is that if you keep them dry, they can be stored for months. This makes them an important snack food for those cold winter days. No cooking required, just crack open and eat.
Pecans are also a good barter/trade item.
They are a source of magnesium, fiber, iron, and Vitamin B-6.
Mulberry
The Mulberry is grown all over the world. Some of the trees can get up to 25 feet tall and 30 feet wide.
The fruit can be made into jelly.
Mulberry and fig are in the same family.
Mayhaws
Mayhaws are popular for making jelly and grow wild along creeks and other well drained but moist areas.
To collect the Mayhaws, place a tarp under the tree and shake. The fruit can then be collected by folding the tarp.
Avoid Stone Fruit
Stone fruit is any fruit tree that has a large seed, like a peach tree.
Examples:
- Peach
- Plum
- Cherry
Ask yourself, did the old timers plant peach trees? They may have planted a few, but not like what they did with fig, peach, and pecan.
Citrus Fruit Trees
You may be asking yourself, “Why no citrus trees?” Simply because citrus trees are sensitive to below freezing temperatures.
Several years ago one of my grape fruit trees died after a cold front passed through. Temps only got into the 20s, but that was enough to kill the tree.
