Harvesting Plumcots

Two years ago (our first spring in this new house in Visalia, CA), we planted several trees in our backyard. One of the trees we chose from the nursery was a "plumcot" tree. The fruit is a cross between a plum and an apricot. We had tasted these a couple times before, but we mainly chose it for the substantial size of the tree and fruit already growing on it ... for a reasonable sum of money!

The fruit usually ripens in mid-May, and then we spend a few weeks battling the birds for our ripe plumcots! After losing the battle significantly last spring, we tried to get smart this year by hanging a fake owl in the tree and tying some shiny tinsel on the branches to hopefully scare the birds away (the tinsel is a trick we've seen used on the grapevines in "wine country" California). It helped a lot ... and then we ended up with way more plumcots than we could eat in a few weeks time! Chandler, Carlie, and Caleb (mostly Caleb) enjoy picking the fruit within their reach.
Here is just one day's harvest. There will be that much available tomorrow, too!