Thoughts on seasonal fruit

Glorious figs, May 2018

It's shaping up to be a good fruit year for our small bushes and trees.  None of them are very old, and most have been pruned/trained to stay small, thus limiting production.  Still, as we begin our little harvest (strawberries, Morello cherries, and redcurrants so far) I'm hoping to have enough fresh fruit throughout the summer, with a little extra preserved for autumn and winter.

My preservation techniques of choice are:  pantry (as in not refrigerated) storage, dehydration and fermented i.e. alcohol.  I may do a little freezing for short-term:  no more than a month or two;  our freezer's tiny and is usually reserved for our monthly milk order, containers of homemade stock and meat bought on special. 

Do we really need to eat fruit every day?  It's not an all-season food here on this cool, rainy island--not like vegetables.  My ultimate goal is self reliance in food;  this is probably not feasible for all foods (such as meat) on our very small property.  But we could be self reliant in fruit, seasonally;  obviously this means only eating fruit in season.  Our ancestors did it;  maybe we should too.  The eight year old might have a problem with this though...