Harvest Time

The first of the Cherokee Purple tomatoes were ready this past week, some of the earliest I have ever had. These are the grafted tomatoes that were growing in gallon pots and were about 5 times bigger than the Amish Paste tomatoes I planted the same day.

Pickling cukes are also coming in. I started a crock of fermented half-sours from a recipe given to me by my friend Lynn. She makes the best pickles and I only hope mine turn out half as tasty as hers.

The last of the fall planted broccoli yielded a tasty broccoli salad. And I have been occasionally picking Chiogga beets and zucchini and yellow squash.

The berries are continuing to go crazy. So far I have picked 29 pounds of blueberries, most of that now residing in the freezer.  The blueberries are definitely on the downward side of picking.

The red raspberries are getting close to finishing, I hope; but the fall gold raspberries are starting to ripen for their first harvest.

Last year I preferred the flavor of the red raspberries over the gold but this year the taste of the golds is superior. Must be the weather since nothing else has changed.

Berries, Berries, and More Berries

We are in the height of berry season here. I was very late getting up my blueberry cage. We put it together two days ago and the blueberries are starting to ripen today. I am trying a different type of netting this year. Last fall I bought a 28x28ft piece of netting instead of piecing three foot rolls. It took three people to get the netting on but it seems to be working better. I am not sure how well it will survive the season as it is a lot flimsier than the old rolls. The netting feels like it will tear easily.
Every year when I put up the cage I can't remember which part goes where. Each joint is numbered but I forget where the numbering starts. NUMBER ONE POST GOES IN THE SOUTH WEST CORNER! Now I should be able to figure it out next year.

The raspberries are producing well this year. So far this season I have frozen 7 cups of red raspberries and eaten them on my cereal every morning. I have also frozen 6.75 cups of black raspberries. I'll make jelly when I have more time.

Today I picked 10 pounds of gooseberries and probably have nearly that much left on the two bushes. I made a gooseberry crisp and a gooseberry cake. Both were very tasty. The BBC has the best recipes for gooseberries. I still have too many gooseberries and will have to make up a compote to freeze. It will take forever to trim the "top and tail" from all those gooseberries.

Mulching and a Fruit Update

While driving around the outskirts of town looking at all the Mennonite farms I kept driving by a farm with a sign for mushroom soil.  Yesterday Alan hitched up the trailer and we went to get some. I wanted to mulch the front flower beds and the blueberry bushes with mushroom soil instead of shredded bark mulch to avoid "artillery fungus." There are spots already on the siding from previous encounters with "artillery fungus" and I didn't want to add to the marks.

The farm was lovely. As we drove along the lane a woman was working in her huge vegetable garden with two of her children. On the other side of the lane was a large hoop house full of tomato plants covered with 2-3 inch green tomatoes. We got to the piles of manure and then I went to look for someone to help us.  As I walked to another barn where I could hear men working I watched as a brother and sister, about 6 and 8 years old, argued over who's turn it was to ride a bicycle. Of course the sister was riding the bike and had no intention of stopping. All this in pennsylvania german.

The farmer came and gave us a scoop and a half of mushroom soil for $15. He needed to get change so we waited while he went off.  A few minutes later along came the sister on the bike with our $5. I love Mennonite families!

At home I got to work weeding the front beds and spreading mulch. I am very happy with the way the new front border is coming along.

The blueberries are doing really well this year and look even better with their mulch bed.

And they are covered in berries!

 The grapes are having an incredibly good year as well.

I even had enough mulch left over to do the red raspberries too. All the fruit is doing great this year. We should have a bumper crop.

The Blueberry Cage

The blueberries are getting close to ripening so it was time to figure out how to put up the blueberry cage.  The previous owners were so grateful we wanted it.  How could I turn down the cage to protect my blueberries from the hungry birds!
Thankfully I had my youngest, Mackenzie, for help.  The longest boards were in the rafters of the garage and required standing on top of a stepladder.  We had no idea how to put the cage together, but all the pieces were numbered. How hard could this be?
Once we got all the pieces out to the blueberry bushes we assembled the three long sections.

This is the crop in need of protection.

It took 5 people to get the three long sections attached to the cross pieces while working around the blueberries.  Luckily my other daughter and her friend came to help. We got a large portion of the netting in place as well before the rain came.  Now we just have to get the rest of the netting on and the berries will be protected.