Garlic, melons, water, and thistle

Well, we had both big heat and big rain this week! The garden welcomed both. On the rainy day, I spent some time in the garage trimming off the stalks from the garlic. It was mostly dried but I decided to leave it another two weeks to finish curing.

Flowers of the friendly and unfriendly kind are in heavy bloom this week. I'm not a bit fan of thistle, but this picture turned out really well.

Raspberry picking continues and I tried a second batch of saskatoon-raspberry syrup, with a slightly different recipe. The dog has a bit of a raspberry problem and insisted on closely supervising all work.

The result this time was tasty but a bit too runny. Next time I'll ad the lemon juice back in. This made enough that I canned four jars for winter.

We're also experimenting with other raspberry recipes, including raspberry crisp (sour!). The freezer is nearing capacity so I fear I will be jamming in the heat this week.

We had the mother of all rain storms. It is unusual for the water to pool in the pathways as well as in between the rows of carrots!

But the heat has kicked the squash and melon plants into gear. Finally, I'm seeing some vining and blooming on the cantaloupe.

The cucumber plants is also finally starting to climb.

The second sowing of lettuce is also now ready. The first sowing is well into bolting. Not a great picture below but I thought the colours were lovely.

I am hopeful we'll be done with raspberries this week and I can have a short break before the apples start. I did get the dehydrator going and got another batch of mint dried and put away. It will be a few more weeks before the basil is big enough to get a huge harvest off of.

Raspberry ice cream, syrup, and other garden things

Well, we're ass-deep in raspberry season (still) and I picked three gallons yesterday. We've been giving berries away, eating them as fast as we can, and freezing the rest. The freezer is looking full enough that I may need to break out the canner and sweat out a couple of gallons of jam in the summer heat.

Jenn has been trying to incorporate them into new recipes, including making raspberry ice cream (berries, condensed milk, maybe a touch of vanilla, and whipping cream; mix and freeze).

This was super good, especially with more berries on top. She's promised another batch for when the kid gets home on some days off.

The robins and I have managed to pick our saskatoon bush clean, running into lots of bee friends along the way.

I saw someone make saskatoon-raspberry syrup for pancakes online so I followed their recipe with at test batch.

A quick heat to soften, then through the food mill to get the skins and most of the seeds out.

Then some sugar and lemon juice and a quick boil to incorporate. Since this was a small test-batch, I didn't both to water bath it--it just went into the fridge.

It was a little too gooey for syrup (loose jelly texture) so we decided to use it as an ice cream topping. It has a lovely rich flavour from the saskatoons.

The rest of the garden goes in fits and starts. I picked the last of the peas. They did poorly this year (no idea why, maybe too much water?).

Some of the peppers have fruited. Others are struggling with the cooler weather and rain.

The grapes, though are really liking the water and I think we'll have enough for a small batch of jelly.

There is finally good leaf growth on the various squash plants and a few fruit are setting. I think, with two months left, we should get something useful. I'm thinking about rejigging the back gardens this fall so I might plant them elsewhere next year.

The rain is also plumping up the apples nicely.

This coming week, I need to finish curing the garlic and get it ready for storage. I'm also hopeful we'll start to see some green beans from the plants. I should also get the dehydrator out and do another round of herbs.

Raspberries, garlic, and saskatoon jelly

As predicted, raspberry production is now a gallon a day. This was a quick pick this morning on one side of the yard. Most of these are going into the freezer for later processing. The rest are getting eaten fresh or given away. We finally finished last year's frozen berries yesterday!!

I noticed that these thorny-assed black raspberries, which I thought I had eliminated, have managed to make a comeback underneath the saskatoon bush. They are tasty (much richer in flavour and not as acidic as red raspberries) but the thorns are horrendous.

The wind has also been beating some of the canes against the fence, leaving CSI-like splatter behind.

Jess was home this week. In addition to picking some berries, she helped me pull the garlic.

We ended up with 90 heads this year, which is enough to get us through the winter and also to have some to give away or barter with.

After they dried enough that I could brush the dirt off, I hung them in the garage to cure. The garage reeks of garlic. As soon as you open the door, you can smell it.

Overall, the size of the heads is much improved over past years. A few years of selective breeding had increased the average head size to at least commercial sized. A few are huge.

The rest of the garden is slowly coming along. We have enough dill weed so I'm letting some of the plants seed, both to give us some dill seed and also to ensure it comes back next year.

Jess did a quick harvest of ripe cherries off the tree. I did a second cull today and, pitted, we have one and a bit cups (which is the first significant harvest we've had). Not bad for year three. I will probably try some cherry tarts to use them up (they are frozen right now).

Part of Jess's job requires seed harvesting. It is berry season up north and they picked dew berries, saskatoons, and wild strawberries last week. Her last shift was processing the berries, basically juicing them to get the seed out so they can dry and be collected. This meant she could bring home some saskatoon juice (it takes a lot of berries to get a litre of saskatoon juice).

There is some much pectin in the juice that it starts to set immediately on its own. We decided to make jelly. I used a crab apple recipe to get to the proportions.

The chunks in the show below are just juice that has gelled on its own.

The flavour is good and we got four small jars plus a bit of excess in the end.

We did. however overcook it, so it is hard to spread. Jenn suggests we ball it and cover it in chocolate to make some kind of bonbon.

The rest of the yard is still blooming. Below are what remains of my lilies after five years of lily beetle infestation. Super pretty for a short time but just too vulnerable to bugs to bother re-establishing any number of them, when dallies grow so well here.

I suspect we'll still be dealing with a raspberry glut next week. The apples are showing encouraging size already, probably a function of the additional rain we've had this year.

Grapes, plums, berries and pie

Summer is moving along and I'm starting to see some fruit. After several years of languishing, the grape vine has sent a goodly number of bunches this year. I may get enough to make grape jelly!

The plum trees we put in two years ago have also set some fruit for the first time and I counted four plums on the bigger trees. We'll see how many make it to autumn.

The raspberry apocalypse has begun and we're starting to pick about half a gallon a day, That will likely ramp up to a gallon a day by next week.

We also have a nice showing of dayliles.

I spent some time this week picking saskatoons. With the rhubarb also ready, Jenn and I decided to make pie.

The results were delicious! And I will be definitely be canning one pie filling this summer for a winter treat.

Jess is also back from the north and has brought with her a litre of Saskatoon juice from rending the berries to extract the seeds. I think we'll make jelly with it.

Dehydrating!

I spent some of this week fiddling around with the dehydrator. First up was some mint and some dill weed. The dill self-seeded into the carrot bed and needed to go because it was shading them. The mint is just everywhere so I decided to try to make a virtue of weeding it.

Three trays of each reduced to 500ml jars of dried. I then charged up and used the vacuum sealer Jenn bought me for father's day. Works like a charm, so far!

Last week's haul of garlic scapes means this year's garlic crops not far behind. We still had a fair few of last year's bulbs so I peeled them and then rough minced them.

These went into the dehydrator for about 15 hours until they were crispy dry.

I then used the magic bullet to powder them and vacuum sealed. The garlic powder is insanely pungent!

Outside, we have just been weeding a lot. I have almost got the daylily midge problem licked with careful removal of infected flower buds.

The potatoes are also coming along nicely. I have, I think, finally thinned the carrots and beets enough and can just focus on weeding.

I did the first real harvest of the saskatoon bush, putting about half a gallon away for saskatoon-rhubarb pie later on. The rain has really meant a bountiful harvest.

The peas, which are way behind, are finally starting to form some pods!

The real story in the next two weeks will be the raspberries. The rain means we have a bumper crop. If it get hot soon, we will be drowning I just pulled the last gallon of frozen raspberries from the freezer to eat.

Hopefully, the beans and melons and cucumbers will start to make some progress to match the squash plants (which are now vining).