Berries!

This was the start of berry season for us. Earlier this week, Jess and I headed out to Strawberry Creek Farm for a late start to strawberry season due to the rain.

The berries were big and we managed to pick 20 pounds pretty quickly. What wasn't evident was that the wet weather meant that about half had hidden rot or mould. So I spent a nasty bit of time thinning the berries.

The next day I put up about three litres of strawberry-rhubarb pie filing. I froze the rest of the berries and will convert them to preserves (more pie filling, maybe jam) shortly.

I also broke out the dehydrator and dried a year's worth of oregano. The basil is struggling with the wet weather so I'm going to leave it until August.

Our own berries are start to produce. The Saskatoons are just about done but we got a good harvest. The neighbour just offered some of his so we'll maybe hit that tonight.

The raspberries are just coming into season so that will be the main crop from now on. I also picked our gooseberries. What a nasty plant! I also see the blackberry bush has blossoms this year (it does better in the wet) so I look forward to making some jam.

It is raining again today but, if it lets up, we'll maybe harvest some the garlic (a visitor has already grabbed several head from the back alley) and the peas. As we're looking at building a new garage next year, the beds behind the garage will need to get disassembled, the wood burned, and the dirt stashed for use when construction is done next fall.

Raspberries, strawberries and tomatoes

So the past ten days have been pretty busy as summer heat causes things to move along. The corn is looking pretty good this year and I expect we'll get edible heads.

The raspberries are going into their last weeks of picking but we have lots frozen and I made a batch of raspberry jam. If the weather would break, I'd make a second batch.

The apple tree is also ripening. Friends have offered us their apples in the next week or so to sauce with (ours are more autumn eating apples).

We're also starting to see the tomatoes ripen. First up are these tiny tomatoes. Very flavourful.

On the weekend, we visited Strawberry Creek Farm by Warburg to pick strawberries.

It was a lovely morning (about 20 with a breeze) and the berries were good.

We came home with four gallons. We froze some, I did two batches of jam and two batches of strawberry-rhubarb pie filling. We also ate a lot with ice cream.

Our own garden is coming along. The yard-long Armenian cucumbers are setting fruit. I'm interested to see how these do.

We also have a huge amount of dill from some seeds inadvertently spilled last year after the harvest.

The front yard is in good shape. We're halfway through splitting the irises and gave buckets away to neighbours and Facebook friends. I need my back to recover a bit before we do the other half.

The potatoes are fully grown and I'm starting to see the early plants start to yellow and die back. This seems a touch early but I'm happy to know new potatoes are imminent.

The tomatoes are also just starting to get a bit red. We should have lots to sauce this year. And a second crop of zucchini are ripening so we can do another batch of zucchini salsa. Jess has been cooking more and did a lovely set of grilled veggies on skewers the other night.

We also have some flowers and I think I have the midge problem on the daylilies under control,

Hopefully we get more of these in the coming days.

The weekend should see us make some more jam and continue watering the yard (it has been so hot--nearly 30 every day for almost two weeks).

Tomatoes, scapes, and Saskatoons

Jess and I took a short trip to Calgary this week, leaving Jennifer in charge of watering during a gruelling hot spell. We came back to find everything in intact, including the start of what looks like a great tomato harvest.

My plan this afternoon is to harvest the garlic scape to make pesto.

I dumped an old seed back I had into one of the back planters to see what came up. Answer: poppies.

We're just at the end or the peonies but these are being overtaken by daylilies. I still see some evidence of some kind of a disease in the daylilies (mostly swollen but stunted flower heads). I've been deadheading the diseased flower buds and, over the past two year, the incidence is way down.

We drove out to T&D's Saskatoons this afternoon to get four gallons of berries. The berries were amazing--they have really plumped up in the heat. Our own bushes need picking as well--maybe tonight after it rains. The robins have been in the trees each day getting their fill.

I cleaned the berries we picked and froze three-quarters for later jamming or use in baking. The rest we'll likely eat fresh with ice cream. If there enough left over, I might try wine making. The strawberry wine is cooking in the basement and smells amazing.

Now off to harvest some scapes.

Peonies, poppies, and preserves

The peonies continue to bloom in the back yard, with new plants coming into flower each day. I don't think we've seen such a show ever. Perhaps the plants are finally becoming mature?

The garden is also starting to produce useful amount of food. We've been thinning the lettuce boxes to make room for more mature plants to grow. This is one of the boxes in the back. I tried to get a bit artsie this year with different varieties in one box. I see we also have a tree coming up between the box and the garage (arrgh) and a few volunteer bush beans.

Last week we picked gooseberries. This was the first year we had enough to make jam. The result has had mixed reviews. I like it (tastes like a prairie version of marmalade). Others appreciated the flavour less... . Not a huge disappointment given how terribly thorny the mature plants are.

The carrots have finally germinated. They were crazy slow this year and I wondered if I had a bad batch of seed. I need to thin these more this week.

Grandmas' poppies have also come on strong, essentially infesting a raised planter. They are pretty if confined here. Ive been pulling plants that have migrated elsewhere.

Our first experiment with tomatillo seems to be yielding fruit. I'll need to do some research on when these guys are ready and how to process them for salsa.

The perennials are also in full bloom. This is a lovely Persian coneflower that the bees like. I've started to thin the perennials around yard at they seem to love the vegetable beds.

The strawberry plants we put in last year have really put our a good crop this year. Not quite enough to make anything with but nice for fresh eating.

To get enough volume for jam, wine, and pie filling, we went to Strawberry Creek Farm yesterday. It was warm (27C) but the breeze helped. We picked about six gallons of berries in an hour.

Jess was a trooper; this has been a nice change over the years when picking used to be measured by how much I could get done before she got bored and whiny.

Today I'm racking off wine and juicing some berries for strawberry wine. I plan to start making pie filling tomorrow (in the early morning while the house is still cool).

Strawberries and rhubarb

This week has mostly been about strawberries and rhubarb. The rhubarb plants were looking a bit over grown so I cut them back quite a lot and ended up with about 15 pounds of stalks. We juiced them over night, added some sugar, apple juice (frozen from last fall) and some water and started a batch of rhubarb wine.

Strawberry season started a week early this year and we went out to Strawberry Creek Farm by Warburg to pick five gallons. Lovely berries.

We also had an amazing day for it. Warm but not scorching, nice breeze to keep the bugs down. We picked five pails in an hour (for $42) and are now processing them. Some I have frozen for smoothies. I have two batches of jam ready to cook tonight. This weekend I'll also be putting up some strawberry rhubarb pie filling (by far my most popular preserve).

 I spent some time this morning weeding the garden. The rain has resulted in a bunper crop. But some of the vegetables look like they are finally taking off so that was encouraging (especially thinning the carrots). The day lilies are starting to bloom. I still have a few blossoms that have some sort of "bug" so I'm nipping them off and removing. But much less of a problem than last year.

The Saskatoon's are also ripening (also early) so we may need to harvest some to prevent the birds from taking them all.

The other thing of my "must do" list this weekend is harvest the garlic scape and make pesto. I may set Jess to this task tonight while I jam the berries.

Raspberries, tomatoes and sunflowers

Jess and I went out to Roy's Raspberries to pick this week. It was a beautiful day. Alas, Jess was bushed from an all-day birthday pool party on Monday and wasn't much of a picker ("This would go faster if you picked some berries." "Oh, right. Sorry.").

Despite a lot of staring off into space, we managed to get two gallons, which should be lots when combined with what is coming off of our own bushes.

I was weeding and noticed the tomatoes are really doing well. The larger eating tomatoes are huge and just need to ripen some. The saucing tomatoes aren't quite as far along.

There are lots of small cherry tomatoes (in red and yellow) that should be good to pick shortly.

The perennial sunflower patch has self-seeded again out front despite the depredations of the sparrows last autumn. The shorter flowers are just getting ready to flower out.

The rest of the yard is coming along nicely. I suspect the garlic and onions will done and ready for curing in the next two weeks. I also have a couple of potato plants that have died back already. Not sure if that was due to the drought or if they are just finished. I may spade them up to see what is there. Now back up the ladder for more fun with water-logged elm seeds in the gutters.

Poppies, Saskatoons and Lilies

Thanks heavens the heat wave has finally relented some. Twenty-eight degrees at midnight is a bit of a grind! The garden has been loving it, though and last night's downpour has lightened the watering load today. The poppies are out and providing nice colour here and there.

Jess and I went out to T&D's Saskatoons on Friday and picked three buckets. The berries were huge and we got a brief impromptu lesson in Saskatoon farming from the very nice man who was running the place.

Huge berries there were super sweet because of the heat.

At home I'm starting to pick raspberries. The lilies are also out. Not sure what kind these are--planted them a long time ago and they have been moved here and there as the beds have been converted to vegetables.

The heat has pushed the beets far enough that I will pickle some this week. The first flush of peas is also ready for picking when Jess gets home from day camp this evening.