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).

Garlic scapes

The garlic scapes are ready so I spent Saturday harvesting and processing them.

The main garlic bed this year had 100 or so heads so it took a bit to gather them all up. There are also lots of strays around the yard from bulbs and heads that went unharvested in past years. I'll collect these as I see them while weeding.

It was a good haul this year and most of my usual "can you take some?" people were like "nah, bro" so I just bulk processed most of them.

The dog was very interested in being poisoned, apparently. The garlic smell was overwhelming and I quickly went nose blind.

I ended up with about half a gallon of chopped scapes that I blanched, drained, and then froze. This will mostly be turned into pesto once the basil catches up in late August.

I also kept a few scapes for roasting this week and turn the blanch water into a garlic potato soup for lunch. Overall, a pretty fun morning.

June update: Peonies, squash and apple

Alright, several weeks of travelling (followed by frantic weeding) have kept me away from the blog but things feel more in hand now.

Peony season is just ending and it was amazing this year. Lovely blooms and one plant that was struggling last year seems to have recovered (I suspect all of the rain got in June helped).

The carrots are up and look so much better than this photo suggests. The beets have also germinated after a second sowing along with green beans. I pulled the radishes and, after an unsupervised trip to the green house, replanted the areas with a mix of pepper plants and some flowers.

The rain has also helped the squash, which are starting to look viable! The basil has been less happy with the water and could use a week or two of heat.

The potatoes in the raised boxes are about to set flowers. The potatoes in the ground are a few weeks behind (which is fine).

The cucumbers and squash I have planted to trellis up struggle, for reasons I do not really understand. The soil has been amended over and over. They may just need some time. Everything seems a bit set back by the cooler June. Or, possible, I have been cursed.

The daisies are running wild in the yard and may require action.

The water has been good for the apple trees, which have fruit and it is starting to get big. Both trees got a sharp pruning last year so I'm not sure what that will mean for the overall harvest.

The community garden, where I do not have a plot, has also busted out with the rain.

Today is garlic scape harvest day so that is probably the plan for the weekend. The saskatoons and raspberries will be the next crops--likely in two weeks.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam

The last two weeks in the yard have been pretty quiet, involving weeding, succession seeding, and a battle with some ants in one of the garden boxes. The rhubarb out front has recovered from last year's drought enough for me to take some stalks.

I've made strawberry-rhubarb pie filling before but I've never tried it as a jam, so I found a recipe online and some frozen strawberries and away we went.

Maybe a bit sweeter than I might like my jams, but it definitely tastes good. Texture is basically a soft spread, not all that different from stewed rhubarb. Might be good on pancakes on a cold, winter day. I'm going to try Saskatoon-rhubarb jam later in the season. Sounds gross but the pies we've tried with this combination are amazing.

The flowers we bought seem to be doing very well in the planters and pots. Keeping them wet in the early heat is quite a job.

The raspberries are all in bloom, to the delight of the bees.

The chives have also flowered like crazy out front beneath the plum tree.

In more exciting news, it looks like the plum tree has set a small number of fruit after a very pretty blossom this spring. Hopefully it will see these through to the fall.

I was wandering the back alleys of the neighbourhood the other morning and noticed some of my neighbours have put up this lovely grape trellis and plants the base on both sides with a huge strawberry patch. Very pretty!

This week, I need to do some thinning of the carrots and the beets and hopefully harvest some lettuce for salads.

Tulips, peas and potatoes

 Alright, I missed a week or two of updates due to some travel but am now back on track.

We had a great year of bulbs, which are finished now. I'll definitely be putting a few more in this fall.

All of the seedlings have now gone outdoors, with mixed success. Most of the squash made it except a few that I was clumsy with. These I replanted with direct sown seeds.

We also have most of the flowers in the ground. There is still room for a few more, I'd say but I'm going to wait for some end of season sales.

The rest of the spring flowers are just about finishing, It was a great year for lilacs as well as lily of the valley. I have had to start ruthlessly removing some as pit spreads so aggressively.

The peas are up and I have been working hard to keep them free from weeds. I have been having good luck in the far corner of the yard growing clover footpaths (mostly through selective weeding) and the peas are right here so they have gotten more attention than usual.

The basil has all survived transplant, which is amazing. Usually I lose half of the seedlings to shock or various other woes. I did have a lot of casualties among the cantaloupe and the cucumber transplants and I had to go buy a few replacements.

The radishes have come up up nicely and the beans are starting to germinate. No sign of the asparagus this year. Oh well, it was never really done that well for me (maybe the soil is too clay-y) and I think I'm just going to give up.

The garlic is almost a foot tall already. nice to have some early signs of success. we've also managed to finish the garlic scape pesto I had in the freezer so I may do a batch again this year.

I was also happy to see that the potatoes have started to pop up. Yay!

I ended up reseeding the carrots (maybe I used old seed?). In better news, the beets seem to be coming up (finally!) and the tomatoes all see to have survived their transplanting. Whew!

Fruit blossoms, bulbs, and planting

 This week was probably the height spring blooms in Edmonton.

Above, plums; below saskatoons.

The cherry tree was also in full show and I'm hopefully we'll get a good crop this year. The apples (not shown) are just starting to bloom.

The tulips also all popped.

In more prosaic gardening, I have been putting out the seedlings we grew. The tomatoes got way too leggy so I ended up putting them in on their sides in the trench method. Six went in out front and six in the back to climb up the deck railing.

These were a mix of cherry tomatoes and larger ones (mortgage lifters, I think).

I also put the squash, green onions, and the basil out. I didn't get a chance to harden off the basil as much as I wanted so I gave them each a mini greenhouse and some leaf cover for the first few days to lessen the shock.

 

I have a few squash left to plant. I also finished the seeding, including a bunch of sunflowers. The cucumbers and cantaloupe will sit inside for another couple of weeks before I put them out (they are more prone to dying when transplanted!). The last of the planting will be a bunch of flowers, maybe in a week or two.