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.

Back from Ireland

So we took a family trip to Ireland and entrusted the garden to fate. Before we left, I did a few things with the early harvest. I missed the window on the radishes so we had only modest number.

I decided to make refrigerator pickles from them.

The spring as also very wet and the peas were really giving their all. Usually, we have about three- or four-foot plants. This year there were over five feet before we left.

We also managed to catch the first of the peonies before we went.

We came back to a very much garden (about a foot of water over the two week were were gone). I got a jet-lagged Jess out to pick some early Saskatoons.

We then harvested about 75 garlic scapes. This was a few more than normal for us but meant lots of pesto.

Jess had come around by this point as the bucket started to fill up.

We then processed them in the house (very smelly!)

It was quite a pile to work through and rough cut.

We then hated out the processor, made maybe two litres of pesto, and froze most of it for the winter Although judging my Jessica's breath, she's been into the jar in the fridge.

The pea plants were over six feet by the time we got back and had run out of trellis. I did a quick early harvest and got three litres of peas.

Some we ate and I'll process the rest today to freeze.

I'm hopeful we'll get to pick some strawberries on the weekend. I also need to spend some more time thinning the carrots and generally knocking back the weeds.