Fruit and potatoes

The last few weeks have been busy but rainy. The good news is that the blackberry bush has flowered with all the moisture and I think we'll get a good harvest this year. Blackberry jam is one of my favourites and blackberries don't seem to like our climate (they were basically weeds in Ireland).

I've been busy preserving what we've been picking. I did a quick batch of raspberry jam as I was running out of room in the freezer.

We also blanched and froze a bunch of asparagus. I didn't dry the stalks for soup flavouring this year as there is still lots left from last year.

I spent some time converting the strawberries we picked into strawberry-rhubarb pie filling.

I also mixed a bunch of strawberries in with Saskatoons picked from a neighbour's bush and made some pie filling (which is also lovely over ice-cream).

The flowers have been disappointing this year but the poppies came back.

Last night, we harvested the first of the potatoes, as the plants died down last weekend. These are blue caribe that we planted from last year's harvest after they went leggy in storage.

I think we harvested about a third of the potatoes (rest are later variety) and got about 40lbs. These are sitting the garage firming up a bit.

We also harvested the onions from the front. It was a terrible year for the onions, with most being small or just failing to do anything. The garlic harvest was better and they are still curing in the garage.

I'm busy splitting irises out front and making room to move the rhubarb and some soil around as we prepare for construction of a new garage.

We have a lot of traditional dallies in bright orange. These are a darker variety and I have to say I'm surprised how they bloomed. They're pretty but obviously some different stock.

Garlic!

It was garlic week as the leaves were dying down and some local urban outdoorsman had helped himself to a bunch of heads we were growing in the alley.

We harvested about 75 heads. Some were a nice size and some were huge!

These were heads that had gone two years in the ground. We'll have to see what they are like once they are cured (the smell in the garage while they hang  is both wonderful and overpowering).

We also got our second and likely last harvest of peas. Most of these were blanched and frozen.

The rain wants we had big, big peas this year. The story in the tomato patch is less hopeful with a reduce crop due to the cool weather.

With the old garage on its last legs, we are making plans to replace it next year. This means disassembling the garden beds in the alley, burning the old wood, and moving the soil elsewhere (instead of planting a cover crop with the garlic harvested).

There are a couple of spots the city dug up four years ago to put in a new sewer line. The fill they put in slumped, leaving big depressions. So Jess humped the soil here, smoothed it out, and then we threw some grass seed down.

I suspect this week we'll be doing some thinning of the irises out front which will include making room to move the rhubarb away from the garage construction site. The raspberries are also continuing to produce huge amounts of berries and I will have to finish up canning the strawberries so we have adequate freezer space!