This post contains large quantities of butter and flour. You have been warned.

Thanks to the nine pounds of freshly picked blueberries on hand I was perusing the net for a new 'blueberry something-or-other' recipe to try, and came accross this one for Blueberry Crumb Bars over at Smitten Kitchen.  DON'T LOOK!  Seriously.  Cause when I did I was back in my hot kitchen (more on that later) whipping up a batch immediatly.  Luckily it went rather quickly.  I am going to do you all a favor and only show you what the bars look like before they go in the oven.  The finished product would have you drooling on your keyboard.

Seriously.  Did I mention the tantalizing aroma of lemon zest?  Mmmm.

(P.S.- I had just finished up a day of blanching and canning vegetables, and was relieved to *finally*  leave the hot messy kitchen behind for a bit......or so I thought.)

Life is Good

The day started off with this delicious Summertime breakfast:

I couldn't help myself from digging in the fingerling bed last night to see how things were coming along:

The remaining Cipollini Onions and were pulled and set aside to dry:

Tomatoes are cracked from the heavy rains, but providing a nice harvest each day:

Today we went blueberry picking:

The farmer was as sweet as could be.  I must return again for more berries, and a Christmas Tree!

And speaking of sweet, the honeybees were all abuzz:

We left when our basket was full, the 9 pounds of berries will stock the freezer well:

The ride home included stops for lunch, ice cream (for the kiddos), 

blackberries, raspberries, green beans, and corn.

What a great day we had.  Life is good.

Happy June

We have been enjoying all this beautiful New England weather, what a change from last year!  I took some pictures of berries and flowers this morning.   The currant made it's first ripe offerings this past weekend, the little berries were sweet, tart, and gave a little 'pop' in the mouth....one of the kids liked them, the other was not so sure.

An apple update:

The blueberries are starting to take on their signature color, I better get them netted.

The chipmunks have been stealing the strawberries as soon as they near their prime, I am hoping they get lazy soon.   I REALLY want some berries!

I am getting very excited for tomato season to start, the plants seem to be coming along nicely.

Today's harvest:

We built a fire pit this weekend on a whim, usually we just use one of those bon-bon drum thingys.  Not bad for the cost of a bag of mortar....we had slim pickings for rocks though, that was the true challenge.  The pit was broken in last night......

And look what I discovered when bug hunting and watering the potatoes today:

Seems as though somebody has been sleeping in my garden.  No fur that I could see, but looks a bit like a rabbit may be behind it.  

Today's Happenings

So today has been interesting. We started the morning off blueberry picking. The farm was perfect- they do p.y.o. raspberries and blueberries, plus raise animals for meat. I had intended on going raspberry picking, but after traveling 35 minutes to get there it was blueberries that were ripe. A bit disappointed, but no big deal. The folks were some of the nicest people I have run into in this type of establishment, DuFort Farms over in Rehobeth.

So off we went with our milk jugs tied around our necks. We were escorted to suggested row and off we went! The kids discovered a cat along the way and that was the end of their picking, but it was just as well since the little one was eating three for every one that went in her jug despite the continuous scolding. We left with 5.5 lbs of blues and just under a pound of breakfast sausage, all for around $22.00- not bad!

This is by far the largest blueberry inventory I have ever had..... 2 quarts went into the freezer, 3 cups will be going into a dessert, Blueberry Galette with Lemon Ice Cream, and I am not sure yet about the rest.

Look at this little piece of gorgeousness! An heirloom dwarf glad from Old House Gardens, Boone maybe?? Anyway, the darlings are so pricey I only ordered one bulb, but it is stunning. I love the blue pollen against the red.

I came to the realization tonight while making bread and butter pickles that I made a crucial error when making the zucchini pickles. I taste tested one while still warm and found it unappealing and salty. Yeah, that's because the pickling salt that was meant to only be used in a water soak went into the liquid pickling mixture instead. OOPS! Not sure if this will affect the whole acidity balance for storage/spoilage.....hoping not! After perusing more recipes they will taste more like a dill (which I can only stomach while preggers), luckily it was only 1/4 pickling salt for something like 6 pints of pickles. Should I chuck these babies or risk food poisoning, lol!?!

Yesterday's Garden Walkthrough

When I went out yesterday morning to do some watering and harvesting I found a honey bee doing a dance in this squash blossom. Of course I didn't have my camera and by the time I had retrieved it the fella was gone. Moments later another bee arrived. I am not sure what type this one is though.

***

This is the bushy, furry asparagus bed with a handful of dahlias thrown in. I peered in around back, and sure enough, new spears are still emerging. I figured they would be done by now since most have gone to seed and they are a "Spring crop". Maybe they are just trying to catch up from their late start?

***

Welcome to the tomato jungle! There are quite a few plants with diseases, but so far this hasn't affected the fruit production. All the plants seem to have caught up to one another in size (some were started much earlier than others). The flavor of the Juliet Plums is superb, but their size in my opinion only makes them good for fresh eating. I couldn't imagine trying to make sauce out of those tiny things.

***

Here's a good one.....whats the biggest thing in my garden? The sunflower seedling my son brought home in a Dixie cup from pre-school, ha! The sweet potato vines underneath are finally starting to ramble. (Don't mind the weeds.)

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This is one of the handful of winter squash growing in containers. I never thinned this pot and there are two plants growing in there, I hope they have enough room to get through the season. I don't see how they could but I just don't have the heart to pull one out now.

***

These beans are a 'fall sowing'; the muskmelon seedlings originally in this straw bale were eaten by critters in the night. I added some dog hair and metal wire for good measure and so far they have been left alone.

***

The neem spraying on the apple trees has not helped any, in fact they are worse. I think the situation is too far gone and requires a more potent chemical. The trees are not happy, hard to put into words, but I can just tell things are not good. I used Bonide Garden Dust (an insecticide-fungicide) today and gave them a fish emulsion feeding. I don't know if the dust will work any better than the neem, but if I don't stop the insect damage soon these trees may weaken beyond repair.

Next year I will be sure to use the neem proactively (as Ruralrose suggested) along with Horticultural & Dormant oil spray. If anyone has any other suggestions please share them! I know most literature calls for regular spraying of fruit trees, and I was hoping to avoid it if at all possible......maybe that just isn't realistic?

***

Lastly, yesterday's garden bounty. BLT's and refrigerator pickles are in my future, this is what I have waiting for all summer!! My bucket was actually heavy today, weighing in at four and a quarter pounds, YEAH!

Other People's Gardens

Another post not about my garden. Hey, what else is there to do when the rain just doesn't stop and you have little to harvest? Make stuff with food from other people's gardens!

(Speaking of other people's food, my1st CSA pick-up was today: 1 head lettuce, 1/4 lb salad greens, sm bunches of kale and swiss chard, 1/2 doz. eggs, 1 kohlrabi, quart of strawberries, and cheese.)

All this dreary weather is making me think of the fall and winter months, which makes me dream of baking pies. Today I made the Blueberry Pie Filling (recipe in previous post). The recipe made 5 pints so I will do another batch soon in order to have batches frozen in 2 pint quantities, enough for 5 pies in all.

My blogger friends Erin over at Garden Now-Think Later! and EG at Engineered Gardener have been busy making blackberry jam and it has been looking yummy! So, I dug out some set aside recipes I have been wanting to try and washed up the Ball jars and got my canning on. These are the recipes I used for Sweet Onion Preserves and Jalapeno Strawberry Jam, thanks for the inspiration!!:

http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f94/sweet-onion-preserves-13516.html I substituted a mix of white wine, white balsamic, and red balsamic vinegars in place of the tarragon vinegar, and used rosemary and sage in place of the fresh tarragon.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Jalapeno-Strawberry-Jam/Detail.aspx This is all that was left of one of the jars come evening after making the jam. We all had some poured over cream cheese with crackers, and then my 2 yr old decided she was just going to go for straight for it and began eating spoon fulls right out of the jar. This recipe isn't too spicy, if you are looking for some real heat you need to kick the type of peppers up a notch. Used more hot red cherries than jalapenos but the cherries had less fire than I was expecting. Can anyone give me lessons on the world of hot peppers?

I saw these containers and thought they would be perfect for freezing individual pints of berries in.

Freezer Blueberry Pie Filling

I generally use frozen wild blueberries for pies but this is worth giving a second thought.....blueberries are such a good value at the grocer right now, those Jersey berries are a welcome treat since locally we are not in season yet.

12 C blueberries, washed, dried, and picked over
3 C sugar
1 T lemon zest
1/4 lemon juice
3/4 C corn starch

Stir together sugar and corn starch in a large saucepan. Add blueberries and stir. Leave to sit about 30 minutes/until it gets juicy. Then add lemon juice and zest. Turn stove to med. heat and cook until thickened. Store in freezer jars ( Will need 2 pints for a deep dish pie, 1 pint for a 1'). Should fill about 5 pints. Edit- I added a few good shakes of cinnamon to the sugar mix and salt to taste after it was thickened over the heat. Just a small amount of salt is needed, I did about 5 grinds of sea salt.

Fruit Plantings

After doing some work to the house we were left with one mess of a side-yard. My husband was hoping to avoid having to mow the slope and I was hoping for some fruit to pick so we came upon the idea of doing some edible landscaping. Luckily this is a popular topic these days or we may have ended up with more hydrangeas and the dreaded grass. This has been a fly by the seat of our pants thing and getting the proper hours of sun required for these fruits is questionable. So far we have planted 2 dwarf apple trees and a variety of small fruits. I have noted the varieties below along with a few links to help me through out the season, I already can't remember what is what. We hope to have a ground cover of strawberries and a blackberry/raspberry bramble hedge when all is grown in. (Shown above: alpine strawberry, our progress in the side yard to date, blackberry flowers)

GROWING and VARIETY NOTES:

Canadice Red Seedless Grape - site preparation, pruning & trellising:

(trellis on the garden 'to do' list)

• ensure good drainage (sandy loam best)
• grapes prefer Southern Exposure
• pH 5.5-6.5
• amend planting site with bone meal or rock phosphate
• pruning determines vine health
• http://extension.unh.edu/resources/representation/Resource000576_Rep598.pdf
• http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/Resources/PDFs/CIS0790.pdf
• http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2003-12-01/Sensational-Seedless-Grapes.aspx

Growing Blackberries:

• fruit is ripe when it goes from glossy to dull
• tip erect canes back mid-summer
• primocane varieties fruit on first year canes
  

FRUIT VARIETIES 2009

Dwarf Liberty Apple on pajam/M-9

Dwarf Spitzenburg Apple (Thomas Jefferson's reported favorite) on pajam/M-9

Apache Blackberry

Ebony King Blackberry

Navaho Thornless Blackberry- prune to 6 feet; upright, mid-summer fruit; good flavor & yield

Heritage Red Raspberry

Jewel Black Raspberry (2)

(?) Latham Red Raspberry

"Mounding" Strawberry (17)

Honeoye Strawberry (25)- has been called a 'foolproof' strawberry plant, great freezing qualities; early-mid season producer; best flavor occurs in med.-light soil.

Cabot Strawberry (25)- huge, excellent flavored mid-season berries, first fruits may split or be rough; may space closely, less likely to run

Alpine Strawberry (3)

Jersey Blueberry (2)

Toro Blueberry (2)

Bluecrop Blueberry (2)

Canadice red Grape

From Bell to Berry

Muffins, pies, pancakes, and smoothies all made better by blueberry the superfruit. Blueberry bushes also make for some great edible landscaping with their pink and white bell shaped flowers, sweet fruit, and fall color. They can be grown as a tall hedge if the right varieties are chosen and are a favorite among the birds.

We planted 3 varieties (6 bushes in total) this year, all high bush:

Toro- Large, firm, mild tasting mid-season producer. Nice fall color.
Jersey- this variety is a late season producer offering up some medium size sweet dark blue berries. These are my favorite for muffins. Also provides beautiful fall foliage.
Bluecrop- Better for fruit production than for ornamental value. Produces large sweet fruit, mid-season variety.

The bushes were planted in a space intensive manner. They will grow together into one large bush of 3 varieties if all goes as planned. I have seen this method used by folks on the West Coast who grow them in half whiskey barrels. Below is a great link to a variety chart for anyone interested in using blueberries for food or landcaping.http://www.fallcreeknursery.com/Nursery/VarietyChart/