Strawberries

We love fruit at our house, and strawberries & blueberries are at the top of the list. My daughter and I especially love the little alpine strawberries that pump out fruit all summer long, so there were plans to expand our little patch this year.  My first seed sowing was strewn across the floor by a troublesome feline, but no worries, a replacement batch is in the works.

While waiting at the vet yesterday I read an article on alpine strawberries, and it said a family of four should have 26 plants or so if I remember correctly.  Yikes.  I only have 3 out there now, with 8 more in the seed tray.   Seems as though my plans are falling short.  Nothing that can not be fixed with a few mouse clicks though- looky what we have coming soon.....

From The Strawberry Store:

ALPINE
Regina (2)
Alexandria (2)
Pineapple Crush (4)
Reine des Vallees (2)
Deese des Vallees (2)

MUSK
Profumata di Tortona (2)
Capron (2)
Male (2)

I have always wanted to try musk strawberries, I hope we like them as much as the alpine.  This order should put us at the recommended capacity once my seedlings are in full production next year.

Yum!

More photos from today, see post below (from earlier today) first.....

I ♥ U

***

(Chioggia beet chips, they shrunk down quite a bit in the oven; they disappeared from the plate even faster though.)

We normally don't like beets unless they are in "chip" form, so I sprayed a cookie sheet, sliced the beet thin, then sprayed the beets with oil, salted, and baked until I smelled them and remembered I had done all the above.  Oopsy!  The experiment worked.  Wish I had 10 more out in the garden to 'chip'.  

***

Here is what became of my 'buried treasure' (new Red Gold potatoes)...oven roasted in olive oil, sea salt, fresh dill, and fresh chives.   I wish I had more garden space to work with, it would be great to grow potatoes just for harvesting when new.  Ahhh, the dreams of the home gardener!

EDIT:  I can't believe I forgot to put this in again.  We went strawberry picking yesterday and it was a heavenly field of ripe, scented berries.  The birds were singing, and my daughter-the-diva was complaining.  (Usually it is my lovely boy who has nothing nice to say, but in an odd moment of clarity, he was happy!  He picked his little heart out and had nothing but pleasant words to share.)

We picked about 22 pounds in all, and I have been quite busy processing berries ever since.  Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam, Strawberry Ice Cream, and a bounty of quartered frozen berries to keep our smoothie addiction alive and well.  I still have 8 quarts waiting for me in the fridge downstairs, HELP.

Tomato Tally

I did thorough walk through in Tomato Alley  today after watering, and I was able to categorize the plants a bit after taking some notes.  The "big three" producers are Sungold, Polbig (DET), and Sibirskiy Skorospelyi (DET).  Sib. Skor. wins the 'biggest fruit' category so far, this is going to be one funky tomato:

The Costoluto Genovese is showing it's beautifully ribbed characteristics already:

One of my plants suffering from identity theft appears to be a plum.  The labeled Juliet tomato is just starting to set fruit, so I am wondering if this could be San Marzano or some other plum instead since it is much further ahead in growth:

So to sum it up so far, here is the official Tomato Tally; will the laggards catch up and out-produce the early leaders???

• Sungold (x2):  Too many to count
• Mystery Plum: 6+
• Sib Skor: 4+
• Polbig (x2): 3-6
• Green Zebra: 3
• Cherokee Choc: 3
• Amazon Choc: 2
• Costoluto Genovese: 2
• Juliet: 1
• Black Krim: 1
• Mystery, Mortgage Lifter, Burpee Big Boy Hybrid, Rutgers & Moonglow: A big, fat ZERO.

***

Here are some other photos from around the garden.....some of the potatoes are in full bloom:

***

I managed to find 2 uneaten strawberries in the yard today, it seems that one of the 4 areas planted has been overlooked by all furry creatures, and slugs!!!!

(Actually, the above statement is false, one of the berries has been tampered with- but not destroyed by little teeth.)

***

Potatoes & Peas:

***

Peppers & Alliums:

(My peppers are going no where fast, might be time for another fish feed.)

***

This bed was cleared of all things that bolted, and half of the Kale:

***

I FINALLY am having success with the Red Sails lettuce, YAY!!

On a less positive not my damn dog ate the apples off the tree that actually had more than one growing (and yes, in case you are wondering it is the same dog that eats the strawberries), Sawfly caterpillars have done some damage to the currant, and you saw what I have picked so far out of the 75 or more strawberry plants I have.  OH!!  And then there was that nest in the potato bed?  Well it grew and the mystery creature tunneled down a bit and broke stalks off a number of potato plants, and dug up the baby taters.  I chucked the broken plants in disgust and marble sized potatoes before thinking to take a picture, but here is what was left after I cleared the carnage:

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.  

Tomato Disease Identification, Garden Update

Upon venturing out to the garden today I found more bad news in what looks to be Early Blight on my Yellow Pear Tomatoes.

I will have to do a bit more research, but upon quick inspection on this site, (which is one of my favorites for tomatoes), I appear to have a match. It would make sense with all this wet weather, I think disease is really starting to set in in many Northeast gardens. I am contemplating a weekly spray to try and combat already existing and future diseases with Serenade Garden Spray. Next year I will be sure to have a copper solution ready as well.

***

My strawberries are all over the place. The $30 spent at Johnny's for 2 bunches of plants (Honeoye and Cabot) for the hanging bags is turning out to be a bust. They have been producing lots of fruit, but with all the rain most of them have gotten moldy before they ripen. This problem started later for me than most folks in my area since they are off the ground, but because of the plants immaturity they also set fruit later than established plants. I chose to not pinch off flowers their first year as you typically would since they are hanging; the plants are unable to send off runners therefore the theory is they have a bit more energy to send to the roots and developing fruit.

The plants are not as bushy as those that were planted in the ground in the beginning of June as ground cover (click here), however that batch was picked up locally and were already quite large. They have been sending off runners like crazy and I am having a hard time keeping up with the flower pinching. Even the runners are sending up bunches of pink flowers which I spent quite a bit of time removing this morning. There are a handful of berries that snuck by me and they are starting to turn, I am actually looking forward to trying one these mystery variety berries if the birds don't get to them first.

Lanky Strawberry plants in hanging bags

***

I did a bit of harvesting today as well. I desperately need to cut more lettuce but the CSA has been keeping our crisper drawer well stocked with greens, so my garden waits. I had one tomato ready for picking on three different plants, one Big Beef, one Juliet, and one Sungold. What gives? The size of the fruits is noticeably smaller than earlier in the season, another side effect of our weather no doubt (I think I have a case of The Incredible Shrinking Tomatoes!).

Maybe the cool night temperatures are to blame? Mid fifties is a common occurrence lately. Along with the singleton tomatoes is a very lonely strawberry and a trio of cukes. I certainly don't have enough to make pickles so it looks as though they will be destined for the salad plate. Johnny's Seeds does recommend picking these 'Northern Pickling' cukes "frequently at a small size". Hmm, maybe these are already to big?

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.

Got Crumble?

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble:

Melt 1 stick butter for topping; In a med. bowl whisk together the following:
1 1/3 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 C plus 2 T sugar
pinch of salt
Add melted butter and pinch together with fingers until crumbly (want some larger chunks); set aside, can be chilled while preparing filling.

Approx 1 quart (or 3 Cups) quartered washed strawberries
Approx 1 1/2 C rhubarb (cut into 1/2 inch pieces)
1/2 C sugar
pinch of ground cloves
1 T Gran Gala or other orange liquor
1-2 tsp lemon juice
pinch of salt
1/4 C corn starch
Mix cornstarch, sugar, salt, cloves together and toss with berries and rhubarb.

Spray shallow baking dish or pie plate with non-stick spray, add filling and drop topping over until evenly covered. Bake on cookie sheet until bubbly and browned, about 35-45 minutes at 375 degrees. If top gets too brown cover with foil for last 10 minutes bake time.
We ate this with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, ENJOY!

How My Garden Grows, June 2009

(Click photo to enlarge) Bush beans, squash blossom, dwarf snap peas, fuzzy baby plum tomatoes, cuke blossom, strawberries in hanging bags, straw bales for planting, seedlings in whiskey barrel, bean sprout emerging.

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