Berry Patch June 2010

Just over a year ago, Matt and I bought 4 cranberry plants and put them in. Well, two made it this far and....we have cranberries!!!!!

OK, so there are only three, but still!! We think they are soooo cute!! What should we name them?

In other news, this must be the earliest I remember the blueberries turning color in the 9 years I've been here. I can't believe it!

Spring Garden

Finally, FINALLY I have time to write about the garden! I've been so busy trying to get things in the ground, weeded, prepped, covered, mulched, etc etc. So, here is the update:

One of the new things we're trying this year is corn. Corn! I've never grown corn. I picked a variety from Seed Savers Exchanged called Blue Jade. It is a sweet corn that only gets 2-3 feet high, so it is ideal for containers. And I know corn is best grown in clumps (not rows, per say, unless you clump the rows) so I planted it in the half whiskey barrel we have by the porch. We'll see how it goes.
The radishes are giving such a great burst of color here in this patch. Also planted here are peas, beets, parsnips, and carrots. The carrots didn't sprout. Not. A. One. I don't know why. I think I planted 6 different varieties, and nothing. I'll put in a late batch in a different bed in July, probably, and hope for the best. Everything else did ok in this bed. I'm at a loss.
The two head lettuces I grew this year: Tennisball (right) and Dazzle romaine (left). Aren't they gorgeous? Notice the baby in front. I started a few more from seed, then transplanted them today so when I cut the heads of the older plants, the babies will be established and I'll have another batch coming along.
Another pic of the lettuce. I haven't tried the Dazzle yet, but I'm really happy with Tennisball, which I got from Montecello when we were there a year or so ago.
A flat of things waiting to be planted, including but not limited to tomatoes, lettuce, squash, and okra. Some have been planted since I took this picture.

Also, I have seeded beans and cucumbers, and put in some of the pepper plants. The garlic scapes are starting to show, the red shallots are starting to flower (but not the gray shallots yet), peas are on the vines, potatoes are flowering, blueberries and blackberries are in their infancy, parsnips are flowering (I'm collecting seed this year), and some of the tomatoes are flowering, too!

Bramble

I was having a conversation with my friend D recently over the phone. D is a former coworker and a friend. She and her family are from Poland and she still carries a fairly thick accent. She also gardens and has a very nice collection of fruit and berry bushes which reseed on a regular basis.

D: I have extra red currant if you like some?

Me: Sure that would be great.

D: And gooseberry?

Me: Yes, that too!

D: Do you need any bramble?

Me: (pause) Did you say 'bramble?'

D: No! Bramble!

Me: (another longer pause) D, I could swear you're saying 'bramble?'

D: (louder) NONONONONO!!! BRAMBLE!!!!

Me: (totally clueless here, people. I'm trying like crazy to figure out what she's saying)

D: (louder still) BRAMBLE!!!!!!

Me: (long pause) OHHHHH!!!! BAMBOO!!!

D: Yah! Bramble!!

Me: D, I'm sorry, but the accent really threw me on this one!

Dead silence. For like 15 seconds. I'm actually kind of worried that I pissed her off. Then:

D: Baaaaaaaahm......BOO!!! Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahm.....BOO!

It was too funny.

Colors of Summer

Israeli Ogen (aka Haogen) melon
'maters.
Carrots!!!!
Beets
Raspberries!

Alaskan Blueberry Coffee Cake

Several years ago, I stumbled across a very short, fat cookbook called The Magic Muffin Tin. If you like to bake, I highly recommend this book. There are 1000 pages, one recipe on each page, and it isn't just muffins. It also lists donuts, scones, popovers, biscuits, cobblers, etc, and lots of matching sauces and spreads.
This coffee cake recipe is one of my go-to recipes, because I usually have everything on hand and it is easy to do. I think it is much better served warm from the oven.

Alaskan Blueberry Coffee Cake (via The Magic Muffin Tin, 1998)

Topping:
1/3 Cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chilled butter or margarine

Batter:
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt (I used about a half)
1 large egg
1/4 cup canola oil (I used grapeseed)
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberried, divided

Preheat oven to 375* and put the rack in the center of the oven. Grease and flour a 9 x 9 baking pan (I used a slightly smaller pan and increased the cooking time until done).
To make the topping: in a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Set aside.

To make the batter, blend together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, beat the egg until foamy befor adding the oil and milk. Fold in 1 cup of blueberries (*I didn't add them here). Combine the two mixtures, blending until the dry ingredients are just moistened (*I added the blueberries here, instead).

Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle on the topping mixture and top with the remaining 1/2 cup blueberries. Bake for 25-30 minutes (or until done in the middle if you use a smaller pan). Cool on wire rack for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Various pictures

I'm about a week behind, but here are some pictures of the semi-recent garden activities....I hope to post more later....but we'll see. I've got blueberries and blackberries to pick, beans and peas to pick, weeding to do, lettuce to gather, squash bug eggs to destroy, dinner to make....and after all that it seems to be 9:30 already and I'm beat!!

A gallon bag of raspberries, scavenged from up the road:
Reve Scallopini squash baby:


Okra blossom:
Lettuce Christmas trees. I forget what variety this is, but I let it bolt because it is so pretty:

End of June Update and Status

Spring Crops: Peas are starting to peter out, I think we may get 3.5lb of shelled peas out when it's all over. Looseleaf lettuce is just starting to bolt. I'm really happy with the Amish Deertongue, I'll add that to my permanent grow list. Munich Bier radishes are still plugging along.

I'm eating lunch out of the garden almost exclusively now:
Summer crops: I've started harvesting some of the really early garlic, Chinese Pink and Inchelium Red. They both look good, some signs of too much water but that can't be helped. They are hanging in the basement drying.

The red potatoes I planted (that I picked up at the grocery store cheap because they were sprouting) seem very unhappy. I'm not sure why, the leaves have what look like rusty spots on them. When I pulled away the hay, though, there are some plants with gorgeous red potatoes, so maybe it won't hurt the harvest. The Yukon Gold potatoes, however, have beautiful plants:
Most of the tomatoes have fruit, including the ones in the hanging pots. I'll do a post on those soon, I know a few of you are following them. The okra is fruiting, too. Cucumbers are just starting to climb, and the pumpkins and beans are blooming.

The sweet potatoes. *sigh* I planted 13. Of those, 4 sprouted. Of those 4, the deer ate...4. 2 came back, I have since mulched them more and put some deer fencing over them, hopefully it will be enough.

Blueberries are starting very slowly to ripen. Wild raspberries are starting to come in, and the blackberries won't be far behind. Here is a picture of the wintergreen I planted:


And an update on my Adventures with Rooting Hormone: of the 8 baby blueberries I tried to start, it seems this one has made it. I haven't dug it up yet to check for roots, but I can only assume that something is happening because the other 7 were crunchy and this one isn't:

More Blueberries

We inherited the blueberry bush with the house. It hadn't been taken care of in years, it was easily 7' tall when we moved in. We've been hacking off a couple old branches a year and for the most part the bush has been responding well, putting out a lot of new growth and loads of blueberries. It's funny, I didn't like blueberries until I ate these. I guess home grown really does change you.


We attempted last year to root some branches with some rooting cups which you attach directly to the branch, fill with peat moss/dirt/whatever and like magic roots are supposed to grow. Well, they didn't, and those branches didn't survive the winter.





Plan B started this weekend: adventures with rooting hormone! I've never used rooting hormone before, but if Martha Stewart can do it so can I!




I found a small branch that had lots of leaves, but only about 3-4 flowers on it. I broke it into 8 pieces, and took the leaves off the bottom so there was about 1-2" of stem with little nubs. The directions are very specific about nubs, that is where the eventual roots will grow from.



I dipped the stems in the rooting hormone, which is a white powder.


I stuck two in each pot.


Done.






It will take a few weeks to see if anything is happening. Until then, I am to keep the potting medium moist but not soggy.

I'm hoping to get 3 usable new plants out of this. If I get more, great, we'll keep them going and either plant them or give them away.

Bees and Blueberries

I've been trying to finesse my picture taking and when I found the blueberry bush to be in bloom and full of bees of varying sizes I decided to try to get some nice photos.

This first one is of something that isn't a bee, but I don't know what it is. The wings were moving so fast you couldn't really see them with the naked eye, so the picture is especially nice.





































Another one of the strange bug










I've been trying to attract Mason bees to the garden, which is a variety of bee that is native to North America. They are smaller than European honey bees and aren't susceptible to the colony collapse disorder. I think this may be one of them.

Weekly Update: 8/10/2008

This will be a mini update, I don't have the pictures of the onions, garlic, etc to show you.

I wanted to be sure, though, to tell you all that the compost is done. Well, not really. It went through its 3 months of heating, cooling, and curing. I can still make out some egg shells and lots of twigs. I'm using it as is, I've already put it in the veggie patch as one of my layers. I'm doing Lasagna Gardening, for those of you who didn't know. I'll probably write on that later this fall.

But I've already almost filled up the R2 unit again, so I hope to get another batch done before it gets too cold out.


The snap beans (left) are doing really well and I plan to grow them again next year (variety: Kentucky Wonder). Great flavor raw, haven't steamed any yet. The bush beans are nice, too, but we're having a bug issue and most of them are munched on. Max loves them, we've been using them to keep his mind off his eyedrops. He just crunches away at them. I'm glad he hasn't found the plants yet, he might devour them.

I don't think I mentioned that I purchased a bunch of strawberry plants and put them in the half whiskey barrel we had laying around. The strawberries that made their appearance were picked off by an unnamed creature (not us) before we got to try them, and so far no more fruit has grown. I hope to pile some hay/straw bales around it to try to get them to overwinter, but if not no big loss.

That's it for now, stay tuned for the blueberry, blackberry, squash, garlic and onion report.