Notes from the Field...
July 1, 2007: We picked our first quart of strawberries today and promptly ate them.
July 18, 2007: Crows in the tomatoes?! Argh! Get the scare tape stat!
July 19, 2007: The E-Z-Go rides again! Hurrah!
The Black raspberries are delicious. Try them in limeaide with ice...Mmmm...limeaide.
July 23, 2007: We picked in the black raspberries today and I think they are almost done. Perhaps we'll be able to get a few more pints off of them, but I suspect that we will be pruning out the old canes and making way for the plants to get next years crop ready. I think black raspberries are now one of my favorites. Well, 'till next year yon raspberry.
July 27, 2007: So, I never thought that I would rave about a potato, but that day has come. To think that a potato might be buttery enough on its own is a new concept to me. I dug in the potatoes this evening just to see if any were there and I found a few. I thought that since I'd never grown potatoes before, 'twould be the just thing to do a little "quality control" and see whether I thought they would be a good addition to the market. I was truly shocked at the taste. I tried one plain and decided that when I fried it up, I didn't want to use too much butter for fear that it would overpower the natural butteriness of the potato itself! While reminiscing and reliving that state of shock during the composition of this little note, I fear I've failed to find a way to give it a nice conclusion. Hm. Fitting I suppose.
August 7, 2007: I can hardly believe how many beautiful, delicious strawberries we have! Plenty for everyone. Bring your friends and family, tell your neighbors! The strawberries are runnin' and there's plenty for the pickin'!
August 24, 2007: Blackberry season is upon us! The blackberries - despite having nothing done to them for the past 5 years or so - are producing good sized fruit with great taste. I had hoped to have the patch rejuvenated for this year's season, but the building of hydroponic system last year put that possibility well out of reach. I expect this fall to be different. 2007 rejuvenation will include transplanting, mulching, and perhaps some trellising. Some people say they don't like blackberries. They say they are tart. It must be that they haven't had a ripe blackberry.
Berry picking is almost as much an art as it is a science. You have to work with the plant and the plant will work with you. A plant will readily give up its ripe fruit. If you have to struggle to pluck the fruit, chances are its just not ready to be eaten. (This is all relative to the fruit of course; perhaps this is one case where it helps to compare apples to oranges; or - as in our case - blackberries to strawberries). The key is to be able to look at a fruit and be patient for the right time to harvest. Even if the plant looks like its ready to give up its fruit, its still up to us to harvest it at the right time. And our reward? A richer, deeper understanding of patience and, if its a sunny day, it just might be a fresh, sweet, juicy, sun ripened, warm blackberry!
September 24, 2007: I guess the leaves aren't the only thing that is falling this autumn...I shaved my mustache. Many times we think of Fall as the beginning of the end of the year. Interestingly, it's the time of the year that makes it possible for us to have so many beginnings. Where would we be without the fall harvest?
We've had a monarch cocoon in the corner of the red sliding door and a few weeks ago we witnessed the emergence of a butterfly. The cocoon was green for much of the metamorphisis phase but about a day before emergence, the cocoon became translucent and we could actually see the butterfly crammed inside that tiny living space - although you wouldn't really recognize it as a butterfly at that time. Shortly after that, two of the alpacas at Gateway Ranch gave birth. Ahh, new life in the fall!
September 27, 2007: The fall raspberries are now ready for picking. They had a rough summer, but they made it through to provide us with some tasty berries.