Big Leaf Maple

Dear Big Leaf Maple,

Although I’ve tried for a number of years to be friends, it’s just not working out. Not to be rude or anything, but you are in the way. You see, I have plans. Big plans. And I just can’t do them with you around. I know it’s harsh. You are probably shocked I came right out and just said it. I could have spared your feelings, but it would have been disingenuous. With some relationships, the only ending is a bad ending. This is one of them.

Without you around, my days will be much sunnier. You simply cast too large of a shadow. It gets me down. Plus, I have other friends just like you and they are not in the way. They know their place.

Yes, we did have some good times. You were great to have around on a hot sunny day. But you see, those days are few and far between here. You just don’t fit in. So, my decision has been made. It’s over. I’m sorry you only lived to be thirty-five. But good-bye.

Sandy

P.S. I’m sure you’ll find some great new friends who like you much better as fire wood.

P.P.S. I’m SORRY!

R.I.P. Big Leaf Maple

Blue Hubbard Squash

This wasn’t the best year for squash, but we did get five sugar pumpkins, three delicata squash, and this nice blue Hubbard squash. Isn’t it pretty? That’s all for today. I just wanted to share the picture of this nice squash.

Sandy

Gravenstein and Chehalis apples

Walking through the orchard last weekend, I noticed a few apples had dropped from a couple of trees. I picked the apples that looked reasonably good off the ground and then checked the trees for ripe fruit still hanging on limbs. I picked just some of the fruit that was ready because I wasn’t prepared that day to do a full picking. This did, however, give me a great opportunity to see how well the nylon socks worked to protect the fruit from pests and disease.

Bagged and unbagged Chehalis apples

The above two apples grew on the same Chehalis apple tree.

Exterior comparison of bagged and unbagged Chehalis apples

After unbagging the apple protected by the nylon sock, it is clear the protected apple looks much better. The flesh of the unprotected apple is bumpy and covered in little dots.

Interior comparison of bagged and unbagged Chehalis apples

After cutting open the apples, the difference was even more noticeable. The apple on the left looks perfect. The apple on the right has blotchy brown coloring on the interior. Now I need to do a bit of research to figure out what this is. I’m thinking some sort of fungal problem, but am not sure which one exactly. Any suggestions?

So, the good news is that the nylon covers help. Even though it is a pain to put the nylon socks on, it does seem worth the effort. I will change one thing about how I put the nylons on next year. This year I used small orthodontic rubber bands to secure the bags on the small apples. Unfortunately, these bands did not stand up to the weather and sun and completely broke off within a month or so. I’m going to have to find another solution for next year.

Sandy

And well you should not!

We’re starting to see some ripe apples from our various and sundry trees.  The larger apple is a Chehalis and the smaller apple is a windfall Honeycrisp that was blown down in last night’s rain.  I don’t know about you, but the smaller apple certainly looks riper and more appetizing.  The larger egg is from one of our established hens, while the smaller is the first egg from one of our new ladies – one of the three Barred Rock pullets we picked up after the mystery deaths of an Americana and Golden Campine pullet.

In other news, hopefully the weather will cooperate this week and I’ll be able to work on setting the posts for the 5′ tall fence around the orchard in preparation for moving the hens there for the winter.  The hens should have plenty of bugs and rotting windfall fruit to eat to augment their scratch and layer mix (at least until the snow hits).  After the posts are done, I’ll be able to cut and attach the rails and wire, and work on the gates.  The final step will be disassembling, moving and reassembling the henhouse that’s in the old kennel area adjacent to the house.  I am NOT looking forward to that.

-Derek

Various tomatoes

I’ve been harvesting tomatoes in onesies and twosies for a few weeks now, but with the recent heat I’m finally getting full batches of tomatoes ripening at once. I smell tomato sauce making and canning in my future this weekend. Yum.

Sandy

Green Bartlett pears

After waiting nearly two weeks for them to ripen, the above box of green Bartlett pears has been transformed . . .

Pint jars of pears

into 33 pints of canned pears. I do still find pears one of the most difficult canning projects, but it seemed a bit easier this year.  Derek was a huge help with the peeling. Thanks Derek!

Up next: Picking the last of my Shiro plums and making fruit leather and then moving on to processing tomatoes into sauce. I have a good tomato crop this year, but I’ll probably still buy a box or two of pears from the local fruit stand to supplement. I’ll definitely need to do this if I want to can tomato soup in addition to regular tomato sauce.

How is your food preserving coming along?

Sandy

Sungold tomatoes

We’ve had a bumper crop of Sungold tomatoes this season. The plants go all the way up to the top of the greenhouse (at least 12 feet up) and have been producing for weeks. Last weekend,  I picked two pounds of Sungolds and made them into tomato jam, a savory jam. I found originally found the recipe on Salon.com as an out of season replacement for fresh tomatoes in a BLT. My husband loves this stuff. One note about the recipe. Sungolds are super sweet by themselves so go easier on the sugar than the recipe suggests.

Canned peaches and tomato jam

After making the tomato jam (the small jam jars in the photo above), Derek and I moved on to canning peaches. This is the second batch of peaches we’ve canned this summer and do believe we are not done with peach canning.

Bartlett pears

The pears, on the other hand, will need to be canned soon. We bought the pears last week on our way back from a short vacation to Suncadia and have been waiting for them to ripen. From the looks of it, these will need to be canned in the next few days. Canning pears is a lot of work, but they taste so good.

FoodSaver sealing green beans

In addition to canning, I’ve been using my new FoodSaver to freeze some of our harvests. First, I processed a large batch of La Ratte fingerling potatoes. I diced and then blanched them before freezing. They will be perfect for soups or for hash browns. I’ve also started freezing green beans and I’ll have a whole bunch more to process this week. This is my first season using a FoodSaver and I love it.

Roma and Celebrity tomatoes

Finally, I’ll end with a shot of our first ripe Roma and Celebrity tomatoes. Don’t they look lovely?

Happy harvesting.

Sandy

Jasmine, Kinder doeling

Join us in welcoming Jasmine, our new Kinder doeling, to our menagerie. Jasmine is the black and tan goat standing in the front of the picture, with Lucy and Harry behind her. Kinder goats, a cross between a Nubian and a Pygmy, are a “totally awesome goats in a small package.” We plan to breed Jasmine next year and then milk her.

Barred Rock pullet

When I was out taking pictures of Jasmine, our new Barred Rock hens (we added three pullets to the flock) were very curious about my camera. In fact, it was pecked a few times. I had to get a few close-ups of the ladies. Isn’t this one an inquisitive looking lady?

Sandy

Mixed berry jam bars

I’ve been MIA from my blog lately because I’ve been busy. As Toni at Backyard Feast points out, it doesn’t feel as though there are enough hours in the day during the peak summer months. A lot has been going on in the garden and the kitchen. Let me do a quick recap.

First, I’ve been canning. In addition to making strawberry and mixed berry (raspberry and blueberry) jam, I’ve also canned a couple of boxes of peaches. I don’t get enough peaches from my trees to can, so I bought two boxes of peaches when we took the kids to Remlinger Farms for an afternoon of fun on the rides. Per usual, I’ve been making too much jam (yes, this is possible). As such, I decided to make a batch of mixed berry jam bars today. OK, maybe it’s not possible to have too much jam when there are always more jam bars to make.

La Ratte potatoes

Outside, I’ve been harvesting a variety of foods. Today, I took out the last of the potato patch. These are La Ratte potatoes, a fingerling variety good for soups and salads. I’ve also been harvesting green beans, lettuce, Sungold tomatoes, and cucumbers. The crop of tomatoes inside the greenhouse is looking good this year in spite of the cool weather, although only the small Sungolds have ripened so far.

Garlic braids

A few weeks ago, I harvested all the garlic. I ended up with a braid each of German Extra Hardy, Inchelium Red, and Broadleaf Czech. Well, they aren’t exactly braids. I kind of suck at braiding garlic so I used twist ties to fake the braids. It worked out pretty well.

Cover crop planted raised bed

In the old garlic and potato beds, I completely cleared the beds, added a layer of compost (I still have a giant pile of compost I haven’t used up), and then planted cover crops in the beds.

Baby sugar pumpkin

The squash plants haven’t been happy about our cool summer. It has just been in the last few weeks that they’ve put on substantial growth. The sugar pie pumpkin plant has been doing the best and now has several pumpkins forming.

Sunflower in greenhouse

Inside the greenhouse, the sunflower plants have grown as tall as they possibly can. These  “Humongous” sunflowers are living up to their name. The top of the greenhouse is about 12′ tall, so these plants have far exceeded the 5′ – 7′ size noted in the plant description.

Goats on the job

Outside the greenhouse today, we had the goats hard at work. Derek has set up a series of “hitching posts” to stake out the goats so they can graze and cut down grass and vegetation. This is a winning solution all around. The grass and vegetation get cut down, the goats get food, it’s quiet, and doesn’t involve heavy labor with a gas guzzling mower.

Shiro plum

One area where we can’t stake out the goats is the orchard. They’d just love to eat the delectable fruit tree leaves and I just can’t let them happen. It’s a no-goat zone for sure. In the orchard, the Shiro plum is getting close to being ripe. Compared to my plum crop last year, I have about half as many plums and they will be ripe at least two weeks later than they were last summer. The apple crops are ripening nicely, but I only have one peach on my outdoor tree (again, far less than last year) and no pears at all.

Baby kiwi fruit

Even though we won’t have any pears this year, we will have kiwi for the first time. I’ve got a good number of baby kiwi ripening on the vine.

Grapes ripening

Growing on the same pergola, the grapes are starting to plump up as well. It will be at least a month before these are ready. I think the kiwi might be ready about the same time.

Our tiny rooster

Finally, I’ll end with a picture of our mini rooster (upper left). Based on his age, he should be getting close to full size at this point. He’s a Golden Campine rooster and this is a smaller breed. He really does look small next to our standard-sized hens. So far, aside from being dumb as a post, he’s not a bad rooster. If he continues to behave himself OK, we’ll keep him. Otherwise, we’ll be posting the “free rooster” ad on Craigslist, with the “no questions asked” clause.

Hope you are enjoying the summer bounty in your garden.

Sandy

Patriot blueberry

With the first blush of blueberries, the summer fruit crops are announcing their arrival. Everywhere I looked in the garden this morning, there was either new fruit forming or something in need of picking. The next few months will be the busy season in our garden because we’ll have the dual tasks of harvesting and preverving (and also eating of course!) our crops. We have 24 blueberry plants in the ground (at varying stages of maturity) and I just purchased another dozen young blueberry plants, which I need to plant soon. As some point, I will have WAY more blueberries than we can eat. I’m hoping that by the time the plants mature, Lily and Andrew will be interested in have a blueberry business in their teen years, selling at our local food co-op. If they don’t, maybe I will. Alternately, I could have enough to trade crops with other fruit/veggie growers. Now, I’ll run through a quick series of photos showing some of the fruit/berry progress in the garden.

Lapin cherries

We only have three cherry trees in the garden. All are young trees and all have ripe fruit. I’m going to pick everything that’s ripe today because the birds are already plucking this fruit.

Native huckleberry bushes

The rain has made the native huckleberries especially fat this year. We have a number of plants growing on our property, especially near the wooded area of the yard.

Jostaberries

I planted two Jostaberry bushes last year and I’m getting some first fruit this year. A Jostaberry is a complex cross between a black currant and a gooseberry.

Sungold tomato

I harvested the first ripe Sungold tomato today. Yum! I think we’ll have a lot of Sungold tomatoes this year and it just occurred to me that these would probably make a very good tomato jam.

Baby kiwi fruit

And I’ll end with a photo of the thing I’m most excited about right now. After a five-year wait, I think our kiwi vine is finally going to produce fruit this year. The vine appears to have pollinated well (it is a self-fertile female vine) and a lot of baby fruit is forming. Unless something goes wrong and the fruit aborts, we should have kiwi this year!

Also, at the begining stage: Our serious investigation of solar power. Yesterday, Derek and I went to NW SolarFest. We met with a number of home energy audit experts, solar manufacturers and solar installers. We’re going to have the home energy audit done in the next few months to set the stage for eventual solar installation, hopefully using materials developed in Washington state.

Sandy