Abundance of Berries

We do love our berries!  A large bowl of berries on our breakfast table is standard fare this time of year.  My favorite way to start the day is with a bowl of plain yogurt, topped with a medley of fresh berries from the garden and a scoop of delicious granola from Abilicious Bakery.  ( www.abiliciousbakery.com )

The black raspberries are dwindling, although I was able to collect a good bowlful this morning.  There are still some nice plump berries available for the picking, but not much promise of more to come.  We've been eating our fill out of hand and have enjoyed several cobblers and fruity pies.  Plus, I have enough juiced berries in the freezer to make one batch of black raspberry jam.

As the raspberries finish, the wineberries peak.  They are currently plentiful.  These berries make the most beautiful and flavorful jam.  One batch is already stowed away.  I will definitely be making more.  Abi has used some of these berries in the bakery.  Last week she made wineberry scones.  This week she developed a recipe called Berry Buckwheat muffins.  They will make their debut at the Pittsboro Farmers' Market on Thursday. 

Here come the blackberries!  Rouse has developed a bed of the "wild" blackberries just beyond the garden.  Boy, oh boy, do they have mean thorns!  One poked me yesterday morning and drew blood.  But they are delicious, and they do make fantastic jam, so I will put on my protective clothing and wade right into that briar patch.  We also have a few hybrid blackberries.  Their canes are extremely long ... and thornless.  The berries are sweet and juicy, and as big as the first joint of my thumb - yet not too seedy.

Who could forget the blueberries?  The bushes are loaded!  I'm getting a few ripe ones every day, but soon they'll be coming in full force.  By the 4th of July we'll be ready to celebrate the red, white, and BLUE-berry!

Status Report on the First Day of Summer

It's the first day of summer and the thermometer proves it!  The expected high today is in the mid to upper 90's.  We need rain, bad.

The squash bugs are doing their damage.  I found more hatchlings on the yellow squash plants today.  A couple of the plants are goners.  It's a race now, to see how many mature fruits I can get before everything collapses into a slimy mess.

On a more positive note, I am picking zucchini and yellow squash.  I picked the first vine-ripened tomato this morning.  The bush beans are producing steadily.  The rattlesnake pole beans are blooming well.  Cukes and peppers are healthy and prolific.  New potatoes are creamy and delicious.  We're still eating beet roots.  The berries are abundant.  Basil, mint, parsley and other herbs are adding their fresh tastes to our table.  Overall, life is good in the garden.

The Good, the Bad, and the Buggy

I'm plagued with bug bites.  This morning I woke up, climbed out of bed, and headed sleepy-eyed into the bathroom, scratching unconsciously at an itchy place on my back. Then I felt a tiny something moving about back there. Apparently, I had dislodged a little tick! I promptly enshrined him in a piece of medical tape and threw him in the trash. Later, in the garden, I made my rounds, checking the zinnias and bush cherries for Japanese beetles and the zucchini / yellow squash for dad gum squash bugs and their eggs.

I've made a good dent in the Japanese beetle population by picking them off by hand. This can be very effective in small areas such as my garden of raised beds, especially when beetle numbers are relatively low. The presence of beetles on a plant attracts more beetles. By not allowing beetles to accumulate, plants will be less attractive to other beetles. One of the easiest ways to remove Japanese beetles from small plants is to shake them off early in the morning when the insects are sluggish. The beetles may be killed by knocking them into a bucket of soapy water, but I prefer to catch them live in a container to feed to the chickens. I shake them out onto the ground. The rooster runs over and pretends he has found some goodies for his girls, calling them to attention. The hens hurry over, jump right on the beetles, and gobble them up!

Now squash bugs are a different story. I've been dutifully squishing adult squash bugs and rubbing their eggs off the squash plant leaves on a daily basis, but I've missed some! This morning I found a leaf covered with young hatchlings. I picked the entire leaf and presented it to the chickens in the chicken yard. They eyeballed the leggy critters and snubbed my offering! I had to smoosh those baby bugs myself.

Zen Watering

According to my rain gauge we had .2 inches of rain in the wee hours of the morning. This was not enough to do much more than freshen everything up, but I'll see that two-tenths of an inch and raise it! Building on the little bit of moisture already in the garden, I decided to give everything a good watering, holding the hose and showering the beds.

A person could look at watering by hand in one of several ways:

• It's a waste of time. Let Mother Nature take its course.
• It's a waste of time. Install a sprinkler system.
• It's boring and time consuming.
• It's meditative and relaxing.

I choose to look at it with a zen attitude. In the garden, I find it easy to BE in the present moment. I feel relaxed and balanced. Concerns melt away. The monkey-mind is quieted. It's a good place to practice calm equanimity. I can think of no better place than the garden to focus on doing what's right for the mind, body, and soul. It's a little piece of vacation that I can enjoy on a daily basis.

Watering, and all is well.  Although I have to admit, this drought has made me consider the use of some sort of irrigation system!

Early Morning Gardening to Beat the Heat

The most bearable time to do garden chores in the heat of summer is first thing in the morning.  This morning, I finished my hot cup of coffee at 7:30am and headed right out to the garden where I worked for two and a half hours.

First on the agenda, the okra had to be thinned.  I carefully lifted the seedlings and transplanted one full row down the center of the mysterious bed that did not produce beets.  The soil in that bed has been turned and treated with elemental sulphur.  While digging around in there I did notice that there were a lot of roots (one as big as my little finger) presumably invading from the nearby woods.  Those roots could be sucking moisture and nutrients out of the soil, leaving little for my garden plants.

I realize that the crops in this bed are at risk, but the experiment continues.  With optimism, I  planted two rows of pink-eyed, purple-hulled field peas -- one row down each side of the plot.  I watered the bed well, mulched it, then watered everything again.  While I was at it, I watered the original bed of okra that had just been disturbed.  The plants do look happier with more growing room.

Huge Black Snake in the Chicken Yard

Rouse heard the chickens making an unusually loud and disturbed racket. Thinking there must be a hawk in the chicken yard, he ran over to investigate. The older hens were not acting too bothered out in the yard, but the young ones were going crazy in their containment area. He looked around, then saw a 6-foot black snake climbing the wall of the chicken coop. He said it was the biggest one he's ever seen out there.

We usually do not kill black snakes, even though they do make a dent in the egg supply. I'm sure this one has been eating his fill. At least once a week, recently, I've been finding an empty nest when collecting eggs. Our usual practice is to catch the offender, then relocate him.

So Rouse grabbed him by the tail and jerked him down off the wall. The snake was strong and didn't want to be trapped. In the midst of the struggle, he got himself caught in the fencing that forms the gate separating the juvenile birds' space from the rest of the chicken yard. He got cut up pretty bad and Rouse felt obliged to finish him off. All this happened just minutes before the first of about 25 guests arrived for a hammered dulcimer jam and potluck supper at our house. He said he had to wash his hands three times to get the stinky snake smell off them!

Pickled Beets and Sauted Greens

I spent much of the day in the kitchen, processing beets and a variety of greens.  Of course I started in the garden, pulling and cutting, washing and sorting.  I like to keep as much of the dirt and garden waste outside the house as possible.  I wash root veggies on site and trim away unusable vegetable matter, feeding it directly to the chickens.

Once in the house, I washed and cut up all the toscano kale and mustard that I had recently harvested.  I basically blanched them.  They're now lightly cooked, with color set, and ready to be finished off with the seasoning of choice.

Next, I washed and cut up all the beet greens.  I cooked up one batch with bacon grease and caramelized sweet onions.  The second batch was cooked with vegetarians in mind, using a light olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar.  Both of these will be delicious, reheated and topped with the diner's choice of bacon crumbles, goat cheese, hard boiled eggs, chopped walnuts, and more vinegar.

After the greens were finished, I moved on to the beet roots.  I washed, then trimmed them, leaving about an inch of stem and root at either end.  Then I cooked them in three batches - one each of small, medium, large roots - in the pressure cooker.

While they were cooking I prepared the pickling liquid, leaving it simmer on top of the stove.  Once done, I peeled the beets, and depending on their size, sliced or chunked them, ready for packing into jars.  Here's my recipe for Beet Pickles, taken from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving:

Beet Pickles
Yield:  About 6 pints or 3 quarts

3 quarts beets (about 24 small)
2 cups sugar
2 sticks cinnamon
1 tablespoon whole allspice
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups water

Wash beets; drain.  Cook beets; peel.  Combine all ingredients except beets in a large saucepot.  Bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat.  Simmer 15 minutes.  Remove cinnamon sticks.  Pack beets into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.  Ladle hot liquid over beets, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles.  Adjust two-piece caps.  Process pints and quarts 30 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Pleasant and Productive Morning in the Garden

I went right out to the garden this morning at 7:45am. Didn't even finish my coffee! I ended up working until 11:00am.

I started with the chicken chores, broadcasting 2-grain scratch and filling up the 5-gallon waterers.  There were no eggs to gather yesterday.  You know what that means ... there's probably a snake dining in the hen house.  I'll have to keep an eye out for the hungry serpent.

I moved the odd marigolds that I had planted here and there, as well as some volunteer marigolds, to the upper edge of the asparagus bed.  The asparagus plants are leaning down hill and toward the sun, opening up the edge of the bed.  I don't particularly like the smell of marigolds, but they do bloom continously during the growing season, adding a colorful and pleasing visual to the garden. They are sturdy and long-lasting in cut arrangements. Plus, they have the reputation of being beneficial in the garden, supposedly discouraging some insects and even small reptiles from invading.  Can't  hurt!

I continued working on getting everything mulched.  I finished the long bean / edemame bed, then mulched the okra bed and the pole beans.

One more bouquet of broccoli to cut. It's destined for the dinner plate tonight.

Summer crops are beginning to produce! I picked a good handful of Jade bush beans, as well as my first yellow squash. A couple more squash will be big enough to pick this evening, given a hot day in the interim.

I harvested the largest beets, separating the beet tops from the roots.  I plan to cook them later and turn many of the red fleshy roots into beet pickles.

Zinnias and Japanese Beetles

I picked Japanese beetles off my zinnias this morning. Interesting that they were only on the zinnias ... not on the bush beans or the yellow squash directly adjacent. I did a little google search. It turns out that Japanese beetles LOVE zinnias! Good or bad idea in the garden? Will they attract more beetles than normal into the garden? Or will the beetles go to the zinnias as a preferred snack, leaving my green beans and other edible goodies alone? So called "trap cropping".

One thing's for sure ... the chickens LOVE Japanese beetles! And I love my zinnias. They produce bright, perky flowers that add riotous color to the garden and long-lasting beauty to bouquets we enjoy indoors. Plus, they do attract beneficial creatures as well as the bad beetles, such as wasps, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Especially important:  They attract natural pollinators.

This is the first time I've planted zinnias next to my food crops in the raised beds. I had zinnias planted on the outside edge of my garden last year, and never saw any Japanese beetles on them. Certain caterpillars, however, did feast on them.

Ag Extenstion Agent Visits

Al Cooke, Chatham County agriculture extension agent extraordinaire, paid a visit to my garden this morning.  Unfortunately, he was at a loss as to what is going on with the "failure to thrive" bed.  There's no evidence of disease or any other obvious problem.  So my plan is to harvest the beets that are currently growing in the bed.  Give the soil a good turn-over / mix. Then follow the advice of the NCDA agronomist, i.e. apply elemental sulfur to reduce the pH level.

While he was here, I asked Al take a look at my blueberry bushes.  They seem to be a bit on the yellow side. He said it looks like a typical iron deficiency, which is odd, because our soil here in central NC is not naturally low in iron.  It has plenty of iron.  That's why it's red! It was so easy to send soil samples to the department of agriculture, and it's a free service.  I think I'll collect a sample from the blueberry bed and see what the experts recommend.

Al gave me a nice compliment.  He said it was nice to see a neat and productive garden!

Today's Garden

I regret that I did not get a picture of the garden as it looked when I first arrived home after vacation, but this is what it looks like today. This photo reflects all the cleaning and clearing and changing that has occured in the past week.

Raspberries

The raspberries must be picked on a daily basis. I've developed quite a routine around picking.  First, there's the clothing.  Long pants, long sleeves, shoes, and socks are the rule for protection against sharp, grabby thorns.  If one must pick during the heat of the day (not recommended) a sun hat is welcome. Then, an effective insect repellent must be applied. Without it, the risk of chiggers and other non-desirables is great.  The consequences of these critters often remain undetected until a much later time when there's nothing left to do but scratch.  Believe me, I speak from experience. I've had as many as 40 chigger bites after unprotected time in the berry patch!

With all that picking going on, the raspberries must also be eaten on a daily basis!  During berry season we eat plenty of fruit straight out of hand.  We load up our breakfast bowls with cereal and fruit or yogurt and fruit. We toss berries with other fruits and veggies to make delicious fresh salads. We toss them into smoothies. When we're in the mood to cook, we load up our pancakes and other quickbreads with berries.

Last night, I ended up with an abundance of berries.  I baked cornmeal muffins loaded with raspberries, then put the rest of them through the food mill, preparing to make jam. I got exactly the amount of prepared fruit I need for one batch of jam and put it in the freezer waiting for time to cook and jar it up.  I had already placed a bunch of berries in single layers on cookie sheets in the freezer.  I poured these individually frozen berries into a half-gallon milk carton for freezer storage.  It'll be easy to shake out a few for snacks or pancakes - or a bunch for cobbler - as needed.

And More Chores

This morning:

• Picked raspberries.
• Cut back the basil. Made pesto.
• Cut mint. Made tea.
• Cut a cabbage head.  Made slaw.
• Killed some dad gum squash bugs and squished their orange eggs.
• Untangled the pole beans and trained them up the string trellis. 

This afternoon:

• Added more ties to tomato plants (some have reached the top of their stake).
• Put cages around pepper plants.
• Mulched the edemame, long beans, cukes, basil.
• Watered.

Chores

This morning:
Picked raspberries.

This evening:
Put up the string trellis for the pole beans with Rouse's help.  The top of the trellis is so tall I can't reach it!

Beans and Beets

Pole Beans and Long Beans

• Rouse the Spouse helped me put up supports for the pole beans.  I still need to make the string trellis.
• I pulled up the spent sugar snap plants and made sure all the long beans are in place to wind up their string trellis.

Beets

• I pulled and cleaned beets, cooked the roots in the pressure cooker, chilled them in the 'fridge, then made a big batch of beet / goat cheese / walnut salad to take to a pot luck.  I dished it all up onto a bed of fresh beet greens.  Mmmm...mmm!
• The rest of the beet greens will be cooked later in the week.

Soil Test Results

I sent two soil samples to the NC Department of Agriculture.  One called BAD - collected from the section of a raised bed where last year pole beans shriveled and died late in the season and this year the beets are pale and puny. One called GOOD - collected from the other half of the bed where beets are thriving.

The soil test is in.  I notified Al Cooke, my agriculture extension agent.  He says, "There's not a nickel's worth of difference between those two samples."  So no answers there.  He's going to come out to take a "hands and knees look" next Thursday morning. I can't wait to hear what he has to say.

Here's what the agronomist had to say:
"The main concern I see are the high pH of 7.9 and 7.8. A pH of 6.5 is more suitable for maximal root development and nutrient uptake. When it is above 6.5, soil nutrients may be in less chemically available forms and the plants cannot take them up even when levels are adequate in the soil. No lime should be applied to this soil; you may want to apply elemental sulfur (90%) at a rate of 5 lbs per 1,000 sq ft to lower the pH. Avoid exposure to your face or breathing the dust as sulfur can be irritating. Wash the sulfur off any plant leaves and into the soil.

Fertility is very high in this soil and would not be limiting the plants. I would not recommend applying fertilizer
except for seasonal nitrogen applications as needed. We don't test for soil nitrogen as levels can change rapidly in a natural environment, so ignore the 1 lbs recommendation below if you have already applied it. Zinc levels are somewhat elevated and while zinc is a necessary element, it can be toxic at high concentrations. I doubt these levels are toxic, but I would avoid further applications. Possible sources of zinc include animal composts, pesticides, and metal roofing. If you suspect a disease problem, Al Cooke could help with the submission of a sample to the Plant Disease and Insect Clinic at NC State University."  ~ Jeana Myers, Agronomist

To see the NC Dept of Agriculture's full report, click on this link:
Soil Test
Search by entering my name:  Wilson, Sue

Filling up Space

I planted okra in place of the kale and mustard. This is where I had planned to put field peas. The okra was to go in the bed where the beets are currently planted.  But until I know what's going on with the dirt in that bed, I'm hesitant to plant anything else in there.

New space has been created by our resident rascally rabbit.  (S)he mowed down one row of my edemame! I replanted.