Archive for the ‘Crops – Berries’ Category
June 8, 2007 – Strawberry Season
The strawberries came into season early this week.
These certainly are a different fruit than the grocery-store California variety. We’ve been feasting on them whole, on homemade shortcake, and soon the jamming will begin.
April 20, 2007 – Putting Down Roots
Once you figure out which side is down and up, even a five year old can be a great asset in planting strawberries. Out current patch is starting to decline as some grasses have invaded from the corners and rather than burn them out with grass herbicide, we will move the patch to fresh ground and cover the old patch with cardboard and straw to kill the old berries and grass. It takes a couple of years to get a patch into production, so this will be the last year for the old, and will give the new patch a time to settle in.
The roots on strawberries are fairly long and each one needs a hole about 6 inches or more deep. We ordered 200 new plants and put about 130 in today.
The varieties we put in today are Earliglow, Honeoye, Mesabi, and Jewel. We order our strawberries from Nourse Farms – they provide a handy variety comparison chart for berry varieties. We’ve been happy with their berries (straw and rasp) over the years.
We also got 5 new fruit trees in the mail the same day (4 peaches and a nectarine) to replace the trees we lost in the ice storm and got those in the ground as well.
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November 8, 2006 – Short Shirt Sleeve Day
Today might be the last day in the mid-70′s for a while. I used it to take care of lots of nagging little jobs. Fixed the oyster shell dispenser that was leaking oyster shells on the ground outside of the coop, painted the south side of the peach trees white, moved all the chicken tractors in the barn along with most of the summer outdoor furniture, started on rabbit guards on the new trees, put another coat of poly on some bookshelf shelves, and so on.
My favorite task is “pruning” the fall raspberries
Here is a row before pruning.
This is the row after pruning. The “pruner” in this case is a riding lawn mower! This beats the heck out of individual cane pruning the summer bearing berries. I’ll just throw some compost on, and they’ll be ready for next spring.
September 24, 2006 – Raspberries Won’t Die!
The frost was not a killing frost – only a handful of tomato plants bit the dust. The raspberries keep going…
Someone asked the variety – they are the old traditional fall variety – Heritage.
One of the neighbors had a “block” party this afternoon(A block meaning a couple of miles square) for all the old and new neighbors to get together. We had some a few years ago, but hadn’t had any for a while, so it was nice to have the tradition picked up again.
September 20, 2006 – Light Frost
We did get a patchy frost – some raspberries had frost, others didn’t. Some tomatoes had frost, others didn’t.
We won’t know until tomorrow what was really killed and what survives to bear again.
September 15, 2006 – Peaches and Raspberries
Our raspberries refuse to surrender. We’ve been picking since mid-August. On Monday we picked 2 gallons and today (Friday) 6 more quarts. This is from a 50 foot row!
The oldest peach tree was ready for harvest as well. Three crates of peaches from it this year – about 1/2 or less of last year’s harvest from the tree, but still lotsa peaches.
So, time to make more jam, and depending how the mood strikes us tomorrow – canned or dried peaches. I would not be disappointed if it froze tonight (it won’t for quite some time yet). I’m ready for something else besides picking and putting food up (at least for a while). I don’t think I’d do very well in a place without seasons. It’s nice to anticipate, enjoy, and exhaust each season. I look forward to fall – typically a time to fix up buildings/create contrivances in the workshop after the gardens die.
September 9, 2006 – Market Goods
Here’s a sample of what we bring to market. This may be one of the last weeks as the garden winds down.
As Martin’s Kindergarten class was discussing colors this week, nobody believed that peppers were purple. (Doesn’t anybody teach “Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers anymore?) So, for share day, he brought in some Purple Beauty peppers to show.
Some of the fall bouquets are striking with the dark reds and browns.
Our fall raspberries are just going nuts this year – lots and lots of big berries.
June 12, 2006 – Berry Moon
Last night’s full moon was also known as the “Berry Moon” in times gone by. I’ll vouch for that!
Today was strawberry day. This was the biggest one day harvest from the patch so far this season. This strawberry season we’ve made canned strawberry sauce, froze whole berries, made jam (strawberry and strawberry-rhubarb). About the only thing left are fresh strawberry margaritas!
June 7, 2006 – Strawberries/Attic Building Continues
The strawberries are here!
Linda is being diligent about getting the fruit in. Claire made strawberry shortcake from scratch for dinner and the rest are destined for the freezer.
Today was a bit of clean-up in the wake of re-roofing. It is now very hot up there since there are no windows to open. I moved all the boxes and cleaned up all the nails, dust, bits of wood and asphalt shingles that fell down inside during the re-roof. We had about a dozen sheets of plywood left over and I moved them from the hay rack to the barn and finished hauling the branches that were trimmed to the burn pile.
Spent most of the rest of the day behind a paint brush.
Here’s Claire a couple of days ago, wiping the stain on the floorboards and window and door trim. Since it was hot and dry – it was a good day to throw a finish on the trim and beadboard for the attic. We’re on our 17th day in a row of above average temps and the grass is finally starting to turn brown. I’ve got two hay racks full of freshly finished boards.
May 17, 2006 – Strawberry Fields Forever
The strawberries have loved the rainy weather of late.
Today, it warmed up to the mid-70s and Linda was out of school, so it was the first day for a long time we could work on the farm at the same time. We finished weeding and pruning the raspberries, weeded the perennial flower garden, got a few herb, some okra and parsley planted, lawn mowed and other odds and ends.
The newly planted raspberries and blackberries are starting to come to life as well.
May 3, 2006 – Catch-up
Today was one of those days that I felt like no matter how much got done, I’d need another day and still not be where things need to be for the season. It must be the weekend+ worth of rain that set these wheels in motion.
It won’t be long before the strawberries are here!
This shot shows some strawberry flowers and a very small green berry.
April 21, 2006 – Planting Raspberries
Today, among other things was raspberry planting. I ordered about 75 feet of fall berries, golden and red, along with 75 feet of blackberries. We hope these spread our berry season out a little more and offer a little more variety.
Here I am using the wheel hoe to make a shallow trench to plant the berries. Yes, I do feel like a horse. The berries are being planted in the place we had the paper and straw laid down on sod last year and had tomatoes planted.
Here are the newly planted berries. The new plants will come up from the roots, not necessarily from these stumps.
H
ere’s Claire helping put a little mulch along the side of the berries to conserve moisture and help keep weeds out. We lucked out and had some calm winds at nightfall, so were able get the paper down and mulch.
Martin had an interesting few days. We had been getting him ready for Kindergarten roundup today and he was very apprehensive saying he “didn’t want to sit at a desk all day.” He goes to day care two days a week and is home the rest of the week, and at day care, he was hugging everybody and saying good-bye (including getting in trouble with his friend – see here at this blog entry) by hugging her and not letting go! He thought he was saying goodbye to eveyone at Tiger Tots forever as he thought Kindergarten was starting today, not next fall. In his mind, he was saying good-bye forever, and everyone else thought he was saying good-bye for the day. At any rate, he was excited about school after going through an abbreviated day of books, recess, singing, and snack in the lunchroom.
April 7, 2006 – Foggy Morn
It was a very foggy morning, followed by howling winds today. Good day to work in the attic.
January 9, 2006 – Gravy Raspberries
Today was gravy. It was about freezing with a strong north wind, but it was sunny and there’s always something fruitful to do at high hopes. Today I started pruning the dead canes out of the raspberries. The raspberries are on the the south side of the barn and in the sunshine and with the barn blocking the wind, it was more or less pleasant.
It was gravy in that January 9th isn’t always a time when I can get at the canes. It gives a little more time in late spring for something else. Also continued hauling burnable wood out of one of the old sheds to the burn pile.
Here’s what the canes look like before pruning:
Here’s what it looks like after the pruning:
The summer berries grow one year without fruit, the second year they fruit, then they die. It’s good to get the dead canes out to give the new ones more room to grow, help prevent disease, and make it easier not to have to move around dead canes. It’s a good task since it is not a “must do” during a particular day or week, like picking strawberries.
