Saturday, July 11, 2009

Burstin’ Berries

Nothing says summer like fresh fruit ripening on the vine. We made a strawberry bed in our front yard out of the broken up concrete from our old patio. Every one admires it thinking is is some kind of ground cover, and it is . It is ground cover that is half ever barer and half June barer strawberry plants. The kids have both loved having sun warmed strawberries right out side the front door. Abbi has been good at helping to pick them but she is hard to get a picture of. This is the 2nd year on our plants and they are really producing. We have had strawberry short cake and strawberries on ice-cream. We have ate them for breakfast and had them in pie. I have started making strawberry-rhubarb jam and that has been a hit. We have had so much we have been freezing them. I think we are up to about a dozen quarts now in the freezer. Just as the strawberries came on so did our cherry tree. It is a dwarf- it will only get to be 10 ft tall and is very decorative and very tasty. We added 2 more cherry trees this year to help with pollination and give us a bigger crop. Our neighbors the Neads have a big old fashioned one across the street and we get some pollination from that but not quite enough. We decided we need trees closer – or some Marvin Gaye music and a bottle of wine. We went with the trees. The next up on the hit parade were the currents. Clint and I found a couple of bushes on the clearance/ half dead rack last August for $5.  We took the gamble. They made it and have started to produce. On the heels of this the black raspberries started to to come on. We have a row my dad gave me for my birthday a few years back that have started to produce and then there are lots on the White Pine Trail right near our house. Abbi has went several times by herself with a bucket and her MP3 player. Again she is hard to get a picture of. I have started making jelly. We have about 4 pints of jelly so far and the raspberries are just getting into the full swing. I wish you could taste this wonderful stuff. We all have scratched up arms and legs, red and purple fingers, and juice on our chins. Stop in we- will go berry picking.

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Caelun has learned to pick the red ones … and eat them.

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Look at that face and those fingers- notice my fingers are stained as well.

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Yumm!!!

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cherries

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black raspberries

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Look at those berry pickers hard at work!

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All washed and ready to make some jam.

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