Garden Update: June
June is almost over. I’m getting this update in just under the wire. Summer for a gardener is definitely hustle time. Keeping up with a zillion wanted and unwanted plants, pests and weather is quite an undertaking. Things like blog posts just get forgotten.
Recently I was over in the big garden and berry season is in full swing! Strawberries, raspberries, service berries, pine berries and even a couple blackberries here and there. I’ve been drying strawberries weekly. They are awesome dried in little pieces or puréed and dried into fruit leather. I’m trying to do more of my preserving this year via drying versus freezing. Freezer space is so precious and berries are even more delicious in a concentrated form.
Everything is growing at full speed, including the grasshoppers! If you live in place with abundant grasshoppers and know how to keep them in check, please leave me a comment below.
My crop of plantain is growing nicely in the pathway. You can see it on the right side just hanging out being nice. I actually never planted this and I harvest from it every year. Plantain is one of my favorite skin loving herbs. I even infuse “The Nettlesome” soap with it. I think it’s time to do some harvesting and get our pathway back.
Our experimental grain crops are almost ready to harvest. I think everyone should try this at least once in their lives. Watching grains grow from a tiny seed, to a tall grass filled with edible grains, and then harvesting them and processing them for storage is fantastic way to connect with our very important agricultural past. Without grains humans would not be who we are today. I’m so grateful to those ancestors who painstakingly gathered wild rye and emmer and einkorn and slowly developed them into a crop we could harvest and survive off of.
Last, but not least, cherries! we harvested 12 pounds of cherries from our new tree. They say the best time to plant a fruit tree is 20 years ago. That’s no joke. It sure takes a long time to get a decent crop from some trees. Unlike berry canes stone fruits and apples take forever to get going. But once they do you better be ready!
Our old cherry tree died a few years ago and the last harvest from that we took in something close to 40-50 lbs of cherries. Processing those was a full time job for a good week and half. Just like processing nectarines or peaches and tomatoes.
What are you growing this year? Any pest problems?
