Silent Sunday

Just a few photos to share from my raspberry picking today. Beautiful day, delicious berries :)

Happy Sunday :)

What's Up Wednesday

So many goodies are coming out of the garden these days. Lots of carrots, kale, awesome purple onions, potatoes, and great herbs- thyme, rosemary and oregano have been flavoring all our dishes recently.

Look at that harvest!

 I've started to cure the garlic as I harvest it- by hanging it up on the kitchen wall! 

Pretty fun, huh?

First cucumber- Yeah!!!!

 I just love these cucumber flowers 

 Every day I get about 30 ripe black raspberries- delish!

Woohoo!

What's up in your garden this week?

Preserving Fruit- Canning Raspberry Jam

I almost can't believe it, but this summer is my 4th year canning- whoa.

My knowledge on canning has definitely grown since that first summer canning in my sweltering kitchen in the apartment overlooking Michigan Ave in downtown Ypsi. Since then, I've got my own canning supplies, tried my hand at pressure canning, added freezing and dehydrating to my preservation "tool kit", and even taught a few canning classes!

There's several particularly satisfying things about canning; I enjoy the time spent during the process, working with the fruit or veggie or medium of choice. Canning allows me to really focus on that product and feel like I'm truly appreciating it.

Also, as I so articulately said it 3 years ago (ha ha- first blog post ever!), canning makes me feel like a "settler", or a pioneer of sorts. What I mean by that is the feeling of connection to the seasons, to the history of canning and preserving of those that canned before me in my family. Most would say that in 2012, we don't "need" to can at home in order to survive. While I think that's true to a point, canning helps me to live a more season-oriented lifestyle, and to save costs on food year round- not only through gardening in the summer.

The Farmers' Market was overwhelming today, in the best sense possible. There were lots of "new" things to the market this week- firsts for the season. Peaches, blueberries, potatoes, as well as more raspberries and strawberries. I couldn't even let myself look at the peaches- too tempting to buy 6 quarts and go to town canning them up.

I picked 3 pints of blueberries and freeze those. I also got 2 pints of raspberries, and I was going to freeze them, but upon getting them home realized that they were melting into a messy blob.  When you're faced with such a blob, you make jam.

I didn't realize how much I missed canning until I got my first taste of it for the season today! Only 1 pint and 1 half pint of jam done today, but that's ok- there will be more to come. Lots, lots more!


Have you canned yet this summer? If so, what did you make?

What's Up Wednesday

I re-seeded more Speckles lettuce. Not sure how it will do in the heat but its growing nicely so far! 

My backyard raspberries are ripening, right on schedule! 

First green tomatoes- Sungold cherry tomatoes, of course. Can't wait for these guys to ripen up! 

Kidney bush beans and Provider green beans are going wild!

It's like a jungle every time I step outside! Potato plants that are 3ft tall, tomatoes growing bigger every day, tall crazy cilantro that's gone to flower.

Each day I enjoy it and each day I'm thankful for it.




What's Up in your Garden this week? Share some pics!

The first raspberries of summer

The raspberry bushes out back have been slowly turning redder each day. Every evening when I get home from work I go check on them- I don't want to miss those precious first few ripes raspberries!

Yesterday evening, I found the first ripes berries! I "harvested" them- two to be exact! I ate one, and brought one in to my husband, who loves those raspberries and will probably make like a bear and just go out there and start muching soon. :)

Speaking of berries, I'm still hoping to catch the end of the strawberry season this weekend, and pick at least a few quarts for canning and freezing. If not, I'll just have to buy some from the Farmers' Market and process in a really small batch.

Do you grow any fruit in your backyard or garden plot?

What's Up Wednesday

I can't take credit for these eggs, or even for the chickens that hatched them. I basically just want to share that my neighbor gave me some eggs from their chickens and that the eggs were delicious. How awesome is neighborhood bartering? More on this soon.

Oh, Oregano- You grow so well by the side of my house where I didn't plant you, and so poorly in my garden where I did.

The Cilantro I started indoors in January is now epic- it's being housed in the kitchen window until it's warm enough to plant outside!

That's right- those little green guys on stems are prehensile CHERRIES!

The raspberry vines are starting to form pre-rasperry clusters.
I Cannot. Freaking. Wait.

What's Up in your Garden Today?

Tour of my Urban Garden

I spend a lot of my time on this blog posting about my garden and the veggies & fruits within it. I thought I'd give an overview of all the food-growing space I have, so those of ya'll who are interested enough to visit again could better visualize the space!

We live on a small city lot, between two streets that forks out in a "V" shape. The lot is about 1/10th of an acre- pretty small! Right now, all of the edible gardening I do, minus some herbs like lavendar and russian sage, are in the backyard. Currently. nearly one whole side of the backyard is devoted to edible gardening. Here's more about the spaces I grow in, and what I grow there!

Vegetable Beds

Raised Bed gardens
First stop on the tour is my vegetable gardens, and my favorite part of my outdoor space!  My veggie gardening mostly happens in concrete block raised beds, which we installed over the past several years- first we started with just the "S" shape you see in the foreground of this picture. The next year, I added the little tail that extends it closer to the house, and then this past fall I added a whole other section that runs up the side of the house up to the front fence.  All in all, this area totals about 260 sq ft.


What's planted in this space is the bulk of the vegetables I grow throughout the year.

Staples always on my planting list include:
potatoes, onions (sets, seeds, or transplants), tomatoes, carrots, peppers, lettuce, bush beans, and garlic.

New additions this year include:
spinach, kale, leeks and sugar snap peas.

Asparagus bed

This season, I cultivated a 10 ft x 1ft Asparagus Bed on the Right side of the house. I haven't seen much action out there so far, but I'm hoping these plants establish. I chose two varieties- Jersey Knight, and Purple Passion. They're a nice addition to the variety of edibles I grow!

We'll see how they do. Anyone have any asparagus advice?

Space for Herbs
During the Spring-Fall, I start seeds indoors using my homemade seed starting shelves. During the Winter months, these shelves have another function- keeping alive more tender herbs that wouldn't produce well outdoors!

This is the first year that I bought/brought in herbs for the Winter, and while I didn't have enough to use them tpo often, it sure was nice to use a little homegrown oregano or thyme now and then!

I ended up planting all the herbs outdoors, in the holes of my cinder block raised beds!

Backyard Fruit

In my backyard, I have several fruit areas, where I've taken advantage of space and sun to grow some sweet treats!

Raspberries
As of this year, I have 7 black raspberry canes- 4 along the back inside fence, and 3 that I transplanted on the side of the house by my raised beds. These really produced for the first time last summer, and it was such a pleasure to walk out back and pick a few berries! The canes I have (not sure what variety I have) produce small, purple/black berries that are really sweet.

Apple Trees

In addition to raspberries, we also have apple trees (planted super-close to the garage for some reason) and several small blueberry bushes.

The apple trees produce small apples that squirrels love to pick off and throw around my yard and eat. This season is going to be the season that I show those squirrels who's boss. I want to eat a few apples, damn it!

Blueberry bushes
The blueberry bushes have been kind of overshadowed in weedy beds for the past several years so this year I dug them up and re-planted them where the majority of the raspberry canes are. I hope they do better in that location- it would be great to have a small, steady crop of blueberries.

I'm also supposed to be getting an apricot tree delivered soon- still looking for a home for that!



Dwarf Cherry trees
We purchased these two dwarf cherry trees last year although one was mis-labeled as an apple tree- whoops! Last year we harvest 1 cherry from each tree which cracked me up! There are lots of blossoms on the trees this year and they've grown some- crossing my fingers for like 8 cherries per tree this year!

In the future, I'd love to add some grapes, as well as some hardy kiwifruit. Both of those grow well on arbors and trellises and it is easy to find cold-tolerant varieties. It's important for me to not get too carried away though- I want to make sure I can manage the garden and plants that I have now and make sure they are healthy and fruitful!

Friday Favorites

These were my favorite things on this awesome, beautiful Friday!

$1.99 Taco Bar at Dos Hermanos, our local Hispanic Market, for dinner. Freshly made and delicious!

My new desk at the Growing Hope Center, where our organization just moved in to today! 

I'm in a little hobbit-like alcove and it's so cozy.

 Raspberry plants leafing out- It reminds me of the amazing little berries we will soon be enjoying.

What are your Friday Favorites?

Pipe dreams (or nightmares)

I had an exciting weekend as far as home improvement projects go this weekend!

Outside:

• The plants I orderd from Hartmann Plant Company in Lacota, MI came in!


• I dug up a space for the blueberry plants along my fence

• I accidentally uncovered a huge pipe that I mistakenly dug out of the ground..




• Planted 3 blueberry bushes
  
• Planted 5 raspberry plants




• Put some decaying leaves in the compost bin to add some "brown"
  

Inside:

• Painted another coat of red in the basement

So projects are coming along nicely! If anyone is looking to get local(ish) plants and you live in the lower penninsylua, Hartmann's Plant Company is local! I don't know if they're very into organic practices (at all) but they are at least plants grown in Michigan. Sometimes you have to pick and choose! Here is their website:

http://www.hartmannsplantcompany.com/index.html

I found out that they sell Wild Ginger plants which is WAY exciting because that's what I want to use as ground cover in the Pit of Despair! I've been looking for it, but I couldn't find anything that was grown in Michigan!

Woo! :)

Making progress...