Thursday, June 25, 2015

This and That

View from the kitchen window. Lavender!

I was a bit disappointed when I found my broccoli all needed to be picked yesterday. I really need to have two different varieties to keep me in broccoli longer. It does make it easy to freeze though.

My currant bushes are so easy to overlook. They ripen, but hide behind all that foliage.

Up close you can see them. So I picked the berries on this bush today.

I stripped them off the stems and froze them. I don't have time today to make jam, but I will sometime this summer I'm sure.

And my pink variety is almost ready to pick. It really likes to set a LOT of berries on just a few stems. It will make it much easier to pick.

Also today I sheared off half the chives. They were getting a bit ratty. I picked through them and kept about a quarter of what I cut.

I'm dehydrating them. I've never done that before. I couldn't cut them up into small bits or they would fall through even my herb screens. So I left them large and will cut them later. I hope it works.

There were a lot of weeds growing up through the ends of my beds so I've been slowly putting on some mulch. I collect leaves in the fall from the neighbors who put them in paper bags. I keep the bags and cut them up to mulch in these strange spots. It helps keep the weeds from my neighbor's side from getting out of control on my side. I can tie it to the fence and block them. He probably saw me doing this and now his side is dying. I'm sure he sprayed it. So now I'm half done and no more weeds to contend with. Should I finish anyway?

My melons last week got chomped down by slugs. Sigh. I resowed and they have come up again and seem to be doing fine. But I pulled the lettuce in the bed that I was letting go to seed. They don't need the competition when their season has been shortened so much.

My krautchi did bubble over. So it wasn't just the sugar that was an issue, it was the ginger probably. Plain kraut doesn't do that for me. So I took it down by half an inch. That seemed to be enough. I had the not very well fermented krautchi that I took out for lunch. Yum. Though it could have used some vinegar as it wasn't at all sour yet.

Lots of other little things have been done, most of which I don't remember except weeding. But I have noticed my peach tree is dropping fruit. Sad. But not unexpected. I went out the other day and collected and composted them. I'll probably go out and do it every couple of days until it stops.

10 comments:

  1. Looks like you are overflowing with currants - they are so pretty. I really should taste some to see if I like them. I hope none of your neighbours spray ended up on your veg!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That happened one year. But I don't think it did this year. I looked for signs of damage and couldn't find any. The fence isn't solid by any means, but it does help to block such things.

      Delete
  2. The currants are so pretty, not just the berries, the plants are too. The berries look like glass beads, almost unreal.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi daphne, would like to see what you could do with a couple of acres!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd probably get overwhelmed with all the work. Though to be honest I'd garden differently I'm sure. Here it is getting every little bit out of a small lot. With a couple of acres it would be however it made my life easier.

      Delete
  4. We harvested our currants this week too. I made a cobbler with some and froze the rest. I was amazed how many were on our two little bushes. I know you have said before but what variety is your pink one? We have one Cherry Red, plus a white one called Primus that isn't that tasty. I'm thinking of replacing it and your pink sounds like a good candidate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pink Champagne. Last year was the first year I tasted it. I liked it better than all the others when eating out of hand. It is not quite so tart as the red ones I have.

      Delete
  5. Some years ago I had black, white and red currants, but I gave up growing them because no-one but me would bother to pick them and I thought that was unfair!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I live in the northeast and I grow them all in containers and found them to be extremely hardy. Once you shape them they turn into great ornamental fruiting plants if you will.

      Delete
  6. I think you were smart to leave the chives whole. As they dried they would start blowing around. I had that problem with some small diced veggies and they are probably heavier than the chives.

    ReplyDelete