Ukrainian Purple Tomato Plant Update

Tomorrow will be three weeks since I planted my flat of "Ukrainian Purple" tomato seeds. I am pleased to report my little plants are doing great. After a scare last week with aphids, the seedlings have bounced back and have produced their first set of true leaves. They now look like tomatoes! I know they still have a long way to go, but I am actually starting to believe that I might actually raise these babies to adulthood and harvest some fruit this Summer.

Rose Hips in the Hedgerow

As I was walking up and down our long drive this past weekend, flecks of color caught my eye. It was a nice patch of rose hips in the hedgerow along the road. In a year where drought has once again  limited the fall color in our trees, it was so nice to see this splash of autumnal beauty.

Harvest Monday - The First Cuke & First Tomato Harvest

It is always fun when you get to harvest something for the first time. This past week I harvested the very first of my "Lemon" cucumbers, weighting 2.0 oz. A co-worker, who is a big fan of this variety, helped give me some guidelines to look for when this cuke reaches maturity. While they aren't the prettiest cucumbers on the planet, she proclaimed mine as delicious! Now I just want my 5 plants to set some more fruit. They got off to a great start, but have only set one new cuke in the past few weeks. I hit the plants with some organic liquid fertilizer this past week, so maybe that will help get them going once again.

The wild blackberries continue to ripen and the pace is increasing each week. This week I picked 4 lbs .8 oz and could have harvested double that. I need to get busy canning some jam. Until then, the harvest is destined to land on a bowl of vanilla ice cream each evening.

I am also excited to report I harvested my very first tomatoes of the year yesterday. Not surprisingly, it is a cherry variety; "Galina". I harvested 21 of them, with a total weight of 5.4 oz.

Yesterday I also harvested my row of "Music" garlic. The bulbs look great. They are heavy and big, which is kind of amazing, as late as I planted them. They will sit on my makeshift drying rack for a week before they get cleaned and weighed. I am quite sure they will come in with an average weight much heavier then my "Chesnook Red".

Blackberry Blooms

The blackberries on our property have burst into bloom the past few days. All along the driveway, the canes are covered in soft pink blooms. If you take the time to stop and listen, you can hear a steady buzzing sound coming from all of the blackberry bushes. It's good to hear the bees at work and know that they are doing their part to assure us a good crop of berries come July.

Blackberry Time on Harvest Monday

The story this week is definitely the explosion of blackberries. On Saturday I picked once in the afternoon and then again in the evening. The first time, I don't know that I even walked 20 feet before my berry bucket was full! The berries this year are quite large and very, very sweet. I just don't understand how they have sized up when we really haven't had any significant rain since April and all of the berries that I picked this weekend were on plants growing on a well drained hillside. The fields are all brown and the forest are burning in Oregon but the wild blackberries look amazing. I guess we will just have to enjoy Mother Nature's gift and keep on picking. This week's total was 8 lbs. 4.6 oz. Some of the harvest was cleaned and frozen, some was stashed in the fridge to use right away and the rest was turned into 16 half pint jars of blackberry jam.

"Galina"

The tomatoes are now producing a nice, steady harvest each week.

"Matthew"

"Mountain Magic"

I picked all of the ripe tomatoes on Sunday after I finished my jam-making session. The results were:

• "Galina" - (26) 5.4 oz
• "Mountain Magic" - (4) 2.7 oz
• "Matthew" - (21) 8.4 oz
• "Esterina" - (8) 1.2 oz
• "Matina" - (10) 5.4 oz

Onion Totals on Harvest Monday

On Sunday, I finally got around to harvesting my onions. Back on April 12th, I planted 8 young "Candy" yellow, sweet onion starts and 17 "Cortland" yellow, storage onion starts in the Kitchen Garden. The tops had fallen over, one by one, in the last few weeks and it was past time for them to be dug and stored.

A bunch of freshly dug "Cortland".

After I got them all lifted, I trimmed and cleaned each bulb and set them in trays. My 17 "Cortland" onions weighted 7 lbs. 12.7 oz. The largest bulb was 10.1 oz, the smallest was 5.2 oz., and the average size was 7.34 oz. I grew "Cortland" this year because I wasn't able to buy the "Frontier" starts that I had grown last few years. The "Frontier" averaged one ounce heavier but it is hard to compare the two varieties with so many variables affecting size. I need to grow "Frontier" at least one more year to see if it is a reliable producer for me or not.

My 8 "Candy" onions came in at 3 lbs. 10.2 oz. The largest bulb weighted 9.9 oz., the smallest 4.7 oz., and the average bulb size was 7.28 oz. In comparison, the "Cortland" were ever so slightly bigger than the "Candy". But the "Candy", once again, performed well, in such a dry, hot Spring and Summer.

The tomatoes have started to ripen at a quick pace. Pictured above, a pretty truss of "Matina".

A loaded truss of the yellow cherry "Galina".

A new-to-me variety that I am growing this year is the cherry  "Matthew". It is producing small, plum-shaped, orange fruit.

Today's harvest filled a pretty blue mixing bowl with a nice combination of fruit size and color. The harvest consisted of:

• "Mountain Magic" - (4) 3.4 oz
• "Matthew" - (10) 3.5 oz
• "Esterina" - (10) 2.3 oz
• "Galina" - (38) 9.3 oz
• "Matina" - (22) 14.7 oz.

So today's total tomato harvest was 2 lbs. 1.2 oz.

I also picked the first on my peppers this past week. I am going to bring them to work for a pepper-loving co-worker to sample. I am hoping her taste-test will shed some light on the identity of my purple, mystery pepper. I don't know what it is but I most certainly know it is not a "Padron" plant as it was labeled. So, my pepper harvest this week was:

• "Gypsy" - (1) 3.3 oz
• "Mystery Plant" - (1) .4 oz.

More Garlic Totals on Harvest Monday

This past weekend I cleaned the "Red Russian" garlic bulbs that I had lifted a week ago and set out to cure. I was concerned then that they didn't feel as heavy in my hands as I remembered from past years. After weighting them I did discover that they are smaller this year than any of the other years that I have grown this variety. This year I harvested 9 plants. The total harvest was 3 lbs. 3.6 oz. The largest bulb weighed 8.4 oz , the smallest was 4.2 oz., and the average bulb weight was 5.7 oz. For comparison, in 2014 the average bulb size was 7.23 oz and in 2013 it was 6.77 oz. It would be easy to say the smaller size was a direct result of my late planting last year but the "Chesnook Red" garlic, also planted December 13th, was bigger this year than in past years. So maybe it was just an off year for "Red Russian".

My tomato plants, with the exception of the "Mexico" plant, are loaded with green fruit. I am finally starting to see some color in the lower trusses and was able to pick a just a few this week. Among my early "haul" was the first red ripe "Matina".

I also found 3 "Galina" hiding near the bottom of the plant. This is the third year that I have grown this yellow cherry. It has always produced well for me.

And I also picked the first 3 "Esterina". I didn't realize this was another yellow cherry or I probably would have chosen a different variety. Oh well, I guess my taste testers can compare the two this year and see if they have a favorite.

I also spent an hour or two Sunday afternoon picking the first round of wild blackberries. I didn't expect much, since we have had such an early, hot Summer here. The blackberries love a warm, wet Spring to help develop big berries and there hasn't been much rainfall at all this year. I ended up picking from the top of the driveway all the way down to the main road and back up the other side. While the berry size isn't very good I still managed to fill my plastic berry bucket and ended up with 3 lbs. 15.5 oz of blackberries. I washed them all and then saved half for fresh eating and froze the rest to use this Winter. 

Almost Blackberry Time

As I have walked and driven up and down our long driveway this past week, I have noticed a change in the wild blackberries long the road. Suddenly, the trusses of berries have gone from solid green to now displaying shades of red and black. I am guessing that I will be able harvest the first bucket of ripe berries this weekend.

Blackberry Buds

I noticed today, walking around the property, that most of the wild blackberry plants have suddenly developed buds. They should start blooming in the next 10 days or so and that will be quickly followed by little green berries. With this warm Spring that we have had, we might be enjoying ripe blackberries by the 4th of July this year.

Blackberry Deluge

I spent a good deal of Saturday morning walking up and down the driveway, picking wild blackberries. I thought there were a lot of ripe berries last week. Little did I know even more were to follow this week! The berry size continues to be good which really surprises me. I am not sure where the plants are finding all of the moisture to grow berries of that size. After I finished picking, I weighed and washed them - 10 lbs. 4.5 oz. total!

Twenty-four hours later the black berries were turned into two cobblers ( one delivered to an Aunt & Uncle, the other staying right here), 14 more pints of blackberry jam, and the rest frozen and bagged.

I was also able to harvest a few things that I was growing on purpose around here this past week - Mother Nature doesn't get all of the kudos. The first three "Moonglow" tomatoes turned a striking yellow and were happily consumed by two co-workers. They are a nice "larger" size tomato for growing in this part of the world. It is difficult to ripen big beefsteaks here but this variety, at 4-5 oz. is a good bigger sized option. I was also excited to pick my first eight "Bumble Bee" Sunrise cherry tomatoes. I now understand how they attained their name. They are a bright yellow, with red stripes running vertically. These should be the first of many that I harvest over the next 4-6 weeks.

The Canning Season Begins

The Wild Blackberries are nearing their peak season right now. Two weeks ago, I had to struggle to pick a pound and a half of berries. This weekend, it was a completely different story. Somehow, with only .10" of rain, the latest round of berries had tripled in size. It was so much easier to fill and bucket and they were still sweet and juicy. So much for a "bad" berry year!

I ended up picking on a cool, overcast Saturday morning. In about an hour and a half, I had filled up both of my containers to overflowing. I weighed the harvest back at the house; 7 lbs. 11.9 oz. And there were still areas on the property that I hadn't yet picked.

Some of the berries went into a container for fresh eating this week. Other will be frozen for use over the Winter. And one bucket of berries was transformed into 7 pints of Blackberry jam on Sunday. I hope to process another batch later this week.

I also harvested some of the "Camelot" shallots. These 5 weighted in at 9.2 oz. They certainly are large shallots but have such a pretty pink and purple skin. This group is going into a bean & corn salad.

I also was able to harvest a few more tomatoes. Once again the "Bloody Butcher" plant had ripe tomatoes to harvest. These five weighted in at 5.7 oz. I have now harvested 14 tomatoes off of that one plant. But the exciting news is I  finally had another tomato variety to pick. The first two "Black Plum" fruit were ready. Each black shouldered tomato weighted exactly 1.0 oz. This variety was a favorite of my Aunt a few years back, so I was excited to grow it once again this year.

First Blackberries of the Season

Yesterday afternoon I took a long walk up and down the driveway. My mission - to pick the first blackberries of the season. I had noticed the odd ripe berries here and there as I drove back and forth this past week. I also noticed that I had to keep stopping for deer, who were happily munching on the ripe berries! I can't really blame them. It has been so hot and dry this Summer. I imagine that they are getting desperate for anything fresh, with a good moisture content. So, I picked what I could find, which wasn't a lot. After all of my hunting and reaching, I only ended up with a bowl containing 1 lbs. 10.2 oz of fruit. But I had better be happy with this. Most of the green berries still left to ripen are small and hard. It's not going to be a great berry year. 

I also was able to pick 5 more ripe tomatoes this weekend. All five were from my "Bloody Butcher" plant. So far it has been the only plant to produce and ripened fruit. The five I picked today totaled 5.8 oz.

Blackberries

As I walked down to the big garden, I noticed that the first of the wild blackberries were ripening. Most of the berries on the property are still small and green. But down where the driveway crosses the creek, the berries always ripen the fastest. It won't bee too longer before I can pick the first bucket of berries of the year.

More October Color

I had hoped to get a good picture of the potted Japanese maple before it shed it's golden canopy. As you can see, I am too late!

But there is still beauty to be found in the mass of fallen leaves on the ground.

A wet jumble of browns and golden yellows.

Our little Ginkgo tree is currently in full Fall color mode.

While they are an invasive pest, even the blackberries put on a show in the Fall.

It was hard to get a good picture of this wild cherry tree growing deep in the woods.

The big leaf maples have had a good Fall. Late September's rain stopped the leaves from turning brown and prematurely dropping as they have the past two years.

More glowing color in the forest. One of our wild dogwoods.

The bracken ferns have turned a caramel brown.

I was also too late to get a good piciture of this maple in our first meadow.

The ground beneath it's canopy is now buried with a blanket of yellow. And in the brush that surrounds the meadow, another blackberry species also glows this Fall day.