In just two weeks of keeping track, I’ve weighed and logged in 40.75 pounds of asparagus, strawberries, and cherries. Amazing what a little bit of work in the garden can yield.
It looks as though my dear husband will be canning a double-batch of cherry preserves tonight. I just spent 45 minutes pitting, and probably have another hour or two to go, to finish pitting the total 5.5 pounds I have picked yesterday and today. It looks as if I finished picking just in time…the rain rolled in heavy a few minutes ago, with some hail to spice it up some.
This morning I wandered about and took some photographs of how things are progressing. Let me take you on a tour…
Look at all those cherries!
The cherry tree before I got to picking this morning.
Heirloom greens
I bought most of my seeds this year from Baker Heirloom seeds which is based in Mansfield, Missouri (home of Laura Ingalls Wilder). They have just expanded to include a location in Petaluma, California in an old historic bank building. So cool! On Saturday, right after I take a free rain garden class at Three Trails Community Center I’m heading over to 36th and Roanoke to take a “Oh! Those Glorious Greens!” cooking class. Quite timely, if I do say so myself.
Our backyard - June 1st
You know you are home when you look around and there is nowhere you would rather be. That’s how I feel in my backyard.
Horseradish in the front, zucchini and onions towards the back
It looks like the zucchini is setting its first blooms. That means lots and lots of baking ahead of us! My hands down favorite is zucchini nut bread. But I’m sure we will also saute and bake it as well…maybe even add it to salad. Ummm…I’m getting hungry!
Play "I Spy" in our asparagus bed
What will you find there? Lamb’s quarters? Thyme? Lettuce? All of the above and more…including asparagus.
Hoping for grapes this year
These grapes showed up a few years ago after we discarded some seeded black globe grapes in the compost. This year I bought three pink Reliance seedless grapes as well. If nothing else, I might have to make dolma (stuffed grape leaves) this year. Why let them go to waste?
Asian pear tree with pear buds
These won’t be ready to eat until August or maybe September. But I’m truly looking forward to it. Asian pears are so crisp and sweet and crunchy, they might as well be apples. Not ooshy-gooshy at all. I’ve never liked pears for the texture issues alone, but these babies trump all. And speaking of trumping all…what could be better than picking and eating it right there in the garden? These babies never make it inside our house!
Peas climbing the twig weave trellis
It won’t be long and I will be harvesting green peas and snow peas as well. All legumes are great nitrogen-fixers. This means they enrich the soil for other plants. Plant some today!
The mint has overgrown the meter!
I really hope the meter reader is not annoyed with us about this. The up side is that the mint is very fragrant. He (or she) will get a bouquet of minty goodness when they lean in to read the meter.
Clematis in peach tree
The Nelly Moser clematis is blooming furiously in the peach tree. I’ve had this peach tree about seven years now. It’s had some hard times, I didn’t know much about caring for fruit trees at first and we let it get too overloaded with fruit and lost a major limb a couple of years back. It is set to pop with tons of fruit again this year and I have been pinching off some of the smaller fruit buds in order to ensure the tree won’t be too overburdened with fruit.
Mmmm…peach preserves, peach pie, peach cobbler…
Pickling cukes are sprouting
And finally, in the same beds as the peas are the pickling cukes (companion planting technique). It looks like we will be busy pickling in 2-3 more weeks!
That’s all for now, folks. I hope you enjoyed the tour. Come and see me real soon!
The Deadly Nightshade 
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