Future Fruit

Miss P and I journeyed around the property this afternoon and found that we have home grown fruit in our future. I love the fruit trees because we don't really have to do anything for them. Did you hear that? NO WEEDING for all this fruit! We won't mention the state of the garden. No, let's not go there.

apples

pears

plums

grapes

We also found that part of a tree had fallen in the middle of one of our paths. I guess we get firewood too!

We look forward to a busy August of harvest, food preservation, and fire wood cutting. Yeehaw.

Do you have any exciting weekend plans? The kids will all be here for the Fourth and we've planned a cookout with smores! 

Behind

We are feeling a bit behind.

We should have frozen peaches and canned pears by now.

We haven't picked them all yet because our counter is covered with un processed fruit.

We have our first batch of grape juice in the refrigerator ready waiting to be canned. I'm trying not to think about the rest of the grapes on the vines, the raspberries it has been too wet and mosquitoey to pick, and the potatoes still to be dug.

Yeah, we're kinda behind.

I even told the boys I'd bake a pie if they came home this weekend. They didn't fall for that.---Why did I spend much of today making a larger back pack for Miss Petunia who says that her kindergarten back pack is too small for a first grader? 

How the Garden Grows

We didn't get off to a great start with our gardens this year. The mosquitoes and then heat wave meant that I didn't spend much time fighting the weeds. We only got a handful of peas earlier but now we are having a little better garden success. We have onions ready for harvest

and have already pulled all of the garlic.

We have some green tomatoes

and the promise of more to come.

Our chard is doing well but the carrots and beets are still small. Patience. We just need patience.

In the mean time the local u-pick farm has some really great blueberries!

Gratitude

I am grateful for the abundance of food in our garden.

Picking Flowers

August always gets to be very busy around here.  Much of our garden bounty is ready to harvest in August. We spend a lot of time picking, preparing, and preserving food.  Sometimes we forget to slow down and enjoy the beauty around us.  I am glad I have P to remind me of that. She picks a little bouquet of flowers EVERY time we go to the garden. Luckily she has a long row of flowers to choose from each time. 

I like growing things such as fruit trees, raspberries, and rhubarb that come back every year. We are getting our first peaches this year from trees that we planted.  

We also get fruit from pear and apple trees that were planted long before we moved here.

This is the time when I start to think about what I want to do differently in the garden next year. What new things do I want to plant? I think about which grew easily and which things are easiest to preserve etc.   First on the garden list for next year - picking flowers.