More to pick …

It has not been a typical Oregon summer and by that I mean there seems to be a seasonal shift. There was a really cool and wet June which, I think, pushed the growing season off. We would normally have been harvesting blueberries for weeks but they are really just now taking off . Raspberry season seemed to be both shorter and later. We managed to mostly miss the U-Pic on raspberries. That wasn’t a total loss because we have quite a few still frozen. As for blueberries we need to get lots more of those little gems and to that end started picking them this week.

Once cleaned they are laid out on baking sheets, frozen to keep berries separate and then portioned out.  These are vacuum seal and return to the freezer. We’ll have nearly fresh berries any time and at any quantity needed. Harvest in full swing we’ve hit the farmer’s markets to pick up  a few pounds of pickling cukes and made a batch of bread & butter pickles

Notice the eggs in that quart jar in the back? Made use of the  ho twater canner, added extra onion and  covered with pickling juice. JQ also tried fermented cukes and got excellent dill pickles … this is where you brine the cucumbers in a crock and they slowly pickle over a number of weeks.. We did up a batch yesterday of 4 pints and have another 3 or 4 still to do. The other item harvested was the garlic and shallots. Shallots were great,  the garlic heads were a bit small but we have lots so that makes up for it. They are all layed out on the porch drying. In a day or so we’ll bundle them up and off to a cool dark spot where, hopefully, they’ll hold over the winter.

As I said the cool weather in June pushed off the season … but we had a nice warm and sunny July so things are going along. I think the garden soil is in need of more amendments which may make for little or no winter gardening. Didn’t grow as much as planned but there is still more to pick … js