Berry time

Actually, strawberry time has come and gone already. This year, the strawberries where I usually pick were terrible. I picked about 3 pounds in an hour and exhausted the patch. The cold, rainy spring had really affected them adversely. So, a bit disappointed, I went home and picked 8 pounds from our little 16 foot strawberry patch in 20 minutes. That gave us about 10 pints of freezer jam. We usually have 50-60 pints for the year. That little patch kept producing until last week. We ended up with 34 pints; still short of our goal, but better than we expected.

So, Tuesday I went out to the garden and checked our little blueberry plants. We have 6: two that blossomed and have berries, one that is doing well, but didn't blossom. We also have two that may not make it and one that died. Anyway, I managed to pick almost 2 dozen berries. That is about half of them, so, no jam this year from our own bushes :) But, I suspect I will be able to pick some sone. We're aiming for 60 pounds this year. Last year we picked 40 and ran out about a month ago. The reason for the extra 20 pounds is that I need to make up the missing strawberry jam in blueberry jam. We'll see...

Oh, and the mulberries are coming on, too. Debbie doesn't like them, so I don't make jam or freeze them. But, I like to eat them off the trees. We have about 3 mulberry trees along the creek. It isn't a bumper year for them, but enough to keep me happy. I supplement them with black raspberries, of which we have many wild ones in the back. They are small and somewhat seedy, but make for good eating when they are fresh.

I know it isn't a berry, but our green beans are producing now. I planted a filet bean this year, which doesn't freeze well, but sure makes good fresh eating. We've had beans for supper 3 nights in a row now, and we'll have them again tonight and for the next 2 weeks. No, we don't get sick of them.