Cherries, Cherries, Cherries

Sorry for the interruption on gardening posts - but - let's talk about cherries. We have one cherry tree in our yard. (We used to have apple trees, but storms have taken them out over the last few years.)

Last year, our cherry tree had a ton of green cherries on it - but they never turned red and were eventually overtaken by pests. That's what we get for trying to be organic (insert sarcastic tone here)! Anyhow, Ryan was very excited to find a tree full of ripe cherries yesterday, so he wanted to pick them.

Did I mention they are ORGANIC?



Sorry about the low-quality picture, but yes that is bird shit on the cherry. It did not get picked - no worries, we are selective!

Overall, we picked nearly one gallon of cherries. Ryan was so excited he couldn't keep his eyes open:



As sweet as they were to eat, Ryan really wanted a cherry pie. I washed the cherries and then pitted enough for a pie. I have never pitted cherries and I can't say I enjoyed it. Needless to say, I have added "cherry pitter" to my list next time I visit Bed, Bath and Beyond.

The pie recipe I used can be found here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Fresh-Cherry-Pie/Detail.aspx

Finished baking:



A slice:



Ryan says: Mmmmmmm......good.

Success!

Sunday's Harvest

Along with the weeds, we also harvested lettuce and radishes this weekend. I took some time to clean up the leftover weeds around the lettuce and then cut the leaves so we can have salads this week.

Here is what I cut:



I also finished harvesting the radishes. Last week, I picked a little over 2 quarts. This week, the radishes were much bigger and they filled 3 quarts.

The weirdest/largest radish:



The rest of the radishes after I washed and cut them:



We had some lettuce last week and it was FANTASTIC. I'm looking forward to more fresh salads this week!

Unofficial Start of Weeding Season!

It's Memorial Day Weekend. You know what that means? The unofficial start of Weeding Season. As I mentioned before, weeds took over the garden. Ryan and I teamed up to take on the challenege and we now have the situation under control!

Cantaloupe "Area" Before:





Cantaloupe "Area" After:



Yes, the three green areas are the three plants remaining after the sabatoge last week! We planted more today, I hope the "protection" we put in place works!

Here is another area of the garden around the cayenne and green peppers.

Pepper area before:



Pepper area after:



It is an exciting time of year for the garden!

The Weedy Wonder

Ok, I'll admit I've been reluctant to post pictures because the garden had been over taken by weeds. I used Preen for most of the garden, but I was afraid of stunted growth with the plants that were starting from seed. The result? Lots of weeds, but strong plants! I spent this morning trying to control some of the weed problem. I even hurt my finger while weeding!

Ryan caged the tomatoes earlier this week:



Watermelon growing, slowly but surely:



Zucchini is flowering:



Snow peas (freshly weeded). I should have taken a before picture!:



This lettuce has been weeded and there are still a ton of weeds!:



The weekend plans involve a lot more weeding and probably some additional radish harvests!

The Saga Continues

Dear garden pest that decided to dig up all of my cantaloupe and kill them,

I don't like you.

That is all.

No pictures today, I am too angry at the death of my freshly planted cantaloupe.

The Cantaloupe Saga

As I mentioned in my last post, my cantaloupe did not fair well in the first round of planting, with only three plants surviving. I purchased two additional planters (with multiple cantaloupe plants) and planted them last night.

Today, I went out to my garden to find one of the "biodegradable" pots dug up. :( I wonder if this is what happened to my original cantaloupe? Whatever dug up the plant must have been disappointed, since they left the piece of the pot they found a few feet away. We only have one cat and no other animals to speak of. I believe this was another pest from the fields. I replanted the pot and hopefully we will have no more problems.

I also planted a serrano pepper plant to help with the "hot" peppers for my salsa. I hope the cayenne pepper snaps out of its early issues, but I wanted a backup plan.

Everything looks awesome, I will plant some individual plant pictures tomorrow!

Time Flies!

Today, I went to the garden for the first time in almost a week! I wasn't too busy for the garden, but we made a short trip out of state last week, so no time to blog or even check on the garden.

While we were gone, we received a good amount of rain (1.3 in) and some hot weather! It's 80 today and HUMID. The garden is growing well, with a few exceptions.

Watermelon - we left the hotcaps on from a couple weeks ago to encourage growth. We have successful growth for 10 of them, but we lost a few plants along the way.

Cantaloupe - these were planted after the freeze threat, but have really struggled getting their roots established. I have three plants that are ok, but I will be planting more soon.

Cayenne pepper - I think an animal may have bit the top of this plant. It looks terrible! I will likely need to plant another.

As previously mentioned, everything else is looks pretty good. We staked part of the tomatoes today and spread some sevin to take care of pest pressure.

The surprise of the day was the radishes. They are ready! Here is the bucket full of the day:



They tasted delicious!

Full Garden Pictures

It's been awhile since I posted full garden pictures, mostly because there was nothing to show. I didn't get the whole garden in a picture so I will show them in two stages......

The "North Side":



Hotcaps (Rows 1 and 2) are the watermelon. They were planted in hard conditions, so I left the hotcaps on this week to give them a chance.

Row 3: All Tomatoes

Row 4: First three plants are Eggplants, the rest are Tomatoes

Rows 5 & 6: Green Peppers and Jalapenos, respectively

Row 7: Banana and Chili Peppers, Onions

(See next picture for rest)

The "South Side"




Row 1: Same as Row 7 in first picture

Row 2: Zucchini

Row 3: Broccoli

Row 4: Cauliflower

Row 5: Snow Peas

Row 6: Green Beans

Row 7: Lettuce/Radishes

"Open space" Rows 8 & 9: Cantaloupe

I never counted the rows. 15 rows of fine, fresh, farm-raised produce growing! I know we will really enjoy the "fruits" of our labor this summer. It's hard to imagine right now!

Tomato Thursday?

I thought about having themed blog days and then I realized that I like Tomatoes so much more than anything else! I probably would end up with Mater Monday, Tomato Tuesday, Tomato Thursday and Saucy Saturday! I could really use a tomato right now. Ripe, red, juicy, straight from the garden tomato.

My mouth is watering.

Of course, this is what my plants look like right now (so that's not happening):



I think the wind is getting to the plants. They are starting to lean. It's been crazy here this week!

The Great Freeze? More Like A False Alarm

I went out this morning to check my losses...everything is alive. By everything - I mean the plants that weren't covered and the ones that were. Sigh. Oh well, at least they are all still alive!

I left the hotcaps on the watermelon (at least for today). It is supposed to rain this week, I don't want them to miss that - but I think they may need some extra time to bake after yesterday's wind.

The cantaloupe is in the ground. My garden is finished in terms of planting! YAY! I planted 12 cantaloupe plants. I have a feeling we are going to have WAY too many melons. Oh well! More to share with friends. Maybe my preservation classes will provide some insight on what to do with them.

Wind, Watermelon and Aliens

Aliens have invaded my garden.

I started the day with ambitious plans. Ryan brought the tiller out, taking care of the remaining soil and also weed maintenance. I picked weeds in the rows and also checked on plant progress.

I have a full row of snow peas! The mild weather this week helped them emerge quickly and they were looking good. The wind was blowing like crazy today, but most of the plants were holding their own.

I picked up Crimson Sweet watermelon plants last night, along with cantaloupe. I planted the watermelon (a total of 12 plants from 4 pots), only to find out some not so great news. Shortly after planting, Ryan decided to tell me what he heard on the radio this morning: a chance of frost. Ouch. Thanks, honey!

We wanted to make sure they were talking to US, so we waited for the 6 p.m. news. They were.

Ryan and I collected our hot caps and some buckets and got to work. We ran out of buckets and hot caps. So for the peas, beans and lettuce...we had to improvise.

Alien invasion (watermelon, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower):



By improvise, we mean: sheets, plastic, cones and our old bags from our "bags" game:



We also threw in a Zook Zone towel for good measure. This one covers some radishes (yes, Heath..this was for you!):



Hopefully that will save the bulk of the plants, we couldn't cover them all. Cantaloupe to be planted sometime next week.

Time to Think about Preservation

My tomato plants are looking GREAT. You know what that means?!?!?! More SALSA! Last year I only canned salsa and peppers (both jalapenos and Tabasco peppers). This year, I hope to stock up on more salsa and other veggies if possible.

In my quest to improve my education (and the fact I have a lot of free time on my hands), I signed up for two food preservation classes through the University of Illinois Extension!

Here are the descriptions:

June 17th–Canning: This program will offer information on the two safe ways to can. We will demonstrate how to do boiling water bath canning and pressure canning. The equipment for both types of canning will be shown. There will be a discussion on which method should be used for different foods.

June 24th–Freezing and Salsa making: Freezing is one of the easiest methods of preserving food. This program will focus on the advantages and disadvantages of freezing. The importance of pretreatments for some foods will be discussed and blanching will be demonstrated. Some important guidelines for preparing safe home canned salsas will be provided

They also offered a jam/jelly and food drying session, but I'll stick to these two for now. I hope I can learn a little more about canning - especially with tomatoes. I also hope to pick up other ideas for my various veggies in the garden!

You may want to check your local extension offices to see if they are offering courses, as well. I wish I had someone close to take the course with me, but maybe it will be an opportunity for me to make new (85-year-old) friends.

Growing Updates - Broccoli, Cauliflower, Snow Peas

I'm all giddy about the garden this year. Things are growing so well! I picked a few weeds today and checked on everything - things just keep on moving up! I'm very excited about how good the cauliflower and broccoli look! They reacted the worst to being transplanted, but have recovered so well!

Happy Broccoli:



In other news, my snow peas have emerged! I was so worried last week -- they must have heard me.

Newly emerged:



Others in the row (and a few weeds):