More elderberry picking

Raised bed "progress"

We continue to harvest cucumbers from the raised beds.  They seem to be ok - although some damage from the SVBs can be seen, they aren't hit as hard as the squash.

Just a few days of cucs here!  More on their way

Here is the last picking just before we headed up to the farm!  One squash (the last?) and a bunch of cucs!

The squash, below, are hit very hard by the SVBs.  I am not sure we will get anymore squash from these plants! :(

SVBs really tear into these poor plants

You can see the blossom of an eggplant here.  They are growing nicely.  

Some "Fruits" of my labor!

Katherine made these delicious black-raspberry muffins from the raspberries I picked last weekend! Quite tasty!

Black-raspberry muffins!

Prep for Harvest-Right Freeze Dryer continues

I ordered some things in preparation for the freeze dryer arrival.  We needed something to put it on - we decide that a rolling cart would be best.  I shopped online for almost half a day and decieded on the ULINE flat top heavy plastic cart.  LOL - THEN I read in a facebook group about the freeze-dryer a recommendation for this very cart!  

Nice cart with a flat top and shelf below for associated items.

And then to the farm 

When we got to the farm on Friday afternoon it was apparent that we had gotten some rain - about an inch according to the rain gauge.  The grass certainly appreciated it!  I set right in to mowing the lawn.   I got all but the orchard, cherry orchard, and the back field around the pines and pecans mowed.   I picked elderberries pretty much the rest of my time during the weekend!  Due to another storm moving through Saturday I was unable to mow that day, but Sunday I was able to get the orchard mowed.  The orchard really needed it!

Sweet Potato and squash status

It looks like something is still eating these potatoes!  Damn!  However, they are growing quite nicely now so maybe the effect wont be so bad.  

Some of these are nibbled right down to the ground!  And right next to the mole spike!  Deer?

Nice healthy growth here!

The winter squash (and a couple summer squash too!) are growing nicely.  I hope they have time to produce some decent squash before the season changes on them.

Squash are doing nicely - is there time yet for them to yield though?

Finally, to the elderberries!

I was so busy the rest of the time picking elderberries and de-stemming them that I forgot to take pictures of the berries!  Oh well, they look the same as always so no great loss.  We got about 4-5 gallon more from the entire weekends pickings.  The bulk of the berries have not come in yet!  I will need to do some re-arranging in the freezer up there to fit more in!

And more berries...

I also braved the black-raspberry patch again and picked about 1.5 pints of berries.  There were plenty more but I was tired of being sliced and diced by those thorns!    I also picked some more strawberries from our patch.  Not a great lot though.  Many of the ripe berries looked bad - I think they split because of the hot dry weather followed by those rains.  I tossed a bunch.  We have about a pint, all told now (minus the ones I ate last weekend).    I must remember to only order the ever-bearing berries next year - we just don't have the time in the spring to pick the early berries I guess.  If I can keep my wits about me this fall I should cover the strawberries with mulch so that they don't freeze out.

Katherine made a black-raspberry pie and another batch of raspberry muffins with this weekends pickings.  I think there are still a few berries left - not sure what will happen to those!

Black-raspberry pie!