Beans, strawberries, apples. First elderberry picking!

English walnut - I have one!

According to the internet English walnuts shouldn't product until their 6th year.  I planted these 2 year old trees 2 years ago - so they are only 4, but I found a nut on one of them!  Cool.

I have never seen a "real" english walnut - this will be new for me.

Cabbages, broccoli, and eggplants...

Not sure how the eggplants got in there though!  I am wondering if they got the seeds mixed up?

I wasn't able to tell which plant was which when I planted them but I lucked out and planted mostly cabbages!

Corn is growing fast too

Eggplant is actually doing well.

Cabbages are doing nicely.  I have been keeping up on the sevin

Strawberries

The ever-bearing strawberries kicked in again.  We didn't get a huge amount - maybe half-gallon at most.  We have just been eating these - no processing.

This is all of the berries that we brought back this weekend.  We did eat some there though.  Notice the bramble berries?  They are coming in too!

Blueberries

The few that are on are getting ripe.  We picked a couple handfuls for eating.  More to come.

Those radishes should be harvested soon probably

Bean patch

I was finally able to get into the bean patch to run the hoe.  Its just been so wet I didn't dare get in there before now.

Greenbeans are blooming

Pinto beans are a bit sparse.  I didn't plant seed beans - just dried beans from the market.  Also, I didn't count on a river running through this patch!

The patch actually looks ok from this angle!

The "green-beans" (velour? accelerate?) are on the right - they are planted in rows that are closer together.  

First of the elderberries this season!  

Some of the elderberry plants are diseased or dying for some other reason, so I picked the berries off of them (since they ripen earlier when that happens).  I didn't think I had that many - but after I picked them I found it made quite a pile!

We took these back to the city and de-stemmed and processed them for the freeze-dryer.  They are still drying as I type this.

First apples of the season!

The pristine apples had enough ripe to pick this weekend.  I got about 15 of them I think.  I ate a couple, gave Tom one and brought a bunch into work to share (and eat).

They are a tangy apple - but juicy and sweet as well.  Best early apple that I know of.

harvesting

More Elderberries!

I picked a couple more flats of elderberries this weekend.  Katherine was great and de-stemmed the entire lot!  Just before we left I picked again and got this many:

Picked just before we left!

The elderberry total is up to about 12.5 gallons (as measured by how many gallon freezer bags full we have - they weight about 4 lbs each).

Paw-paw patch clean up and shell bean picking

I got back into the paw-paw patch to pick the beans.  I pulled and picked all the shell beans, accelerate and velour and also picked a few green beans.  This took almost a day and a half as there was plenty of heavy grass in the shell bean rows.  The pumpkins had also grown into the rows a bit so I had to be careful!

Here are some pictures:

The sweet potatoes and green beans - cleaned up a bit!

Small amount of green beans in the bag.  The shelled out accelerate beans are in the bowl.  Just a few, but enough maybe to use as seed for next year!

A closer shot of the beans

The whole patch now.  Just sweet potatoes, some green beans and pumpkins are all that's left.

While picking the shell beans I found this!  Its a snake skeleton!  I don't think I ever saw one before!

Possibly the last of the Cucumbers?  The plants are looking pretty rough.

A little corn left.  Enough for dinner anyway.

First Eggplant!

Broc is still coming in!

Finally enough tomatoes to do something with!

Lactino Kale.  

Pumpkins

Not as big as I was thinking they would be

Hopefully weather effects do not cause these to spoil too fast...

Broc plants hanging in there

The sprouts on the right there are looking good.

See the little sprouts forming?

These should be ready far before they were last year.

Bell peppers are looking ok.  Not as good as the ones in the city, but still pretty good

Eggplants are kicking it!

Looks like a good year for eggplants, thats for sure.

A few cabbages survived.  Maybe get 6 or so this year.

Thats a butternut tree coming out the top of the tube!

English walnuts are freaking going crazy!

Nut trees seemed to have a good year all around

Locust trees are fighting.  Some lost the battle.  I will have to mark some volunteers around the property and transplant some next spring.

Castor Beans about to bloom!

These are going to be fantastic i think!

Can hardly wait to see these full out!

Stupid birds are doing this all over!  i saw moms peaches pecked up like this too.

Peache trees seem to have stopped loosing leaves now.  Thanks goodness

I put this brace on te asian pears - even after taking about 15-20 off it was still bending the tree too low!

Total take for the weekend.

Tomatoes made up into chili base using Mrs. Wages mix!  10 pints plus a little more.