On this rare sunny day among all the rain lately, I couldn't resist going on the roof to check on the blackberries again. Monday's somewhat sour taste of nearly black blackberries had me craving some ripe ones! Well, to my surprise, there was quite a lot ready to harvest besides the blackberries! I got some more spinach, lettuce, peas, the last 2 strawberries I expect to get (unless the everbearing variety I planted makes some fall fruit, which I won't be around to eat) and a couple more amazing raspberries!
I know I said I love blackberries far more than raspberries, and I might just replace all my brambles with Lock Ness blackberries. But, perhaps that would be a mistake! I LOVED these raspberries! They're SO soft, they just fall apart. But they're incredibly tasty. It almost makes me heady, thinking about them. I wish more would grow!
Surely, that's not to say these blackberries weren't fantastic. And there were so many to pick today! You couldn't see them all in the bowl, as many were covered by my salad greens. Look at all the ones still to come!
The Arapaho blackberries also appear to be coming on. They look so interesting, as they ripen. Very firm. I wonder how they'll taste... =)
In pea news, I'm beginning to think that fungal inoculant really did it's job. The peas were loaded this year, and are making big juicy pods. Some of these are probably too big to sauté and eat as I normally would. On Monday, my guest taught me that I can shell these fatties and eat the peas inside! They were so sweet! But, I'll leave these on the vine so I can get some seeds for next year. I wasn't able to buy any Sugar Ann's in my latest seed purchase because Baker Creek was out of stock.
And, in this second year of peas, I have found some more stowaway snow peas. I'm not complaining! Snow peas are wonderful, and it seems like they develop a little later than the snap peas, so it extends my pea season. I wonder if it's possible that snap pea seeds sometimes just don't grow true? Were these seeds really from a sugar ann plant gone awry?
Finally, the showiest plant growing in my garden this year is starting to get interesting. I think this is a Yellow Straightneck Prolific Squash, but it is possible it could be a Black Beauty Zucchini. I planted both varieties but 1 didn't make it. This one has a nice female flower, which you can tell has a squash-making ovary. I had thought that the male flowers normally open first, but it doesn't look like they are ready yet. I hope that doesn't mean this female will go to waste. It helps to grow more plants, so the flowers can cross-pollinate and these kinds of problems don't happen. If only I had more buckets...
Here's a close-up of the squash flower. Pretty!
And here's my harvest, all separated out in my kitchen. =)
No comments:
Post a Comment