The first batch of freezer jam, chilling before going into the freezer.The raspberries are finished for the season, and 15 half-pints of freezer jam, along with 11 pints of whole berries have been put in the freezer. Well, 14 of jars of jam made it that far. I had to keep one out to sample, and it is absolutely delicious! We also ate our fill of fresh raspberries. They gave me a record harvest of 17.2 pounds this year, compared to last year's 9.3 pounds and the first year's .38 pound.
Last week I pulled out the Royal Burgundy bean vines, and today I pulled all of the Topcrop and one row of Gourmet Green French. The Topcrop harvest had fallen to nearly nothing, but the French beans were still blossoming. It was a matter of them being too crowded, and the back row being too far toward the center of the bed, and my back just not feeling great while reaching across to pick them. The rest were left to bear their crop.
Bean vines (and one sweet alyssum plant) heading for the compost.
There are still plenty of Gourmet Green French beans left for picking, and removing the back row makes it much easier to reach them.
It also gives the sweet peppers a bit more room to grow, which they are finally doing!
New fall plantings of beans will soon take the place of those so ruthlessly pulled out. A row of Topcrop were planted on 7/10, and as an afterthought, a second row was planted on 7/18.
Another double row of Topcrop bush beans were planted on 7/18. A double row of Gourmet Green French bush beans were planted on 7/21 where the Royal Burgundy beans had been removed. They have not yet germinated.
The herbs, Lemon, Cinnamon and Opal basils and oregano are so pretty in their containers, I hate to clip them. but today, clip them I must.
Strawberries in both of the barrels are finally beginning to bear some decent sized berries.
The barrel berries seem to be a bit farther ahead than those in the raised bed.
Finally, the warmer weather is making the pickling cucumber grow. This, one of three pots, is beginning to grow tendrils, and will soon (hopefully) begin climbing the fence.
The bush slicing cucumber is just about ready to give us our first cucumber of the season.
I haven't given up on getting a zucchini crop this year. It's actually beginning to form some buds now. Of course they're all male....I don't think there is a female squash blossom anywhere in the garden yet.
Sungolds. YES!!! I should be taking my first bite of these delectable little morsels this week.
My favorite spot to sit and rest on a hot day in the garden.
Is there no end to it ? I take my hat off to your efforts. I've got some Sweet potato slips that need planting but it's just too hot and dry..maybe in the morning (6:30 am) there's shade to work for maybe an hour...get them in and get back in the house.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to be melting all over the place.:o)
Ginny, I got half the beans picked this morning, but I'm waiting for it to cool down this evening to finish up. About the hardest I'm going to work this afternoon is to go out there and clip the herbs, but they will be in the shade.
ReplyDeleteI sure wish I had room for sweet potatoes. Maybe next year, if I don't plant cabbage and broccoli!
I smiled when I read this post. My beans started this week, and I've already gotten half the amount I need for the full year in the freezer. I couldn't imagine having the time left to do another crop. We'll get our first frost in about a month.
ReplyDeleteMy TopCrop are just starting-the Blue Lake and Contender produce about the same so I'm curious about the next ones. How many pickings do you allow out of a row?
Sue, I pick them for about two weeks. The French bush beans, however, just continue to pump out the beans for at least three, maybe four weeks. I'm picking them every other day, and they're still blossoming, I don't know how long they'll keep it up.
ReplyDeleteYou can get two crops from bush beans if you cut the tops back by about half after the first crop has finished. I think that's faster than replanting, but I wanted to move mine to another location so I just planted the seeds. We have about 80 days before the first frost here.
yum! how many raspberry plants do you have?
ReplyDeletethe rest of your plants look great. i just love your garden.
Kelli, I started with 4 canes in a 4'x8' bed spring of 2009. I prune out all but 6 strong sucker canes from each of those each year, so I'd say around 24 fruit bearing canes are allowed to grow. I think that may be too many, as the canes in the middle of the patch don't do much, while those on the outsides perform well. Maybe I'll go a bit thinner for next year.
ReplyDeleteI like your bench - and goodness knows, given all the work you do in your garden, you deserve to take a break amongst your efforts!
ReplyDeleteZentmrs, I need to put something solid under the back legs....I sat on it this morning and it sunk into the soft dirt! I don't think I ate THAT much toast and raspberry jam this morning ;-)
ReplyDeleteThat jam looks good. I have never attempted freezer jam before just may have to this year. Everything looks great in your garden!
ReplyDeleteMrs. Pickles, I haven't made freezer jam in years. Now, with the new freezer, I finally have room. It tastes so much better and fresher than cooked jam, I'm anxiously awaiting bigger strawberry harvests for more freezer jam!
ReplyDeletePlease tell me how to remove seeds for raspberry jam? I'd love to make some, but have no idea of how to go about it. Oh, a recipe would be great too :)
ReplyDeleteRandom, I don't remove the seeds, but I guess you could run them through a fairly fine sieve. The recipe I use is the one in that comes with the pectin. I used Ball pectin this time, but Certo is good too. It's very sweet (3 cups crushed fruit and 5 1/4 cups sugar), so if you like it less sweet, there are special pectins for making low sugar jams.
ReplyDeleteGreat garden..kudos to u! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, HangKebon!
ReplyDeleteI've got a large freezer, but no way am I putting jam in there. I'll keep in in my cupboard. When it is packed at the end of fall I can barely find anything as it is.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, I bought some square baskets at the dollar store, and the half pints stack two high perfectly. They go clear on the bottom, as I don't need to take them out but once a month or so. Well, maybe right at first it will be more often, considering I've already eaten most of an entire jar of raspberry jam all by myself. My new freezer has a divider and a basket, so can keep chicken & fish in the large side, beef in the smaller side, and pork in the basket. Much easier to find that way. All fruits and veggies in the larger freezer, and baked goods and ice cream in the refrigerator freezer. I wonder how long it will stay so well organized?
ReplyDeleteI still haven't made any jam this year - I need to get picking before the fields are done with raspberries!
ReplyDeleteOh, Erin, I've eaten an entire half-pint jar all by myself already! It is soooo good, I might be thawing the frozen berries for another batch of jam before next raspberry season gets here!
ReplyDeleteMy freezer is already horribly disorganized and I've barely started to put things in. I figure I need an inventory so I bought a clipboard and I'm going to try to keep an inventory again. I'm not sure how long mine will last either, but I really want to know how many packs of sausage or ham I've got.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, I have both, well all three including the fridge, organized for now. I know where everything is! Including at least a half dozen bags of peppers from 2009 that had been lost :-( They were still good, but icy, so I opened all the packages and brushed off the ice crystals, then repackaged them with the vacuum sealer. Now I really don't need the peppers that are finally beginning to set fruit in the garden.
ReplyDelete17.2 pounds of raspberries!!! That's so darned phenomonenal. I did a tiny bit of raspberry jam and loved it. You've got me racking my brain trying to come up with someplace to plant my container raspberries now. They did okay this year, but nothing like 17 pounds. What else do you do for yours? Like fertilizers and such. And do you top your canes or just let them go? I seem to remember you topping them, but my poor little brain can only retain stuff so long.
ReplyDeleteCheryl, mine are summer bearing, which are cared for a bit differently than fall or everbearing. In the spring all I do is toss about 2-3" of composted manure on the bed, then top the canes to about 5' high. If there are any small canes at this time, I also prune them to the ground. After the canes have finished bearing their crop, I cut the all of the canes that have fruited right back to the ground. You can tell which ones they are, the canes will be woody rather than young and green. At this time I also prune out any excess new canes, leaving only 4-6 of the larger ones in each clump. These will be the canes that will bear next year's crop.
ReplyDeleteOooh, I can't wait for raspberries to start coming in full force so I can make jam too! Delicious.
ReplyDeleteMeems, I wish I had some fall raspberries 'cause I've already gone through two jars of the jam! My grandson Kevin always loved strawberry jam, but freezer raspberry jam has become his new favorite.
ReplyDelete