It's time for a new gardening report, this time with more fruits, not just green as last time. It's the end of June, which means the middle of the season (roughly), so there are harvests too. But let's take it step by step.
Yesterday we spent the morning at the neighbors, who kindly invited us to harvest some cherry. He has two cherry trees, this year there's plenty to harvest and he doesn't need the whole crop.
This is what my work station looked like this morning. It's very different from my usual office chair, desk and laptop, I agree. I also agree, that I took some very crappy photos, so sorry for that. Next time I'll do better.
Look what I found. Have you ever seen such cherries? One stem, two cherries. It's the first time for me.
After half an hour, we cam back with two buckets of cherries. All for free and organic too as these trees are not chemically treated.
The next move was to separate the cherry from the tail and wash the fruits. (Again, sorry for the crappy photos. It's difficult to photograph red.)
I'm always saving the tails as it's good for tea. It has a lot of benefits, so why throw away natural medicine. You just have to wash them, let them dry in a dry place and you have your tails for the tea ready.
And here it is, the cherry goodie in the making. Cherry with added sugar, that is going to melt due to being out in the sun. Then alcohol will be added, to make a nice cherry liqueur.
Ok, so let's move on. This is the white currant, that is looking good but not all. Some are dried like raisins, but not all. These needs to be harvested as soon as possible.
This is the red one. Don't get fooled as these are close-up photos, the fruits are tiny, maybe the size of a pea, not bigger.
Look at this beauty. It's a bit dirty due to the recent rain, but that can be eliminated with the 3 washes.
At the time of writing, currants are all harvested, gooseberries are also harvested and the washing is in progress.
Gooseberries are ripe already, so most likely my weekend will be about making jams.
Yesterday I spent an hour harvesting raspberries and today I'm going to do the same.
What seemed like half ripe yesterday is ready to be harvested today. This seems to be a never ending cycle, till September or October, when it's the end of the season.
Mulberry is ripe already, the front yard is full of it and makes a huge mess. Leaves some nasty stains.
Veggies are also looking good. Tomatoes are growing nicely. Bear with me as we have seven types. Yes, my dad is obsessed. I did not take photos of all, but I'll show you the ones that are ready to be photographed.
Look at this cutie pie. Still green, but in 3 weeks it's going to be on my breakfast plate.
These are black cherry tomatoes, a beauty, when it's ripe.
I can hardly wait to see these amazing tomatoes turned red and ready to be eaten. There's nothing better that to go out in the morning and pick your veggies from the garden, for your breakfast. Fresh, organic, healthy.
These sneaky cucumbers were hiding in the shade, under the big leaves. I could hardly find these two. My dad collected the rest previously and I had no gloves to look under the leaves. These leaves are stingy.
Basil is also looking good, pretty soon it's going to end up in the tomato sauce 馃槑.
Summer savory is ready to help us make pickles.
We are lucky this year with the onions. Dad watered them at the beginning, to help them get a good start, but no watering was needed after. Some years the onions started rotting but not this year. In a month we can harvest them.
Beans are ready to be harvested, I mean the first crop. I can't wait to have the first soup. It's so delicious, healthy and light as well.
Pretty soon I'm going to cook some squash as thins one is ready to be harvested.
I almost forgot the grapes. Chances for something to go wrong are slim and I hope I'm right. Grapes will be plenty this year, so most likely we're going to make wine.
All in all things are going well this year, we can't complain. There are veggies that are not up to the expectations, but just a few and not the main ones. The majority is doing well, so we're thankful so far.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
