We finally had a break from the unrelenting rain on Friday so Bruce joined a bunch of friends for a trip to Hudson to pick cherries. There are usually places closer to home that offer good picking but the rain has wreaked havoc with the crop. Bruce brought home a couple of big bags of cherries and a new pitter. I was a bit annoyed about the pitter as it cost $15.00 and I already had two pitters. Once we got busy with getting the cherries ready to can, I had to take back any critism. This is one cool pitter, easily doing 4 cherries at a time, way faster than my single pitter. With Bruce, our two girls and I working together, we had 14 quarts of cherries pitted and canned in under three hours. The mess was minimal and the cherries delicious. I mad a breakfast cobbler with a quart that didn’t seal. I got a pint dried as well. We all love dried cherries in granola.
I had some good news about the boy we found after his motorcycle crashed last week. He’s at a trauma center in New York, off the ventilator and doing pretty well. He’ll need to spend several months in a rehab facility as his legs were badly damaged but he had no head or spinal injuries so things could have certainly been a lot worse.
The garden is cooking along. I had to replant the corn as the germination rate was poor, probably doe to rain and cold. Fortunately, I had a package of a short season so I planted that. The peas love this weather and I’ll be harvesting later this week. The herbs are happy too. The tomatoes, not so much. I gave them a trim and some fish emulsion and can only hope they perk up in the sun today.
I’ve been buying seeds to fill in my inventory. For the first time, I have seeds that I need but can’t find. I’m heading off to Hadley on Thursday and plan to stop by the big greenhouse there to get some seeds that I’m missing. They have a huge selection and it should ben o problem.
One thing I have been thinking about a lot lately is nuts. My hazles are not producing yet. My beechnuts are still just saplings and my butternuts, not much of anything. I was with a friend, picking up her little girl for church on Sunday when the child mentioned that her grandfather’s of farm, empty and in foreclosure, is overrun with black walnut trees. I got permission to go dig up as many little trees as I like. I know they won’t produce in my lifetime but my grandkids may thank me someday. I hope they will know that I loved them even before they were born.
National Geographic is doing a show on preppers tonight at 8:00. I was asked to participate in this several months ago but decided to give it a miss. I did watch a trailer and it looked okay. I plan to watch it. We can all do the Monday morning quarterback (Tuesday in this case). It will be interesting to hear what you all think.
June 27, 2011 at 7:32 am
yum, cherries! I love cherries but haven’t heard of any U pick places.
I’m hoping to thin the weeds and fill any gaps while the sun shines!
June 27, 2011 at 10:23 am
Black walnut trees are supposed to suppress growth of plants beneath them so be sure to plant them out of the way of your garden areas. Both the nuts and wood are valuable – your grandkids will be delighted.
On another note, the seeds of jewel weed, the sap is good for relief of poison ivy, taste like black walnuts. The plant usually grows near poison ivy and is prolific. I’ve harvested a quart from a good patch in about 1/2 an hour.
June 28, 2011 at 12:09 am
Thanks for the info about the preppers show. I watched it- they are a lot more prepared than I will ever be! They are also preparing for different events; I’m only prepping for a hurricane. I’ve been through Andrew and seen the aftermath; I want to be able to go through that and still maintain some level of physical well being, safety, and comfort. Any preparation will stand in good stead for most of the events described in the show though, for at least a little while. The only thing I plan to do beyond extensive hurricane prep is to get some type of water distillation device (like you talked about in your book) and a way to collect rain. (Gutters and rain barrels.) With the increase in drought years (we’ve had several recently) I don’t think water shortages are out of the question. As long as you have water you can grow food, and even though I don’t have a green thumb I do have a lot of seeds and I’m learning through trial and error. (Lots and lots and lots of error!) I don’t know that I could be self sufficient on my own, but I do have some great neighbors and I’m sure we could work together if the situation warranted.
June 28, 2011 at 1:57 am
Good news on your motorcyclist. I’m glad he’s going to do okay.
We have wild sweet cherries near us that hardly anybody else picks- I need to check on them this week.
June 28, 2011 at 12:09 pm
Yes, good news about the young man! He was fortunate that God put you and the others in the right place at the right time! Not everyone would have stopped.
Just look at my msn home page – short video and story about the rising price of durum grain – the one that is used for pastas..rising due to flooding in Canada and the Dakotas. Only had 44% of their crops planted and now…pffft! Video says food has risen 66% over the last “year”. Better stock up now and get gardens in…
Kathy, I appreciate all that you talk about…I love seeing someone actually living the life..
June 28, 2011 at 2:52 pm
I’m just posting this to see if my comments go through. For some reason wordpress is eating any comments I write. I hope this fix works.
July 2, 2011 at 12:43 pm
Just curious, what do you do with the pits? This sounds good…
http://www.punkdomestics.com/content/cherry-pit-liqueur