Summer's Conclusion......

Wow, it has been a long time for me in posting....I guess the purpose to blogging to to actually write something. With so much happening this summer and Jen feeling better from her last summer illness, time has disappeared and I put this blog in the background. I missed writing in it so here I start...again...

Things outside have been going relatively well. Although the summer is coming to a close, I still have plans of which is a huge patio project. We had a deer problem this year but it seems to have subsided; why I am not sure but at least some of my plants can survive now...I suspect, due to my ADHD, it will take some time for me to re-find my groove here and keep things up to date.

Tomatoes oh glorious tomatoes.....holy crap do I have a lot. Last year the kids ate them right off the vine and I barely had any left over every day from 12 plants. This year, in delirium, I convinced myself I needed 38 plants, some of which reached 12 foot tall!! Even with record spring cool temperatures and rainfall, I am hauling in 5-7 lbs of tomatoes a day; that is after Jack and Charlotte eat their fill from the garden. I managed 13 different varieties and again, Jen's favorite is Marglobe. There are some good ones this year that are new to me but I think the only one I would replant is the Italian Heirloom. It produced huge fruit (+1lb), a lot of it and it was the earliest to ripen. Next year, I think I will go with either 24 or 30 plants....

We have made some great things with all of the tomatoes...fried eggs, cheese and tomatoes on fresh spinach...tomato and mayo on toast.... homemade tomato soup.....even oven roasted tomatoes over fresh salmon in a balsamic reduction.

As for what my spring plans were, I did manage to put in 10 thornless blackberry plants. I chose Chester and Triple Crown varieties for the overlapping seasons. Although they are small this year with no fruit, I expect that next year there will be a decent yield as long as the deer keep away. I purchased both a 3.5' peach tree (Redhaven) and 4' cherry tree (Danube). Within 24 hours, both got mauled by deer which was the first sign of trouble. I managed to fence the peach in time but the cherry is really suffering. I will see if I can prune it back to health but I am not optimistic on that one. As a last second addition, I also put in 10 rhizomes of asparagus. They look rather weak but I guess that is to be expected as I have to wait 3 seasons before I can harvest anything.

Losses are not a great but still a disappointment. Deer managed to destroy 90% of my string beans and all of my beets. Funny that they did not touch my carrots. They got the first crop of Swiss Chard and managed to kill off the last of the snap peas. They took the Blackberries to the ground twice; thank someone that they are resilient plants. Overall, this is small in terms of the damage they can do.

Lastly for this post (kids are getting restless) is the pick-you-own apple farm. As we did last year, Jen and I took the kids for some picking. It started with over 30lbs of blueberries (of which I made 12 1/2 pints of jam) and 32 lbs of Honeycrisp apples.

The apples have made 4 apples pies thus far and as I am typing, I am taking 20lbs to make and can some apple sauce :) Will let you know how this turns out.....

Food Harvested:
Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

Things Planted:
Sunflower Seeds
Peach Tree
Cherry Tree (may not make it)
Blackberries (10 of them)

Seeds Saved:
White Coneflower (Echinacea)

Preserved/Cooked:
Apple Pie
Apple Sauce

Things to Remember:
1. 30 tomato plants, not 38
2. Less number of grape tomatoes