First Came The Rain, Now The Heat Is On!

 We have had beaucoup rain this spring.  If it wasn't raining cats and dogs, then it was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  I'm not one to complain about rain (I've seen plenty of droughts, and that ain't pretty either), but we really needed a drying-out period.  It feels like summer now, and it is H-O-T.

The lettuce and asparagus are handling the change in weather just fine, but we've eighty-sixed the spinach in the high tunnel.  The heat-loving crops are now having fun in the sun!

All eleven varieties of tomato are flowering in the high tunnel.

 Some of the plants even have lil'maters on them!

I love the bamboo stakes Ben procured for us.  They are sky high.

Cilantro on a hot day means it's salsa time!

Basil + Tomatoes = Heaven on Earth

The blueberries are putting on quite a show.

We'll be picking a little over a month from now.  My favorite.

I'm glad that we have enough strawberries to share with the birds.  They've been polite about pilfering so far.

 Strawberry shortcake is in my future.  Whipped cream or ice cream?  Hmmm...

Scatterbrained

I was all over the place today, both mentally and physically.  I was a busy-body and completely unable to focus.  I wish Ritalin were available over the counter.  Here are some snapshots of my scattered day.

Mama Mourning Dove is sitting on two eggs.  She is fierce.

All three elderberry bushes are fruiting!  We planted "Variegated," "Thundercloud," and "Emerald Lace" two years ago.  Here's a photo of the "Emerald Lace."

"Thundercloud"  has pretty pink flowers.  The birds eat the berries as soon as they appear.  I will never see their glory.

I picked strawberries today!

The "Gaviota" are the first to ripen.

This puts a smile on my face.

The butterhead lettuce is enjoying the weather.

The red butterhead lettuce is ready for market.  We'll offer both red and green this week.

I'm off to feed and walk the boys now.  If they weren't around to keep me on schedule, I don't know if anything would ever get done. 

 Dog is totally my co-pilot.

Fat Bear Feast

 The spinach in the high tunnel is still thriving.  The leaves probably grow about an inch a day.  It's a challenge keeping it picked between markets, and we eat it nonstop.

So, what to do with leaves the size of a human hand?

SPANAKOPITA NIGHT!

I used about three pounds of homegrown spinach, garlic, eggs, and herbs.  I added some feta and onions to the mix, wrapped it in frozen phyllo dough, and we had ourselves an easy meal.   I think I'll add some shiitakes next time.   We roasted some of our beets and sweet potatoes to go along with it. 

Now, for dessert.

Ben's wonderful mother has a gorgeous rhubarb patch in her garden.  She was very kind to share some of it with us.  I immediately made a strawberry rhubarb cobbler with it.

None of our strawberries were ripe yet, but I had back-up.  We froze a ton of fruit last year, so we still have several quarts of strawberries in the deep freezer.  Lucky ducks, we are!

If the weather is kind to us, it looks like we'll have ripe, plump strawberries to bring to market next week!  I must also keep my fingers crossed that the birds will be kind to us.  It seems like the bird population has exploded this year.  We have two nests on our front porch (we've only had one nest for the past two years), and there are Mourning Doves and Whatchamacallits everywhere.  Hopefully, the birds will opt to eat cicadas instead of strawberries.

A Nice Start

All is well in the blueberry patch.  The bushes are dripping with buds, and we're looking forward to a fruitful season this year.

I expect that the bushes will be in full bloom by mid-week, and there will be some very happy bees!

The strawberry plants are also just beginning to flower.  I better prepare my lower back for the torture that will ensue when strawberry season arrives.

Just about everything is coming up roses - even the garlic.  We planted eight varieties last fall, and all of them are growing vigorously.  We will soon have scapes!

It will be months before we harvest blueberries, strawberries, or garlic.  However, Fat Bear Farm will have spinach, sweet potatoes, seedlings, and perhaps a bit of asparagus available at the next Saturday Cobblestone Farmers Market.

The Magical Fruit

Get your mind out of the gutter!  I'm not talking about beans (Though we do have a truckload of pintos drying.  They are literally drying in the bed of our Fat Bear truck).  I'm talking about day-neutral strawberries.  We planted the crowns this past spring, and we are now enjoying their first fall crop.  I think that's pretty damn special.

I am oh so excited about what is pictured above.  The plants are not only full of both red and green strawberries, but they are also in continuous bloom.  As each white flower opens, it signals that there will be a juicy red berry in its place in about one month's time.  So, it is my hope that we'll be able to offer strawberries until the first frost!  No promises, though.  Isn't there some saying about counting hens before they hatch?  For now, let's just enjoy the beauty of the late strawberry season.

And FIGS!  

I've become quite the fruit addict.  Blueberry and strawberry season(s) overlapped this year, and now we have both figs and strawberries.  Nom, nom, nom!

Today's figs and the tree from which they came.

And, just because he's the most perfect being on this planet:

The Honorable Thurgood Morsel

Bring On The Black And Blue!

No, I do not want a punch in the face. 

However, I am so ready for some black and blueberries.  As of today, the blackberries are red, and the blueberries are green going to pink.

Blackberry trellises

Though the blueberries bloomed a few weeks early this year, survived some frost scares and look fantastic, I still don't think they'll ripen much earlier than last year.  We must wait until early July.

Blueberries

It's hard not to be impatient.  Look at all these berries! 

As for the strawberries, it's nearly time to say "goodbye," until the fall.  Some of the high tunnel plants are still pumping out a few plump ones, but I'll soon renovate the beds.  Thanks to freezing and fermentation, we will be able to enjoy them all year long.

Rainy Day Wine

It was a very rainy day, so we decided to make us some strawberry wine for the second time this week.  The first batch of wine came out of the kitchen garden where Ben picked a gorgeous mix of "Gaviota," "Earliglo," "Jewel," and "Seascape," for the project.

This batch of wine comes from berries from the kitchen garden.  Farmer Ben picked 9 pounds for it.

I did the picking for today's wine.  Because it was rainy, these berries came from the high tunnel.  I really needed to clean up some of the rows in there, so I killed two birds with one stone (I wish I meant this literally.  The birds have been gorging on the strawberries non-stop).

 The berries settle at the bottom...

 ...Then they slowly make their way to the top.  Fermentation is so much fun!

 We look forward to making lots of berry wines this summer.  Expect a few lines about blueberry, blackberry, and maybe even wineberry wine.

Yes, We Can Jam

Whether it be getting down to Jay Z and Kanye, strumming a guitar, or cooking down strawberries with sugar, we do it all here at Fat Bear Farm.  Monday was rainy, so we spent the day doing all of the above.

Come get you some at the Stuart Farmer's Market!

The high tunnel strawberries are in full effect.  The bees seem pleased, and so am I.  

"Gaviota" strawberries were the first to show their colors.

A jewel of a "Jewel."

I wish you could smell this...

...and this!