Early Harvest 2012

2012 will be the year of "early".  The weather change to Spring came early and that shaped the planting of gardens early and now while we are in late May, the early harvest is upon up.  At least here in the southeast we are happily beginning to reap the reward of our planting from years past, and seeing early fruit from this springs planting.

A week ago I noticed through the netting over the blueberries that some big blue berries were ready to be picked. I did just that and had a small handful of the biggest ones I have grown.  A few had to be tasted right then but the rest made my breakfast special.

Yesterday morning early, I got in my golf cart and headed down to the raised beds to do some serious weed pulling.  Using my hoe I got things stirred up around the blue lake green beans and the tomato plants.  The green beans have promising white blooms on them and the tomato plants have golf ball size green tomatoes.  I have staked them to try to keep the branches from falling to the ground.  The stems on all of the  plants, cucumbers included, are sturdy and healthy looking.  As I started to drive back up to the house I glanced over at the blackberry patch and saw big black berries, so I just had to stop and pick them.  The picture shows how long the biggest one was.  I noticed that on the bush with the big ripe berries were some white blooms just starting the fruit process.  That looked strange to me, but a lot of things in gardening are strange this year.

It has been many years since I have seen berries as big as these.  I saw them on some bushes at the edge of the forest behind our home in Kentucky.  We were all so impressed with the size of them and they were the wild berries.  For my taste the wild ones are sweeter and the seeds are smaller, making them more desirable.  But, I will take ripe blackberries any way I can get them.  They are just wonderful with sugar and milk, in jam and jelly or just eaten out of hand.

Lady luck is with me so far this year in my garden.  Having an early spring is preferable to having a late one.  Especially when it brings rain to follow up the planting of seeds or plants.  The figs are about half size on my biggest tree and marble size kiwi are hanging from healthy branches. It usually is the first of August before the figs are ripe, but with this head start it may be the first of July.  The kiwi will not be ready for picking until the first frost this fall.  I have to be very watchful around that time or I will find myself trying to fight harsh winds to collect these fruits.

There is one drawback to having an early spring.  Does that mean an early fall and winter?  Last year after a long dry summer with very little success in my garden, we were hit with a colder than usual December.  So, it seems that something is pushing the seasons into earlier cycles.  Since I have no control over Mother Nature, I will have to adjust.  This spring  at least, the adjusting has been very pleasant.  It looks like I will be having enough from my harvest to put in my deep freeze.  There is nothing that can compare to going to the deep freezer and picking a large bag of frozen blue lake green beans to cook for my family when they come up to visit on cold winter days.

red caned blackberry plant

Today I did some research on having my own blackberry bushes like the ones I picked from yesterday. According to Billy Skaggs at the Hall County Extension Service, the easiest way to propagate the bushes is to take cuttings. Starting them from seeds will be much more difficult. Mr. Skaggs said that the seeds are very hard and need to be soaked in warm water or scratched up with sand paper. I have so many seeds, like at least a cup of them that I may just try that method as an experiment. Since I have had the experience of successfully propagating a rose bush from a cutting I want to try that first. I will report back on how this all works out.

Two guys from Green Scape came today and cut the grass in the vineyard. They did a great job and it took them almost three hours. The only bad thing was that they ran into some yellow jackets and both got stung several times. I know where it happened so I will go up and try to destroy them as they are just too harmful to humans. As far as I know they are not pollinators, so I will feel no regret.

With so little rain in the past few weeks watering in the garden was a must. The sensible time is during the evening. Thank goodness for a deep well. During the watering time I inspected my tomato plants and found all three of the big ones had ripe tomatoes ready for picking. Also I found way too many cucumbers which means a pickle making assignment is in my future, possibly on Saturday.

Just as I was finishing with the watering I picked a few blueberries before the birds could get them and they were not large but nice and sweet. A cool breeze came up and made it so very pleasant to be outdoors. The solar lights lining the front walk came on one by one and the colorful glowing sphere in the blueberry bed was fun to watch as it went from red to green to blue, then repeat the cycle. It was pretty and restful and rewarding to witness the dusk creeping in and the cool evening pushing out the hot day.

blackberry picking

The largest blackberry I have ever picked was the size of my thumb. It was one summer when I was out of school and just returned from a year in Corpus Christi Texas. Our home was at the foot of a mountain and the berries were behind the house, partly in the shade. I have never again seen any that size but I have seen some large ones and this was that day.

This morning at nine o'clock I met my neighbor up at the "gate" which is really gone now . We had a date to pick blueberries at a neighbors house. I had a large market basket but alas, it did not hold any blueberries today. Since those plans fell through I suggested we look for berries. We found plenty of them along the side of the road where she parked her car and the picking began. Those are the tallest berry plants I have ever seen, at least 10 feet tall and arching all over. The canes were red and very stout looking with thorns aplenty ! She had a green bucket and after a bit of stretching and reaching we were joined by Joe, her neighbor who was out for a morning walk. He began to pick and eat, calling it his breakfast. By the time the bottom of my basket was covered with both black and some black and red berries, I heard my friend give a squeal and jump back onto the road. She had suffered the bane of every Georgian. Not watching where she was walking she had stepped into a fire ant hill. She began shedding shoes and brushing her legs and making some very distressing noises. There was nothing to do but quit the place and get her home and some relief for those bites. She was concerned that I had not picked enough berries to make jelly so she gave me what she had picked and I gladly accepted !!.

Leaving her at the "gate" to her own way of dealing with her problem, I drove my golf cart up to the house. Inside I began right away to cull the berries, spray water over the lot and leave them in a collander as I had an appointment in Gainesville to have my hair "done".

By the time I got back home and had a bite of lunch the berries were sufficiently drained to go into my juicer. I have only had this M-J juicer for about 43 years. It has a history of its own but still works well enough for me to extract almost 4 cups of juice from those berries. With this task out of the way, I began to assemble the jars, lids, sugar, pectin, lemons and several tongs to finish the job.
Suffice it to say I now have 6 cups of blackberry jelly all properly sealed and cooling on a rack. I know it is super good jelly as I had about 2 tablespoons left in the bottom of the big pot. Did you know blackberry jelly is really good spread on a soda cracker ??? Well it is.

I hope I can go picking again on Saturday as I need some juice to go with the pint of frozen berry juice in my deep freeze. I know there are plenty left where I was today and I remember a spot down at the park near here. When my children were small we would always be on the lookout for berry plants when we went picnicing, making mental notes to return in June. They may have outgrown the lure of berry picking but I have not. I just have not found any blackberry jelly at the market which is as rich and satisfying as my own. Yet, it may really be the journey of the hunt which makes it all worthwhile.