Growing Pears in Minnesota

AWESOME NEW FURNITURE

2012-01-25T13:24:00.000-08:00

with it being winter, theres nothing going on in the garden. the seed catalogs have started pouring in my mailbox, and january is typically when i pour thru them and imagine all the wonderful things i could grow, then narrow it down to just a couple new things to try.

so instead of gardening news, i'm extremely excited to show off my new kitchen set! my parents neighbors generously donated me their old set! and my dad graciously hauled it up to my house. the set is wonderful sturdy. the table and chairs are solid wood, and did i mention gorgeous? and look at the gorgeous hutch! it brightens up my dark little dining room immensely! so without further ado, lookey lookey what i got!!!

heres the old kitchen set i had. this is the metal edged formica kitchen table from my childhood. this table is older than i am. it is permanently discolored and getting wobbly from the many moves its been thru, and the constant dis-assembly and reassembly that its survived with me. i'm also pretty sure the tiny jelly palm print on its underside was mine.

also included in the set is a butcher block island and two bar stools. i have not found the right home for this yet, but think it might go into the basement in the roommates makeshift kitchen. the roommate is tall where i am not, and the tall height of the island would suit him well.

i'm extremely excited! many thanks to my parents neighbors and my dad for making this happen!

pictures from 2011 minnesota state fair

2011-10-05T09:39:00.001-07:00

my mom and i went to the minnesota state fair last month.

deep fried pickle slices, the best thing ever from the fair. two slices of pickles with cream cheese in between, breaded and fried. SOOOOOO good.

i think there were 6 of them to start with. they gave ranch dipping sauce, but it wasnt really needed. they also had ones with salsa in the middle, and a third kind with something else but i forgot. and you could get a sampler with all three kinds in it. but the cream cheese ones were the best. we demolished them.

funnel cake fries, which are WAY easier to eat than regular funnel cake. i love funnel cake but its so damn messy and theres way too much of it for one person. these fries had the same awesome funnel cake flavor in a much easier to eat package, and in a smaller, more realistic portion. it came with chocolate dipping sauce, but they didnt need that.

cheesecake on a stick, not so good. the chocolate around it was pretty gross.

all these pictures were made with seeds

bees wax sculptures

i liked the plants that made up the horses hair

i couldnt get a picture in focus thru the glass, but this is all cross stitch

handmade wooden toy train

wooden semi hauling a bulldozer

a SNORT! (reference from the kids book 'are you my mother?')

a tinker toy model of the midway at the fair

frankenstein, cross stitch

very intricate very small scale cross stitch

norwegian wedding cake

painted dinosaur

i wondered what kind of plants these were

they made up the pillar around the bell

now i want more deep fried pickle slices!

applesauce

2011-10-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

a few weeks back me and my mom made applesauce.

first we went to the orchard and got apples.

i overslept so we got a late start, which meant by the time we got there tons and tons of people and their kids were there. it was ridiculously crowded and loud. we suggested to each other that perhaps next year we'd see if we could come during the week instead of on the weekend. mom suggested that next time we should bring our reusable tote bags because the plastic bag handles and the paper bag handles really cut into our hands during the long trek back out to the car.

we got 1 peck of paula reds that we used in the applesauce. we got honeycrisp and ginger gold to eat, knowing we liked them both. and we tried some wealthy apples, but they're pretty tart and kinda mealy. there were no paula reds in the 'seconds' display, and there were no sweet 16s out yet, we were only a day early for those according to their chart. and despite their website saying they had sweet tango apples, they did not.

the paula reds

the apples sit in a bowl of water and lemon juice to prevent browning after being run thru the apple peeler/corer/slicer thing while they wait their turn to be cut up further.

cut up and starting to cook

peels and cores for my compost bin

the apples cooking down under medium to medium low heat (stir frequently!)

my moms new toy she got for xmas last year. a heavy duty stick blender thing where the blade part detaches for easy cleaning.

sharp! do not touch!

it was fun to use and made quick work of the soft apples. much much quicker and less painful than mashing by hand with a potato masher.

did i mention it was fun to use?

filler up! the funnel comes in extremely handy.

putting the lids on

put the jars in the canner basket

and lower the basket into the water

figured out that putting a cookie sheet in between layers of towels helps protect the table from the heat better than juts the towels alone

ta da!

1 peck of paula reds made 7 pts of applesauce. the sauce is gorgeous, light colored, and delicious. the stick blender worked awesome and we'll never go back to the potato masher.

hole in one!

2011-09-28T08:43:00.001-07:00

my mom picked up radishes at the farmers market and one of them was quite bizarre!

i'd love to know how THAT happened.

canning peaches and pears

2011-09-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

a few weekends ago my mom and i canned peaches and pears (sept 4 and sept 5).

peaches!

what kind of peaches are good for canning? colorado peaches! (colorado peaches are really good, alberta peaches would be the best) and make sure they're cling-free (freestone) peaches. you dont want the pit to cling to the peach (clingstone) when you cut it open. it makes for a messy frustrating canning experience that often ends up with mushy bruised peach bits, or excessive amounts of peach cut away and wasted.

sterilized jars

sterilized rings

peels and pits and any bruised parts, great for the compost bin

some we chunk, some we slice

load the canner

good stuff maynard

the canning kit i wished i'd had when i canned my sauce

necessary canning equipment

pears!

for our own reference, these kind are good pears for canning, even if they're on the small side.

stove setup, clockwise: the big water bath canner, a pot of water for blanching the skins off the pears, a pot of sugar water syrup to pack in the jars, and the little pan with water for sterilizing the lids.

counter setup, right to left: bowl of cold water to cool the blanched pears and rub off the skins, bowl of cold water with lemon juice to help stop browning and hold the peeled pears until they're sliced, knives and towel to slice and core the pears with, metal measuring cup to move syrup from the pot on the stove to the jar, jar to put the slices/chunks of pear in, and funnel to help get the syrup in without mess.

blanching the pears in boiling water, just a few at a time

the peels rub right off after blanching

but sometimes the bottom peels dont all come off, or are bruised and you have to cut the bruises away

mmm, fresh peeled pear

cored and quartered

most awesome rubber spatula for easing the fruit into a better, more tightly packed position in the jar

nummy

peaches:
syrup was 18 cups of water with 5 cups of sugar. we didnt use it all, but we always end up having to mix up a second batch so this way we didnt have to.
32 large peaches
got about 3 1/2 peaches per quart
got 8 quarts and two pints

pears:
14 cups water
4 cups sugar
14 pounds of pears (according to the box), approx 54 little pears
got 6 quarts and 3 pints

green bean glutton

2011-09-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

august 25 i picked 8 bags of green beans, not including all the ones i ate while picking, and not including all the oversized ones i tossed to the dogs and threw aside. heres some pictures.

so many beans

NOM NOM NOM

a dog size pile of overgrown beans

molly likes beans

i'll just sample these for you

in my hand, overgrown beans on the left, 'normal' good sized beans on the right. all the beans in the background are overgrown.

plus some oddball beans where the top half was normal sized, but the bottom half was overgrown.

8 baggies of beans

watermelon

2011-09-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

i grew a really big watermelon this year

but i wasnt sure when to pick it. according to the advice i'd gotten on the internet, it *should* have been ripe...

it was 7.5" tall

nearly 8" wide, and the bottom had turned a nice bright shade of yellow instead of being white

but it was not all the way ripe

although it did still taste good

i think perhaps i need to keep track of how long the watermelon grows, maybe that would be a better indicator.

here is the info on how to tell when watermelon is ripe on the vine:
i'm finally having success with growing watermelons in minnesotas short growing season. however, i have no idea when to pick my watermelon off the vine. i got this helpful link in my email today from hudson valley seed library's website and thought i'd share: http://www.seedlibrary.org/wp/?p=1854

For watermelons, determining ripeness is much more difficult. There are four clues to look for:

1. A bright yellow spot where the melon rests on the ground. In yellow-skinned varieties, this spot will be whitish.
2. Detectable ribbing along the surface of the melon. When immature, the watermelon has smooth skin lacking a topography. As it ripens, the skin becomes an undulating landscape which can be detected by rubbing your fingers around the melon. The more distinct the ribbing, the riper the fruit.
3. A drum-like resonance when you knock the melon with your knuckles. You should be able to detect some reverberation–not just a dull thud.
4. The browning and wilting up of the tendril on the melon vine that is adjacent to the little stem leading to the ripening fruit. As the melon grows, this tendril looks green and curly; when the melon approaches peak ripeness, the tendril grows brown and shrivels from the tip down to the base. If the tendril is not fully withered, the melon is probably not fully ripe.

Once you’ve identified a fruit that meets all these criteria, wait a few more days (unless you are growing a variety with a thin rind, in which case prompt harvest is necessary to prevent splitting). In general, the longer you’re able to abstain from harvesting, the riper your watermelon will become. While regular melons will continue to ripen a little bit once harvested, watermelons stop dead in their tracks once you pull them off the vine. So, in nearly all circumstances, the longer you wait before harvesting, the better. When you do decide to harvest, cut the watermelon from the vine (it will not slip).

You’ll know as soon as you try to slice into a watermelon whether or not it’s ripe: a ripe watermelon will seem to pop open–as if to relieve inner pressure–as soon as the knife slits the skin.

tomato blight

2011-09-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

blight hit my tomato plants hard this year, killing off a lot of foliage.

it starts out like this, and pretty soon dries out/dies off completely.

at first glance, they may look healthy enough, but if you look closer, theres absolutely no foliage on the bottom half of the plants, some of which are up to 5 feet tall. the white garbage bag was where i was shoving all the diseased leaves and branches i'd pulled off.

i'm worried the blight will come back even worse next year.

pictures from sauce making round one, round two, and round three

2011-09-21T08:40:00.000-07:00

back on sept 2nd i made the third and final round of sauce. august 29th was the second round. august 17th was the first round.

so many tomatoes. this bowl is gigantic. notice the tomatoes are stacked as tall as the can of no stick cooking spray.

plus some more

cooking down the sauce

onions and garlic from my garden

sweating the onions and garlic

more onions from my garden (i used one large sized and one small sized onion)

fire burn and cauldron bubble!

the aftermath

the sauce from round one all went in the freezer.

round two was when i ran all the tomatoes thru the strainer, but didnt cook them down, rather i just saved them in zip lock bags.

the strainer

close up

pouring liquid into a baggie is difficult. theres suddenly not enough hands. i cant hold the bag up and hold and tilt and pour the pan full of juice. so i improvised with a big bowl to contain spills, and a clip to hold the bag open and in place. worked pretty darn well.

baggies full of liquid tend to tip over and roll right off the counter top. they need help staying in place. (i'm still amazed the bag didnt burst and spray tomato juice/sauce all over my kitchen)

my least favorite part, clean up

4 gallons of juice/sauce

round three involved cooking down all those baggies from round two, and straining and cooking down another round of tomatoes, then using my new pressure cooker to can the sauce.

this tomato had a tail

soooooo many tomatoes

trying to get down level with the tomatoes to show how tall the pile was

let the mess making begin!

i was trying to cook down the sauce while still running tomatoes thru the strainer. turns out i dont divide my attention very well and managed to boil over the sauce.

sweating more onions and garlic (again from my garden)

one stockpot full of sauce filled 7 quart jars

pretty

my new pressure cooker

since it was my first time ever using a pressure cooker, i was paranoid about the pressure so i watched it like a hawk. turns out the pressure builds kinda slowly.

really slowly

omg would you just get there already!

as the pressure finally got close, i started turning down the heat, knowing that an electric stove top takes longer to cool down. at first i thought this would be the right temp to lower to.

but the pressure continued to rise, so i turned down the heat again

before finally settling between 3-4, which seemed to be the magic number to hold the pressure where i wanted it at 11 pounds.

my hard water left a film on all the jars (it wiped off easily tho)

left a film in the canner too

i ended up with 12 quart jars, and two zip lock baggies full of sauce.

blueberry picking

2011-09-21T08:37:00.000-07:00

pictures from last month (august 11) with my friend and her three kids, just across the border in wisconsin at http://blueberryridge-orchard.com/default.aspx

these were tall bushes, my friend is 5'10"

the kids had a blast and were the perfect height for reaching the undersides of the bushes

me with my awesome garden hat, and her eight year old son who is one tall drink of water!

her daughter showing me the 'big' blueberry she found

the nifty baskets they had for us adults to use

'look how many i got!' the kids got ice cream pails to use

'no look how many I got!'

i didnt get any really good pictures of the blueberries on their bushes

it was gorgeous out there. they had wide clean rows for us to walk down (or kneel)

wide clean rows, picture from me kneeling. her seven year old is also a tall drink of water

her five year old seems more average height

my haul

from this post http://yesididit.livejournal.com/944123.html
i already forgot how much blueberries i picked and how much they cost.

my solitary pear

2011-09-08T08:50:00.000-07:00

one tree put out one pear this year. it was from the 'parker' pear tree. since this is only their second summer here in the ground, they're still a bit young for them to be putting any fruit out.

the leaves on that tree started to turn a bit yellow, so i picked the lone pear this weekend. i think i may have picked it too soon. even sitting in a bowl with apples, its still pretty hard. i'm new to this whole pear tree stuff so i dont quite know when to pick them other than before they're ripe. i'll have to go dig up my notes and re-read them. i need to refresh my memory on how to properly prune them this winter as well. a couple of the trees threw a lot of extremely long vertical water sprout type branches. if i remember right, i'm supposed to prune those back...

august garden update

2011-09-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

garden pictures from a month ago, august 8. i'm trying to catch up on all my pictures. i'm way behind in posting them.

its a jungle over there!

tons of green beans

cabbage and brussels sprouts

monster zucchini plants! seriously, these things are waist high!

potatoes along the fence line on the right

tons of very tall tomato plants

watermelon vines mixed in with jicama vines

cantelope vines with some watermelon vines. didnt get any cantelope.

rutabaga and carrots in the raised bed

the tomato plants are enormously tall compared to puppy

another view, with molly

onions and garlic

watermelon

tomato blight was really bad this year

garlic

day lilies

2011-08-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

i got my first flower off the bela lugosi day lily that i planted last year. very pretty. but um, not purple. its supposed to be a dark purple. perhaps the package was mislabeled. still, it is quite lovely.

even the orange ones are pretty

day lilies before molly trampled them in her mouse chase

and after she caught the mouse

a week later

they're mostly dead now. not coming back this year. i'm still hopeful for next year. i hear the orange 'ditch' lilies are hard to kill.

freaky big caterpillar!

2011-08-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

a week ago i found a caterpillar as big as my index finger!

thanks to the folks over in a gardening community i frequent, its been identified as a luna moth caterpillar. they regularly grow 2.5 to 3 inches long! i only wish i could have seen it as the pretty moth it turns into instead of the gigantic caterpillar!

a tale of ground cherries

2011-08-27T06:46:00.000-07:00

as an experiment i grew ground cherries this year. i also grew pineapple tomatillos, but as it turns out, they look and taste the same.

this is what the bushes look like in my garden. i had no idea they'd get that tall. i had to prune them back to keep them from smothering the neighboring plants.

tomatillos

ground cherries

you dont pick them off the plant, you pick them up off the ground. otherwise they're not ripe. they're not very big.

peel off the paper cover

its a bit time consuming to peel them all, and since my kitchen table is currently covered in crap, i set up on the floor. i had a captive audience.

or perhaps i should say a nosy and hopeful audience

one bucket equals one bowl. and puppy says never give up hope. both dogs thought they tasted fine and wanted more.

sweetpea enjoyed them tremendously

they were perfectly bite sized

but i wont be growing them again. it is a HUGE hassle to get under the overgrown plants to pick up them up off the ground one by one, and then peel them one by one. i simply dont have the time or energy to waste when there are so many other things in my garden i could focus on.

and the taste, well thats hard to describe. its kind of a slightly pineapple slightly tomato flavor. its sweet, but not very. it has tiny seeds in it that i spit out, like grapes used to have when i was a child.

everyone i've had taste them (myself included) says they're not sure if they like them or not, but then refuses a second taste. except the dogs and the tortoise of course.

triple berry jam making

2011-08-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

last weekend my mom and i made triple berry jam.

we went to the farmers market, despite the rain

and bought blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries

we ran them thru the sauce strainer thing i got for making tomato sauce. it made really quick work of the berries.

the pictures are so dark because it was terribly dark outside from the rain. i didnt take that into consideration while snapping all the photos.

the seeds getting strained out

i like the color change. from left to right in the pan its blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

end result of all the seeds

boiling

ladling into jars

try not to drool

prepare for nomming!

2011 triple berry jam
1 pt blackberries, 4 pts blueberries, 3 pts regular red raspberries, 2 pts purple raspberries, 1 pt black raspberries.
Ran thru strainer and got 10 cups of juice.
Nearly 2 boxes of pectin (perhaps half to one tablespoon short).
8 cups sugar.
Stir pectin into fruit juice in stockpot.
Bring to a full rolling boil on high heat, stirring constantly.
Stir in sugar quickly, return to a boil and boil for one minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, skim foam, ladle into jars.
Process in canner 10 minutes for jam, 4 minutes for jelly.
Made 12 half pint jars and 2 pint jars.
Took 24 hours of cooling before setting up properly.

and, a 13 second video of how awesome the strainer thing is to use

strawberry jam making

2011-08-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

a few weeks ago my mom and i made strawberry jam.

fresh strawberries picked by me at bauer berry farm

what was left

mash the berries

bring to a boil

scoop off the foam

foam is funny stuff when it cools, it gets stiff

fill up the jars

try not to drool

strawberry jam recipe

2011 strawberry jam
8 cups strawberries
4 cups sugar
5 tablespoons pectin
Mash berries in pot with pectin.
When liquid, add sugar.
Bring to a boil for 1-2 minutes, then turn off heat.
Scoop off foam, fill jars.
Process 10 minutes in canner.
Made two batches, the second was closer to 7 cups berries with 3 cups sugar. Total of 13 and 1/ 2 jars

necessary canning equipment

load up the canner

the tall skinny jam jars dont stay upright in the canner when the water is boiling, so my mom solved that by wrapping the jar in a dishrag.

done! commence eating!

pictures of a giant radish from my garden

2011-07-25T08:15:00.001-07:00

while growing

pulled it

it was hollow inside!

monster 4 inch radish

at long last, a garden update!

2011-07-06T11:01:00.000-07:00

my garden, 15'x25' for the fenced in section, 12'x4' for the raised bed

the raised bed my dad helped me build last fall

rutabaga is enormous!

a single head of escarole lettuce. those blocks are 16" long! (and puppy!)

monster sweet onions, over 22" tall!

amish paste tomatoes

cabbage, brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi

pineapple tomatillos, pole green beans, and a lot of weeding needing to be done

in back from left, green beans, ground cherries, black eyed peas, tomatoes, in front, celeriac, zucchini, watermelon, cantelope (hidden under the lettuce), and marigolds

garlic

yukon gold potatoes on the right, onions and tomatoes on the left. clover garden paths, raised bed and strawberry patch in the background

pineapple mint plant that smells nifty

potted potato experiment, from the red potatoes i grew last year that sprouted in the cabinet over winter. (wilted from the heat)

strawberry patch (and molly!)

the old raspberry patch, now almost fully in the shade. the red line indicates the area i dug out and transplanted to a sunny location this spring.

transplanted raspberries

pictures of my seedlings that have sprouted so far

2011-02-28T15:30:00.000-08:00

i organized my seeds by when they need to be planted

they dont look like much yet

sweet onions

blue petunias

lilac ice petunias

cabbage

kohlrabi

early escarole for the tortoise

tomatoes! (um, i may have gone overboard here... i planted 60 seeds! and most have sprouted! last year i only planted 36.)

nothing yet from jicama or celeriac

i'll be planting broccoli, brussels sprouts, and ground cherries soon too.

Pruning the pear trees

2011-01-18T09:37:00.000-08:00

Luscious tree before pruning and after (sorry its blurry, i cant exactly go back and take another before picture)

Parker tree before and after

Summercrisp tree before and after

Patten tree before and after

i followed the pruning advice and pictures from a book on pruning fruit trees that advises to cut the branches back by 2/3 during january or february while the tree is dormant. i suspect that these trees i planted last spring are now three years old. i believe they were two year old baby trees when i got them, but they may have been only one year old, though the Patten tree thats more thin than the others may only be going on two years. they still need to be directing their energy into good strong roots, and pruning so severely will help them to do that when they wake up in spring. i may not have pruned them enough. i'm still uncertain how much i should thin branches to form a good initial shape to the tree so that branches dont cross in the middle and stuff.

edited to add i think the advice and pictures came from this book pruning basics by david squire

fine! (imagine the little ` over the e)

2010-10-02T17:13:00.000-07:00

finished!

my wonderful raised bed garden! i'm very excited and looking forward to working with it next spring.

a big little patch job my dad did for me on the house foundation.

the previous owner had used some kind of rubbery/plastic-y concrete patch stuff that was falling apart. i thought it'd be just a quick little patch job to use up some of the leftover mortar. my dad had me knock away the old patch job and it ended up being quite a big hole. two holes actually, right into the center of the block. my dad suggested i fill the holes with some styrofoam that i happened to have on hand, and bits of newspaper to make the holes easier to patch over. he did the fine patchwork, using an obscene amount of mortar to fix the crumbling block that had started out looking like just a little patch would be needed. i wished i'd take a picture of the gaping hole(s). trust me when i say it looks MUCH better now.

making a cinder block raised bed garden

2010-09-19T16:00:00.001-07:00

today dad came out and helped me put together my raised bed garden.

just a few blocks (66)

and a pallet of peat moss, composted manure, and sand

getting ready, i hauled those blocks out over the previous two days with my trusty green wagon.

the first layer (and my dad) resting on the layer of sand to level them out. glued together with weatherproof construction adhesive for concrete

mixing up the mortar in the dogs old kiddie pool that had a leak

the second layer, mortared to the first

the third layer, as far as we got before we used up all the mortar we had mixed up

we'll get to the remaining blocks another time. lifting that many blocks was hard work and we were more than ready to be done.

i'm very excited!

we have a pear!

2010-08-24T13:10:00.001-07:00

The first (and only) pear is here!

Its on the luscious pear tree, which is the biggest and healthiest of the four varieties I planted this spring. It was also the first to set flowers this spring, and is closest to the front steps. I'm going to let it grow because I figure one little pear cant stress the baby tree too much.

vegetable garden pictures

2010-07-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

the garden

potato plants

corn and beans

carrots, onions, and radishes

zucchini, watermelon, and cantelope

first zucchini of the year

garlic is starting to turn brown, will be ready to harvest soon

brussel sprouts, broccoli, and celery (with tomatoes and potatoes in the background)
\

broccoli

baaaaaby brussels sprouts forming

attack of the tomato plants!

raspberries

raspberry bushes, they arent putting out much fruit. i dont think they get enough sun. i'm considering moving them next spring, but then i'd have two places to battle the spikey plants.

they're taking over!

columbine and stevia

potted petunias (theres more out front)

decline of the peas

they're dead (they dont like the heat)

peas are gone. nasturtiums and clover will take over

soybeans for edamame

black eyed peas (i'd forgotten which i'd planted where, but now that they've gotten bigger the soybeans are fuzzy and the black eyed peas are not)

pear trees

2010-07-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

the luscious pear tree is doing fabulous

the parker pear tree started to lean, and has been staked

the leaves on both trees look great

however the bark on the trunk of the parker pear tree appears to have split

some guys came around the neighborhood and offered to grind up my tree stump for cheap

the summercrisp pear tree is doing good

but whatever is on some of the leaves has not improved despite the spray i bought

the undersides of the leaves look even worse

the patten pear tree isnt doing so hot

the lower part of the tree is practically bare

and nearly all of the leaves look like this

i think another visit to the garden center might be a good idea, as well as removing all the infected leaves.

canning cherries and cherry jam, from july 3rd

2010-07-08T11:47:00.000-07:00

saturday july 3 i canned cherries and made cherry jam from juice with my mom.

start with a sink full of cherries

a hand held cherry pitter helps things along

wear gloves or else you get purple hands for a few days

try to keep the pits in the sink

end up with 2 cups of pits

cherry splatter gets everywhere

stove setup: sterilized lids in back, syrup on left, canner on right

for the jam we used cherry juice my mom picked up i think at trader joes

the smudge in the dish was where we checked that it was the right consistancy, the funnel is a huge help

end up with this:

4 bags of cherries from rainbow made 11 pints.
syrup was 8 cups water, 1 and 1/2 cups sugar.

jam was 32 oz of cherry juice, 1 package low/no sugar pectin, 1 1/2 cups sugar, made 3 1/2 jelly jars.

picture of last years cherry canning:

garden update - mid june

2010-07-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

i got a little behind in my updating, so here is the first of a few updates!

the garden early-mid june

potatoes before two weeks of solid rain

potatoes after

potato flowers

corn and pole beans

sugar snap peas

amaranth

amaranth close up

fuzzy bumble bee on clover in my garden

garden update

2010-05-31T09:15:00.001-07:00

potatoes are really coming along, i've already completely filled in the trench they were planted in

watermelon, cantelope, and zucchini have sprouted

brussels sprouts and celery are coming along

one of these is edamame (soybeans) and one is black eyed peas

corn sprout

radishes and carrots

something ate the heads of my sunflowers

peas seem to have stopped growing tall and are putting out flowers, they're maybe 2 feet shorter than normal.

garlic is getting huge

strawberries are coming in

but caterpillars are eating the strawberry leaves!

Welcoming the other two pear trees

2010-04-25T14:08:00.001-07:00

Today my dad took me to two different nurseries to buy the Patten and Summercrisp pear trees. I spent the morning calling around to the places on my list that said they'd have the trees in stock this weekend. Its a good thing I did, because things didn't seem to have gone according to plan with a lot of these places. Some told me it'd be another week or two, or three. Some changed their minds about what they were going to carry. We ended up getting the Patten pear tree at Anoka Ramsey Farm and Garden for $34.99. The Summercrisp pear tree we got at Mickman Brothers Garden Center in Ham Lake for $49.99. Both were in potted containers that were smaller than the '5 gallon' containers the other two trees came in.

I started out with two holes, at least a foot deep

Here is the rather bare Patten tree

Here is the Summercrisp tree sporting some leaves

what remains of the dirt pile, which will soon be carted off by someone else to help regrade a corner of her houses foundation.

and just for some color, heres my tulips

for my own reference, in case i forget what i planted where in the future.

and a special thanks to my dad for buying these trees for me as well, and helping me haul them home as they would not have fit in my little car.

The difference a week can make

2010-04-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

Parker has more leaves coming out

Luscious has lots of pretty flowers!

a garden update

2010-04-20T14:25:00.000-07:00

my newly tilled potato patch thanks to daves monster tiller and dads help

now its fenced in. they're no longer selling the green fencing material i'd been using so i went with poultry netting to keep the bunnies and dogs out.

my tomato seedlings

The Beginning of the Pear Trees!

2010-04-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

this is the 'luscious' pear tree on OHxF rootstock which is semi-dwarf and cold hearty, grown right here in minnesota. the nursery we bought them from said they are from baileys nursery in st paul.

(if you look at the picture above behind the pear tree, you can see the tree stump from the tree my dad cut down last fall, and on either side of it are the two other holes that are dug. you can see how close they are to the stump and why i'm encountering lots of roots over there)

another view of the luscious

the 'parker' pear tree also semi-dwarf

another view, showing the nifty tree watering ring that cost $6.95

buds from the parker

buds from the luscious

the dirt pile, now down to half its original size

thanks to my dads help, i've got two trees down, and two more to go next weekend. assuming the weather cooperates, i'll be putting in a 'patten' and a 'summercrisp' then. i've got the holes dug, i just need to clear out some of the roots.

i still need to pick up some mulch to put around them. these two trees were purchased for $45 each at shades of green nursery and landscaping up in anoka off 169. i'll have to go elsewhere for the other two. i'm thinking nowthen nursery in elk river, though i have a nice list of about 12 metro nurseries and garden centers and which trees they carry. and my dad, bless him, he bought me the trees!