Sour Cherry Jam

When I was young, we used to pick fresh sour cherries from the tree at my grandfather's house. We would then have to sit outside with my mother, grandmother and aunt to pit them. I really hated the pitting part. However, cherry jelly and cherry pie was always my favorite. So, we sat for hours and pitted the cherries. Some would be made into jelly and some would be frozen for pies.

It's difficult to find sour cherries around here and the season is very short. This past winter I found that the orchard where we purchase peaches and pears for canning, have them. So, yesterday, my "Little Helper" and I went there to see if they had any sour cherries. We were in luck, it was the last day for the cherries. I purchased 4 overflowing quarts and some of the best white sweet corn that I have had in years.

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the day pitting cherries and making jam. I could not find the cherry pitter or an olive pitter anywhere. One would think that "The Italian" would have had an olive pitter in his dowry. Nope, so I used the end of a beater to the hand mixer to punch the pit through. It worked just fine. I made one batch of jam and froze the balance of the cherries for baking.

One batch of jam yielded 9 half pints.

"The Italian" has now decided that THIS is his favorite of the 14 different varieties of jams and jellies that I make. I guess that no one else will get any cherry jam. We went back to the orchard today and there were no more cherries :(

What is this disease??

Last night "The Italian" and I went to a friend's house for dinner. Of course, the first thing I did is go check on her vegetable garden. She has had a difficult time growing vegetables at their new house. The yard really doesn't get enough sun. The first year, she planted late. Last year, there was the blight. I am not sure what type of disease she has in her garden...maybe blight...maybe not.

It started on the tomatoes and is moving on to the cucumbers and beans. It is not on the potatoes though. The pictures below show what seems to be the stages of developement. Maybe it is two different things. The tomato plants have leaves like pic 1 & 2 on the top and 3 on the bottom. The one tomato plant is also wilted on half the plant. I am sure that all of the tomatoes will die shortly.

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Little Garden Helper's Beans

Last week after the garlic was harvested and compost was added to the bed. My "Little Garden Helper" planted the dry beans. This is the first time that he actually planted the seeds. He planted some Great Northern and Jacob's Cattle on Friday. This is what we found today!

I think that he will be a Master Gardener by the age of 5

"HOT" Harvest Monday

With all this HOT weather we had. It was a very good week in the garden. We picked the first large tomatoes....2 Cherokee Purples. We had "The Great Garlic Harvest". The second wave of Snow Peas is complete and 3 nice heads of Cauliflower were harvested as well.

  

Taking center stage

 The first Cherokee Purple, weighing in at 8 oz.

 CP #2 weighed 9 oz.

 "The Italian" slicing the tomatoes

 Oops...I wasn't fast enough...the sandwiches are gone!

Three nice heads of cauliflower.

Due to our ridiculously hot weather. Two of the three heads could not be left in the garden long enough to bleach out

 "The Great Garlic Harvest of 2010"

Pictured here are some of the 85 heads harvested.

It was too darn hot for me to move all of them for the picture!

Harvest Total: 13.0625 lbs.

Cauliflower: 1 lb. 13 oz.
Garlic: 9 lbs.
Peas: 1 oz.
Snow Peas: 1 lb. 2 oz.
Tomatoes: 1 lb. 1 oz.

Visit Daphnes Dandelions to see more garden harvests.

Talk about potato failures

Potaotes have always been the easiest crop for me to grow. You put them in them ground, mulch with straw a few times and you have lots of fresh potatoes! Not this year! As a lot of you know, I didn't have the bed available to plant the potatoes in this year...so, I made bags to plant them in. Then the voles attacked...so, we moved what was left. They seemed OK, not great. Yesterday I noticed one plant was drooping. I reached in and it was broken. I had no other choice then to dig down and see if there was anything below. Here's what I got.

3 oz. of red potatoes...that equals 4 bites...since I shared them with "The Italian" for dinner last night.

Hopefully, the remaining plants will do much better. I'm keeping a close eye on them. We don't eat a lot of potatoes and I really dislike store boughten potatoes...but, this is ridiculous!  Next year, they are going back in the ground! I have already laid out a place for another bed in my son's yard.