Busy Days

Without questions the period of June 20th - July 10th is my most intense work period of the year. A combination of the heavy berry harvest, end of season farm plantings, weeding everywhere and lots of irrigation has me working 13 hour days. And, then throw in a visit from my African basket wholesaler who decided to visit for five days and my life is just a little bit crazy these days.

On the berry front. After a one day gap in which we barely had a berry in the store, we are now making our transition to caneberry fruit. Kitata blackberries, marions, boysens and raspberries are all about to explode (almost literally). By this Friday we should be loaded with berries for the 4th of July weekend. Strawberries, except for some foraging, are done for the year.

Blue Lake green beans are coming in -- 500 lbs picked today. Our French beans are amazing. Corn continues to tassle for a July 20 harvest and we'll have a handful of pickling cucumbers this weekend.

It's 5:30 a.m. in the morning (when I wrote this, obviously entered later). It's a cool 50 degrees with the sun rising over Mt. Adams. Our home has big windows and fabulous views from Mt. Ranier to Mt. Hood. On the summer Solstice the sun rises just to the north of Mt. Adams. This morning it was directly over the top of Adams which means it's moving back. On the winter Solstice, the sun comes up on the other side of Mt. Hood. I write my blog from my favorite spot looking out at the mountains(and down on Sauvie Island). I love my home, but sometimes miss waking up and walking to work on the farm. Not this morning...with this view.

Berry Update

It's official. Raspberry season has begun in a big way. All three fields are producing heavily for a big weekend harvest. Except for three tows of an early variety called Malahat, all of our raspberries are the Toulameen variety. Large, strong tasting fruit is the characteristic of this berry. It is the best tasting variety so far. The down side of Toulameen is that is is prone to root rot, but I believe it is worth the trouble.

The cool weather is stretching out strawberries for one last weekend. It has become a hunt, but the rewards are still great.

Blueberries are slowly becoming more plentiful, but the big harvest is still a week away.

I ate by first boysenberry last night, but all of the blackberry varieties seem a week away.

We picked yellow beans Thursday. Our first Blue Lake and French beans will be picked on Sunday. One month early because of our new ground.

The weather this weekend looks beautiful, perfect for berry picking...