Black Raspberry Season

The air here outside of Kent City is full of cottonwood fluff - it looks like it is snowing. I took my Gator out through the orchard today and found that the black raspberries are just starting to get ripe - maybe one of the cluster is turning black, the rest are still red. Too bad we are leaving Sunday, I will wait until Sunday morning to pick to maximize the harvest.

I pulled weeds in the four LONG rows of green beans, mostly lamb's quarters, but a few redroot pigweed (amaranth) and some plants I have not identified that are seeding now. They seem similar to a plant identified at Unger Farm as a native prairie plant -we have loads of them! The beans are blooming and should have beans by the next time I am here.

The deer's tongue lettuce I planted last time I was here in the shade of the 100-year old maple tree is doing spectacularly! The frizzy-headed drunken woman lettuce is not as good, I don't think it stands up to heat quite so well.

I found volunteer seven-top turnips in the field and cooked them for lunch. DH doesn't like them, but he took a small sample for politeness' sake.

I also cooked the baby zucchini I picked before leaving home. I sauteed them in a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter with carmelized chopped onion in the cast-iron fry pan on the grill, served with Bucyrus bratwurst. Ummm. DH had seconds, a new first for zucchini.

Two of the four tomatoes I planted are surviving, deer footprints tell a sorry tale. The four jalapeno peppers are still there and have tiny peppers on them. I also found some of the cilantro. Salsa is on the way!

DH pulled the lamb's quarters out of the pumpkins - last year the pumpkins were our cash crop. So even though he says he is not going to do "stoop labor" I think he felt sorry for me on seeing all the weeds. It is worth pulling weeds to know I do not spray my plants with broadleaf herbicides.

I noticed very little insect damage. The Indian corn looks healthy, the popcorn maybe not so good. I will try and side-dress it with some fertilizer later.

We took a ride through the orchard and found that the Yellow Transparents are not ready yet. A week, maybe two?