Blueberries.......The Sequel

Spent Tuesday picking blueberries *BUT* this year we haven't had much rain, so as a result the berries are much smaller and not quite as sweet. In my personal opinion, any blueberry is better than no blueberry, and in that spirit I'm re-posting last July's entry on what to do with said blueberries once you get them home.

Perhaps this will summon the rain gods, and next week we'll be back picking those gigantic sweet berries.....



My life mantra: One can never, ever, eat too many blueberries....


Therefore, one must think of a way to preserve them, 'cause those canned blueberries don't cut it. Not even in January, when I'm desperate. Frozen berries are pricey, unless I buy the frozen wild blueberries, which are affordable, and 10 times as healthy as the cultivated blueberries, but the wild ones just don't taste the same.

Even as I speak, blueberries are on sale and very affordable in our area, so I loaded up on the little suckers, and decided to freeze enough for this winter. Or at least as many as I can fit in the freezer.

First: lay a sheet of wax paper or plastic wrap on a cookie sheet. Cover the pan with a single layer of the best berries (unwashed). Set the entire cookie sheet in the freezer for a couple hours.

It doesn't take the berries long to freeze, so multiple batches can be made in a single day. In my case, I froze a gallon's worth in a day. Did I mention I LOVE blueberries?

Note: When the berries come out of the freezer, they sound like marbles rolling around on the cookie sheet and are hard as rocks. It will very tempting for your children to use them as BB's or mini-balls. They will hurt if launched out of any sort of propelling device.

Probably best to keep them all for yourself, just for safety's sake.

***Note from July 2010: This winter I discovered that the frozen blueberries can be eaten like candy - they melt in your mouth literally. In fact, many never made it to any sort of cereal at all...

They're here

THE FIRST BLUEBERRIES......

The nineteen assorted blueberry bushes, the trailerload of mulch, the underground soaker hose, the shiny CD's sprinkled by the plants, and the irritating black netting over the plants.......

It's all paid off.

AND IT'S WORTH IT.

I am in heaven.

Wiregrass Battle....Day Two

Long, long day.

Complete with aching back.

But the net result is that both newly tilled garden plots have been combed for the random strands of wiregrass. Tomorrow they will be covered in black plastic, with the goal of literally burning and baking the remaining bits and pieces of wiregrass runners/roots. Sortof like waving a torch at wild animals and hoping for the best.

Meanwhile, we also replanted 20 blueberry bushes today. The process involves digging the hole, shaking out the blueberry roots while removing the wiregrass runners that bound them up last year, adding fertilizer and a bit of sulfur to each hole, then lining the hole with pine straw (keeps the soil acidic for the blueberries), adding the bush itself, giving it a long drink of water, then filling in with soil, and mulching again with an overall pine straw blanket.

Then repeat 19 more times.

You can't see them, but under and in this pine straw are the 20 blueberry bushes. From left to right, there are 2 -six year plants, 3 -five year plants, 10- four year plants, and 5-three year old plants (the babies of the bunch).

Someday they will grow up to be like these old-timers, approximately 5-6 tall and just as wide.

And loaded with these.

That photo kind of makes it all worthwhile.

That, and a handful of Advil.

Better Than Breakfast at Tiffany's

Remember these?

And this trip last summer to the blueberry farm to pick 4 gallons worth?

And remember how they were divided up and frozen, individually, on cookie sheets, then divided up into pint size bags?

Today's their day to shine. Now that it's late fall, and no fresh blueberries are to be found (excepting the $4.00/pint grocery store version), it's time to go to the freezer.

I like my blueberries on bowls of Special K Red Berry. (Really I do - and Kellogg's has not offered me anything to say this, but if they want to ship me free cereal, I'm okay with it).

The frozen blueberries are packed in pint bags, and the bags are packed inside a gallon size bag.This way I can take out one pint bag at a time, for each bowl of cereal. I keep a wire strainer just for this purpose. Pour the frozen bag of blueberries into the strainer, set the strainer into a bowl, and run cold water over the berries. They will thaw quickly (2 minutes at most). **Frozen blueberries are a great snack BTW -pop one in your mouth, and let it thaw gradually.

After they thaw, I usually pour them out of the strainer onto a paper towel and pat them dry to remove the extra water.

Then pour all the blueberries on your cereal. I like A LOT of blueberries. (This is why I picked 4 gallons last summer, and only had 3 gallons by the time I got home).

Add milk, and savor the taste of summer. And, unlikely as it seems, blueberries are really, really good for you.

Thirteen Gallons and Whaddya Get?

Out here in rural America, there exists such a thing as a "pick-your-own _____" (fill in the blank with the crop of your choice: strawberries, corn, blackberries, peaches, plums, or in this case, blueberries).

Yes, I needed more blueberries and the grocery store's prices had rebounded back to $3.99 for a pint.

So today my mother took me to her favorite "pick your own". This is what a blueberry farm looks like. I could pan the camera 360 degrees, all the views would look the same.

This is early morning -about 8:30 - and the mist is still coming up off the ground.

Mom digs right in - these bushes are taller than she is but they never stood a chance.

There were plenty of other people there and more than a few that obviously had never been to an orchard before, or perhaps even outside a city.

These are old established blueberry bushes, standing approximately 5-6' tall. Some of the trunks have lichens and moss growing on them. The light-colored berries are not ripe yet.

But you can see the deep purple ripe berries in the corners here. I started out picking whatever berries I saw, but then I developed my personal technique: reach for the top branches and pull them gently down - they are covered in clusters of huge, ripe berries. Cup the cluster in one hand and roll the berries off into the bucket. Repeat until bucket is full.

After a minute or so (each bucket holds about 6 gallons).

The final total: slightly over 13 gallons. I finally ate my fill of blueberries.

And this is the world's worst photo of individual 1/2 cup servings of blueberries, each in it's own little snack-size bag, then bagged again in a plastic gallon zip loc. After this they went immediately into the freezer.

I would have frozen them on cookie sheets again, but it would have taken forever, and the faster the fresh berries are frozen, the better they keep.

For anyone in the Bedford County area of Virginia, you can't go wrong visiting TLC Orchards, 1153 Capital Hill Rd, Moneta,VA. They are open Monday thru Sunday, from 7 am to 1 pm. Phone #540-297-1168. As of today, 7-24-09, blueberries are $2.50 per gallon. Bring your own bucket.

Heavenly Blueberries

My life mantra: One can never, ever, eat too many blueberries....



Therefore, one must think of a way to preserve them, 'cause those canned blueberries don't cut it. Not even in January, when I'm desperate. Frozen berries are pricey, unless I buy the frozen wild blueberries, which are affordable, and 10 times as healthy as the cultivated blueberries, but the wild ones just don't taste the same.

Even as I speak, blueberries are on sale and very affordable in our area, so I loaded up on the little suckers, and decided to freeze enough for this winter. Or at least as many as I can fit in the freezer.

First: lay a sheet of wax paper or plastic wrap on a cookie sheet. Cover the pan with a single layer of the best berries (unwashed). Set the entire cookie sheet in the freezer for a couple hours.

It doesn't take the berries long to freeze, so multiple batches can be made in a single day. In my case, I froze a gallon's worth in a day. Did I mention I LOVE blueberries?

Note: When the berries come out of the freezer, they sound like marbles rolling around on the cookie sheet and are hard as rocks. It will very tempting for your children to use them as BB's or mini-balls. They will hurt if launched out of any sort of propelling device.

Probably best to keep them all for yourself, just for safety's sake.

A Rainy Misty Day in Virginia

And the perfect day for a greenhouse update. Remember a couple weeks ago when we planted tomato seedlings, covering them with plastic and setting them in water trays?

They're up! These are all Better Boy's, the big round red ones that are perfect for slicing up for burgers, or freezing, or just eating off the vine. By the middle of May, they will be ready to set out.

Lettuce is a little over 8", and in sad need of thinning and transplanting. Thinning is something I always have a hard time doing - the little plants are so green and enthusiastic, I hate to kill any of them. I've already transplanted part of this crop, and will probably move more this weekend.

Over the last few weeks I've been unable to refrain from picking up a few seedlings -mostly green peppers, bok choy, broccoli and Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. The bok choy and broccoli can be set out this weekend but the green peppers and tomatoes need to wait. BTW -green peppers love heat - make sure you give yours lots of mulch. I've also used black plastic around mine -it seems they can't get enough heat, as long as their roots are kept damp.

The former potato bed still has potatoes coming up - the plant on the left is horseradish, while the smaller plants on the right are new potatoes. By practicing companion planting, in this case putting horseradish with potatoes, the possibility of insect damage can be avoided. While others in our area were inundated with Japanese beetles on their potatoes a couple summers ago, my plants stayed almost beetle-free - thanks to having horseradish plants sprinkled in among the potatoes. Horseradish is a perennial that reaches 2-3 feet in height, and easily spreads (everywhere a piece of root is left, a new plant will come up). The root can be grated and made into sauce. I enjoy the plant - it's a beautiful green, large and leafy, and needs no special care or watering.

And of course, the blueberries are leafing out, and flowering. Berries should start appearing during May-June. This is a good time to start collecting old CD's at yard sales for decorating the berry bushes and lettuce beds. By using these, I've eliminated the need for protective netting or wire fencing against bunnies and birds. The dangling CD's reflect light back and simulate movement to both birds and four-footed snackers. This is one of the new plants we added in February. The older five year plants are almost 5 feet tall, and loaded with buds.

Maybe this is the year we'll need a bucket to hold all the berries!

The First Full Day of Gardening

.....And the exhaustion that follows. This time of year I've been busy laying out the spring garden plan - a few new crops are being added, and some of last year's crops have to be rotated. I've also been making long lists of various outdoor housekeeping chores that will get the garden up to speed.



Once all that planning is done, there's that first long warm day in the garden. That happened this weekend. Never mind there's going to be three nights this week with temps at the freezing mark. We've started!



Yesterday was the first mulch run out to my folks farm. They have pine tree forests where I can rake up all the pine straw I need (blueberries are notoriously fond of pine straw), and the local tree-trimmers grind and dump their load of trimmings there as well, providing excellent mulch.



Raking pine straw is easy. We carry pitchforks and giant, contractor plastic bags to hold the pine straw (and they are re-used many, many times). This is one of those times I wish I had a pickup truck.

With a rake and a pitchfork, we can fill two bags in under 15 minutes. Each bag holds the same amount as 1.5 bales of pine straw if you purchased it at Lowe's.

Right after the pine straw we move the van over to the oldest pile of mulch, procured for free from the tree-trimmers. They love having a free place to dump because it means they don't have to drive to the landfill and pay to tip the truck. And we can use all the mulch we can get, in addition to sharing it with family and friends.


The van holds six large bags, in this case 2 bags of pine straw, and 4 bags of mulch. If I had remembered the string or twist ties, we could stack the bags longways, and fit 8 in the van.


Today the bagged straw and mulch was spread: pine straw on the blueberries and newly planted peas, and mulch on the new potato and tomato beds.

This is the blueberry patch - the little buds and a very few leaves are just starting to show, so the sixteen plants are hard to see. Before the pine straw was spread, we first added three bags of hardwood sawdust (only untreated wood is usable). Blueberries need a lot -a *LOT*- of water, and the sawdust will soak up rain and hold it for days, especially when covered with the pine straw.

The two rows of fencing on the left are going to be sugar snap peas this year, and the row to the right will eventually be green peppers. Further to the right will be various herbs.

The grassy area in the foreground was originally going have a canopy over it, with potted herbs, so I'd have some shade to work under. We have the canopy (actually 2), but it seems everytime we are ready to put it out, the wind picks up, and I can see us having to constantly take it down and put it up.

The eventual idea now is to make a wood pergola, and possibly a pea gravel floor. To prepare for that, this summer we'll lay down thick layers of newspaper, thoroughly wet them down, then lay wooden pallets on top. Some gaps between the pallet boards will be filled in with top soil, and then, probably in early May, gourd seeds will be planted. I love the smell of gourd leaves (like baking bread), plus their roots will help breakdown the grass, and the gourds themselves will sit on top of the pallets and stay dry and clean. After the growing season, we'll pull up the pallets, and the ground will be grass-free and ready for pea gravel, and hopefully our wallets will be ready to add the pergola.

This is a grassy patch from last year that was prepared for planting with a trailer-load of horse manure, and leaves. Today it was planted with garlic bulbs.

Before we quit today, with aching backs and faint sunburn, we also:

Planted four buckets of forsythia starts to form a live hedge (that hopefully will break the sight lines of our barking schnauzers)

Planted one bucket of rose campion up under the locust tree, as an addition to the flowerbed of purple irises.

Spread fertilizer, lime and manure on three beds that needed it.

Planted a 12x12 ft raised bed of potatoes. This bed has been lasagna gardened for years, with the latest layer being straw. All my daughter did was cut seed potatoes in half (makng sure each half has at least one eye), randomly sprinkled them on top of the straw, and then added a layer of mulch. No digging. We all hate digging here. It's probably genetic.

The middle of the potato bed has a circular wire bin, about 4 feet tall, that serves as a compost bin.

I just keep adding organic material to it: grass clippings, leaves, kitchen waste (except meat or dairy), coffee grounds, sawdust, non-diseased plants, anything organic. It decomposes, and feeds the entire bed. Last year, I planted cukes on the outside of it and tomatoes all around it. No need to fertilize this bed at all - the compost bin does it all (and no need to move the bin contents or turn it).

There's plenty more to do, but we got at least 80% of today's list done.

This week's weather is calling for lots of rain, and at least three nights of freezing weather, so all the additives and planting we did today will take nicely.

After the last freeze is over, we can start on ponds, rain barrels, gearing up tomato seedlings, and deciding whether or not to plant sweet corn this year.

Meanwhile I'm making more lists.

Blueberries, and the Spring Project

We had a relatively warm day today so I picked up some blueberries at Lowe's to replace the ones that died last year. Turned out only two had died, so now I'm up three new plants.

Last year was the beginning of the Big Blueberry Project. Blueberries went to $7.99 a pint locally, and I decided I'd grow my own. They're easy to grow - all they need is 6 hours of sun a day, acidic soil, and a LOT of water. I had the sun, I added pine needles to the mulch, and that meant all I had left to figure out was the water.

Of course last year was the second year of drought conditions in our county, so having blueberries meant designing a water collection system. I installed the first rain barrels late last spring, then a couple more, then it became an obsession, eventually leading to a system of nine barrels.

In a 15-minute, light summer shower, those nine barrels will collect almost 500 gallons of water.

Yep.

500 gallons.

Turns out that was enough for one small garden up by the house, plus the big fountains, and the hollyhock beds along the side of Chewy's yard.



Then came the blueberries. By the end of summer, the blueberries really needed more water than I could collect. The more water they get, the more blueberries I get.

Of course, the plants that were producing the most berries were the older plants (the three-year-olds), but more importantly those plants were at the top of the slope, while the two plants that had died were were at the bottom of the patch.

So this spring's project is an expanded rain barrel system. We are going mega-collecting.

The idea is to dig out a small pond in a dirt pile at the top of the yard slope, filling it with water plants to naturally filter the water. The rain barrels will continue to fill, and empty into the pond. The lower side of the pond will be connected to an underground pipe that connects with an underground drip water hose that runs up and down the rows of blueberries.

It's about a 30 degree slope from the pond site down to the blueberries. If the gravity-feed works sufficiently, we'll expand the drip hosing to the rest of the garden. Currently, there is underground soaker hose for the rest of the garden beds, but they're connected to the town water system. Considering we spent 3 weeks last summer on water rationing, plus the cost of the water, it would be great if we could collect enough water for the whole garden.

In light of needing either a pond form, a pond liner, or a really big piece of heavy-duty plastic, while I was at Lowe's today, getting blueberries, I found the the last pond form left from last year, for 60% off, so made the decision to go that route.

Now we'll start digging out the pond, as soon as there's another relatively warm day. Updates to follow.