Pink Pearl Apple Blossoms

Our pink pearl apple tree has been abundantly full of blossoms this year...more than in previous years, it seems.  I think that the apple tree has been enjoying our very wet spring.

Artichoke, Plum, Peach

The photo above shows part of our artichoke plant, young peach tree, crabapple, and in the background the blooing French prune plum trees.

Chickens on the Deck

Our Australorp and two White Orpingtons on the Deck, enjoying the spring weather...

Artichokes soon...

This artichoke plant looks very healthy. I keep peeking down the center, but I don't see a baby artichoke yet.  Maybe with the sunny weather next week they will start to show themselves...

Time to make a Rhubarb Pie!

It is time to get out the recipe book and make a rhubarb pie!  This plant is doing very well, and the other two that I grew from seed are also starting to send out some stalks and leaves. Yum!

Calamondin

 

A close up of some ripe calamondin--a fruit popular in the Philippines.

Not too much longer...almost Spring!

Here it is, last week in February.  We've had a dry week, but now the rains are starting up again.  Our apricot tree is starting to bloom, as is the peach tree.  The plum trees look about to burst into bloom and I hope that that happens during a dry spell so the blooms can be pollinated and we can have a large harvest like most years.

The fava bean plants look so happy in the winter garden.  The ones I planted earlier are tall and blooming. The shorter ones seem to have growth spurts every few days. The garlic, too, looks happy. We are eating salads out of our garden every several days. The broccoli plants are also producing. The avocado tree (Bacon) was very prolific this year, and the meyer lemons look ready to pick for meyer lemon sorbet and marmalade. I've still been making blood orange marmalade in small batches, and we are juicing our oranges every several days, and giving away oranges and avocados.

I've been checking for asparagus shoots. They should be coming up soon.  We have lots of rhubarb, and the plants that I grew from seed are now sending our leaves as well.  Just planted a redder rhubarb too, so now we have four rhubarb plants--should be enough! 

The Very Last of the Hachiya Persimmons

For this year, these are the last of the Hachiya persimmons on our tree.  I really like the look of the persimmons after all of the leaves have fallen off the tree. The birds enjoy the fruits, but there are some of our neighbors who feel all fruit growers should harvest the fruit all at once.  I bumped into the neighbor who volunteered to come over and take down the remaining persimmons.  I offered to pick them myself and brought them another bag full...but I left a few still on the tree for the birds. The following day six crows tried to eat the remaining fruits and I feared for my tree branches, so I harvested the rest of the fruits to make into persimmon bars and cookies.

Busy with Christmas and planting Garlic

Between the rainstorms, I have been trying to get my garlic crop in for the winter. I noticed that the garlic cloves I planted two weeks ago have now sprouted well. I also am trying to get my fava beans in. Some of the favas have germinated on their own: fava beans that had fallen last spring and not been picked up have now grown to be about a foot tall. Most of the fava beans were harvested last year, however, so I need to also get those into the ground so we can have another good crop next spring.

I'm still harvesting my Hachiya persimmons. The tree was overloaded with them. We leave some of them on the tree for the birds, but use the rest (or give them away). I've been slicing the hard persimmons, which are too astringent to eat that way, and drying them in my dehydrator. They sweeten up as they dry and make a great dried fruit snack. I also have been making pan after pan of persimmon bars, frosted with a lemon glaze. Yum.

Wisteria Pods are Bursting!

This Sunday was a gorgeous day in northern California.  I worked outside in the garden for a bit.  We have a lovely wisteria that has grown up into a privet tree.  I kept hearing a cracking sound coming from the wisteria and I thought that a squirrel was cracking something up there, perhaps branches or nuts.

Later on, I watched the wisteria from our deck. At the same instance when the cracking sound happened I saw a wisteria pod falling through the air and to the ground. I realized that the temperature outside and condition of the pod had made it the perfect time for the pods to burst and send seeds flying--the hopes for more wisteria in the future.

Chicken in Napa

Chickensinthegarden blogger Kris went to Napa for her birthday yesterday and found a giant chicken. This photo was snapped outside Wilson's Feed & Supply in Napa.  We celebrated by buying some laying feed and cracked corn and then onto a lovely lunch at Ubuntu, the fine vegetarian restaurant in downtown Napa.

Persimmons, Again!

A tray full of Hachiya persimmons...

Our tree is bountiful again this year. I picked these persimmons a bit early. They will get a richer color orange and then soft ("like a water balloon") so that I can use them to make cookies and persimmon bread. I also have been slicing them while they are still hard and drying them in my dehydrator. They make wonderful dried fruit.

I wish I had planted a Fuyu because I like to use those persimmons in fresh salads (you can eat Fuyus while they are still hard but Hachiyas are far too stringent to eat when hard).  But there is room in our yard for an additional fruit tree, isn't there?

Fall

Insalata Caprese

Heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella, and fresh basil from the garden.  Salad in the style of Capri "Insalata Caprese."  Yum.

Some of Our Harvest This Year

My husband took a wonderful photo of some of this year's harvest.  We had three Cinderella pumpkins (before the gophers got them).  We covered the pumpkin stems with a bit of wax to keep them from rotting. Pictured above are some persimmons, calamondin, beans, tomatoes, honey, dried tomatoes, canned tomatoes, dried zucchini, and some preserved limes.  We had much more than this from the summer garden, but this makes a great display.  Some of our neighbors seem to really enjoy the honeycomb in the honey, and some wonder why we added it to the container.

Rose Hips

We have one Rosa rugosa rose bush that produces some lovely rose hips each year. Last year I made a Rose Hip Syrup, for pancakes or ice cream, and it was delicate and quite nice. This year I decided to dry the rose hips in our dehydrator for tea. I could also remove all the seeds once the hips are dry and grind up the dried rose hip for use in smoothies or other sorts of concoctions. Rose hips are very high in Vitamin C. 

I went out into the garden and picked a harvest basket full of rose hips. I rinsed them off, removed the bud or flower end, and placed them in my dehydrator at 115 degrees. 

First Rain

Our first heavy rain of the season started today in northern California.  Everything is battened down outside, for the most part. We are trying out one of our new Smith and Hawken rain chains.  Not sure if it will be something we keep on the front downspout, for that one gets lots of water and the pretty copper cups are busily overfilling and splashing onto the front porch.  Our leak in the roof onto the porch seems worse this rain; we should have attended to that before now.

This is quite a heavy rain. Our street is quite covered with water. The winds have started to pick up a bit too. Hope we don't lose any of our trees, but I don't think it will be that damaging a storm. We shall see.

Last Look at the Summer Garden

Here's a last look at the summer garden. This photo was taken at the end of August, but between then and now the only changes have been that the tomatoes kept on producing like crazy and the sunflowers grew quite tall and bloomed well.

They Just Keep Coming!

This has been THE year for tomatoes. I didn't even have that many plants, but the plants I had were so productive. The deep watering from the new drip system is probably the reason. I've been drying, canning, and freezing the extras, as well as giving them away to those in need of some. They have been tasty. The plants are finally slowing down, but the weather here in northern California is still warm during the day (it has been in the 70s), and not too cold at night yet. I pulled out a few tomato plants this weekend so I could get more winter vegetable seeds planted ('tis a bit late for that).

Late Summer Harvest

So many tomatoes this year! I have been giving them away to friends and freezing them, and now I have started dehydrating them. We have Early Girls, Carmellos, Black Prince, Thai Pink, Health Kick, Pruden's Purple, and Currant this year. We also are harvesting banana peppers, many zucchinis, cucumbers, and three kinds of pole beans. The new drip system seems to have helped quite a bit, as hand watering would get pretty tiring by this time of the year.

I am planning to start planting the fall/winter garden soon, and at least plant some lettuce, kale, more arugula, and perhaps broccoli.