Sweet Good Bye.....Happy Hello.

Last year, I planted a thornless boysenberry in my back yard. My past attempts at any kind of berry failed, either they died of water deprivation, or because our soil is just to clay heavy. This little boysenberry that could actually almost got axed, as the thornless branches had thorns :(. I decided to let it live, and am I happy I did!

This little bush has given us bowls and bowls of succulent berries! Not to mention the pleasure of picking berries and popping them in our mouth while we worked outside. This bush has graced us without the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and honestly, not alot of water that was not supplied by rain fall. Yes, we had to blow off a spider web or two....

Last night I picked what looked like the last batch of berries, saying "goodbye" to this wonderful gift. This morning, like magic, there were more :). Thankfully, I left the majority of the "shoots" to grow along the fence, next year we will be swimming in delicious boysenberries!

I love the satisfaction of growing my food, especially since I am not a great gardener. My herbs grow wild for me with not much care (but lots of love) from me, and now I have food growing in the same manner. I love going to the market and being able to pass up the little $7(!!!!) baskets of berries, knowing mine are ready at home (and organic!).

I did not have much luck with tomatoes last year, so we built a "lasagne garden" box for the tomatoes. Look at the before & now pics! If the heat does not get the blooms, we will soon be graced with all kinds of tomatoes and cucs. The first tomatoes are setting, and I can't wait for sun ripened, weirdly shaped, warm, delicious tomatoes! My favorite memory is from Greece, where the kids ran in the garden, fetched me a giant, ugly heirloom tomato and some cucumbers. We sliced them, sprinkled salt, pepper & olive oil, and ate them by the tons. Mmmmmmmm. Coming from Germany (where much of our tomatoes & cucs came from Holland and were uniform), this was a treat I now reintroduce every summer.




Send me your favorite summer tomato & cucumber recipes, as that is what we will be eating most of the summer :). Preserving recipes too :).

Hope you are enjoying the summer.
Much love,
Heike

First (almost) ripe Boysenberry

My son goes outside every day to see what is ripening. He counts the figs. If anything is BARELY ripe, he feels the need to be the first to taste it.



This is our first almost ripe Boysenberry. Now, we only have green ones :). I planted this bush in the fall. It is supposed to be thornless, unfortunately it is developing some nasty big thorns :(. I just wrote the company who grew it a letter today. I was not wanting a rambling, thorny, berry bush in my jungle.

Everything is coming along nicely, as long as these winds don't blow it all to Kansas....


Head of Ranch Security. Watching the veggies grow, and waiting for voles who have not met him yet....