![\"\"](\"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jul28-fullmoon.jpg\" "\\"jul28-fullmoon\\"")
<\/a>Clear skies at this time of year usually means hot weather, and so it was. Today the temperatures are way down and it's just delightful.<\/p><\/div>\n
We’ve been spending a lot of time playing with the garden, harvesting things and preserving what we don’t want to eat fresh.\u00a0 Especially berries.\u00a0 Lots of berries have gone into jam this last week, and even a pie.<\/p>\n
<\/a>There were enough pie cherries on the tree to make a jam, when combined with the morning strawberry and red currant harvest.<\/p><\/div>\n
Next year we will most likely have enough pie cherries to make a cherry pie.\u00a0 In the picture below I picked raspberries and pie cherries and made a pie; the combination was actually pretty good.<\/p>\n
<\/a>First much anticipated harvest of gooseberries. 9 cups went into jam.<\/p><\/div>\n
We also harvested the rest of the peas and those were blanched and frozen for next winter.\u00a0 And we picked the first two garden salsa peppers.\u00a0 They were a little milder than I thought they’d be, but good regardless.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The Napa cabbage grew properly this time around, and was really good in stir fry. I still have a lot of this left to be cooked.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/a>The second picking of gooseberries yielded 12 cups which went into jam as well.<\/p><\/div>\n
And I picked the chocolate mint for herb teas.\u00a0 It is drying in a paper bag in the pantry; walking into the pantry you get hit with the smell of mint.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Another much anticipate first harvest of black raspberries. We mixed them together with red raspberries when we were picking them.<\/p><\/div>\n
This morning I separated them into their respective varieties, and made three small jars each of black raspberry and red raspberry jams.\u00a0 There are enough black raspberries on the vines to make another three jars of jam.\u00a0 We’ll be picking red raspberries until it freezes.<\/p>\n
<\/a>We picked one head of salad from the row of mixed salad greens we planted, and our first slicing cucumber.<\/p><\/div>\n
There is another slicing cucumber almost this same size still on the vine, and more are setting.\u00a0 The pickling cucumbers are also setting, and we’ll be able to start making pickles in mid to late August.\u00a0 Not sure the dill will be big enough in time, but oh well.\u00a0 Something about where we planted the dill seeds doesn’t meet with their approval.\u00a0 We’ll try to figure out why for next year.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The clematis is almost at the top of the lattice, and covered with large purple flowers on both sides of the arbor.<\/p><\/div>\n
The grape plants aren’t doing well here; either the soil doesn’t meet their approval or something.\u00a0 But we’ve given them enough time to get established, and bought plants twice.\u00a0 Next year we’ll yank all the grape plants out and replace them with clematis, which will cover the arbor with flowers.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Right after I took this picture a hummingbird flew over and took a drink, and then flew off towards the bushes.<\/p><\/div>\n