Our berry harvest for this year is basically complete, such as it was. The strawberries will have another batch of flowers later, and the raspberries should give us a fall harvest but nothing yet. So these are what I had to play with and I decided to make something with them, rather than just eating the berries, also a good option.
From left to right around the outside of the plate are Strawberries, Gooseberries, Josta Berries, Black Currants, Red Currants, and Black Raspberries are in the middle.
The Josta Berries are a Scandinavian cross between Gooseberries and Black Currants, and you can see that they sort of show their heritage, being in size between the two parent fruits. When you cut them open they kind of look like a Gooseberry inside but have the color more like a Black Currant.
Not a huge harvest by any stretch of imagination but I think it’s enough for two tarts, so that’s my goal for the day.
I cut the Gooseberries and Josta Berries in half so they would release all their flavor readily. Tarts don’t cook all that long and I didn’t want under cooked berries.
Berries with a little sugar and cornstarch for thickening, and a pinch of salt.
Then I made a pie crust dough and created two tart crusts. I blind baked the tart crusts first, then added the mixed berries mixture and put it back in the oven to bake some more. They baked for about 25 minutes.
That left me with some pie crust dough to play with while the tarts were baking. Always a good plan to have extra pie crust dough to play with!!
Cookies to be!
First I roll out the pastry dough, spread soft margarine on top, sprinkled it with white sugar and cinnamon and rolled it up. Then I cut the rolled pie crust dough into roughly one third inch thick slices and baked them for 12 minutes.
They bake at the same temperature as the tarts, which is convenient. And they are done cooking first so of course we had to eat some of them as soon as they cooled enough not to burn.
Finished pinwheel cookies minus some that got eaten.
They are delicate and crisp, so delicious and easy to make.
Baked tarts.
The berry mixture smells so amazing; it will be very interesting to see what this tastes like because it is a total experiment.
Update! I will definitely be doing this fruit combination again next year to make tarts or maybe even a whole pie. It was berry berry good!!!!
Next year we should have lots and lots of berries to play with, mostly it will be destined for jam and jelly. And if this turns out good, some tarts as well.
I wonder how long it will take our tiny blueberry plants to do something. We need to acidify the soil around them and picked up a mixture to do that today.
Tomorrow we’ll pick all the rest of the peas. I learned something good about those! I added some to a tofu scramble recipe that I make all the time and it turned out to be a really great idea. I’ll do that again, most definitely.
We had our first non-strawberries harvest today. Three things. Peas, pie cherries, and red currants.
Peas in pods and red currants.
Yes, I put the red currants into a tiny bowl so it looks like a bigger harvest. There really aren’t enough of these berries to do anything with, so I’ll have to come up with something creative.
The peas are in their pods and this is just a tiny fraction of the peas that weren’t ready for harvesting.
All removed from their pods, ready for cooking this evening for dinner
We also had three, count ’em, three pie cherries which we promptly ate. Maybe next year we’ll have enough to make a small pie! There are a few red raspberries, a few black currants, a few Gooseberries and a few Josta Berries which are close to being ripe. There are quite a few black raspberries and I’ll be able to make something with them whenever they are ripe, another couple of weeks probably.
The tomato plants have set three tomatoes so far which are about marble size, one on one plant and two on another. There are a couple of peppers which have set as well. And the zucchini plant is making a zucchini. It will get carried away with itself soon. Lettuce is growing and so is the Swiss Chard. Potatoes are growing really tall, so the past couple of days we’ve added dirt around the plants to encourage more potatoes to grow. And the onions look great. Corn plants are getting tall but no sign of flowers yet. And there are two baby cucumbers.
We’ve been eating strawberries every couple of days since they first got ripe. Strawberry heaven! Next year will be much better harvest for the strawberry plants.
In the meantime mainly what we’re doing is pulling weeds out of the bark mulch surrounding the fruit plants and raised beds, plus taking them out of the raised beds. Many many wheelbarrows of weeds have gone out recently. It’s starting to look very tidy if we don’t look too closely.
So… yay! Gardening is such fun. Especially the eating part.
Yesterday a doe showed up with her day old fawn. She parked him in wildflowers next to the garden and wandered off to do some serious munching. We didn’t see her go back to pick him up but apparently she did because she was back today, baby in toe.
So tiny! Smaller than Mishkin. He’s walking a bit better today, not quite so wobbly on his tiny little legs.
The pair was outside the window that Mish uses for keeping an eye out on the world, watching for interlopers which he always hopes never to see. So we told him there were deer to watch.
Speaking of babies….
“But mom, those things eat cats!! I don’t want to look. It’s scary!!”
Yesterday we also had a batch of Red Crossbill babies in the bird bath, splish splashing around and having a very good time.
And no post is complete without strawberries. Dan picked some yesterday and I froze part of them, and made these with the rest.
Chocolate covered strawberries are highly addictive.
The only thing ripe, so far, is strawberries. Today Dan picked a large batch of them.
All are just perfectly ripe, so need to do something with them today.Cleaned them and removed the stems.Admired some before cleaning them off.
Then once they were all cleaned off, I divided them into small batches in a quart measuring cup, added a quarter cup of sugar and mashed them up with a potato masher. Then I put the mixture into a plastic sandwich bag, removed the extra air, and put the sandwich bags into a gallon freezer bag.
Later today I’ll make some individual shortcakes or vanilla cupcakes. I haven’t decided which to make yet. 🙂 I’ll freeze those as well. So whenever we want some strawberries shortcake for dessert it will be so easy to accomplish. All winter long!
I’ll just do this all summer as things become ripe.
Yesterday was rainy with thunderstorms forecast. We got the rain, lots and lots of it. Our garden was so happy!
Male Rufous hummingbird guarding the feeder.
Our little friend was enjoying being out of the downpour and keeping everybody else away from his “flower” under the eaves. It was raining very hard when I took this picture from inside the house through the front door window. I didn’t want to scare him into the rain.
Once the rain stopped we picked strawberries and did a bit of weeding.
Six cups of strawberries for our second harvest.
We’re only picking the ones that are totally ripe and the flavor is just amazing! So that was most of our dinner.
And for dessert I made some chocolate covered strawberries.
This is really the first good picking, and it’s all thanks to floating row covers! The Robins are bummed but really they can find all sorts of other things to eat besides our strawberries!
We should be able to harvest a little bowl full of these beauties every couple of days for a while. Next year will be better.
Yesterday we took a drive down the San Poil River to look for birds, in particular Yellow-breasted Chat, White-headed Woodpecker, Common Loon, Bullock’s Orioles, Canyon Wren and Rock Wren, as well as anybody else that might make an appearance. Basically we went from the very top of Ferry County in the north to the very bottom in the south a distance of about 75 miles by road. We added a bit with some side trips. There are so many climatic zones in this county and some of the scenery is just gorgeous. It’s a hidden gem for the east side of the Cascades. Shhhhhh. Don’t tell anybody!
First stop was Swan Lake.
Swan Lake has a pair of Common Loons, plus it’s just a really pretty campground. The far side of the lake experienced a forest fire a few years ago, like so much of the San Poil River drainage. No loons were visible and they weren’t calling either, so we moved on.
Next stop Long Lake.
This lake is a few miles from Swan Lake and the mountains come right down to the edge of the water on both sides of the lake. It’s just gorgeous!
Looking the other direction, where the lake bends around the hillside.
There are no motors allowed on the lake due to the presence of nesting loons and other waterfowl. This lake has a lot of fish in it and they are always jumping and chasing bugs flying above the water.
Success! A Common Loon.
We just saw the one bird, and figure this is the male and his mate was sitting on her nest in the cattail marshes at the end of the lake. While we were watching him a fish jumped behind him and he swapped directions so fast, put his head down flat towards the water, opened his beak and raised his wings up a bit towards his head in a very aggressive crooked manner and he glared towards the offending trout.
We also saw a pair of Scaup and a pair of Ring-billed ducks on a smaller lake heading into Long Lake, and warblers in the brush near the side of Long Lake, but nothing else particularly special. No Swainson’s Thrush and they are usually pretty thick around the lake.
So we continued onward down the San Poil River.
Along the San Poil River where we like to stop and listen for Canyon Wrens.
It is always hit or miss for Canyon Wrens but this is one of the best places to find them in the rock slides along this particular stretch of water. This was a miss day.
The rock slides are impressive!
Some of these rocks are as big as a large car!It’s just a really pretty place to stop.
If I ever want rocks for the garden, I know where to find them. I’ve always wanted to build my own little Stonehenge in the backyard.
There are lots of Cliff Swallows nesting under the bridge which crosses the river at this location, and usually we hear Spotted Sandpipers.
Next stop is a really pretty woods which formerly has given us White-headed Woodpeckers.
We were a bit early for the Lupines. This Ponderosa Pine woodland gets carpeted with their beautiful purple/blue flowers when you visit at the right time, probably two weeks from now.
The woods is next to the river, and another neat thing we used to see here is a Bald Eagle nest. Unfortunately about five years ago there was a big wind storm which knocked the large tree over, and destroyed the nest and the babies. It was a tragedy.
No woodpeckers this day and we need to check out some other places on our next trip down the river.
So we continued south to the Swahila Basin which is ends at Lake Roosevelt, a large reservoir created by the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River.
Tons of rose plants, tall grass and shrubs, as well as a spring feeding into a trough used by cattle create a perfect spot for Bullock’s Orioles.
We were not disappointed. There were at least a few pairs of Orioles in the brush, talking about the state of the world. This is a very bird filled spot on the otherwise dry hillsides, plus is smells wonderful with the blooming wild roses.
One of the little beauties.Looking back down the hill and across to the east you can see how dry and sparse the vegetation is on the hillsides near where the Orioles hang out.
We continued on our path stopping at another location where Chats hang out.
We were rewarded at the next brushy spot on our drive with a Yellow-breasted Chat!
I had to wonder how many ticks you would be covered in if you ventured into the heavily vegetated area. There are so many warblers and other birds in this little draw.
We didn’t stop at another place where the rocks split and form a deep small canyon next to the road, which is a reliable place for Canyon Wrens. We were hungry and wanting our lunch.
Next stop is along the side of Lake Roosevelt.
Panoramic view of the lake where we always go for a picnic lunch. It’s a favorite fishing spot as you can get down to the side of the water without having to use climbing ropes.Turned around from the water this is the hillside which always has interesting things to look at.
There’s always a Rock Wren along the rocks and we were not disappointed!
He was there and singing. Cute little guy! Too tiny to show in this picture.Also on the hillside was a roaming gang of Nubian Goats.
They were nibbling their way along the rocks. Circling them and playing all along the hillside were several Turkey Vultures. The goats should be worried.
This whole area is part of a big ranch which has a variety of interesting cattle, including some Long-Horns. Sometimes we drive further to see what else they have but today we did not go further along the road.
We also saw a Long-billed Curlew flying up-river. That was cool!
Driving back out and heading north, a view of the lake looking north, from up on the hillside.And looking the other direction from the same location.
It’s all so green!!! In a matter of a couple of weeks at most, all the grass will turn brown and it becomes somewhat drab. But it smells good with all the sage brush.
Yesterday evenings storm clouds that got all ruffled came over the mountains to the west.
They look like they mean business.I figured rock and roll was in our immediate future.But all we got was a little rain.
Whew. Mish was tired of having to cower under the covers of our bed. He’s spent hours hiding in there, lately. He’s a fair weather kitty with no appreciation for the beauty of cloud formations.
