Yummy!

Wow - peas already. I've harvested berries and a few peppers (started way early in house). The heat this week will move things along now.

Sandy

I would love to get peppers in June! I am curious of the date you started them? I assume you had them under lights for a while until you could have them outside? Are they now planted out in your veggie garden or in containers? I always get early blossoms on my baby plants but I pick them off so that the plants focus on growth. I occasionally get a little chili pepper or jalapeno when I miss a bloom. Other than that, I do not get June peppers.

I have been trying for several years to get June tomatoes (using Mother Nature rather than artificial light). Once again I have a bunch of tomatoes on my container Red Robins, and on a few of the main crop plants, but I do not think any will be ripe until July. I am starting to wonder if day length has something to do with the ripening process.

My strawberry crop fizzled this year - everyone around me including a nearby U-Pick place had a failed strawberry season as well. It was a bummer but I accept that not everything works every year. Alpine strawberries have been doing wonderfully, so at least I have been getting them.

I harvested North Star tree cherries this morning. I will also be picking more peas and red and black raspberries. I have to harvest every two or three days until they are finished producing or the peas get hard and the berries get overripe and attract bugs, which infest and damage the berry crop from then on (I have found that harvesting in a timely fashion is the easiest chemical-free bug control method by far).

Also on the agenda is harvesting the Pink Champagne and Red Lake currants. Currants are a one time deal - berries ripen at one time and the entire bush can be harvested. It takes me two hours to pick one bush clean. I have five bushes left to pick: 1 Pink Champagne, 1 Blanca White, 3 Red Lakes. Tedious work, but the berries are well worth it. A decent but average crop this year.

I have also been harvesting parsley and cilantro. Been freezing the cilantro in ice and drying the parsley. At this point I have several gallon bags full of cilantro ice cubes and I have two pint jars full of dried parsley flakes. Probably do not need to dry much more, but I give away jars of it as gifts so I guess I better dry another batch or two.

I got rained out so I came inside to check the radar, and decided to write this note. The rain has stopped so it is back outside for me. Mosquitoes and biting flies have been a nuisance but have not been nearly as bad as I expected them to be at this point in our season. Ah, but the season is young...

Take care.

Looks delicious! We just picked the first couple of pea pods today, but they really need a couple more days to be fully ready! And Gary brought in a big bowl of strawberries from our tiny patch (a couple of quarts). Other berries will be a bit yet, around here. Usually 2nd - 3rd week in July for raspberries, thimbleberries, and blackberries.