It is hard to believe I am already at update number 5 on our little Mystery Squash. This growing season is flying by! Things have really heated up over here and we are right in the middle of a heat wave. I have spent yesterday and today getting the garden ready and making sure everything had a nice long drink of water. Some containers I even moved to shadier locations seeing that our deck can get very hot when temperatures rise.
The Mystery Squash has finally decided to bloomed since my last update. It is still surrounded by borage and I even pulled some up the other day to give it a bit more room.
The flower pictured above is a male flower but look what is getting ready to bloom here soon:
Maybe it is just me, but that looks awfully like a little teeny tiny baby pumpkin! Could it be that I was right all along and the Mystery Squash is a pumpkin? Time will tell I suppose. One thing is for sure- this unexpected garden guest is covered in flower buds right now. I might just hand pollinate the above female flower once it opens just to ensure we get to see what will develop.
I hope this update finds everyone’s gardens doing great. Now I am going to sit down and beat the heat with a nice tall glass of iced herbal tea!
In my last post on Friday I wrote about my family’s little trip to a U-pick strawberry farm. I mentioned I was going to be busy making lots of jam with the amount of berries we ended up coming home with. I had originally wanted to post these pictures over the weekend but time got away from me so here they are today instead. Better late than never!
We had so many berries and they were so ripe and ready to eat. The only down side to them being so late in the season was the fact that they were rather small. I did not feel like freezing such tiny berries so I ended up making preserves on top of strawberry jam. I have never made strawberry preserves before- just jam. The preserves did not set up as nicely as the jam since the recipe did not call for pectin to be added. The preserves consisted of three simple ingredients: strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice.
We ended up having our homemade pancakes the next morning for breakfast instead of for dinner that Friday night as I was too tired from putting up all those strawberries! We used the preserves on the pancakes which were so good seeing that the preserves did not jell up as much as the jam. Plus I like the large chunks of berries the preserves have.
I am bracing myself for the next few months as I have a lot of preserving and canning planned. I am making it my goal to can as much fresh produce as possible to have for the rainy and cold winter months (that seem to last forever here in Oregon!). The blackberries are just a few weeks away from being ready and the first few crops of cherries are starting to roll in. Also by mid-July there will be the blueberries and I know a great farm for those. At the same time the blueberries are ready, the lavender farms are having their festivals. Then come August I will try canning tomatoes from the garden for the first time ever (we usually gobble them up before they get a chance to see a single canning jar!). On top of the tomatoes there will be the U-pick peaches that we plan on devouring. September will bring pears galore from the Fruit Loop. Not long after that the apples will be ready for more U-pick family fun which will find me making applesauce, pies, and apple butter. Oh, and let’s not forget that all the herbs I grow still need to be gathered and dried. This is of course on top of keeping the garden healthy and happy! This time of year can bring a frenzy of activity when it comes to harvesting and preserving summer’s bounty but I would not have it any other way!
I have been taking an interest in drying food for preservation as well and might give that a try this year. How about you? Are you planning on preserving some of your harvest this year and, if so, how?
I took my kids today on a spur of the moment trip out to the Hood River Valley area for some last of the season strawberry picking. Unfortunately, I have no pictures to share of the farm we ended up at. It was too hard to take pictures while making sure a 2 ½ year old did not eat the whole strawberry field! The strawberries were still very plentiful despite being so late into the season. The owners of the farm told us the berries were too small for the fruit stand and were more than happy to let us pick till our heart’s content. My boys managed to pick close to 4 pounds each! Needless to say this evening you will find me in my kitchen busily making up jars upon jars of strawberry jam. We decided we should have pancakes for dinner just so we can have some homemade jam on them.
On our way back home I pulled off the road for a minute or two to stop at a panoramic spot so I could at least steal a photo (or two) for today’s Skywatch Friday. The sky was a little bit hazy but Mt. Hood still looked absolutely beautiful.
I could have stood and stared at the valley beneath us for hours but our strawberries were awaiting us in the car so I snapped this photo below and then got back out on the road towards home.
Now I must get going on that jam making and preserve some of today’s sweetness.
Be sure to visit other great blogs taking part in today’s Skywatch Friday! There is always some gorgeous photos to be found there.
