Mulberries for days

 

We have been busy 32 oz of berries picked every day for a week now we have 8 16 oz jars of jelly 32 oz of dried berries and some fruit roll-ups we are making more in the morning. Our berry trees are going crazy this year. 

Mantis Hatchlings

 After 6 very long weeks, our Carolina Mantis cases have hatched. We tried these this year as a natural bug killer they eat all the harmful bugs that go after my garden year after year. It was a little long for the girls as every day for the last 3 weeks I have gotten have those things hatched yet. 

Today was the day we came downstairs for breakfast and I saw hundreds of them covering the top of the hatching box. We let them out and the girls carried them to different parts of the garden. I think we might do a different bug every year for our land. Now that our bug hatcher is free this afternoon we will go looking for Monarch again !!! We hatched one last year and it was a great learning tool.

Clover Jelly

 Eating the bloom jelly is the way we make it through till the berries are ready it is so easy even the girls have gotten it down  

2 cups flower petals 
2 to 3 cups water 
2 cups sugar 
2 tbs lemon juice 
2 tbs pectin 

make the tea brew for 45 mins ( flower and water ) clear the flowers , mix in the rest let cook for 10 mins water bath jar them for 10 mins take them out, and let them zing for 24 hours

this only makes 1 to use, 1 to share, 1 to store in our jelly making we could up the water content and sugar to make bigger batches but this works for us ( this one little E added 3 cups water) 

Can Not wait the berries are coming

 It is almost berry picking season while looking at our flowers to pick and make our jelly with I always check our berries and they are almost ready to start picking I can not wait for our summer picking to start this year. We have worked hard for our food forest and looking into what to help make it thrive.

Mulberry trees, we have 12 or so mature trees we pick from to make our jam with I also freeze these and put them in bread and muffins because they are tart .

These guys are gooseberry they turn a dark purple and almost taste like grapes, We love them in Jam and mixed in with apples. We have cultivated 3 big groves of these and are working on higher yields of these by giving them more sun and area to grow. This bush is in the chicken yard cause the ladies love them too.

More and more mulberry this one is in the creek and better for short pickers

These are the patches we are really working on this year we have 4 big groves of raspberries we are working on this year so we get more then we did last year and watching close so we pick for a longer season.

Spring Garden Update

 We Have Sprouts

It finally got to spring in Zone 5 ... and we have started to sprout some of our very large gardens and are so excited. Weeding and planting have taken up a lot of our May.

This patch is our bush-type plants, peppers/eggplant, sprouts, and bush beans the one above it is bushy things like cauliflower and broccoli  In front of it you can see a bit of our multi tomatoes 

Soon we will add the climbing stuff to this bed it's our climbers , beans, and cucumbers 

Tea Garden, strawberry bed, and tomatoes 

Close up of the tea garden it is going so well.

Trashcan potatoes are filling to the top in no time .....

Honeysuckle Syrup

 Yes, we really use all this syrup

Today we noticed the honey suckle bushes in full bloom so it is time to store a bit more of spring .. yes we use all this stuff we have already gone through 3 of my jelly and 1 of my syrups in the weeks since making it.

Collected and cleaned 

Smell so amazing 

Boil 1 cup of flowers to 1 cup water ... when the water changes color strain our the flowers 

 add one cup of sugar and simmer on low till the spoon comes out and the drips are slow 

I always can small when doing spring jelly 1 to store, 1 to use and 1 to share.

I can in a water bath for my syrups and it works well to water bath just put in boiling water for 15 mins and then let cool on the counter when you hear the pop you are sealed up and can store for up to 6 months in the fridge and a year in the root cellar.

 We have been watching closely all of the wonderful landscape edibles we have. The girls say this one tastes like the bees honey combs.

Poor Mans Honey and Violet simple syrup

 This week has been a fast week of getting things harvested and canned with the spring flowers. A big part of this is setting the flowers in hot water for 24 hours ... I have to put them on the windows because the tiny hands can not keep from touching them 

We made Poor mans honey which is 
2 cups dandelion tops ( the sunbursts ) with no greens we clip them off 
1 cup water   let steep for 24 hours in the end remove the flours and move to a saucepan then add 2 tablespoons lemon juice 4 cups sugar

if you want at this point add 2 tables spoons of pectin to make jelly boil it for 15 mins and then into jars it goes,

       

The violet syrup is similar it is 
1 cup violets no green 
1 cup water 
2 cups sugar

add 2 tables spoons of lemon juice to give it a light purple color or caster sugar to turn it blue. Boil for 15 mins then jar.