Respect your Elders

There is one blueberry bush in our yard (of about 10) that has berries on it. I suspect that's because it's tucked beside an elderberry and the birds have been so distracted with the elderberry they haven't noticed the blueberry. Whatever the reason, it will have a nice-sized harvest when/if they ever ripen.

Yesterday I went to check on it and saw the elderberries are ripe! I'd had it in my mind that they'd be ready sometime in August. I guess that needs a mental correction? Anyway, it seems early to me. I harvested about 3/4 of the clusters from the 2 largest bushes. There were enough clusters that were nearly bare to tell me there have been ripe berries for a few days at least. The remaining unpicked clusters are mostly green and will be harvested in a couple weeks, I suppose.

Earlier in the spring I saved a few flower heads for use as herbal tea. Now I have about 2 cups of fresh berries. I'll probably dry half and syrup (You can verb 'syrup' right? You can verb 'verb' right?) the other half. Elderberries have historically been used for prevention of winter ailments, they're packed with vitamins (A, B, and C) and immune boosting antioxidants.

Later today we're going blackberry picking! Any berries in your neck of the woods? What's lookin' good?

For those interested in growing elderberries, one of my bushes was started from a twig I simply stuck in the ground. I believe it is Black Elderberry (Sambucus nigra). The other is one I purchased from Gardens of the Blue Ridge and is the North American native elderberry, Sambucus canadensis. If you're interested in purchasing one, I can't recommend them highly enough.

Foraging with a Four Year Old: Autmnn-Olive

Yesterday I took M to a woodsy area where I'd seen an autumn-olive heavy with ripe berries. Autumn-olives are an invasive species, each fruit contains a giant seed ready to become a new plant. Taking the berries out of the wild seemed like my environmental duty for the native(-ish) environment. Plus I had fantasies of us picking them by bagful for sweet tart concoctions, like adding them to fruit leather and simple syrup.

A few minutes into our harvest and we were both dripping with sweat. The prospect of free fruit was not entertaining enough for the 4 year old, even though curious song birds were perched overhead and within arms reach to see what we were doing. We picked for less than half an hour and got about 1 cup of berries. The autumn olive fruit is mostly seed, so 1 cup wasn't going to get very far with homemade fruit roll ups.

I went straight for the simple syrup as a way to familiarize our family to something new. The fruit has a straightforward berry flavor with a bit of tang and a dry finish. That may sound a little too fancy schmancy, but if you try one, you'll understand.

Here's what I did:

Boil berries in 1 cup of water for 10 minutes, bruising them/smooshing them with the back of a spoon as they boil. After 10 minutes, add 1/2 cup more water and 1 cup sugar (adjust sugar to your taste: use 3/4 cup sugar to make the end product more tart, less sweet).
Allow to cool.

After the syrup cooled it was time for a taste test. Since M helped me pick the berries, she enjoyed the first sample: 3 ounces syrup, 4 ounces seltzer water, over ice. Add a splash of lemon juice and you'll have something amazingly tasty and somewhat nutritious despite the sugar. The autumn-olive may have up to 17 times more lycopene than the average ripe tomato! According to the Ann Arbor News, they also contain high levels of vitamins A, C and E, flavonoids and essential fatty acids.

$15 Poster Proofs

I have a small stack of proofs that I'd like to move along to other homes (yours?). They're on glossy paper and high quality, but a little different than the final prints than I sell. There's nothing wrong with them, just not the final! If you're interested in a certain print let me know and I'll let you know if I have it.

The proofs will be $15 (half off!) plus shipping. I'll take some pictures and officially list them tomorrow.

Mulch it good

When I first got into veggie gardening we talked about buying a tiller and working the land that way. Since permie school/hippie camp, I've come to know, love, and totally rely on building mulch beds. Remember how I do it? Start by suppressing grass and weed growth with cardboard.

Pile on layers of mulch in a variety of forms. We have a hill of decaying shredded woody material so I use that, grass clippings, leaves, chicken litter....whatever is free and handy.

Water well, add soil/finished compost in pockets throughout the deep mulch and plant directly into the soil.The next season that whole mound you made will be beautiful, dark, rich compost, full of worms and ready for growing.

Pickin' up the paw paws

I don't remember how many years ago I bought this paw paw tree, but I think maybe 5? Every year it drops its leaves and comes back, shooting up a foot or 2 taller, sometimes sending up a new shoot a few feet away. It's now about 8' tall, and I'm watching and waiting, wondering when it will produce a paw paw for us to enjoy.