I don’t drink vodka 
but i have had elderflower lemonade that was to die for! Planning to try my own elderflower simple syrup for soda and lemonades.
2 Likes
Strawberries are starting to come on strong and the honeyberries from one Cinderella bush were staying to fall off. Picking all the honeyberries was tedious so I tried the shake and catch method to harvest the honeyberries. I put trays under the bush and shook it to harvest the berries. It worked ok, but there was a lot of leaves and things to wash out.
11 Likes
I dried some strawberries, had so many!
Pineberries and Musk have red seeds
Some reds have a lighter interior, others do not.
19 Likes
These dried, slices berries look like works of art, very attractive!
3 Likes
I saw that too. Mother Nature is a master. I once saw a program about patterns in nature. Even DNA is a beautiful spiral. Fractal patterns in nature, all the material world has them throughout. From sea shells to galaxies. We live in a very beautiful place.
6 Likes
I have a problem with some bugs eating my strawberries planted on a raised bed. May be someone can help me identify the bug and how to control them
Here is a picture of ripe but half-eaten strawberry
Raised bed - I think the bugs came from the pine mulch I spread around the plants. When I lift the mulch I see a lot of them crawling around.
I tried to get a good pic of the bug but this is what I could manage
I tried spraying a solution of Neem oil + water but no success. Would spinosad work? Appreciate any help!
2 Likes
Ate some boysenberries last night and a few tayberries. Love the flavor definitely missed them. Not much difference between them I know there a cross of a blackberry and a raspberry. I will keep the tayberries another year but thinking of pulling tayberries and making room for more newberries we’ll see. Might be to early to tell yet.
2 Likes
This is the second and third years for my black raspberry area and the flower set this year has me very hopeful. The haul last year was decent but there are easy 4x the flowers set. It’s been a slow and cool start to the season and things are a couple of weeks at least behind but at least pollination is looking good!
Pollination is also looking good on the kiwi. Fruits are tiny, but there!
10 Likes
Looks good. Picked 6 lbs of earliblue and patriot blue berries and 5 lbs of boysenberry. Kotata and Columbia giant and newberry will be in just a few more days to start. Already had a couple of newberry. Need to expand my 4 plants. Also Columbia star looks like it could be my last to ripen. Columbia star better be real good or that row will be replaced with newberry last couple of years been underwhelming. Might keep four plants. We will see.
2 Likes
The insect you have circled might be a thrip, although I’m not an insect expert. However the damage done to the berry looks like it was caused by slugs.
3 Likes
Do you use a food dehydrator or do you do then in the oven? If a dehydrator, what kind do you use, and would you recommend it? I’ve been wanting to get a nice dehydrator but haven’t pulled the trigger yet.
1 Like
Strawberries are still coming on strong. Gonna have some strawberry salads for lunch.
Also made since honeyberry jam with all the berries I harvested the other day. There wasn’t a lot of information out there on making honeyberry jam so I winged it. Ended up mixing 4lbs of honeyberries and 2lbs sugar. I used an immersion blender to chop the berries up a bit and cooked until it set by the frozen plate test. Tasted good before canning so we’ll see how it turns out
13 Likes
Good point! I only see the thrips in the morning but slugs probably got to the fruit at night. Let me try to sink some beer cups to see if I can catch any
3 Likes
I use a dehydrator I think they do a better job. On brand I wanted a square type with multiple trays. I had a round one and it did the job, I dropped a 2x4 on it and broke it. I went with a square type next so I could fit it on shelf in my garage. Cabela had their own brands on sale and I got a 6 tray model. I have only used it a couple times and it works very well. They make 5 or 6 models of round and square types. We will see how well it works long run. The price was very good. I liked the square because you have to stack trays in a round, so it was impossible to leave on the shelf, the square has a door to load horizontal versus stacking vertical. Just was easy to leave it there and not always mess with the vertical stacking…
I use it for peaches, herbs, fruit leather, peppers, garlic (to make garlic powder), and figs. I harvest a couple hundred figs a year. I had to buy the optional plastic trays that have smaller holes. I ordered off their website. They have brick and mortar stores too. Food tend to stick so experimenting with lightly coating trays with cooking spray, also use parchment paper with fruit leather, don’t use the fruit leather trays. Once dry you can cut into strips leaving the paper and you have fruit roll ups.
2 Likes
I thought my strawberries were just about done for the year, but I picked a gallon bucketful last nite. Earliglow is still going very strong, with decent-sized berries after 3 weeks production.
4 Likes
or stink bugs.
I’ve picked a lot of strawberries the last week and still have a lot of flowers, but i have several different types in there. Hardly any rot …mine are in a raised bed though. Runners are going everywhere so i want to pot some up and then move some stuff around.
Black raspeberries aren’t ripe here yet…lots of fruit set though.
2 Likes
mine just started flowering. 
After the first week, the rot has greatly abated in my bed.
1 Like
Have been browsing on a few red and yellow rasps over the last week or so.
Blackberries (Osage, Traveler and Ouachita) are turning pink, and some are still blooming. There’s some big berries on the Traveler.
Gooseberries are starting to turn from green to light purple, they’re somewhat edible compared to just a week ago.
1 Like