Nasturtium in the garden

Exciting times for us here at the “farm”. We finished our planting and are harvesting some of our early season fruits and veggies. So far, we harvested our spring potatoes and now the blueberries, strawberries and artichokes are in full swing. The herbs are going crazy with the heat. The mint, as always, is trying to take over the garden (so are the potatoes, for that matter).

Let’s start with the harvest. Our blueberries struggled with the variable weather a few weeks ago, the alternating rain and heat swelled the berries, but they had little flavor. With the last few weeks of consistent sun, they are taking off and the flavor is concentrated and far sweeter. We have 4 large bushes (and a few stragglers) and they each provide blueberries with slightly different flavors. Fun to taste for the differences if you like to geek up on these things (and we do). Happily for the next month or two we will get at least 1/2 pint of blueberries a day, some days a lot more. The bushes are surprisingly productive and we often have to work to keep up. These are good problems to have.

Blueberries- if they pull-off easily, they are ready.

The strawberries are also taking off. We cleaned and de-slugged the beds a few weeks ago to coincide with the warm, sunny weather. Since then the beds are doing great. The first crop is usually a bit funky in flavor and shape, but most of the plants are looking good. We won’t be able to keep up with the strawberries as we move into summer, the bed has over 30 active plants and when they get going, they get going. Needless to say, you will be seeing strawberry cocktail and dessert recipes a lot in the coming months.

Strawberry in raised container. This keeps the berry off the ground and limits rot.

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