Friday, June 11, 2010

A Little Rain - Harvest - Apricots and Cherries

This morning was same as yesterday, very warm, 72°, and muggy. About five minutes ago it began to rain, not just a shower, but a rain! I hope it last for a while.
There is a lovely cool breeze coming in through the window. DH is sitting out on the porch swing with his coffee.......talking to the cats. He is the true cat lover.

First things first: Tour of the yard after the rain (1/4 inch total).

This is Harlow Carr, a great clematis and a white lily.



We had a busy day yesterday.

I picked up 3/4 bushel of apricots........a first. The most we ever got was enough for a batch or two of jam. Some are faulty, but I worked them up first and froze 4 quarts for jam later this fall and winter. The best ones are waiting to be processed.
From Harvest 2010

I don't know if this is the way apricots do for everyone, but mine drop to the ground when ripe. The slightest breeze causes them to fall. Half the tree is leaning over the concrete pen where the cows waited to come into the barn/ aka the Holding Pen. Yesterday after harvesting the ones I used for jam, I spread two bales of straw over the concrete to keep the new falling ones clean and hopefully not bruised. This is what I picked up this morning. I did pull a few before they fell.
From Harvest 2010

We also picked cherries. The tree is heavily laden this year, most ever. We were shocked to see a huge limb had broken and was laying on the ground. It looks to have rot in the center. Sure made picking easy on that limb. We stopped at two large bowls full. I processed one and got 6 quarts for the freezer. I still have another bowl to do, I am guessing 4 more quarts. We may stop at that amount.
From Harvest 2010
I was all set to spray the roses and the dratted sprayer wouldn't work. It has been a good one so must be something simple. I really should have two of everything just for such breakdowns....I see some blackspot is beginning on the two old garden roses.

The rain will be lovely for the blueberries (even though I watered them yesterday) and will catch the places the sprinkler missed in the new plot. I was so late getting the OP corn planted I watered to get speedy sprouting.

3 comments:

  1. The clematis and lily is a great combination! Nice looking fruit. When we moved here in 1979 there was a cherry tree, apple tree and an apricot. We live on top of a hill and never seen any apricots as the frost always froze them out. The cherry tree split during a storm and the apple tree finally gave up as well. We didn't know anything about fruit, didn't spray and the apples were usually wormy-but I miss them. Nice to be able to pick and eat your own produce!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glenda - those apricots look luscious! I had no idea they ripened this early for you. What kind of cherries are those? I was once gifted with a basket of 'sour' cherries and they were oh so good. Beautiful lily/clematis combo pic! Sorry about the sprayer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gorgeous, all of it. I haven't picked apricots in nearly fifty years. They and the cherries look so luscious. We are waiting for figs and peaches to ripen.

    Beautiful, the lily and clematis. It has been a great year for lilies. My only thriving clematis died.

    ReplyDelete