What's Growing in the Garden

Ok, officially getting tired of cherries. I've pitted, frozen, baked, or dried about 6 gallons fresh equivalent. Tree probably still has almost that many on it.

Trying a recipe I found for dried cherries. Sounds really weird, so it will probably be great. Soak pitted cherries in white vinegar for a week, drain and then completely cover the cherries in sugar and leave them for a week. Drain then dehydrate. If nothing else, I'll have a quart of cherry vinegar and some really good syrup.

Any more cherries will just be turned into syrup, that way I don't have to pit them first....
 
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Wish I had that tree in my yard. Cherry pie filling, frozen for cobbler, jelly, etc. Made a blackheart cherry cobbler the other night. Have some blackheart and some Ranier frozen for jelly later when I have time. Mulberry will be ready in a week or two. Then wineberry and blackberry. Will use wineberry, blackberry and some blueberry for another batch of triple berry jelly. Did it last year and everybody loved it.
 
trc65 said:
Ok, officially getting tired of cherries. I've pitted, frozen, baked, or dried about 6 gallons fresh equivalent. Tree probably still has almost that many on it.

Trying a recipe I found for dried cherries. Sounds really weird, so it will probably be great. Soak pitted cherries in white vinegar for a week, drain and then completely cover the cherries in sugar and leave them for a week. Drain then dehydrate. If nothing else, I'll have a quart of cherry vinegar and some really good syrup.

Any more cherries will just be turned into syrup, that way I don't have to pit them first....
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Didn't see this until now. How do you make your syrup? Just cook down, strain and can?

I only had a quart of Cherries this year, so I tried to save as much pulp as possible. Cooked down, strained and then push the pulp through a sieve to separate the pits. Didn't work as nicely as I had imagined, but got the job done. It's now like pie filling. Froze it and am going to make jelly/syrup what ever happens.
 
Eric Rorabaugh said:
Wish I had that tree in my yard. Cherry pie filling, frozen for cobbler, jelly, etc. Made a blackheart cherry cobbler the other night. Have some blackheart and some Ranier frozen for jelly later when I have time. Mulberry will be ready in a week or two. Then wineberry and blackberry. Will use wineberry, blackberry and some blueberry for another batch of triple berry jelly. Did it last year and everybody loved it.
Click to expand...
Do you just juice the Mulberries? Seems like there's a hard seed core in them.
 
djg said:
Didn't see this until now. How do you make your syrup? Just cook down, strain and can?

I only had a quart of Cherries this year, so I tried to save as much pulp as possible. Cooked down, strained and then push the pulp through a sieve to separate the pits. Didn't work as nicely as I had imagined, but got the job done. It's now like pie filling. Froze it and am going to make jelly/syrup what ever happens.
Click to expand...
Haven't made the syrup yet, just cooked them down. Need to strain, then will probably add about 4:1 cherries to sugar, possibly a tiny bit of vanilla and or almond flavor and then BWB. Only cooked down about 2 quarts, so not a lot. Just plan to use it on ice cream and cheesecake.
 
It's Blackberry time!
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Hopefully will have a good season this year. Just got them all weeded today and will heavily mulch tomorrow. Rain on Sunday, ad if not watering.

Picked enough for over ice cream tonight.
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I never had problems with pest before on the berries, but I found these today:
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trc65 said:
Haven't made the syrup yet, just cooked them down. Need to strain, then will probably add about 4:1 cherries to sugar, possibly a tiny bit of vanilla and or almond flavor and then BWB. Only cooked down about 2 quarts, so not a lot. Just plan to use it on ice cream and cheesecake.
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I'd give you a 'Way Cool' too, but you're only allow one response :sarcastic:. That's what I've done in the past when I had a lot of Cherries. Just checking to see if I was on the right track.
 
djg said:
Do you just juice the Mulberries? Seems like there's a hard seed core in them.
Click to expand...
I run them through my food mill with a berry screen. Separates the seeds from juice and fine pulp. Get some surejel and follow the recipe in it. Now if you are making any kind of pie filling, you will need clearjel. If you use regular surejel, it won't turn out right.
 
Not exactly from the garden… but, #3 son called his mother this morning and asked her if she’d make some muscadine jelly. She said yes, of course…. He picked the grapes, I boiled them and strained the juice and my wife did her magic on the stove… the jars shown represent 1/8 of the juice we got from 5 gallons of grapes.

I’ve been fighting squirrels and picking figs for two weeks now. The trees started ripening in earnest this past week. We’ve put up some but I eat most of them and my daughter-in-laws make really good things with them...

Peas and okra are coming on. Tomatoes and peppers are about done in this heat.

Alan



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About five years ago I bought three fig trees and a house came with them. I bought four more cases of pint mason jars today. I can fill one of them with what I have in the fridge and that many more on the trees that I’ll get when the rain clears up a bit.

Alan
 
Here is my dried cherries experiment halfway through the process. These have been soaking in white vinegar for a week, and are now drained. Repacked in sugar and wait a week until it's time to dry them. I'm surprised they still have as much color as they do. They are also just as firm as when they were picked.

Here is the page withe process I'm following: https://www.acanadianfoodie.com/2012/01/20/preserved-or-dried-evans-cherries/

She used frozen cherries in developing the recipe, I'm using fresh. Although if it's as good as I hope, may be pulling bags out of the freezer to dry more.
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Dug the first variety of garlic and it's hanging in the shed drying/curing.

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Also dug a few pounds of potatoes to make salad for a reunion this weekend.

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Just cabbage moth caterpillars so far for me.
I harvested yellow grape tomatoes this weekend but they hardly count. If you can't get a grape or cherry tomato to grow, you gots martian soil or something akin to asphalt. I have tomatoes starting through the mulch on the path around the chicken houses....
 
Not caterpillars here, at least nothing hard to control, but Japanese beetles have started their annual invasion. Not an issue in vegetables, but keeping them from destroying raspberries and other fruit is a continuing challenge.
 
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