What are you harvesting?

[awakenedsoul]

I just harvested my first tiny crop of apricots. There were four of them. Delicious! This is a standard tree that I planted last May. It's from Dave Wilson's nursery. I love his trees. I checked the rest of the orchard. The persimmon tree is loaded. I can freeze a lot of those. The pomegranite tree is in full bloom. The hummingbirds have been pollinating it and the citrus trees. I have four figs on the fig tree I planted last season. The meyer lemon, navel orange, and blood orange trees have lots of small green fruits. Last year I lost most of them to grasshoppers. So far, so good. Something's wrong with my plum trees. They are almost bare. I've got some green tomatoes that look promising. The sunflowers are almost in bloom. How about you?

[CathyA]

Wow.........I'm envious awakenedsoul! All that stuff sounds delicious! All I have now is some of the stuff in my stocktank raised veggie garden in the back yard.......red and green Romaine, broccoli, spinach, mustard greens and then we're almost done getting asparagus from our patches. I did get most of the garden planted this week, in-between alot of rain. Those things won't be ready for about 2 months, though. Oh......the snow peas are growing and we should get peas from them in a couple weeks. My persimmons won't be ready for about 5-6 months! haha

[bae]

Pollen, apparently. Ach--oooo!

[herbgeek]

Lettuce and arugula. Some peppermint for an herb water. Not much else this early in the season.

[awakenedsoul]

It sounds like you've got a lot, CathyA! I've been planting, too. My persimmons are tiny and green, but I like to check on everything and see what it looks like I'll be getting. It seems like some of my fruit trees bear more every other year. I just tallied up what I spent for Jan.-April, and I've spent more on food than I realized. I should be able to make up for it later with all of this fruit.

[CathyA]

Last year was the first year that my persimmons started making fruit. They are about 9 years old. I had heard that they are male and female, and I was worried that I didn't have the right combo (I only have 2)......but they both made some fruit! then I read that both males and females might have a branch or 2 of the opposite sex. Anyhow........I was tickled pink to see that I would have persimmons. How do you prepare your pulp? Do you just wash them and then throw them into a food mill?
I have alot of wild elderberry bushes. I used to make elderberry jelly, but got too busy when the kids were growing up. I keep hoping to get back to it. (That is, if the birds leave me any!).

[awakenedsoul]

My persimmon tree looks like it will have over 100 persimmons this year. Mine started producing right away. It's a Dave Wilson tree. I find his fruit trees are the best. A lot of the professional growers buy them. I don't use a food mill. I just eat them fresh, or store them whole in the freezer. I have a recipe for freezer jam that I may try, too. Hope you get some elderberries. Yum!
I also harvested sage, oregano, rosemary, and Valencia oranges. Picked the last of the meyer lemons.
I noticed the artichoke plant that I gave to the elementary school garden two years ago has four artichockes on it. I hope someone eats them!

[Blackdog Lin]

Onions and radishes. And the radishes are done (too big and hot and pithy), so just onions for now. Our seedlings didn't do any good at all this year, so missed out on lettuce and broccoli. Will try again for fall.

We did harvest about 8 lbs. of wild asparagus last month. Good stuff, and I enjoy the hunting.

[awakenedsoul]

Oh gosh, I would love to grow asparagus. I ordered some a few years back and it died. I didn't do a very good job of taking care of it. I've got an artichoke plant in my front garden that is green and healthy. Hopefully if I keep feeding and watering it, it will give me some artichokes. I still have a six flat of onions that I haven't planted. It's on my porch. It's been there for ages. I'll do that tomorrow.

[Gardenarian]

Cherries - they seem endless! I love that cherries ripen gradually, so every day we pick a few gallons and the next day there are more (and enough to share with the birds :)
Our plums all ripen at the same time - eek!
Lettuce, too - though that's been having a hard time with our heat waves and drought.

[CathyA]

We have 2 patches of "wild" asparagus............but here's my question..........That has come from someone's planting of a female asparagus plant, right? We have one row of Martha Washington, which makes seeds, and then I've planted some male ones.....which grow bigger and thicker. I wonder if it's bad to grow males, since they don't make seeds? Hmmmm.........I guess I'm not up on the sex lives of asparagus! haha

[awakenedsoul]

I don't know, CathyA. I was unsuccessful with asparagus. (My own fault.)
Gardenarian, Cherries! Wow! That's wonderful. I planted a Bing cherry tree last Spring, but haven't gotten any fruit yet. I'd like to add a Ranier. It sounds like you have an abundance! They are super expensive at Costco right now. I think I saw them for $6.99 a lb. Yikes! They're giving us some in my co op box from the organic farmers this week. They're my favorite. I miss my plums. I used to get a nice crop. I think mine have some sort of disease...my intuition is telling me it's a canker. (Whatever that is.)
I've got four little pippin apples on my semi dwarf tree. I wish now I'd bought all standards. Next time...

[Geila]

Cherries....>8) I wish Gardenarian was my neighbor! I did harvest some meyer lemons and some herbs, and we have some persimmon and citrus trees that will fruit later. But not much else. Oh, I'm harvesting lots of roses! Does that count?

[awakenedsoul]

Yeah, that counts! How nice, watergoddess. I've never done that well with roses. Well, not growing them organically. They did great when I used Miracle Grow and spray, but now I use compost and mulch. I just checked my grapefruit tree that I planted in my driveway. It has a few small green fruits. It's a new tree, so I'm exited.
I'm gathering eggs, too! My hen has been laying every other day, and she's 16!!! Spring is here!

[The Storyteller]

50 Cornish rock cross meatbirds. Average processed weight 4 lbs 10 oz. Will harvest another 50 this Sunday.

[awakenedsoul]

Wow! Do you sell them, The Storyteller? I love Cornish game hens. They're delicious stuffed.

[CathyA]

Wow awakenedsoul..............I thought I had the oldest chickens around! The 3 of mine that are left are 11. They don't lay anymore.

[The Storyteller]

Wow! Do you sell them, The Storyteller?

Yes, about half of these were presold through our farmers market. Although they are a little big for Cornish game hens. Those average 2.5 to 3 pounds and are a little younger than mine.

Part of my harvest...


http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/pp29/storypage/cornishcrossspring2014_zps7dc30272.jpg

[CathyA]

Awakenedsoul...... I've been thinking about this, and I just can't believe it's possible that your hen is 16 and laying every other day.
Did you mean 6 years maybe?

[CathyA]

Hey Storyteller..........I'm not sure you ever saw my post to you asking how your aquaponics project is going. How's it going?

[awakenedsoul]

Hi CathyA,
I know. It's wild. I bought the house in 1998, and got her shortly afterward. She was too young to lay at first. The other chicken died at about 5 or 6. This one is incredible. I have to lift her down in the a.m. from her roost. She acts like she's sore. She's started to sleep closer to the ground now, on top of a dog crate. I keep it in her coop. Last year she only laid about 6 or 8 eggs. Once it get really hot, she'll stop. She's been laying every other day, or every third day. I give her protein, homemade cookie crumbs, and birdseed. She free ranges in organic soil with lots of mulch and bugs...
Great pictures, The Storyteller. Sounds like your business is very successful. Those look very professional. I buy free range from a farmer through our organic co op.
Anyone else harvesting? Do your gardens look promising?

[CathyA]

All I can say is WOW! I sometimes frequent a chicken forum and everyone there thinks it's absolutely a miracle that mine are 11. I think you (your hen) should be in the Guinness book of world records!
What breed is she? I wonder if she is a smaller breed?

In 2003, I got 17 pullets. Some were easter-eggers, some black australorps and some buff orpingtons. Some died (I think) of falling off the roost (a ladder roost that is about 4' high), some had abscesses, one had a severe pendulous crop, one had congenital problems. (She had ascites and I would drain her abdomen about every 3-4 months, and she would be fine after that....although I did keep her in her own pen. She was a real trooper.

I thought my run was very secure, but several years ago a coon got in somehow and killed 2 of my easter-eggers. I think I would have all the original easter-eggers today if it weren't for the coon attack.
Seems like the larger ones had more problems. I've heard that since hens lay so many eggs, they develop alot of ovarian cancers.

Also, it seemed like as they got older, some may have developed some internal egg laying.

So now I have 3 very old easter-eggers (Skunk, Periwinkle and Kiwi). Skunk has a horrible limp. Of course the avian vet said to put her down, but I didn't. And she's still here, after a year of limping.
I got rid of the ladder roost and tried to get all 3 to sleep in the nest boxes, since they were having trouble getting up there. They finally agreed. (Chickens have trouble with big changes.......haha). However, Kiwi still tries to jump up to the window sill, so we made a few steps for her.

Skunk laid a couple dozen eggs last spring (2013), then stopped. I keep telling them not to even try......it's too dangerous. haha
I like to say they are in Henopause. :)

Well...........I'm totally amazed at your 16 year old chicken! Just amazing!! I'll have to tell Skunk, Winkie and Kiwi about her. :) Can you post a pic of her?

[CathyA]

Oh yes....the garden.......

In my stocktank gardens in the back yard, I pulled up the baby bok choy the other day. It was ready to harvest, even though I only planted the seedlings a month ago! Silly me. I bought them and didn't really realize that they were almost eating size already! Sautee'd them with garlic and olive oil and soy sauce. Very good! But that side of baby bok choy probably cost about $12.00. haha

I did plant a couple little rows of maxibel green beans in the stocktank. Those are haricot vert beans.....which are pencil-thin beans that you eat early.

We are getting our Mantis tiller back from being in the hospital....haha.......needed a new carburator......so this weekend DH will till around the plants, so I might be able to take a picture, if it looks nice enough.
I have alot of vertical trellises in my garden.........one of which is my kids' old swingset. I went out to water the garden this morning and the wren (or one of its children) is back again for about the 5th year to make a nest in one of the swingset tubes. It gets upset with me when I'm watering. haha

I picked what I think is the last handful of asparagus. DS is coming for a visit tomorrow and I wanted to make roasted asparagus for him. He'll get all of it, since we've had our share already.

[awakenedsoul]

Yeah, she's cute. You're right, she is a small hen. She's brown, and lays small brown eggs with big orange yolks. The other one was an Easter egg chicken. She laid green eggs. She was larger, and seemed to have trouble with the heat. Jillian, the old one, used to lay close to 30 eggs a month. She was like an egg machine. I don't know her breed. She seems like she was bred to lay. She's petite and brown.
I'll send you a pm...
My sunflowers are in bloom. I save the seed each year and replant them. The hollyhocks and sunflowers are as tall as my little house! Time to water the miniature petunias...I love old fashioned flowers!