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| Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam (on the left ) & Strawberry Jam |
True to form our June bearing strawberry plants are bearing in grand style, due to very timely rains this spring and some winter moisture. We started picking on Sunday evening and have picked for three evenings straight, my knees and thighs can vouch for that! I've froze most of the harvest along with making these jams. We will probably have several more days, (I'm guessing 4) of productive picking until the harvest is exhausted. We didn't pick yesterday evening, because we received 2.25 inches of rain early (about 3AM) Wednesday morning, a timely break for my hips and knees. We will probably pick again on Friday and over the weekend. I want to make one more batch, or may two of plain strawberry jam. It seems the later in the harvest the smaller the berries so they make better jam. Strawberry jam along with grape are our favorites and the grape harvest shows promise to also be a good one this year. TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart is hoping for a banner mulberry harvest, he loves mulberry jam and mulberry syrup. I'm so-so on mulberries as the seeds are always stuck in my teeth.
This year's garden (knock on wood) is shaping up to be one of our best, all due to getting rain at proper intervals!!! We've had plenty of asparagus, lovely rhubarb, great salad greens of spinach & lettuce, and spring onions. So can tasty tomatoes be far behind???? We shall see! Oh and my perennial herb plants, especially the lavender (it's blooming), look great! We've been eating the garlic chives and parsley for about a month now! The annuals of basil and rosemary, planted in the last week, are flourishing and will yield pickings in a few more weeks.
This has been a cooler at times to near normal temps for spring so I know that has helped immensely. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the real heat holds off for another few weeks and the rains keep coming.
