Jekyll and Hyde
Ripe haskap fruit
Summer is here and where has summer gone?
I know I’m late again, but June just got away from us. Besides all the normal stuff that needs to be done, our youngest daughter and granddaughter moved back onto the Project from the Highline. The Project is Huntley Irrigation Project, was one of the first irrigation project built by the Bureau of Reclamation back at the turn of the last century. The Highline is the north part of the state along Highway 2 so named because it was the high line of the railroad. We have been busy helping them get moved out and in, painting inside and out, installing a fencing, etc. During this time, we also picked haskaps, strawberries and had the South Park Gardeners’ Market every Thursday.
July is a difficult month. It’s kind of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing.
The Dr. Jekyll side is the days are long; the temperatures are very warm to hot and the nights are starting to stay warm. All things that make the garden take off. The beans are starting to climb up the panels. The zucchini have flowers and the cucumbers are right behind them. Out in the orchard thing are really getting busy. We are picking raspberries and cherries as I write this and will start picking currants right after we finish the cherries.
The Mr. Hyde is that the 4th of July is the midpoint of summer. Summer is slipping away; we may only have 60 days till it frosts. We quite often have a frost the first week of September. It is enough to damage the fruit and kill the garden, but not enough to hurt anything else. It means fall is coming. The days are getting shorter. I know I just said long days but they are getting shorter even though it’s hard to tell. School and the fair start in six weeks and what says fall more than fair and school.
We are so busy in July, August, and hopefully, September that we don’t really mind the days getting a little shorter. It means we are in the house a little earlier in the evenings, not eating supper at 9 and going right to bed.
Maybe Mr. Hyde is really not that bad. By the end of August, we are really starting to get burnt out and are ready for shorter cooler days. But right now, I dread the thought of no more fresh veggies out of the garden, no more fresh fruit from the orchard. As much as I hate thought now, I will be ready for those cooler shorter days.
This spring and summer we got the last of the poles in the ground for trellising and bird netting. Up to now we have not really been able to net some of currants and goose berries. The birds have really enjoyed this but no more. In May and June, we had almost 10 inches of rain, this made doing some chores very difficult or impossible. I could not get out into the garden to weed as much as I wanted. Some of the seeds just rotted and we had to replant about a third of the garden. The cool June weather really slowed the tomatoes and peppers down, they like hot days and warm to hot nights. Trying to weed the fruit bushes was impossible as it was just too muddy. Two weeks ago, a devastating hail storm rolled through the area, Shepherd to Huntley got inches of hail so much so that through the next day the hills to the south of us were still white with hail. It missed us by about a mile or so, but I really feel for everyone that was in its path. Been there done that, hope to never do it again but we probably will unfortunately,
I have real love hate relationship with July. All our work from the winter and spring is starting to come to fruition, pun intended, but at the same time I can see the end of summer coming with nothing we can do about it except enjoy what time we have.
For this month’s recipe I’m just not sure what I want to post. I think I’m going to go with fresh raspberries. Popped in my mouth straight from the bush, in my pancakes or cereal in the morning, and topping my ice cream in the evening. You can’t beat raspberries.
Recipe:
For this month’s recipe I’m just not sure what I want to post. I think I’m going to go with fresh raspberries. Popped in my mouth straight from the bush, in my pancakes or cereal in the morning, and topping my ice cream in the evening. You can’t beat raspberries.