Still Picking!

Out walking around the yard at 1840s Farm today picking wild berries and currants.

At the end of last season, I found a huge patch of currants in the hedgerow. This year I did the first harvest and with this first round, I probably got 3 or 4 pounds. (And I didn't even pick all of them, as I always leave some for the "critters".)

Also picked some berries. Not as much as usual, but I've already done 3 picks and looks like many more to come. And, it looks like this year's crop of wild rosehips will be pretty big.

Berries have gone into the freezer. Currants will be going into the dehydrators. With the next pick, I may put some juice in the freezer to make jelly later when I have more time, but I haven't decided yet.

If you are into wild foods or emergency preparedness, learn about what there is to eat right in your own yard. But always make sure you know what you are picking and when in any doubt, even the slightest, find someone who knows!

Later today, I will be harvesting more wild grape leaves to preserve for stuffing later.

Bumble Bees

The bumble bees are loving the hollyhocks. About 5 of them were flying in and out of the blossoms last night. You can see how one is just full of pollen. It was all over him!

Gathering Dandelion Seed

I took this picture just before I started cleaning the seeds fron the dandelion heads. Yes, they do grow wild in the yard, but I also want to have a controlled patch as well.

A Papaya Forest

In the Florida garden, we decided that we wanted a papaya tree, and as they are pretty fast growing, decided to begun from seed.

Now, knowing what the seed success ratio can be, we decided to just throw all of the seed that we pulled out of the fruit, into a small raised bed. We figured we'd get a handful to successfully start. What we got, was a forest of baby papaya.

So, now we are selecting, thining and giving away. It is amazing as to how many of those seeds took. I stopped counting!

Cowboy Wisdom

A Simple Dessert

I had a picnic to go to today, and wanted to take something simple. I still had wild berries in the freezer from last year's harvest that needed to be used, a friend had a package of instant pudding mix, so I decided to make mini tarts.

The filling was a cheesecake instant pudding (I needed something quick) and I made the crust using an old fashioned lard pie crust recipe that I have. Making the small crust shells was easy......I used my Babycakes mini cupcake maker. Works great and gave me nice, lightly browned little shells.

The nice thing was, I had no leftovers to take back. They were all gone by the end of the day. (I had made about 30 or so....)

I will definitly whip some of these up again!