Thursday, July 07, 2016

In Season, Out of Season

It was a few years back that a mom of one of my violin student's gave me a young off-shoot from her gooseberry bush. I never knew they existed outside of books until one afternoon she had me over for a visit and served me a slice of her gooseberry pie. The next year when they had a bumper crop, she gave me a gallon sized bag full of berries. There was no complaining from me! :) For a couple of years now I've watched and waited for mine to produce fruit. Last year it only attracted some kind of plant-eating bug, which I was able to conquer after heavy spraying with some organic stuff I found at the local greenhouse.


This year it has finally produced fruit and no bugs. Yay! :) For weeks they've been as green as gourds, but much to my delight they're starting to turn color in the last day or two. Since it's a small crop, I'm picking them as they ripen and then stick them in the freezer. When it's all said and done for the year, there should be enough for one pie. Again, I'm not complaining seeing how I'm the only one in my family that likes gooseberries. Well, other than our dog, but she won't get more than a bite. Or two.


The blackberry bush is in full bloom, with a few berries starting to grow. Last year I think a squirrel ate the precious few, so this year I'm going to watch it like a hawk.


They never touch the raspberries, and it looks like we'll get our usual early crop, and then a heavy crop before the frost.

My little blueberry bush needs some help. It hasn't grown at all in the last 3-4 years, but is still alive and has maybe 10 berries on it. Do any of my readers have knowledge or skill in blueberries?

3 comments:

Kelly-Anne ♥ The Diary of a Country Girl said...

Dear Cheri...

How delightful to have a beautiful gooseberry bush! I can see from the pictures they are somewhat different to those we grow here in South Africa... I love making gooseberry jam with ours...like you, I pick and freeze until I have enough. I usually add a little root ginger to the jam for flavour and oh my! How good it is...{{Smiles}} But I have never tried gooseberry pie ~ perhaps something to do this coming summer!

I love having berry plants...we have about 100 strawberry plants to transplant this year and our raspberries are slowly but surely growing...hopefully we have a decent sized harvest this year as I am sure something munched our last crop...{{sniffs}}

We live next door to a beautiful blueberry farm and just the other day I went for a walk among the bushes ~ ah, how wonderful it was! They are blooming already... Sadly, I know nothing about them, but I think that I should do some research and grow my own! I hope yours produces a delicious harvest this year!

Thank you for sharing your lovely berry pictures with us today! I am greatly enjoying reading your blog...

Hugs,
Kelly-Anne

Sarah said...

Cheri,

Your pictures are so lovely! I have never tried a gooseberry! What a treat to have such a variety of berries growing at your home. We planted blackberries and raspberries, but have been fighting off Japanese beetles.

-Sarah

Cheri said...

Kelley-Anne,
I took a peek at you're blog, and enjoyed it! Thanks for telling me about your berry bushes. They are fun and so much better than berries from the store, aren't they?!

Sarah,
I'll have to look up Japanese beetles. (Thanks for the mention!) It could be that that is my problem, since I never actually saw a squirrel eating my blackberries. I just assumed he was the culprit since many of the tall canes were broken off and flat on the ground. :)