Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

A cold hardy lime that I haven't yet killed

I am a notorious citrus tree killer. I admit it. It's not that I'm trying to kill all of them, it just happens. I think I've gone through at least three Meyer Lemon trees and one Kaffir Lime. And possibly a Key Lime. None of them ever flowered or produced any fruit.
Look at them baby limes!

My husband, at this point, is very doubtful of my abilities in citrus. So, last year when I enthusiastically brought home a cold hardy Sudachi Lime that I could plant in the ground and leave outside year round, he was less than excited. He thought I was nuts. I believe there may have been some eye rolling. This was a year ago.

But the lime tree is still alive! And living outside! In the ground! And, lo and behold, it has about 10 baby limes growing on it. He's still doubtful. Granted, the plant is only about two feet tall and they may not survive, but I'm fairly confident this time around that I'll be enjoying some lime based beverage soon. A very small lime based beverage since the fruit only gets about as big as a golf ball. But I'm not picky. I've got limes!

Have you had any success growing citrus - keeping them outdoors in the summer and moving them indoors or just keeping them indoors? Of course, if you live in the south, I'm assuming you have more citrus fruit than you can possibly handle. And, I'm incredibly jealous.

Monday, August 28, 2017

I think I'm 90% blackberries

Blackberry crisp!
'Tis the time of year wherein I'm inundated by far more blackberries than it is possible for one human to consume. Last year my daughter helped out with eating the blackberries but, for some reason, this year I've been left to my own devices.

I swear that about 90% of my body cells are being fed by a steady diet of Triple Crown Thornless blackberries and I still can't keep up with them. So, not surprisingly, I've been freezing them on sheet pans and storing them in gallon freezer bags to make this awesome blackberry crisp. But, mostly I'll be using them in my oatmeal when fruit and berry season slows down.. 

Triple Crown Thornless blackberries
I had a similar issue with our raspberries and have several bags frozen as well. I'm certainly not complaining! I've been relying on the fruit produced in our yard this year since I didn't really plant a garden until late in the season (it was really unseasonably cold here up through July) and broke down four of my raised beds and need to rebuild. 

The only vegetables I grew this year were garlic, zucchini, lettuce and tomatoes. It was a record low for me. I did make up for it by planting a fall garden, so we'll see how that goes since it's been very warm here since the beginning of August.

My fruit trees and bushes have been humming along producing loads of cherries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. The time for apples and plums is almost upon us, but more about that later!

How are your fruiting plants doing this year?

Yeah, I know I've been MIA - I can't make any promises, but maybe I'll post more than a few times this year!