Jostaberry flowers

Everything is going wild in the garden. Here are some flowers of the jostaberry.

The jostaberry is a cross between a blackcurrant and gooseberry. The berries are big and black,  with a lovely taste. The plant is really hardy and easy to grow. I am already looking forward to picking some berries in summer.

Jostaberry

This was the first year our jostaberry bushes have yielded enough berries to experiment with jostaberry jelly. I rather like the fruit. It is a cross between a blackcurrant and a gooseberry. And you can taste both fruit in the one berry. Really nice.

It is also a very hardy plant, easy to grow and near maintenance-free. But I decided that come autumn or spring, I will give it a bit of TLC (weed around the plants, give it a layer of compost, some fertilizer, a layer of mulch and even some water come fruiting time). This may give an even bigger yield, and maybe even bigger fruit. We shall see.

Enjoying our berries

We are still enjoying our berries immensely.

This is a slightly decadent take on scones. Freshly baked scones, with a good layer of raspberry jam, then a good helping of thick cream. Then pile on as many fresh berries as you can. All sooo delicious! :)

Reaping the rewards

During autumn/winter we tidied up the berry patch. Now we are picking tons of berries. Oh, the joy of it! Yes, it's backbreaking work, as the berries seem to be not only at the top of the bush, but also hiding underneath the leaves. So there is quite a bit of stretching and then crouching and bending to find them all.

Raspberry jam is summer in a jar. In this case, I put the leftover jam into a cup, instead of filling a jar only 1/3 or so.

 Today we tried it on freshly baked bread. With home-made butter. Oh my goodness! What a treat. :)

Berry platter

Tons of red raspberries surrounding some yellow raspberries, and just a few tayberries, boysenberries and silvanberries in the middle.

Berry season!

For something slightly decadent - French toast with berries. And a little cream. And maple syrup.

Or without cream. Just a smidgen of maple syrup.

Breakfasts around here are pretty decadent at the moment. :)

Berry patch

The raspberries, youngberries, silvanberries, tayberries, etc. are flowering madly.

The paths are getting narrower and narrower.

Flowers and bees everywhere.

The bees are loving all the flowers.

It's amazing to watch these creatures fly from flower to flower.

 It's also interesting to note the differences in bees.

Strawberry beds

The berry patch looks stunning. Soon we will have all kinds of berries to pick.

We made a few new strawberry beds this year.

This one is a 'walk-in' bed. (It was a bit windy when I took that picture.)

 This is an 'old' bed and to be netted very soon.

And some of the berries are already blushing.

Photos of the other berries will be in another post. :)

A new vice?

I don't have a sweet tooth, but at the moment I seem to be baking a lot (which I absolutely love), and eating the result, too!

The raspberry/quark cake (As mentioned before. Several times, I believe.) served with home-made raspberry ripple ice-cream. Oh boy! Pure raspberry indulgence. :)

I still have some cream for another batch of ice-cream. What's your favourite ice-cream flavour? Tell me. Please. :)

Berry Breakfast

The berry patch has been very good to us this year. It got off to a slow start due to the cool weather but once it got going in the middle of December it was pick pick pick....eat eat eat...freeze freeze freeze. We are still picking at least a punnet of mixed berries every day and the autumn raspberries are starting to flower. Below is a selection of berries that we had for breakfast a couple of weeks ago. It was the first time that we had been able to pick some of each variety. Some varieties were just finishing, some just starting and some in full swing.


There are raspberries, yellow raspberries, silvan berries, tay berries, young berries, boysenberries, logan berries and strawberries.
All absolutely yum!

Thanks to all our friends that came to give us a break from picking during the height of the season. Hope you enjoyed your pickings.