Persimmons

Just picked all our persimmons (they are from the certified organic orchard we have taken over).

They are looking absolutely gorgeous. There are several varieties, but unfortunately we don't know what they are. They are definitely astringent, that's for sure. Believe me, I tried them all. And I have
the furry lips, mouth, gums, teeth to prove it!

Now we'll have to wait till they are really soft and enjoy the lot. What a hardship. :)

First apples of the season

Galas. Super juicy, sweet and crisp. Absolutely delicious.

This year's crop is just great. Hardly any blemishes. Good size. And quite a few off the tree. The rain moved in, so we had to stop picking. So, two great things at the same time - apples and rain. (It's been an incredibly dry summer, so rain is an exciting and very rare event at the moment.)

Excuse me, I have to go and eat another apple! :)

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.

Berry platter

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

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. :)

The things you discover...

...when you finally brushcut in the orchard.

The gooseberries have fruit on them! Wow. Now I better protect them from the birds. :)

A walk in the garden...

The lemon tree is looking fantastic. This is the first year we actually had a lot of lemons on this tree.

The first plum tree has started to flower. The structure for the netting is looking a bit wonky. Will have to try and straighten that out soon.

The Native Wisteria is flowering madly.

Isn't it a lovely flower?

The Nashi pear has tons of fat buds. Hopefully we'll get to eat a few pears this season.

The apricot tree has just started to flower. We won't have much fruit, though, as we missed the opportunity to prune it back.

The red currants are looking great, too. Another good harvest again, maybe?

The variegated elder tree has tons of flower buds. Can't wait to see it laden with flowers.

We are still harvesting some of the winter vegetables. Here is a purple cauliflower.

Seedlings...again

They are rapidly growing up. It's always amazing.
Here they are just a few days ago. Various tomato seedlings.

And here they are, already 'promoted' to the windowsill and enjoying the view.

In a day or two we will have to repot them.

Sweet basil has germinated surprisingly quickly.

Rosella seedlings. I have never been successful with germination, and these came up within a few days. It will be interesting to see how they do at our place, as they will need at least 5 frost-free months.

 All very exciting! :)

Durian

Love it, or hate it!

I love it. Shared with great friends - what a treat!

 This was quite a small durian. The seeds were very small, but the flesh was super-creamy and delicious.

Thanks, guys! You rock! :)

Kiwi update

Here is the messy plant, with our haul of kiwi fruit. The plant is all over the place and we'll have to do some serious tidying up this season.

 The fruit is small, but who are we to complain? We grew it!! :) There are five (5!!) all together. I think they are ready to be picked, but will have to check my books first. Unless someone here can tell me when to pick kiwi fruit?

Some harvest pictures

The grapes were a success! We picked several baskets full of different varieties of grapes. Ate a heap, gave a heap away, made wine.
The veggie garden produced well, and with the surplus I made a big batch of Sweet Mustard Pickles.
We are still picking yellow tomatoes. Sweet and juicy.
The root vegetables are still bountiful. Roast parsnips are probably our favourite.
We also picked a heap of apples at a neighbour's place. So we (the Gnomes) had a little apple pie competition. This is Berry Gnome's pie. Mine wasn't that pretty. Both were nice.Especially served up with a little decadent dollop of cream.

Grapes

The table grapes are looking really good this year! Must pick them soon.
I can't remember what variety they are. Must find the plan, where I slotted down the varieties.

Blackberry Crumble

We picked our first blackberries for the season. So, it's crumble time!
No extra sugar added to the berries, as they are sweet enough.
Just a dollop of cream. Of course. :)

Did Mr Kiwi...

...do the right thing by Ms/Mrs Kiwi at last?
Did he finally send out flowers?To enable the bees to pollinate the female flowers? And we'll finally get some fruit?So far the fruit is the biggest it ever grew. So, maybe this year? That would be nice! :)

More berry treats...

This time another berry tart. The best so far, I think. The pastry is very crisp and the filling very light. It's very more-ish. Everyone had a second piece!

I keep experimenting with the crust and filling, so no final recipe yet. The filling is mainly quark, yoghurt, eggs and some sugar. With tons of berries on top. I crammed in as many as I could. The pasty is shortcrust.

Berry pancake ...

... for brunch. Pancake recipe from Jamie Oliver's "Happy Days". Always a winner. Can't fail with plenty of berries, a dollop of thick cream and some maple syrup or honey.

A glut of berries...

...and no more room in the freezers. Plenty of jam made. Also experimenting with berry liqueurs. And still the berries keep coming. Everyone is getting berries as pressies, but still.... So, now an experiment in making berry wine. This is a mixture of boysenberries, silvanberries, raspberries and blackberries (frozen from last year). The colour is fantastic!
Let's hope it's better than last season's blackberry wine! It was disgusting. At least it was, when we last tried it. Might have to check again, it may have improved.