Honey

Our very first honey. We are very excited. I have taken heaps of pictures of the whole process - from taking frames out of the hives, the extractor, etc. But a lack of time has seen me only choose 2 pictures.

Here is the honey flowing through the honey gate of the extractor into another bucket. We are only filtering it roughly via an ordinary kitchen sieve.

And here we have our very first honey, filled into jars. It's the best ever honey. Obviously. ;)

Striped Turkish Monastery

Yes. There is such a thing.
And it is a tomato!

Here it is.

Very pretty, don't you think? Tasty, too.

We are picking the odd tomato here and there. The weather was a bit extreme for the garden (stinking hot, etc....) so now with the milder weather we hope it will recover and finally give us something to harvest. How is your garden doing?

Strawberry spinach

This is a rather funky little plant. You can eat its leaves, the flowers and the berries.

The berries taste a bit like hazelnut, in my opinion.

 It's just a great plant to have in the garden. Very easy to grow, too.

Purple okra

It just looks stunning, doesn't it?

Picked the first ones, and I am looking forward to eating them. I'll probably just slice them and fry them till they are crispy. Any other serving suggestions? :)

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.

Guard sheep....

...try entering through that door! She's not budging for anyone.

At a friend's place. :)

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. :)

Armenian cucumbers

The first batch of cucumbers (Armenian) are planted. I put them in my trough, so that they are slightly protected from the icy winds that still crop up (like today).

The snails and slugs haven't attacked them yet - so let's hope it stays that way. Can't wait for our first summer vegetables! :) How are yours going?

First planting session...

...finally!

I planted the first tomatoes today. I managed to squeeze in 10 plants per bed. They may be a bit close together, but let's hope for the best. (I always plant them a bit close together, it seems to have become a spring ritual, I'm afraid.)

There are stardroppers at either end of the beds, plus one in the middle. Later in the season, when the plants grow bigger, I'll use some twine to weave it around them - called 'Florida Weave' - and that tucks them in nicely.

I also started on the other summer vegetables. Zucchini (Golden Summer Crookneck), cucumbers (Armenian), okra (Burgundy) and tomatillos.

There are still quite a few plants left to be planted, but one day at a time! How are you going with your spring planting? :)

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. :)