Alaska wild berries

[GrammasCabin]

I run into bears in the clearcuts while picking berries at least once a season, soon's I let them know I'm there they can't get out of there fast enough. I think one's chances of shooting one's self in the arse while climbing through clearcuts, berry bucket in one hand & shotgun in the other are a lot higher than getting mauled by a bear. Keeping your eyes open, making noise now & then makes a lot more sense to me. Just my opinion.

Hey! I picked 10 gallons blueberries today! Gonna go get 10 more tommorrow, I found the mother lode.

[AlaskaNana]

Originally Posted by GrammasCabin

I run into bears in the clearcuts while picking berries at least once a season, soon's I let them know I'm there they can't get out of there fast enough. I think one's chances of shooting one's self in the arse while climbing through clearcuts, berry bucket in one hand & shotgun in the other are a lot higher than getting mauled by a bear. Keeping your eyes open, making noise now & then makes a lot more sense to me. Just my opinion.

Hey! I picked 10 gallons blueberries today! Gonna go get 10 more tommorrow, I found the mother lode.

Doing a lot of BlackBerry picking here. That and the apples are falling off the tree faster than I can get rid of them, my pantry is overflowing already. lol but no zuccinni this year, with the hot/cold they didn't survive, just lots of yellow crook and straight necks. Can tell Fall is almost here. I can hear the canning jars clinking together.

[GrammasCabin]

Feels good, doesn't it Nana. I didn't get zuccinni this year either, the blossoms just rotted but I'll have potatoes & carrots coming out my ears. I made a killing on sockeye, got 2 deer so far and already have to expand the pantry into the linen closet. I don't know where I'm going to put all these berries once they're juiced and there's 40 chickens out there ready to butcher next week. Guess I'll stack cases and make a new temporary coffee table. Now if I can get that woodshed filled I'll be all set, know any handsome hunks with a good back? I got the chainsaw.
Sure wasn't much time to play this summer tho. So little good weather that between rainstorms I feel like I have to get a month's worth of work done in a day every time the sun shows up. I'm off to the berry patch one more time, somebody tell the bears.

[AK-Cathy]

Zucchini...argggh! Normally if I don't pick daily at this point I end up with big battleships of fruit. But this year? Good looking plants and pretty much all really big male flowers, (good for stuffing) same for the yellow crookneck squash and pumpkins though a few of those have set fruit. The patty pan squash are putting on but slow. I got a few good cucumbers and then the plants just yellowed and wilted. Radishes bolted early. Lettuce still is a bumper crop, too bad it doesn't keep and sadly our produce fridge in the garage died full of greenery. We came home after a couple of days away to three types of cooked lettuce, wilted tatsoi, desiccated parsley and a limp yellowing mess of the best bok choy ever. Normally that keeps into the fall. Our compost was well fed, another arggh!

On the plus side my rhubarb and raspberries are gifts that keep on giving. We put up enough jam for the year, in addition to eating a lot of fresh berries that are still coming on, plus some domestic current jelly but our cherries aren't making it too far from the tree being relatively new and this being the first real crop, we are eating them off of the tree. Apples are looking good but my two dogs are figuring out what there is to eat out there in the yard and a couple of the lower apples are missing in action as were the strawberries, tatsoi and lettuce that they could reach. Others have moose, I have fruit and vegetable loving dogs. Celery, radicchio, kale, kohlrabi, herbs and potatoes are very happy. I'll be picking lowbush cranberries soon for sauce and jelly. It's really feeling like fall now.

[naturesdreams]

Tread well ... such as Timothy... LOL... good one Red

[AlaskaNana]

Originally Posted by GrammasCabin

Feels good, doesn't it Nana. I didn't get zuccinni this year either, the blossoms just rotted but I'll have potatoes & carrots coming out my ears. I made a killing on sockeye, got 2 deer so far and already have to expand the pantry into the linen closet. I don't know where I'm going to put all these berries once they're juiced and there's 40 chickens out there ready to butcher next week. Guess I'll stack cases and make a new temporary coffee table. Now if I can get that woodshed filled I'll be all set, know any handsome hunks with a good back? I got the chainsaw.
Sure wasn't much time to play this summer tho. So little good weather that between rainstorms I feel like I have to get a month's worth of work done in a day every time the sun shows up. I'm off to the berry patch one more time, somebody tell the bears.

When the kitchen and pantry are full, almost forgot part of the barn is used for storing dry goods like beans etc (always repacked into jars, don't want any vermin to get what's mine), I use closets, under the bed, even under the kitchen table.... any place I can find. lol May have to start begging the dog to give up his bed area and kennel. Good thing canned goods last a LONG time. I am eating jellies canned over 5 years ago.

[AlaskaNana]

Originally Posted by AK-Cathy

Zucchini...argggh! Normally if I don't pick daily at this point I end up with big battleships of fruit. But this year? Good looking plants and pretty much all really big male flowers, (good for stuffing) same for the yellow crookneck squash and pumpkins though a few of those have set fruit. The patty pan squash are putting on but slow. I got a few good cucumbers and then the plants just yellowed and wilted. Radishes bolted early. Lettuce still is a bumper crop, too bad it doesn't keep and sadly our produce fridge in the garage died full of greenery. We came home after a couple of days away to three types of cooked lettuce, wilted tatsoi, desiccated parsley and a limp yellowing mess of the best bok choy ever. Normally that keeps into the fall. Our compost was well fed, another arggh!

On the plus side my rhubarb and raspberries are gifts that keep on giving. We put up enough jam for the year, in addition to eating a lot of fresh berries that are still coming on, plus some domestic current jelly but our cherries aren't making it too far from the tree being relatively new and this being the first real crop, we are eating them off of the tree. Apples are looking good but my two dogs are figuring out what there is to eat out there in the yard and a couple of the lower apples are missing in action as were the strawberries, tatsoi and lettuce that they could reach. Others have moose, I have fruit and vegetable loving dogs. Celery, radicchio, kale, kohlrabi, herbs and potatoes are very happy. I'll be picking lowbush cranberries soon for sauce and jelly. It's really feeling like fall now.

I have a really little watermelon that just started a month ago. What the ....? Everything is all messed up. My blackberries, and the bushes elsewhere I pick from, are really plentiful this year. My cherries, only a 2 year tree, set then froze amd fell off. Maybe next year. I have 8 ball squash along with crook neck, straight yellow, patty pan, acorn and a spaghetti squash my mom convinced me to plant. Also have a pumpkin. The watermelon and pumpkin my grandson convinced me to try. the watermelon set 1 fruit and it is a small as a softball right now. The pumpkin has 1 and 4 flowers. We'll see. The current pumpkin is basketball size and just really exploded in growth this last week, didn't even know I had one last week. lol My Butternut squash died so I am really dissapointed since I LOVE butternut and they keep sooo long. Ate butternut from last year right up to this year's planting. Hoping some friends will swap zuccinni and butternut for yellow squash. Pretty sure they will. Also have red and spanish onions, sweet peppers and bells, along with tomatos growing. Had bean plants until the deer decided the PLANT, not the actual beans, were good to eat! Don't mind them eating the apples, I have 4 with 2 being multi variety, since there are so many they fall off and rot before I can get rid of them. Still over stocked with apple products from last year. May try drying a few. Blasted deer are gonna cause me to have venison on the table soon. Hmmm no permit needed if on my property and eating my crops? Only illegal if I get caught. Don't you just love it when you can sit back and look at all that food put up and ready for winter? Better go see what I need to harvest. Then its off for more berries, I can't get enough since I make cobblers, syrup, juice, jelly, jams, pancakes, muffins ...... you get the idea, out of them. I did discover, last year that red raspberries don't can well. Either a lesson learned or I did something wrong. I did them in a light syrup cold pack like my other berries but after they cooled they were floating, I had packed them tight before I proccessed them, and pale in color. Taste good in pancakes though. Fruit, other than apples, is the one thing I never have enough of since the grandsons come and eat them and then take lots home. lol gotta teach their mom to can. She says she wants to but not enough time with 4 kids, another on the way and hubby deployed. Don't know what her problem is. Sounds like an excuse to me lol She does in live in Wa so she can easily get what she wants without the work AND she has her boys "liberate" some of Nana's jellys and jams when they come to visit. Their line is I "failed to properly secure" my stack. Can you tell they have an Army dad? Oh well, I really don't mind atleast I know they are eating well out of my stock. Never know what's in the store bought junk. Really gotta go. Fruits are waiting on me to pick.

[NOTAM]

does rhubarb grow as far north as Fairbanks? how bout berries? like my favorites-the salmonberries and blueberries?