Any Berry/Fruit Picking This Summer?

[Bakershalfdozen]

Are you doing any berry/fruit picking and/or preserving this summer?

We picked strawberries at a local farm last week, and I froze most of those. I'd like to do more, but most of the farms around here only have blueberries later in the summer. Blueberries are fine, but I still have some from last year in my freezer.

[pneu-engine]

Are you doing any berry/fruit picking and/or preserving this summer?

We picked strawberries at a local farm last week, and I froze most of those. I'd like to do more, but most of the farms around here only have blueberries later in the summer. Blueberries are fine, but I still have some from last year in my freezer.

Our area has black raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. Great big black sweet cherries and sour pie cherries are now in season too.

My own black raspberry patch was doing wonderfully well until the mulberry trees emptied out. Those trees kept the birds well occupied and out of my patch but now that they are gone the birds are cleaning out the remainder of the raspberries. Next year I'll have to have a repellent system for the birds.

Part of the enjoyment of producing our own fruits and veggies is preparing the patches and beds for next growing season.

To this end we:::::::::::::

...mowed off the strawberry bed except for one thin single row of plants. On top of the mowed-off plants we layered fresh steer manure from right out of the feedlot. This stuff was piled on ~6" deep and then covered over thickly with grass clippings. The existing row of plants will send out runners into this newly formed "bed". The plants at the ends of the runners will establsh themselves into this new bed and become next year's fruit-bearing plants.

...cut off and pulled out this current year's fruit bearing black raspberry canes to make room for the new cane-growth that is now coming on strong. They are presently over nine feet tall because of the top-dressing of steer manure (it was layered on at least ~10" thick and 12" out around and between the plants) in mid March this year. It was then all covered over thickly with grass clippings.