This is one Mean Old Lady!

This is one Mean Old Lady!
Self-portrait: 'Quilter on Fire'

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Summer Harvest

Even though we took out our large patch of elderberries, the birds generously 'planted' volunteer shrubs in various spots in the yard. The eight-foot specimen in our utility area has been quite productive. (The size of the berries is much larger than those of the wild elderberries that one sees growing everywhere.) Elderflowers are very fragrant--and were an ingredient in the Mueller-Thurgau wine that my husband made last year. (Lovely.) Aren't the red stems pretty?

Our other harvest-- figs! I don't know the variety--the 'bush' was given to me by a friend. This is the second year it has produced, and the figs are much larger, plus the bush is loaded!












And the final picture--in case you didn't think the figs were very attractive--shows the lovely pink center of a fresh fig.

6 comments:

  1. I have no idea why the text came out wonky on this post. In the preview, it looked fine! Tsk.

    ReplyDelete
  2. don't worry about the text; the produce looks beautiful. All we have is squash (All we have are squash? discuss).

    ReplyDelete
  3. I vote for 'are,' but I don't know why I think that, as 'squashes' would be correct as a plural. Ow, now my head hurts!

    ReplyDelete
  4. How interesting! We have some elderberry bushes, but it seems the birds get to the berries before we do. My husband is also a wine maker and had hoped to use elderberries/flowers in that endeavor. So where does your husband get his grapes (or grape concentrate)? We are growing Marechal Foche grapes here. After our unusually severe winter, the grapes look fabulous for the first time since we planted them about 10 years ago.

    Re figs, mine look the same as yours. The bush was here when we moved in, and now it is more like a tree. It is situated such that we can climb out the bathroom window and onto a roof in order to pick some of the higher figs, plus we can climb some stairs going up behind the fig tree and pluck some that way too. I already commented on the subject of freezing the excess. My husband tried to make wine out of them one year, but there was a strange aftertaste that didn't appeal to him.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Grape and Granary, in Ohio, is a favorite source for juices. Now that we can no longer get fresh cider (new regulations made many folks stop pressing) he buys pasteurized (but otherwise untreated) juice at Kroger for the dry apple wine he makes. Elderberries have a sticky exudate that is heck to clean up...but he has enough for at least one more batch.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice. "Elderberries" and "figs" are just words to me, really, but they make pretty pictures here.

    ReplyDelete


Rose 'Crepuscular'

Asparagus bed--post harvest

Lake Conway Mutti und Kinder