Berry tastic!

Bit quiet on the blogging front and a mixed year growing wise...Summer came and went - did it actually arrive...well we had some blue sky days but not many.   This year the berries and flowers have been great....not such a great year for veg....poor performances from the runner beans, courgettes and toms (which last year kept us pretty in stock and surplus for freezing and making into chutney and such like)

However blueberries, rasps, blackberries and plums are all cropping so well! You can see this was just one pick....in the kitchen ready to be made into bluberry compote, froze some and ate the others!

A great plant, pretty easy to look after and rewarding....just watch out for the blackbirds who love them!

In the garden we have Blackberry Loch Ness, this fruits on shoots put up the year before...it is a thornless variety and has large fruits...like a lot of soft fruit you need to pick it at its best, and a sure fire way is to just touch or gently pull and if it falls off in your hand it is ready to eat - if you have to tug at it to pick - leave it....the sun (hahaha) ripens and makes them even sweeter.   I love blackberries, that almost caramel smell of them as you cook them.....yum

 

Not sure if I have said before, but I am a sucker for a poorly plant....this plum tree was a bare twig, outside a discount store  - I took it in....Now it was advertised as a Victoria...it sure isn't that...maybe Marjories Seedling, but we only had two fruits last year - look at it this year!  So gardening seems to be swings and roundabouts...I won't be too sad at failures, and thankful for what we have.  Plum crumble.........