Category Archives: Fruit

This Garlic is Bananas

Posted on September 5, 2011 by

Actually, it’s a leek. Allium ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum, or Elephant Garlic, to be exact. This is a single “clove,” and it’s comically huge. I picked up a pound of it, which amounts to about six or so cloves, at Peaceful … Continue reading →

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Grape Juice the Color of a Jewel

Posted on August 29, 2011 by

This season has been terrible for most summer annuals – tomatoes, peppers, squash, and the like – but fantastic for the small fruits in the garden.  Blueberries, gooseberries, lingonberries, and currants have all been ridiculously productive, and I even harvested … Continue reading →

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Of Claimers and Disclaimers and Wild Plants

Posted on August 24, 2011 by

I’m reading Samuel Thayer’s excellent guide to edible wild plants, Nature’s Garden.  Not only is it a lovely book, full of wonderful photos and informative text, but the very first pages, consisting of a Warning followed by a Claimer (as … Continue reading →

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Foraging vs. Harvesting

Posted on August 20, 2011 by

I like foraging (which here I’ll define as wandering around the garden, picking this and that and eating it) much better than I like harvesting, which usually is usually a hot, mosquito-ridden endeavor that involves a bowl, bucket or some … Continue reading →

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Citizens of the Food Forest

Posted on July 19, 2011 by

I’ve been working on selecting plants to fill out the various levels in the food forest.  I’m basing my selections on the following criteria: Prior history of local success.  That is, do the plants succeed in the garden proper, or … Continue reading →

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Maybe This Year, a Pomegranate

Posted on July 19, 2011 by

Two flowers so far this year, and perhaps one will grow up to become an actual fruit?  The plant has been in the ground for three or four years, and it sort of fruited last year, producing a few flowers … Continue reading →

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Harvest – Blueberries, Garlic and Eggplant

Posted on July 16, 2011 by

Back in the garden after a week in Glacier National Park in Montana.  Lots of interesting plants in Montana, including bear grass, lanceleaf stonecrop, a native succulent, and Rosa woodsii, a wild rose similar to the California wild roses that … Continue reading →

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A Beginning and an End

Posted on June 24, 2011 by

From the gardener’s perspective, flowers represent the beginning or the end of an annual’s useful life. Spring and summer annuals are generally planted for their fruiting bodies – think tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and squash, while fall and winter vegetables are … Continue reading →

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Ridiculous Abundance

Posted on June 21, 2011 by

Gardening is about cycles and rhythms.  Last year, the blueberries took the year off, producing basically half of what they do in a good year.  This year, on the other hand, the bushes are outdoing themselves.  Ridiculous abundance.  These will … Continue reading →

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Annuity Crops

Posted on May 24, 2011 by

Perennials are an investment.  That is, you put them in the ground, and then sooner or later – two, three, five, ten years down the line – you hope to have fruit or flowers.  So it is with many plants … Continue reading →

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