My garden is growing...all by itself.

My garden

Nasturtiums for salads

Onions are almost fully grown.

Our favorite squash, Lakota, is doing well in the new patch.

Foxglove and State Fair Zinnias provide lots of color.

The Italians only grow one kale.

Lacinato Nero de Toscana.

There is a reason.  It is delicious, nutritious and easy to grow and handle.  

These peppers where planted by mistake.  They are quite large.  

Do you know what they are? And do you have a recipe?  Could one stuff them? 

My tuberous begonias never disappoint.  I can't remember how old they are.  

They go into a dark corner in my greenhouse and I don't see them until April of the following year.  

Everything is maturing all at once...there is not enough time in the day to get it all harvested. 

There will be lots of vegetables and fruits to share with friends and neighbors 

There will be lots of apples this year for the pig farmer.

This turned out to be the best mixed lettuce seed packet. 

I'm heading for Italy soon.  Will look for another.

This is one of the last hollyhocks, a reminder to gather their seeds. 

My old rose bushes surprise me with a few blooms now and then.  

Wishing you a great week ahead.

Gina 

https://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Let's turn on the heat

On Ice Grapes
and make raisins out of them.

Grapes are left on the vine until they freeze.  Ice grapes are used for a very special wine, Ice Wine, a desert wine.

If ever you come across 

"Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Spätlese", be sure to take it home with you.   

I was up at the crack of dawn.

Because I noticed that birds had discovered our Himrod Ice Grapes.  

We had to pick them. Can't wait for the frost and snow. 

 Raisins they will be.

We saved a few for table grapes.  

The basket is more than 30 years old (see below).

Off to the Bank goes Mr G. 
All come out to pick their favorite squash. 

(Who is in charge inside?)

The basket (above) brings back wonderful memories.
  
The La Mamounia Hotel in Marrakesh filled this basket with exotic fruits to fortify us for the long drive to Casablanca. 

That was more than 30 years ago.  

Have a great weekend, dear friends,

Gina 

Nature has been generous

And I love it all

We never know what kind of year we're going to have.  
It's either feast or famine.

I'm not bashful. I call it what it is,  Fabulous. 

We had to harvest our grapes a few days early.  

The wasps showed up before the grapes were completely ripe. Wasps dessicate our grapes in only two days. 

We had to get up very early, while it was still dark.  Wasps wait until the sun comes out before they leave their hiding places.

They will come after you. 

Juiced by hand, nothing added. 

Raw Interlaken Grape juice.

Picked yesterday morning...

In the freezer this afternoon.

Peaches are next.

I knew it would break...too many peaches for a young tree. 

These peaches will be ripe in about a week. 

Will share with friends...they get the pleasure of picking their own. 

Did I tell you that I love picking fruit, high up on a ladder looking at the blue sky and the puffy, white clouds. 

We also have two older peach trees, "Early Albertas".  They always ripen early.  

Early Albertas are cling free and easy to peel and they have a most superior flavor...in other words they are the perfect peach. 

Late grapes (if they survive) will become golden raisins.

  Papaver Somniferum still blooming in my garden.  
I'm saving seeds.

If you're in the neighborhood.  Stop by.  
The ladder is leaning up against the tree. 

Gina

Cold Press - First Press

First Press, Cold Press, Virgin Organic 

Interlaken Grape Juice.
Produced by Villa Vista, 2015. 

Ready to be washed.

All done by hand with my old sieve and wooden pestle. 

Now to the Freezer.  

The last Pickles and Beets canned the day before. 
Ready to go to the cellar.


Have a great week dear friends. 
Gina 

http://www.frenchcountrycottage.net/

We are lucky this year.

Even though the apricot blossoms froze early this Spring, we have, for the first time in many years,  peaches, beautiful peaches. 

We had no fruit last year.  Not even apples, pears or plums.  Everything froze. 

We had grapes.  But a horde of flies came by and in two days sucked every bit of juice out of every grape.  

This year is different.

Even my old roses made it through the cold winter and my Sweet Peas have never looked better.

And peaches, Early Albertas appeared on the trees as if by magic. 

We will have Asian Pears and Apples and Plums and hardy winter Pears.  

The kitchen garden is overflowing.

And we will have grapes.  They are almost ripe and I don't see many flies.

We captured them, by the millions, lured into a terrible smelling trap.  


Have a great remainder of the week. 

Gina 

http://www.frenchcountrycottage.net/

You can't cry over spilled milk

This has been a strange growing year.  

We have no pears, they froze and so did all of our other fruit trees.  Yes, even apples and plums. 

There was hope, our Interlaken grapes were ripening.

There would be enough Champagne Grape Jelly to share with friends and family. 

Not so.  In only 2 days,  flies, yes flies have destroyed our entire grape harvest.  

Have you heard of such a thing?  

Yellow Jackets and Wasps have had their way with our grapes in the past.  But NEVER flies.

So far the only fruit I have canned are Red Currants. 

Our root vegetables are doing well. 

And we have a fine crop of Sunflowers. 

So, all is not lost. 


Have a great remainder of the week my dear 
Friends, 

Gina