Potatoes & Berries

Potato Fruits (True Potato Seed) 

The past few weeks have been quite interesting in my garden.
First in the picture above you'll notice some fruit that look like cherry tomatoes, but really they are potato fruit/true potato seeds. In all my years of gardening this is the first time a potato plant has ever done this for me. I've long heard of this mythical fruit but never experienced it first hand.
Yes, you are hearing tones of giddiness over potato fruits.
Yeah- I probably need to get out more...

Potato Fruit of Yukon Gold Potatoes

I've picked a couple of the softer feeling ones and they are hanging out on the windowsill inside. I've heard various methods of extracting the seeds but I'm thinking about doing what I do to get my tomato seeds. Smash/wait/strain/dry/store. This is my first time planting Yukon Gold potatoes which are apparently known to frequently produce these fruits.


Onto the great berry research of 2012.
Can you tell the difference between a blackberry, tayberry, loganberry, olallieberry and a marionberry?
It can be quite confusing.
I have raspberries, blackberries and marionberries in my garden. (In my garden loosely applies to the blackberry because in my parts these fruit bearing vines are spawns of satan that invade everything! It's a weed!)

Marionberries

But after some discussion with a friend (while we picked blueberries on a local farm) she mentioned that she recently went tayberry picking. I mentioned that I preferred loganberries (duh, I'm from Whidbey Island) over tayberries. Her son then asked what those berries were and my friend responded "They're both a blackberry/raspberry cross."
Which they are and apparently they are not alone.

Berry Pedigrees (Graph credit to knewance.com)

Like children each hybrid takes one a trait from the parent. Loganberries tend to be more of a deep red like a raspberry but on the tart side like a blackberry. Tayberries are larger and a bit sweeter than the loganberries. Its a crazy matrix of qualities and characteristics. I spent a good hour or so just reading about them all. How their brambles & vines trail and grow. When they typically ripen in the year and of course their tastes. Personally I jam all of my berries so I guess I am mostly indifferent on preference. I'm definitely no berry connoisseur. How about you?  Did you even realize there were so many choices here? It's kinda fascinating. 

:) Thea

Senior Year - College Tours

Last week I dropped off Jina at her first choice college.
Over the past year we've received a lot college informational mail, but we hadn't received anything from her first choice college. We were a little worried. Mainly because a lot of kids that would normally apply to the big university closest to where we live has cut their in state student acceptance to take in more out of state students (more money). Which pushes in state kids to other colleges in state. We worried for a second that Jina's first choice college was going to pass up promoting itself because their applicants have been upped since the big university has done what it has done.

Then it came.
A special invite for academically high achieving students - WWU Western Scholars Invitational

It's a program that hosts 175 students for a 3 day stay on campus at the student residences. The students got to experience the college, lectures, faculty and local tours. Even discussion on the application process for enrollment into the university which was probably the greatest benefit for the entire weekend if you ask me. If you ask Jina she'll tell you it was all the great people and great places in the university. 

When I picked her up she already claimed to have her roommates picked out for dormitory living (that she met there), sworn off her car and stated she needs a bike instead and griped how she has to live through her senior year in high school. She wants to go to college now. 

She clearly had a great time and great experience with this program. Other colleges must offer this sort of thing but I've only noticed invites for day tours of campuses. Which I do highly recommend, we've eliminated a couple colleges based on those. Although this particular tour was catered for "high cap" students there are tours for the regular student too. Keep your eyes peeled for any tour really. 

So on the mom side of things, I got a taste of departure of my eldest baby. Which is odd to say as I have friends that just had a baby this weekend. I feel so ahead of time, but I started much earlier than most do these days and as we look ahead to a year full of adventures and accolades of high school's Senior Year  I can already envision next year preparing her for real departure to college. It will be bittersweet for sure. 

xo-Thea