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

Mother Earth News Fair

This is a cross post from my personal blog but it was so much fun I have to share it here too.

Rebekah's latest Senior Year Project post will be posted tomorrow. Poor thing has been without internet and sick for the past few days. That's cruel and unusual punishment from the universe!

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Apologies on the lack of crafty posts. I've been up to other things. Ya know, trying to keep my life interesting and enriched. :)

This past weekend I helped out my friend Jessi with her booth at the Mother Earth News Fair in Puyallup, Washington.

It was a totally different type of show of what I'm personally used to but it was a lot of fun.

I felt like I was totally exposed to my friend's "other life". You think you know someone well and then you witness them in "work mode" and its a whole new person.  It was awesome!

Jessi drew a massive crowd for her "What the Cluck" talk. Times like this I go into my "older sister" pride mode for her. She had people who were shoulder to shoulder rolling with laughter while taking notes.

Her book sold out completely. (I've seen this happen at two different shows now!)

And she has really fun garden world friends. I'm totally comparing them to my extremely fun crafty friends. It would be one insanely fun party if those two worlds could collide. Apparently we're all drinkers.

Erica from NW Edible stopped by. Love, love, love her blog and highly recommend it to my local friends.

The super funny Lisa Taylor stopped by the booth before she it the stage. If you ever have the opportunity to listen to one of her talks, you must! She is hilarious.

Jessi's publishing company (Timberpress) reps were so fun! My eyes started leaking a couple times from laughing so hard.

And a special shout out to my new crush Ivette Soler. First she is absolutely beautiful, gorgeous porcelain skin. She is also wise and real - I totally got that from her just from a 20 minute conversation with her. I am totally buying her book The Edible Front Yard.

I could gush about the whole weekend but honestly I'm pooped. I didn't think I would be since I didn't have to do any real work so to speak. It's exhausting to have so much fun!

Here's a slideshow of the pictures I took in case you're interested.

Happy Monday!

-Thea

Everything is popping up!

Broken pot but the flowers don't care.

Aside from having random sneezing sessions I really love spring.  Varying shades of green reappear among our dark evergreens.

Lily of the valley flowers.

I actually love all the seasons, not that we actually get them all in the Pacific Northwest but I think I genuinely like them all.  I am especially excited about spring this year because I installed a much larger gardening space in my backyard. 

New garden bed - early spring 2012. View from the second floor.

I needed more room for bigger foods, like potatoes, corn and squashes. 

Potatoes are coming!

This year with my teenagers seemingly eating up all my groceries as soon as I buy them,  I decided to make an effort to grow as much food as my yard would allow. I've always grown the basics for salads including tomatoes but I wanted to take it up a notch.

Rhubarb

My kids do participate with gardening. They help me with weeding, removing rocks, watering & general maintenance.  Even simple stuff helps and everyone likes to harvest what has grown. Especially fresh peas.... mmmmm!

Baby tomatoes

I know gardening has been really trendy the past few years among folks in my age group. I think its wonderful and a great sign that people really do care about what they eat and using your spaces to the maximum. Its really such a shame to have a huge lawn and not do anything with it. Right?

On a semi related the Northwest's favorite chicken lady is doing her East Coast leg of her book tour right now. If you happen to be in the Washington DC/Maryland area and are interested in learning to keep chickens be sure to make it out to see her talks.

And don't forget to grab her book too!

Enjoy your gardens!

Thea

Meet - Jessi

Contributor Jessi is a wonderful bank of knowledge when it comes to world of trees and plants.
She's a fellow native Washingtonian who happens to be a dear friend of mine.
I cornered her with a few questions so have a read & get to know Jessi!

1.) Who are you & where do you reside?

I'm Jessi Bloom, a garden obsessed mama living in rural-ish Snohomish County, just north of the Seattle area.

2.) Family Stats?

I'm married to my high school honey, we have 2 boys (10 and 7) and a plethora of farm animals.

Jessi & her high school sweetheart heart husband. 

3.) 3 words that describe your parenting style.

Patience-- Loving--Teacher

4.) One thing you've learned since becoming a mom?

 Just one thing!?  I think the biggest thing that I've learned is that life is so much more than it was before.  More love, more fun, more stress, but overall, more meaningful.  

5.) One thing you'd like to apologize to your parents for now, if anything?

My teenage years... sorry Mom for making you worry!   

6.) Favorite family night movie?

Its hard for all four of us to agree on stuff like this, but I'd have to say "How to Train Your Dragon " is up there at the top of the list.  I've found that these days most kid movies are much better than movies for grown ups.

7.) What is the number one thing on your bucket list?

Travel more -- I need to go to Spain and Ireland... or Brazil, or Costa Rica... anywhere really that is outside of the US.

8.) Absolute favorite thing to eat?

Another tough question Thea - geez! What first comes to mind is anything that reminds me of summer cookouts. But because I have a weakness for comfort food I'd have to say that my homemade apple pie kicks ass and is one of the best things ever...especially with my favorite coconut ice cream.

9.) One thing unique about you?

Dude.. I have no idea... help? 

- Thea here on behalf of Jessi: One of the unique qualities that I know Jessi to have - she is a plant saver. In the past 7-8 years of our friendship I have witnessed many occasions of her saving plants that are on the brink of death. To me, a regular gal - I would dismiss a plant that looked like it was on its deathbed but her - her heart is so big that she will nurture it to the best of her ability to give it life. She's great like that, a kind heart to go with her beautiful face.

Thea & Jessi adorned with moss while out on a walk in the Cascades.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know Jessi and be sure to check back with us often to catch Jessi's posts (but not limited to) garden stuff.

xo-Thea

Fun Fact: Re-grow Green Onions

Did you know you can re-grow green onions?

Green Onions on the 3rd re-growth.

Its true! Don't toss out those white stringy parts of your green onions. Leave about an inch and a half of the ends bundle them up with a rubber band and set them in a clear glass filled with water. Make sure it is in a sunny spot (mine isn't in a super sunny spot) and watch the magic happen over the next few days.

Keep the water clean and you'll have green onions on hand for a couple months!
A neat trick I learned from my dad who was a huge onion fan.

Enjoy-Thea

Around the House - Things to do this fall

Our resident "garden" guru Jessi fills us in on a few things you can do around the house & yard around this time of year. 
Read on - you'll happily think twice about bagging up those leaves before guests arrive this Thursday.

A few simple things to do in your garden this fall:

1) Drain and disconnect your garden hoses and store them on your shed or garage.  
If temperatures drop below 25 degrees where you live, it is a good idea to insulate your hose bib. 
I was unable to locate an exact picture of a hose bib insulation cup- but Thea saw a crate full of them at the entry way of a Home Depot for about a dollar.  They are really easy to "install".

2) Do your trees need work? 
If you have large trees in your landscape, it is a good idea to have them evaluated by a qualified professional before the storm season.  My recommendation is to contact a Certified ISA Arborist. http://bit.ly/slEOLz 
Be careful about getting advice from uncertified individuals or companies who are just out looking for work.  For smaller trees, pruning can wait until later in the winter.

3) Leave your leaves! 
For some reason it has been ingrained in us for decades now to clean up all the leaves in the fall then bag them up and ship them off, or even worse: burn them.  But no, please stop! Leaves are a great thing to keep in your garden - compost them, or shred them and use them as mulch in your garden beds. Just be sure to not bury your plants with them and don't allow them to accumulate near storm drains in the street.  The one exception about reusing leaves: any diseased plant leaves should be removed from your garden.


Just a couple things to think about before the really bad weather moves in. Small preventative maintenance things can save you headaches and cash in the long run.


Enjoy the season!

Minis

Small foods are cute right?

Mini foods from my garden. -Photo by Thea

2 mini cucumbers
1 mini bell pepper
1 mini Hungarian hot pepper

I have no justification as to why I picked these other than my lack of patience.

Well actually I think I did to feel better about my mass amount of green tomatoes that I have in the garden.  I'm thinking about going out and picking them anyways and letting them ripen inside on the counter. I know there are about a million tips, tricks & myths on how to get your tomatoes to ripen inside. But for me, just bringing them in and letting them hang out in the kitchen on the counter seems to do the trick. (For me at least.) How about you? Or do you just bring them in & fry them up? ^_^

Green Heirloom Tomato - Photo by Thea

Mmmmm! I can think of about 20 dishes that could use some tasty tomatoes!

*Off to make dinner!*

xo-Thea

Small Space Planter

Sorry for this quickie.  (I've a little dental saga for a couple of day.)
But in my pain killer daze I happened upon this:

Photo from Apartment Therapy

I wish I would've thought of this when I was a city apartment dweller. I longed for flowers or just something that grew in dirt when we used to live in a basement apartment. This seems like it would be highly customizable to your space. I'm planning on suggesting something like this to my mom who has a terraced yard with some "dead" spaces.

-Thea