The Berries have Started!

The red currants have been picked.

 With a little help from Tommy.

They have been juiced.  Some of the juice was mixed with lemonade.  And some made a deliciously tart sangria with white wine.  The rest is in the freezer.

The black currants have not been picked.  In prior years we have experimented with making black currant wine, but we decided it is too musky for our taste.  We dried the berries one year - took forever and that was just not worth the effort.

We will offer the fruit to friends who can appreciate it (and pick. . .).

Today was the first of the raspberries.  

Picked a quart and a half.

Made juice.

The season has begun. . .

End of June Harvest

The summer has begun.

Parsley is lovely.

Today was the first harvest of peas.

I picked a full strainer.

which yielded a large bowl. Dinner today included

peas, rice-a-roni, chicken francaise, new potatoes.

Next to be picked was red currants.

This is the second year for the bushes.

The yield from three bushes was three cups.

Now it's time to make jelly.

After cooking them a bit, I drained them using

a coffee filter. It came to one and a half cups.

I added the same amount of sugar and cooked.

When it jelled, I had three half-cups.

Wonderful red!

Then I picked the black currants.

When cooked and strained, I had four cups.

This gave me four and one-half cups of dark purple jelly.

I guess I've had a day!