Herbs, Fruits, Solanums and Broody Hens

Shadow with one of her babies in 2015

The garden continues to flourish. Plants are flowering and I'm starting to see the harvest potential of others.

Here is the garden this week 

Sage, marjoram and oregano were harvested and dried this week 

As I thought, the peach has set very well this year. The plum has also set better than I initially thought and I think it may top 50#

The sweet cherry has set very well also. Unfortunately this may be its final year as a third of the tree spontaneously died in late April. Though we plan to remove the dead wood and monitor the health of the remaining tree, I will also be planting a couple new trees to replace this one. It is around 30 years old and very likely at the end of its productive lifespan 

I did the final thinning of the apple trees this week 

My espaliered pear tree only set one fruit this year. Boooo! Oh well, it's only three years old so maybe next year it'll have better fruit set

All of the tomatoes are pumping out oodles of blossoms and several plants have set fruit. I am cautiously optimistic about this as the plants are following a similar pattern to the 2015 garden season in which I had my largest harvests ever

The Red Pontiac and German Butterball potatoes are blooming

Not surprisingly, the best looking potato plants are the Yellow Finns growing in the compost pile (see this Link for a brief history on my connection with this variety)

The pineberries that I rescued from a discount rack last year are fruiting and throwing out tons of runners. They don't taste like a pineapple strawberry cross as advertised, but they are delicious. And, of course, they have the added benefit of being cool looking

Five of my hens are broody. The two black australorp hens go broody every year but this is the first time my cuckoo marans have done it. The australorps are sweet, calm hens who allow me to remove the eggs each day with minimal complaints. The marans, on the other hand, are downright mean. I have to wear garden gloves to get the eggs from them as they will bite hard enough to draw blood

Weekly harvest 

4 ounces herbs

3 ounces strawberries 

Yearly total

8 pounds 7 ounces