My garden progress - and the first harvest

[BigBrownDogHouse]

Originally Posted by tam91

I am a great honorary Aunt. Supply of cake, ice cream, etc? Practically endless. I cook. This week - homemade strawberry ice cream, from hand-picked strawberries of course. And chocolate dipped ones to look like they have tuxedos. And fresh strawberry pie.

Oh yeah, there might be some "real" food produced in addition to the sweets I suppose.

Real food? But Auntie! That will be as bad as being at home!

I may be picking on my girls. My older one, who is celebrating her 12th birthday today, has an awesome apetite. She'll try anything and she eats raw tomatoes like popcorn.
She's growing like a weed, 90% for height, and has a zest for food. Wide range of tastes but her sweet tooth gets the best of her. We really have to watch her.

Now my youngest(10 year old) is a much more picky eater but at least doesn't have as much of an apetite for junk food as the older one. She has also grown to like tomatoes too. That started last summer.
Older one eats everything in sight both good and bad, younger one is much more finicky on both ends.

Strawberries and chocolate are right up their alley. Use to grow strawberries years back but my one Chocolate Lab at the time would help herself to all the ripe fruit. I thought it was really cute! She was such a nutty dogger!

[tam91]

Well we'll be picking the strawberries up at a farm in McHenry, I don't grow my own unfortunately. But they'll still be delicious.

See... send those girls over for an afternoon of strawberry dipping - that's such a fun age for girls!

[SteveS]

Woohoo!!! Picked the first mater tonite! Black Cherry won the race. The other candidates (out of 61) were Gardener's Delight & Orange-Green Zebra. Now technically, it isn't dead ripe, but I wanted to get it before anything else had a chance. So I am looking forward to Thursday!
Now, with my wife & son, that is not going to be very much, but hopefully within 2 wks I will be harvesting multiple fruits daily.

SteveS

[tam91]

Oh, now I'm excited - the first greenie on Sudduth's. I am really looking forward to trying this one, as it seems to be the "classic" heirloom tomato, and I've never had one.

I keep checking the blossoms I've bagged on multiple varieties, to see if any fruit has set. None yet though. Hopefully this cool weather will help, as they won't get too hot inside the bags. I did get some of the 5x7 bags at the craft store, and replaced the nylons. It seems easier to check on the blossoms, and hopefully cooler.

[tam91]

Well lots of mine have greenies now, and almost all have flowers. The only "holdouts" are Neves and Pineapple - not a flower in sight. Hmm. Hope they get going.

On a different note, I sure hope I like Kosovo - because if any fraction of these blossoms set fruit, I'm gonna have LOTS. Silly plant has enough blossoms for a cherry!

[kath]

Pineapple is late, which could be why it doesn't have blossoms yet. I'm just growing Neves this year for the first time and it was one of my latest plant outs, so it's blossomless, too. Kosovo had loads of fruit for me last year and I really liked it...the plant got really huge, too. Hope some of your greenies are inside of your bags- if not, they probably will be soon.

[tam91]

Nope, no greenies in the bags yet. Hopefully they will though. I probably didn't bag the first cluster in most cases though.

I know pineapple is late, but so is Sudduth's, and it has greenies already. Ah well, I'll see. I put them all out about the same time, so it's just behaving a bit oddly. Hopefully they'll catch up.

[Irv Wiseguy]

This morning I was surprised to see what looks like first blush on a Chuck's Yellow. It will be the first fruit for me this year.

I have been disappointed in the lack of production in Aunt Gertie's Gold and Ferry Morse Brandywine. They are both big plants with lots of flowers, but most of the blossoms are dropping off. I finally saw two babies on the Brandywine today so there is hope.

Those are beautiful dogs, Tam91. I have been petless since last September when my 14 year old sheltie Angel passed away, but at the end of July I'll be taking in two dogs from a friend that can't keep them so I'm looking forward to having companions in the house again.

Thanks

Irv

[tam91]

Oh thank you. Dogs are the best. I'm glad you're going to get a couple.