The Magic Thing About Berry Season

 

 

A handful of garden berries, perfect for the hot day!

What's magic about berry season?  No matter how much you pick, there are just as many or more berries the following day! 

The past few days, many of us here at the ESL have been sneaking out to the garden to grab a few blueberries and raspberries.  Sometimes it's just a handful, other days I watch full containers leave the garden.  Well --I think to myself-- I guess I'll have to wait a few days until there are ripe blueberries again.  MUCH to my surprise, the next day there are a tremendous amount of berries that grew and ripened just overnight. 
If you've ever had a blueberry or raspberry patch, this is nothing new to you.  But for me, especially in this heat, each day is a joyous occasion and surprise at all the berries available for picking!


On another note, I've been experimenting with the different plants in the herb garden located in the raised bed furthest to the back.  You can see it's location in this photo from when we were constructing the raised beds.

The herb bed is made from cinder blocks, all the herbs were planted before we got here

Now that the plants are in full bloom, I've been having fun with a dehydrator that Carrie brought to the ESL, drying camomile, lavender, chives, and oregano so far!

The tiered dehydrator allows for drying many herbs at the same temperature all at once

Carlene, one of the GardenShare employees, was nice enough to bring in a book on dehydrating food for us to look at.  I'm hoping to read a bit of it on my free time and maybe experiment with some fruits and veggies!

--Sheila