30-09-2008, 06:23 PM
posted to sci.bio.botany,sci.bio.misc,sci.agriculture
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: May 2008
Posts: 104
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Optimal strategy on black-walnut harvest, and then there waspears
Should have included sci.bio.botany
wrote:
Well yesterday marked the start of the black-walnut harvest and the
end of the pear harvest.
I love canning pears because they are the fruit that are the least
preparation and paring. Pears
are easier than apples and far faster because with pears they are
seldom containing worm holes
or other insect attacks. The pear season ended abruptly for me after a
strong wind storm and
all the pears were on the ground. And funny how the roaming roosters
and hens of the neighborhood
hung out near the pear trees. Roosters love pears more than I do, it
seems.
Now for me, pears are a last pick as favorites to eat, but when pears
are combined with whip cream
or heavy cream milk, well, pears instantly become my first pick as a
dessert after a meal.
My harvesting of fruit, vegetables and nuts is going swell this year
for I now have 360 liters (quarts
to our USA readers) set for winter. I did not get any glass liters of
strawberries this year as I had
to move the plants last year, at least the ones I was able to save
from the horse and donkey and
llama. Boy, put those three into a pasture that has strawberries and
you are lucky to have any
strawberries remaining. But this coming year I have a system of
putting the strawberries in
pots and for winter I dig holes in the Fall and cover with straw and
then put in pots by Spring.
So next year I should have 200 or 300 pots of strawberries starting
out and thus able to
cann as many liters as I desire.
The apple harvest is soon to end and I made plenty of ginger and
cinnamon applesauce. Here
again I had to compete with the horse and llama over the apples and
ended up having to
separate them out of the pasture from the apple trees. Llamas are very
destructive of young
trees.
Yesterday I started the black-walnut harvest and here I have to get an
optimal strategy for
harvesting and preparing. The trouble here is to get the hand staining
coat off and to store
the nuts safe from squirrels and rodents. Once I get the nut clean
from the coat, then I can
store in buckets in the back room of the house. The best way I see for
removal of coat is to
have set out on the ground and let Nature take off the coat, but the
squirrels get to them.
After the black-walnut harvest remains the remainder of the tomatoes
and the potatoes. I usually
make a fresh potato salad with the potato harvest. Fresh celery, dijon
mustard, mayo, organic
onions, fresh squeezed lemon, sliced eggs, and a sensational potato
salad. Fresh potato salad,
not refrigerated.
Then there is a few liters of rhubarb to cann and I usually end the
canning season by buying
organic cranberry and making about 10 liters of cranberry sauce.
I have hazelnut bushes coming and maybe see the day when I can harvest
fresh organic
hazelnuts along with black-walnuts.
Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies
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