fruit Archives - A Country Girl's Heart -Beats that Matter

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As I look back at July 2019, I cringe I have not posted on this blog. I written bits and pieces, taken pictures and shared a glimpse on Instagram and Facebook. What have I been doing?

I enjoyed time with family and took a business trip where I met up with other bloggers. I have been living a life that allows me to focus on my health.

Chickens

I received my Indiana farmer’s market egg license, and NPIP recertification keeping the farm up to date. I am looking into becoming Certified Naturally Grown and still learning about the process.

I lost a pullet and six 5-week old chicks to racoons. Not everyone agrees on how to deal with predators. There are different ways to address the problem. Let’s look at a few of them. Hopefully, you will either avoid the issue all together or have a plan in place to limit the loss of life to your chickens.

Trap and remove the predator
Increase the strength the chicken pen
End the predator’s life

I lost the only Lemon Cuckoo Niederrheiner rooster I had, but now have 2 Lemon Cuckoo Niederrheiner cockerals from another farm.

Meet Clinch and Cisco. Clinch the quicker of the two to be in charge, and lighter in color. Cisco, with a darker color has a sweet personality.

I took a break from hatching eggs, but I plan to start setting a few select eggs this month. A Swedish Flower Hen went broody so I have new chicks despite my break from using an incubator. This hen is three years old and this is the first time she has went broody. This is my second Swedish Flower Hen to go broody this year.

Cherokee growing up last fall. His girls hatched from Pen # 5 earlier this year.

Two evenings after moving Cherokee in with his pullets from Pen # 5, I found Cherokee overheated. After working with him to cool him down, he was able to once again stand and walk with out assistance. I probably spent 30 minutes helping him. It is a good feeling to know you likely saved one. It doesn’t always turn out good working to save an animal, when it does it makes up for all the times I tried and did not.

Earlier this year I met Maddox when he and his mom picked up chicks. Fast forward to the Marshall County Fair where he showed 2 (rooster and pullet) in an exhibition class. His face when he showed me the first place and grand champion ribbons radiated his joy. I must say I was trilled for both him and the fact the chickens had hatched at CG Heartbeats Farm from a pen I had put together from chicks I had hatched here. I was seeing the fruits of my breeding program.

Farmers Markets

Culver Farmers Market located on the beautiful Lake Maxinkuckee occurs Tuesdays from 5 pm to 7 pm and Saturdays from 9 am to 1 pm. Bremen Farmer’s Market happens on Wendesdays from 4 pm to 7 pm.

If I am to continue attending the 3 markets, I believe I need to find additional produce/crafts to bring for the value to be worth the travel and time involved. These markets provide me a place to learn about what is selling. I also see them as a place to be creative with ideas of what a buyer might be interested in. I enjoy attending farmers markets to be clear.

Vegetables and Fruits

This year I added a new garden space with additional garlic, large, heirloom tomatoes, and a 3 sister plot, made up of glass gem popcorn, Jacob cattle beans, butternut squash, and sugar baby watermelon.

To date I have harvested the 4 varieties of garlic: Music, Montana, German, and Spanish Rojo. At the moment it is hanging to dry, but it will be available to either order online or at the local farmers markets

2019 Garlic Harvest.

I am looking forward to planning and planting even more for 2020.

These plants are heirloom, as you can save seeds from them, and they will yield the same produce year after year. Working toward increased sustainability, one of the goals at CG Heartbeats Farm, includes planting and using seeds that will reproduce themselves and are not genetically motified.

As July has been a much drier month, I have needed to start watering the plants, fruits, and garden. There is a large amount of rust in our water. I did not see a sprinkle a good option as it would spray rusty water all over the plants. I found a soaker hose and gave it a try. Another downer to the rust is that it seems to plug the holes in the soaker hose. I have at times stood with the hose nozzle on shower and low to the ground while watering it myself. Does that make me the sprinkler? I have been known to carry water in buckets to the grapes, and potatoes planted in buckets.

What I have learned:

Pay better attention to the lack of rainfall and water the raspberry plants quicker. I pruned the black raspberries, but not set up ropes or wires to keep the plants in check. Picking would be considerable faster and easier if I had.

I tried planting candy onions in between the rows of garlic, but that did not work out well. The garlic grew much faster blocking the sunlight to the garlic or perhaps the onions needed moisture at the time when garlic did not. What ever the cause I will not try this next year, unless I plant the garlic much farther apart. I found it hard to stay off the onions when harvesting the garlic as close as they were planted.

Going Forward

I have shared the highlights of life on CG Heartbeats Farm in the month of July. For the month of August I plan to share a weekly blog post of daily diary entries of what my life has been. I strive to be open with this. You may or may not agree with it all and at times farm life is not rosey. But if you like the truth, you will appreciate my honestly. I am completely open to your thoughts on the format and opinions. I look forward to hearing any questions you may have.

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I remember as a child a long row or two of raspberries in my Grandpa’s garden. If I remember correctly, he had black and red raspberries. I recall how the row had T-posts at each end and along the strip every so often. In between there was string tided at two levels to support the shoots and keep them from falling over. I do not recall being a big fan of the fruit eat fresh, but I always enjoyed the black raspberry jelly made and canned by my Grandma. I remember eating that yummy jelly with butter on bread.

As I have slowed down the last couple years and given attention to what is happening on this 11 acres, I discovered black raspberries growing freely. I enjoyed a bowl of fresh fruit a few seasons. In the fall of 2017 my Dad helped me transplant 7-9 plants that were growing along the house. We may have removed half of what was growing there. The crazy thing to me is that I did not plant them. Actually that area had been more or less let go and the black raspberries had come up on their own. I had decided to plant my own little patch in the intended garden location. We dug up the sod, drove fence posts and planted the pruned black raspberries.

Do you want to learn how to prune your Black Raspberries? Get your FREE printable of How to Prune Black Raspberries today!

Fast forward to last summer, 2018. I had begun attending a local farmer’s market in Bremen, Indiana. Giving thought to what other items I had to sell at the market, I decided to begin picking the black raspberries growing on the property. I knew they seemed to thrive along the woods. I found two spots where the plants were abundant. One spot in particular produced the largest, sweetest berries. The few plants my Dad and I had transplanted a couple years past were only a drop in the bucket compared to all the plants available to pick from last summer.

I did in fact take some berries to market to sell. I spent a bit of time sharing the company of my parents as we picked one afternoon and enjoyed sending them home with the bounty. I even froze a few small containers of them to savor at a later date. They proved to be a delicious treat in the heat of August, pulling out whole frozen black raspberries to cool down on a hot, humid day. I stretched out eating of the last container of them well into January.

As you can see, over the last year black raspberries have made a delightful impression on me. I observed where the larges berries developed. I remembered hearing my grandfather speaking of pruning black raspberries. I researched information as to how exactly this pruning is to be conducted. I learned that pruning black raspberries takes place in March and April. As side note: Black Raspberries and Red Raspberries are pruned differently. Red Raspberries can produce 2 times a year based on how they are cared for. These past couple weeks I begin the process of pruning Black Raspberries here on CG Heartbeats Farm.

The plants located in various places around the property had been growing unattended for a few years. Even the ones I had transplanted received no pruning after transplant. The info I found on pruning raspberries seemed to assume the plants had been pruned previously or at least where for a younger stage in the plant’s life.

A black raspberry plant grows at its tips and grows ‘branches’ as these extend, they fall back down to the ground. They will grow roots where they hit the ground. A wonderful creation of continued life. I am conducting a bit of a trial to see how this works going forward.

Do you see the dead cane or stalk on the left?

In this picture the dead cane has been removed at the base.

I trimmed the canes and removed dead ones. A black raspberry cane lives only 2 years. I am experimenting as I said. I left the shoots that had fallen to the ground and grew roots. I am hoping these will form new plants to be transplanted this fall.

I am looking forward to picking black raspberries, having fresh fruit and taking their bounty to the farmers market. But I might be even more excited to eat frozen ones in the heat of summer. I was dreaming of eating delicious black raspberries, along with memories of days gone by, I pruned black raspberries.

Do you want to learn how to prune your Black Raspberries? Get your FREE printable of How to Prune Black Raspberries today!

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Tag: fruit

July on CG Heartbeats Farm

Black Raspberries