In the garden we’re harvesting lettuce, collards, kale, yellow crookneck squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and the first green beans. The strawberries are only here and there, but if one is out there Bracken is sure to find it. The raspberries have come to a halt, we might get two a day now, and we look forward to the next harvest. We were spoiled with an abundance of them for awhile and miss it already. This is the year I’ve realized truly just how much I love raspberries. In years past I might have said ‘I love raspberries,’ but growing them here for the first time… I’ve changed it to ‘I really, really love raspberries.’  I even wondered a few times if they were a favorite, but no, blueberries are still my favorite fruit. Raspberries are a close second, though!

Speaking of berries, blackberries are ripe now. We’ve been harvesting from the thornless blackberry we planted in the garden (I know I still find it funny that we actually planted a blackberry here when we spend so much time trying to clear the invasive blackberries and keep them from overtaking our garden) and also from the wild blackberries all around. On the garden shed roof, below the peach tree, near the old goat yard… Bracken knows all the spots and if you visited he would surely enlist your help in picking the ones out of his reach. Everything is early this year, blackberries included. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a neighbor say “everything’s a month early this year!” 

Jeff and I built an arbor over the pathway to what has become our “lower garden.” (To the left in the picture is some very tall fencing we’re using as a bean trellis.) The front posts were higher than the back posts, since it was going downhill, and all the other arbors we have built together were on more level ground. For that reason, I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. It was looking a bit wonky as we were building it, truth be told. But we figured it out as we went along and we’re both happy with the results. Besides the uprights (2 by 2 cedar), the rest was built with cedar fencing. We’ve built a few raised beds with cedar fencing this year, it’s an affordable way for us to do so. Right now a runner bean is growing up the arbor, but we have plans for what we’ll plant there permanently.

Oh, and when our  trellis arbor was finished, I hung our little “wool house” for the birds from it. ( I keep calling it a trellis, but it’s technically an arbor, so I’m correcting myself here.) It was a little treasure we found at the Black Sheep Gathering, and in our house we always have bits of leftover wool we like to share with the birds for their nests. At first I thought ‘wait a minute, we don’t want to be attracting more birds into our garden because they eat all our berries!’ But you know what? We love having birds in our garden, and they’re always there anyways.

I also included a random picture of a delicious meal Jeff made. We got some Wild Alaskan Salmon on sale and he baked it, removed all the bones, and ground it up with onions, pickles (and more I’m forgetting I’m sure.) He topped it with some dill from the garden and we ate it with a garden salad and raspberries. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been thankful that I married such a good cook!

P.S. In that picture of Jeff holding the lettuce? Those things on his wrists you can just barely see? He refers to those as his superhero cuffs. He made them out of wool and uses them when he works at his sanding machine, when he rests his arms there, for a bit of padding, and they work wonderfully.

P.P.S. For those of you going to the Eugene Saturday Market tomorrow, you can find our booth in space 350, our usual spot.